Rating:  Summary: A week of past midnight reads! The best yet!! Review: A breathtaking story, well written- vintage Clancy. His depth of character development and continuity across momentus novels is as if you are catching up on the lives of old friends and new. A true page turner- I regret finishing it so quckly. An addictive imaginative drug- well done!!
Rating:  Summary: The World According to Clancy Review: Tom Clancy did his usual job of entertaining us with this techno-thriller but his characters are all so perfect,that they do not come across as believable. It seemed that Clancy loves his main characters so much that their aura of invincibility was never seriously threatened- this makes for an uninvolved combat narration because you know that the bad guys are doomed even before the entire sequence is played out. Extremist groups for the environment are a tiny minority and Clancy chooses to put nature conservation ( which should concern us all ) in a very bad light- no doubt reflecting his very narrow minded view of the World according to Clancy.
Rating:  Summary: I cannot wait for the movie version. Review: I see Bruce Willis as the mature but still lethal John Clark, Lou Diamond Phillips as Chavez. Lets add for awesomeness, Wesley Snipes, Don Chetle, Matt Damon/ Tom Sizemore, Kevin Spacey and we have the makings of a serious Rainbow force. Those who think that this book was the first time Mr Clancy has written his political views obviously need to read the other books a little more closely. This book along with Executive Order, just hits closer to home and discusses issues that are smacking us in the face daily. Mr Clancy continue your commentaries and educate those willing to learn. I for one appreciate reading about the good guys winning over the nut cases out there. Life is not black and white. Keep pressing the point and maybe a few more folks will "get it".
Rating:  Summary: Tom Clancy does Dirk Pitt Review: Not one of Clancy's best. The plot is like something out of a 60's bond movie and the writing lacks his usual depth. Wait for it to come out in paperback.
Rating:  Summary: Done better, but could be worse Review: I would rather have given it a 2 and a half but it just wasn't possible. I hate to say it, but I wonder if Tom Clancy is losing his touch. I really do love his writing having read all his novels and a few of his non-fiction. Maybe it is the fact that he is writing in a time that has not yet come, but it seems that hs past few books (baring Without Remorse) have been lacking in his original flair.I still enjoyed reading it eventhough I could actually predict accurately what was going to happen. Like many others have commented the first part of the book was the best part, and after that it just got a little "old." As for those that gave it five stars I would really like to know why. I could see it getting 4 but 5 seems a bit much. Those who gave it a 5 I must wonder about how much writing background they have. The book is quite entertaining but is lacking the character deapth, plot thickness and unpredictability that has been a benchmark of Clancy's. I look forward to his next book and hope it will be better.
Rating:  Summary: Characters as cardboard as the practice targets. Review: Like a lot of celebrity authors, Clancy has forgotten that you have to write well and build up your characters in addition to creating page-turners that read like potato chips are eaten. Three separate characters in three different story lines from various professions all use the same "special ops" slang, like "drilling in dry holes". The agents are constantly repeating the same dumb jargon -- "whacking" and "bad guys" that it becomes unrealistic. Take the time to make it more realistic, Tom! The real people killed by terrorists, and the terrorists themselves, are as one-dimensional and boring and unrealistic as the pretend targets the main characters practice on everyday. This is lazy writing. It's OK to have 16 story lines going, but you need to make the people believable not only with myriad technical detail, but the little human details of personality and behavior. The idealogues -- whether communists or environmental nuts -- are so wooden and one-dimensional in their thinking that they seem like virtual people in some sort of computer game. People are ready to destroy humankind because they like watching the Discovery Channel?! OK, we realize we're in for a male-oriented book when we buy Clancy, but must hatred of women shine through on so many pages? Women are either cold killers or long-suffering care-givers or sluttish bar hoppers -- when they achieve a career, like the science advisor, they must suffer the unhappiness of divorce, even from a loser like Brightley. It's sad that when authors and publishers have such a captive audience as us, vacation-goers looking for a big, fat book we'll inevitably buy and partly enjoy, that they feel they don't have to work very hard to make the quality higher, and therefore the book more lasting, to be re-read many times, like John Le Carre.
Rating:  Summary: Clancy delivers another winner. Review: If you are a Clancy fan, you will not be disappointed. I won't go into details or give away the plot. If you enjoyed "Without Remorse", you will love this book.
Rating:  Summary: First 2/3'rds - Clancey; Final 1/3rd Cheesy James Bond Review: Great Clancey until end of Amusement Park Episode. After that....well, how frustating is it to watch a top-notch ex-KGB officer, who always does his cultural research, take an incredable amount of time to uncover an eco-terrorism plot? (only explanation: Popov did'nt read or watch enough James Bond during his training). The only thing missing was that Dr. Kilgore was'nt sitting in a stratolounger, viewing multiple blinking lights and petting his cat! Clancy was at his best at describing an e-attack on our financial markets in "Debt of Honor" . . . Unfortnately, he cant "get real" with this plot. Read it until the amusement park incident is resolved, then put it on the book shelf and wait for TC to re-evaluate his plots and return to greatness. This one's little more than a made-for-TV movie, presented in poorly edited print.
Rating:  Summary: Disappointing; predictable; weak rehash of a previous plot. Review: I guess that out of all his books, Tom Clancy is allowed one that misses the mark. And this is it. The plot stumbled from scene to scene like a poor adventure. Fact checkers would note that Aer Lingus - the airline Joseph used to fly from Boston to Ireland - hasn't used 747's for four years. They got rid of them in 1994 and replaced them all with A330's. The IRA splinter group attack was not credible. In one scene the characters describe them as the best organized of any terrorist group. In the attack itself Tom uses 15 men to do a hopeless job. A more likely scene would have used three men and two large bombs. And they would have got away with it. Briefly; They drive two 300 lb truck bombs to the hospital. Make the calls to get the SAS attention. Leave the hospital and watch the scene from the site where the TV crew are. And at the right moment, detonate by remote control. The story was, in my opinion, too predictable; the last 300 pages contain 100 pages of fluf/filler. The book ends with what the British would call a damp squid - a damp firework. Sadly the main plot was a weak rehash of his far more powerful last book. I'd prefer Tom to stop writing now and leave the arena at the top of his career.
Rating:  Summary: Fascist drivel and one dimensional charaters Review: Clancy has gone over the edge with this book. He clearly lives in a fantasy world where all the military guys are "eagle scouts" and never have a selfish thought. All the bad guys are evil and there is no gray. And the good guys do no wrong. (Note the military has just paid out millions in settlement for a Marine killing a civilian in the USA during a drug interdiction action. They made a mistake. This is why the military is prevented from police action in this country.) Clancy also comes down hard on the environmental movement taking the reactionary's spin on the Unibomber to bizzare lengths. It is clear that Clancy is singing to his choir, the rabid right and those profiting from military and security funding. He further foments the terrorism fears, justifying a near complete elimination of the Bill of Rights. This kind of propoganda is pure silliness, except many will alter their world view to conform with it, and ignore the real world. Clancy's books are deeply lacking in depth: everyone is either heroic or evil and all problems get solved with technology (which is never abused) and bullets (which never make mistakes). It is sad and unfortunate that this kind of fantasy is not put where it belongs: nailed to a Texas outhouse wall. Three thumbs down, way down!
|