Rainbow Six

Rating:
Summary: Clancy for the first time creates shallow characters.
Review: Compared to most contemporary novels, Clancy is still great! Accurate technical knowledge is a prime concern to me as a reader, and Clancy comes through. In his past novels the character development and actions are also accurate - they act in accord with their position and portrayed intelligence. In Rainbow Six however, main characters seem blind to obvious flaws in their planning. It it too far a stretch to believe that there are that many people who could keep such a project secret, let alone agree to carry it out in the first place.

Rating:
Summary: A good read, but some problems...
Review: While I enjoyed reading this one, I did have some problems with this book. First, Clancey goes way out of his way to avoid bringing Jack Ryan (clearly still the President of the U. S. in his fictional world) into the novel. Why? Second, I agree that Clark, who is a character I enjoy (?Without Remorse? was a great character study) seemed boring in this one. Third, the whole plot relating to the virus is a retread of the virus plot from the last novel, with meglomaniacal overtones. Finally, I wish Clancey would avoid having his characters say and think things like ?is this some kind of movie plot I am living through??, because it was pretty obvious that this one was written with a movie deal in mind to me, a trap that Michael Crichton falls into often as well. In any event, I enjoyed the book but hope that before the next outing Clancey goes back and reads his own ?Hunt for Red October? and maybe remembers what it was like to write without worrys about a later movie! deal.

Rating:
Summary: Bio-terrorism is imminent--Clancy predicts the future
Review: Clancy is right on the mark with his depiction of the risk of biological warfare. Although delivery systems remain problematic, and virilance of the organisms have not proved consistant, it is only a matter of time before we will experience a biological attack. This was a wonderful story. It was technologically accurate, spell binding with its story line. If only we would get the national will to actually have the protagonists go out and kick some butt as the story line suggests!

Rating:
Summary: Classic Clancy!
Review: Tom Clancy has done it again. Since Jack Ryan has reached what could only be the pinnacle of his career, Clancy lets us take another peek at his friends and assocaites from past novels. Once again, it's a story you can't put down. True to form, you feel like you're right in the middle of the action. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER.
Review: The idea for a multi-national anti- terrorist force has merit. And the techno gadgets are real. That widget that zeroes in on the human heartbeat does exist. I don't know if it's gone beyond the prototype stage yet. The plot line seems heavy-handed, but having met some of the EarthFirst! people, I can believe it. Thank God most of them haven't the ability to put their beliefs into practice. The proofreading could have been better, and Clancy would have done his readers a service if more terms, like "tempesting" had been explained By the way, to the reader who asked what REMF means, try "rear-echelon mother-f****r". It's a VietNam War technical term for the guys back at base. If anyone reading this can get ahold of Tom Clancy, would you have him give me a call at [e-mail]? I know some cops on the local police Hostage Rescue Team who would like information on the company (DKL?) that makes those gadgets that can detect a human through a wall.

Rating:
Summary: Action packed and flawless as usual for Clancy!
Review: Sort of, but not really, a follow up to Executive Orders as Ryan's name is never mentioned. Current time frame w/John Clark's new multinational anti-terror squad. Don't confuse this w/the Op-Center series--this is Clancy at his best. Seven hundred forty pages of "what comes next?" intrigue. Must read for any Clancy fan!

Rating:
Summary: Has anyone noticed all the spelling and grammatical errors?
Review: I'm only on page 275, but as usual, this book has me hooked. I can barely close it and go to sleep! I am, however, very surprised by the amount of errors in it. What gives with the editor? The story is still great, so far. Clancy has not lost his touch.

Rating:
Summary: Clancy misses the mark.
Review: Another great big thick book from everybody's favorite techno-thriller artist. Clancy shows his usual awkwardness with non-technical dialogue, keeping his characters as 2-D as possible. Conversations between loved ones are particularly hard to swallow. Dialogue between the various spooks, spies, and intelligence operators continues to be one of Clancy's strengths, and this book delivers plenty of that. Unfortunately, the plot is ludicrous - Clancy's tree-hugger antagonists concoct a scheme guaranteed to make a reader of average intelligence roll his/her eyes in bewilderment. Then they go around dropping hints to strangers in casual conversation - "Well, the buffalo will all be back soon" - stuff like that. This conspiracy wouldn't have lasted an hour in the real world. Clancy DOES provide some good, page-turning thrills when describing counter-terrorist operations - the kind of writing that hooks the reader and keeps Clancy on the short list of writ! ers whose every work hits the top of the bestseller list. Unfortunately Clancy chose to hinge the book's denouement on a product that actually exists, the "Life-Guard", manufactured by DKL, a company plugged several times in the narrative. This is a device that supposedly homes in on the electrical pulse that triggers the human heartbeat - a tiny, 1.2 hertz blip. The Life-Guard was recently featured in Skeptic Magazine, where it was shown to be nothing more than a fancy dowsing rod with some non-powered electrical circuits inside to make it appear technologically based, while it actually employs the well-known ideomotor response to achieve its "results". While the device appeared to work in uncontrolled experiments, it failed miserably in "double-blind" experiments, in which neither the operator of the device nor the experimenters knew the location of the human test subject. In the book the thing worked like a! charm, ruining Clancy's ending sequence for this reader. If you haven't already popped for the hardcover, I'd recommend waiting for the paperback. Not too bad, but not up to par with earlier offerings.

Rating:
Summary: Not his best, but still a page turner
Review: Clancy is perhaps best known for his ability to tell stories that his readers cannot tear themselves away from. Rainbow Six is no different, however, the end seemed a little lacking and anti-climactic. While the super-terrorists recieve a very "Clark-ish" demise (as expected), the immediate events leading up to that do not challenge the Rainbow team or the reader.

My advice would be to finish the book, and then re-read the amusement park chapters, or those set in Austria for a good final kick.

Rating:
Summary: About time
Review: Mr. Clancy has bored the world in his recent novels (in which it takes about a thousand pages for nothing to happen.) Finally, he has written a book where something happens, it starts happening at the beggining, and it is truly engaging. Plus a hell of a lot of action. His characters are less than two-dimensional , but who cares? This is a techno-thriller, not Wuthering Heights. Mr. Clancy, it's good to have you back.