Rainbow Six

Rating:
Summary: Bloated thriller by out-of-form author
Review: Anyone expecting the quality of "Hunt for Red October" in "Rainbow Six" will be sorely disappointed. This book is repetitive, illogical and poorly researched. For example - the Sydney Olympics will be held next August while it's winter in Australia. Clancy's plot however, is built on the premise that it'll be so hot during the Olympics that an extensive cooling system will be relied on to help spectators and competitors cope with the 90 degree+ heat. His characters are also uniformly 2-dimensional - see how action man grandad John Clarke's repeatedly bemoans his role as a desk jockey while his macho Spanish son-in-law's (Ding!?) most gruelling experience seems to be a flight from England to Australia - my seventy year old mother complains less than this anti-terrorist superman ... And there is not a scrap of humour on any of the 800 odd pages (not intentional, anyway). Don't waste your time or money.

Rating:
Summary: Please Read This... Please
Review: I just want to say to all those commenting on their opposing views to read on what I have to say. I know a lot of you do not like this book and I can understand some of your reasons and other ones are clouded and sometimes not even stated. I just finished reading "Rainbow Six" and think that even though it isn't one of Clancy's best, it shouldn't be used as a firestarter. You people are tearing this book up on these posts and almost never giving good reasons. Give Tom Clancy a break people, he is going through tough times and trying to live up to our expectations. If you don't like the book then don't put crap on these posts about a page long about how much you hate Clancy for writing this book. If you are true fans then show it, it is the readers that we are posting for. If you have to say "don't buy this book" or say "buy this book" then make your reasons clear. If you don't then the purpose of these reviews is gone and it just sounds like pure opinion. So please people, every writers' books will never meet everyone's expectations so give Clancy a break, calm down, and act responsably.

Rating:
Summary: Friendly heroes and idiot villains
Review: Clancy's books are often uneven, but usually they are strong overall. When this one focuses in on the main plot halfway through, one can't help but notice that the villains are very poorly rendered. They seem like a hodgepodge of misguided keystone cop bad guys. Their logic and actions are so ridiculous that the book falls apart by the end, leaving the reflective reader very disappointed. If only real life terrorists and mad scientists were this incompetent, we could all sleep safely at night.

Rating:
Summary: Most realistic of Clancy's works!!
Review: This book is definitely the most realistic and accurate book by Tom Clancy. The plot is great and takes you through the misty lair of the "Biological Terrorist" as well as the heart stopping missions of the most elite counter-terrorist group ever. Bravo!!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent thriller!!
Review: I thurely enjoyed reading this book! I have only read 2 or 3 of his books but this was defenately a good one!

Rating:
Summary: OOOCH! Mr. Clancy falls of his bike!
Review: I am a huge Clancy fan! Unfortunately this book does not measure up to the author's reputation. I became bored with the repeated rescue operations that seemed to contribute nothing more than weight to the book. In Mr. Clancy's previous books, it was clear that the long buildup to the conclusion would all come together in the end but also that the buildup/plot building had meaning and interest of its own. It is obvious that much of this book is filler that an intelligent reader is not going to appreciate. I am ashamed to admit it but I could not even finish it. I feel like a blasphemer.

Rating:
Summary: TOM CLANCY ONCE AGAIN GIVES US A CUT EDGE THRILLER
Review: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, like his other books was a page turner. The main character, John Clark (also in Clear and Present Danger, Cardinal Kremlin, and Without Remorse),an ex-navy seal, is offered to head an international counter-terrorist agency centered in England. After agreeing to he finds himself in a web of hostal-terrorist and murderers. Each mission challenges him in a different way. Such as a swis bank robbery and a Hostage take over a large amusment park in France. This is definatly one of Clancy's best, mixing in both action and real life Rainbow Six is a top notch thriller.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting in parts, but much too wordy.
Review: This is the fifth Clancy novel I've read, and it is by far the worst. He must have gotten paid by the word to write this book, because it is much too long. The book is over 700 pages long, yet the same story could have been told in a novel less than half that length. It adds nothing to the storyline to go into great detail about physical training exercises or routine daily events. Whole paragraphs were devoted to what the Rainbow Six members and even the IRA terrorists had for breakfast! On the positive side, the action sequences were well written, though somewhat implausible. Not a single Rainbow member gets killed or even injured nor does anything go wrong until their fourth counter-terrorist operation. It also stretches the imagination to suppose that out of the nearly one hundred environmentalists not a single one of them would have attack of conscience about destroying most of the world's population and expose the virus plot to the authorities. The story itself is a good one and would probably make a great movie. It's just a shame the telling of it was so poorly done.

Rating:
Summary: 700 pages of naive, boring and illogical techno-macho speak
Review: Once upon a time I really liked Jack Ryan, and in a way this might have colored my expectations as I picked up the new Tom Clancy novel. I put it down yesterday, having forced myself to skim through the last 200 pages. Needless to say, it was a major disappointment.
I read nearly two hundred books a year, thrillers, fantasy, sci-fi - almost anything goes. And maybe once every third year or so I get a book I'd rather just put down than finish. This was one of them. While things might hold up at cursory glance, the shortcomings appear as you scratch the surface (sadly, by that time you've read quite a lot of the book). The characters are ridiculous and without depth (which is strange considering several have appeared in earlier works) and the storyline is like some cheap Marvel Comics rip-off. The god-like good guys are destined to wipe villainy ass (if the book mirrors the real world all bad guys would be better off committing collective suicide), and if all else fails Lady Luck inevitably comes down on the side of CINC-PINC-PONC, the stalwart defenders of God, Mom's applepie and the rest of the completely defenseless humanity. Of course, while the good guys are defending Society and it's Civilized Rules, they allow themselves things like shooting disarmed people, waving big knives around when interrogating prisoners and attacking and killing civilians in a neutral country.
The storyline would like to propagate some sort of intellectual battle between a techno-military vs. earth-protectionist standpoint, but falls short in nearly every aspect. After all we all like to drive cars and watch the telly, don't we.
I would have liked to point out several major logical or factual holes in the story, but in doing so I might spoil the fun for someone, and that, although merciful, wouldn't be nice. Those who wish to read the book will find that out for themselves, anyway. Or you could watch the movie which is sure to come, the 700 page book contains just enough material for a 90 minute pyrotechnic extravaganza.
If you are interested in reading books by Clancy, pick up some earlier works if you haven't read them. Much better than this, some are even great stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good but sad to see no Jack Ryan!
Review: I believed the book was very good and John clark is always a great main Character. I hope Clancy's Divorce problems get settled soon and we can see Jack Ryan Again!!