Rating: 
Summary: Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy
Review: I have read all of Mr. Clancy's previous books, and this is hands-down my least favorite. As other reviewers have mentioned, there is absolutely no suspense in the book. Everything goes off without a hitch; the Soviets are completely clueless. I also think that it is time to retire Jack Ryan and develop a new protagonist, or concentrate on Clark or the Foleys. To expect the reader to buy into the same man as the continuing savior of the free world is asking a lot. I also have a few nit-picky issues with this book. Way too many words are spent describing cups of coffee. The kids watch way too much TV - uninvolved parents. The same phrases are used constantly: 'the little guy', 'pshrink', etc. If you really want to read this book, check it out from the library. Don't waste your money.
Rating: 
Summary: A failed attempt to rekindle the Ryan saga
Review: I had high hopes for Red Rabbit and I must say that i am greatly disappointed. Mr. Clancy decides to go back in time to the early 80s in his new novel, a few years after the IRA incident and few years before Red October. Both these novels along with Cardinal of the Kremlin were top notch but this one falls flat on the general arrogance of every American character. Americans come out as all knowing democracy loving, incorruptible entities. Ryan seems a whole lot more cocky than in Red October or Sum of All Fears. He's all knowing, predicting events in the near future (Russian war in Afghanistan, economic hardship in Japan).Doctors , business men and military personnel have no faults at all in Clancy Land The only Americans that inspire criticism are the "liberal" reporters from the Boston Globe and New York Times that are too chummy with baby eating Russians. British health care is also ridiculed because it's public. Maybe Clancy should come to France where health care is free and ranked higher than anything the U.S has to offer. CNN gets a good pat on the back, maybe because Clancy's brother works there. Russians come out as racists,uncultured and alcoholics. -yawn- Clancy should stop putting the U.S on such a pedestal. His books are now based on a two dimensional scene. The United States can do no wrong and the others be they Europeans or whatever are flawed in there thinking, leave it to young, brash Jack Ryan help them in thinking like red blooded Americans. This is a far cry away from the excellence of his past novels, running from Red October to Sum of All Fears.
Rating:
Summary: MORE DRIVEL
Review: When Clancy decides to shorten the length of his books to about 400 pages, I may read it. He is in dire need of an editor that will trim or even better, eliminate repetition. He can't even get his own characters' names right. Is it Price? Is it Prince? Who cares?
Rating: 
Summary: Read Rabbit!
Review: In his new book, Clancy returns to the style that he started with in Red October, Cardinal of the Kremlin, and Patriot Games. Instead of spinning out a hideously complex and frankly clunky global war scenario as he has recently, Clancy creates a taut, readable story with good character developement and an excellent eye for detail. Lacking both gunplay and Clancy's usual rhapsodic gizmo descriptions, the book reveals that Clancy has progressed from a techno-thrilling scribe to the much nobler title of novelist. Clancy spins a great story without pages and pages of technical wizardry or globe-trotting intrigue. His usual flaws are present, albeit not omnipresent as they were in his last offering. His jingoistic and frankly annoying over-patriotic bent is readily apparent, and, as usual, his American characters are slightly stilted and overly flag-waving, and his Soviet characters are portrayed, slightly, as naive and stupid- almost childlike. But aside from this perennial flaw in Clancy's writing (it has plagued all of his books to some extent) this book is the best Clancy has produced since Executive Orders, and quite possibly since Cardinal of the Kremlin. Read Rabbit!
Rating: 
Summary: Dead Rabbit
Review: Let's see. Not a shot fired until page 603 or somewhere thereabouts. Six hundred pages of exposition. Six hundred pages during which Clancy apparently forgets that he's already told the story of the KGB office thrown live into a crematorium oven, because different characters in the book tell that story four times. Six hundred pages during which he apparently forgets he's already used the phrase "that's above my pay grade" to mean more classified than the speaker is allowed, because a good half dozen characters use that phrase. The frequent comments by or to another half dozen characters regarding Mrs. Dr. Ryan cutting into eyeballs and the constant revisiting of Mr. Dr. Ryan's helicopter crash begin to wear on the reader as it comes to resemble, more and more, a padding of the word count.
Six hundred pages without a single conflict or a single moment of suspense. Six hundred pages that don't even come with the usual Clancy feeling of impending conflict or doom. Even the descriptions of spycraft that usually would grab the reader's attention fall flat here. No interesting technical details or gadgets. No compelling villains. For that matter, no compelling heroes. The men are all good church-going manly men who all belong to the same Manly Men club, except the drunken Russians, and the women are all capable, competent, professional women who still come home and cook and clean for their men because "that's what women do." The only moderately interesting characters in the book are the Foleys, and we don't see enough of them. Now that we've run out of socially acceptable villains to demonize..., Clancy's going to have his work cut out for him. Perhaps Mr. Chavez and Mr. Clark could pay a visit to Afghanistan or drop in on a few Al Quaeda training camps?
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining for Clancy fans, others should skip it
Review: Red Rabbit was a pretty good read, but disappointing to a long-time Clancy fan. Clancy always makes me want to continue reading, but there are some major flaws in Red Rabbit.
1. Way too much profanity, nearly all of it unnecessary. He needs an editor.
2. Clancy continues to use the same clichés to excess. Everybody is a "pro". Espionage is a "game" and everybody abides by the "rules". The repetitious language gets boring.
3. For a character who supposedly understands the need for secrecy, Jack Ryan spills a lot of details to people who don't need to know what he tells them.
4. The plot was much simpler than I expect from Clancy. Not really any twists.
Rating:
Summary: Yawn
Review: Come on, Tom---you can do better than this. A bottle of Geritol will help your next effort.
Rating:
Summary: not Clancy's best
Review: I expected somewhat more from this book. It's not bad at all, the writing is solid (though TC is falling back to his old habit of using the same cliche 4 times instead of 4 different cliches once each), and (thank goodness) this book doesn't have the continued existence of the world hanging in the balance (as all of Clancy's recent work seems to have). But it doesn't have that certain spark that characterized Clear and Present Danger, Hunt for Red October, and some of Clancy's other books. Basically, take a look if you're a serious fan of Clancy's fiction, or if you're interested in the psychology of high-level murderers. But if you're just dabbling, it's not worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: The journey is _more_ than half the fun
Review: I keep thinking that Mr. Clancy has finally exhausted the possibilities in this universe, and then he goes back and pulls this "rabbit" out of his hat. A very tightly written book, that fleshes out the Foley characters (whose most prominent previous appearance was in "Cardinal of the Kremlin"), and offers a very plausible chain of events leading up to the 1981 assassination attempt on John Paul II. While one could argue that there was limited suspense at times, I beg to differ. Since all the main characters make appearances later in the timeline of this universe there is little supsense as to who lives and dies or how a given event turns out. That's kind of a gimme. The real intrigue in this book is how Mr. Clancy creates a plausible chain of events to put all the pieces in place prior to critical plot points. The ends are pretty much predetermined; it's the trip that makes this book worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: A little short on action
Review: I have read all of the Jack Ryan books and the two John Clark books. I have enjoyed or really enjoyed all of them. The Bear and the Dragon seemed a little weak. This one seemed a little weaker. There was not really much tension. It never seemed like any of the characters were really in any real danger. **Warning, spoiler** In Tom Clancy's books, his characters often comment about how things never seem to go as planned in the real world. Obsticles are thrown at the characters and they have to figure a way around them. In this book, a plan was decided on and everything went as planned. No KGB agents seeing anything that the good guys would have preferred to have kept hidden. No suspicious border guards. Not even something as simple as a flat tire. There is only one thing that doesn't go as planned but anyone who remembers the events that this story is based around will know what is coming in that instance. Another thing that I found curious was that Yuri Andropov and Leonid Breznev(sp?) are mentioned by name and have speaking roles, while Ronald Reagan is never mentioned by name. Things he said and did are referred to but his name is never mentioned. Not a big deal, really, but I found myself wondering why it was done that way as I was reading the book. Also, there was a little bit of repetition in the book. Some of the same stories and anecdotes, such as origins of phrases and/or traditions, were repeated. I kind of remember that being the case in the Bear and the Dragon as well, but I could be wrong (I had to pick that one up and read a few pages before I remembered anything about it). All in all, it was an OK read, but it may be time to retire the Jack Ryan character. I would like to see more John Clark books. I was a little disappointed that he did not make an appearance in this book.
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