Rating: 
Summary: Just Like Chinese Food....
Review: It's a half-hour since I finished 'The Bear and the Dragon', and I am hungry for more (more of Clancy in the style of his earlier works, that is). Clancy's newest Ryan opus is somewhat of a disappointment in comparison to his past stories. For the record, I am a rabid Clancy fan and always grab his newest book on the first day. I have enjoyed every novel he has written, and still consider him to be my favorite author. This time around however, I'm not satisfied with the novel as a whole. Maybe the quality of his past works has set the bar too high for me to enjoy any subsequent attempts. In any case, here's my take on this book: 1)Roll Call: As usual, Clancy manages to weave a ton of characters into this story. We see major and minor characters from every one of the earlier Ryan novels, which adds a fun and familiar tone to the book. I especially liked seeing the Rainbow Six troops, Sir Basil (briefly), Gregory from 'Cardinal' and Golovko. If you have read all of the Ryan novels, this book is like attending a family reunion. 2)The Clancy Roller Coaster: The use of multiple story lines and his awesome sense of pacing make TC's novels difficult to put down. This book was no exception. Unfortunately, as other reviewers have pointed out here, Clancy must not have had a clear ending in mind, as it was very abrupt and trite. 3)Ryan is getting boring: Once upon a time, Jack Ryan was a very likable, everyman/underdog whose human failings, self-doubt and morals were interesting. Now he is a whiny, preachy, foul-mouthed shadow of his former self. It seemed that every time Ryan appeared he had to: a) complain about being the President (that got old in the last book), b) rant about the media, abortion, or the sexual habits of others (Get off the soap box Tom), and c) drop the ...bomb (since when was Ryan so vulgar in his daily speech? Does the Oval Office require POTUS to sound like he's on Def Comedy Jam?) I suppose Ryan's ascension from a lowly CPA/history teacher to the Presidency has left little room for more character development. What can Ryan do next? Become the Pope? In my mind, 'Clear and Present Danger' will always be Ryan at his best. 4)Get a new editor: You would think a techno-freak like Clancy would utilize a repeated phrase/grammar/spell checker before publishing. Besides typos, there were many instances were he would repeat a phrase, quote, colorful metaphor, or historical reference within the same page or several pages. It was very awkward and annoying. I noticed 'Rainbow Six' did this as well. There were many instances were he would repeat a phrase, quote, colorful metaphor, or historical reference within the same page...whoops, sorry. I guess it's easy to do. Conclusion: Nit-picking aside, Clancy is still the best at what he does. Faults and all, 'The Bear and the Dragon' is worth more that the price of purchase. My dissection of the minutia found therein is merely the ramblings of a hypercritical fan, still fresh from reading the book. Perhaps, with time and another reading, this book will join those before it in a more fond and forgiving remembrance.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: Save your money and re-read Red October if you must have a techno-thriller. This is bad stuff, with stereotyped Chinese villains, unlikely scenarios even for him, leaden prose, and reactionary politics. Not that his decline as a writer really matters, with movie deals and games to keep the money flowing in.
Rating: 
Summary: Shrub/Clancy 2000! - Ugh, a cluster...er, nevermind...
Review: I'm beginning to think that Clancy is this century's Jonathan Swift - that Jack Ryan and his surrounding story is a skeleton that Clancy hangs his political rants on. I get tired of the endless anti-abortion, right-wing demagoguery that has been slowly filling up his books and accelerated with Executive Orders and Rainbow Six. He's a good storyteller who has let his politics poison his books... because the political/social rants REALLY - really - slow down the story. Are there any editors with guts anymore? 200 pages could have been cut from this book with no ill effect.
Rating:
Summary: disappointed
Review: Tom we love you but get an editor. The page count could be cut 40% and not miss a beat. The battle scenes were mostly boring, alot of repetitive dialogue and the interesting character's that were introduced were never fully developed. What happened to Ettore and the pelt guy? I agree with most other reviewers-should have cut the middle and increased the ending. As a Clancy fan I will continue to read the series, but it's not so much fun anymore. ps- If another character says 'duly noted' again I will scream.
Rating:
Summary: My rant...you will get nothing out of this review, I promise
Review: Okay, I agree with some of the other reviewers that there are alot of mistakes and typos and repetition. This is uncharacteristic of Clancy, I agree. Maybe his spell-checker was broken or maybe ... just maybe ... it was done on purpose ... think about that. What is surprising to me is that those people who didn't like this book either cited RED STORM as their favorite or suggested that there be a larger battle than the one portrayed. I would have to say that yes, the detail he usually displays in his battle sequences is what keeps me reading till 10 o'clock at night, my bedtime, but that we don't live in that world anymore. This world has smaller battles, like the line at McDonald's. So, basically, forget the cold-war style battles, he won't ever write those into one of his stories ever again. As for the 700-page "build-up" that people keep referring to, check out CNN's August 29, 2000 story about the religious leader arrested in the Chinese province of Fujian for holding mass in a PRIVATE HOME!! If you have ever wanted to relate a work of fiction to current events, I have never seen a better example! What I'm trying to say, in a round-about sort of way I grant you, is that despite opinions to the contrary, Clancy does write for the times we live in, it's just that you need to take the time and put forth the effort to find the correlation. All in all, I did like this book and I will recommend it to others!
Rating:
Summary: A average Book by Tom Clancy's standards
Review: I cannot help but feel disapointed at the standard of Tom Clancy's latest novel- " the Bear and the Dragon" I feel that he keeps repeating himself and the ending of the novel is too sudden. Its almost as if he wrote the novel and then decided its getting too long or he had something better to do and finished it off suddenly. Considering his other novels, this is of a low quality. Looks like the author is getting complacent with his fame and cannot be bothered with his novels anymore. After all, he has many other "co-writers" who use his name to sell their novels-"op-centre" series comes to mind. Tom should not lower his standards just to produce novels under his name. If he cannot be bothered writing a quality novel HIMSELF, he should not write any. It would only harm his reputation and disapoint his readers/fans.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy now has ghost writer
Review: After a long wait, the great day arrived and I got to bring home the newest Clancy thriller. What a disappointing waste of time. Great characters are brought back from the earlier books and given nothing to do. Subplots are started and then forgotten about. Dialogue is worse than that found in amatuer submissions to "Playboy" magazine. Mary Pat Foley would never waltz around calling her husband "hunny, bunny" at work. Clancy apparently is running some king of contest with a prize for the reader who can accurately tell him how many times he uses the words, p--s, d--k, f--k, s--t, et al. He also goes on endlessly about the Japanese/Anerican spook's love sausage. If Tom Clancy really did write this book, he has lost what made him a great writer of thrillers. If he didn't write it, he ought to sue whoever did.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not Clancy's Best
Review: From LogicalRealism.org
After discovering vast oil and gold reserves in Siberia, Russia becomes a very wealthy nation. To the south, the Chinese are entering a trade war with the United States; short on money and oil, the nation's leaders become desperate and look to the north. The United States is not oblivious to this, and allies itself with Russia.
And so goes the premise for The Bear and the Dragon, the new Tom Clancy novel. Clancy brings back all of the familiar characters in "Ryanverse," and it's good to see all of the characters again, even if at times it seems as if there has been too much effort to include them all.
With giving away the plot, here's warning that the book is predictable. If you think something is going to happen, it probably is. There are also some references to previous, real-life American presidents that should have been in office at the same time as fictional presidents that Clancy mentions only a page later. At times, it feels as though these pieces are included so that the author can get in some political comments. Towards this end, Clancy can at times seem preachy, but not painfully so.
The book is written with the same attention to detail that readers have come to expect of Clancy. Some of his references to computers are less than accurate, but again are still not terrible. All other descriptions are outstanding.
My only other grip is with the editing. There were numerous typos and several jokes were repeated. It seems as though the book was rushed to press.
As a regular Tom Clancy reader, I was pleased with The Bear and The Dragon. For fans of Clancy, the book, while not his greatest, is still a must. For others, it is a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Good....................but not what I had been waiting for.
Review: I love the Jack Ryan series, and have been waiting for this book since the day I finished Executive Orders. 4 Long Years! Delivery day, the UPS driver found me bouncing around his truck and ripping open the package before he could get out of my driveway; unfortunately, I did not realize that there was nothing to be that excited about. The thing that I loved about Debt of Honor and Executive Order was how much more the story cented around Jack and his family. It also centered around some other key characters and I came to love Andrea Price. This book drove me insane waiting for scenes that never came. I kept waiting to be introduced (in the first part of the book) to the new addition to the Ryan family. Sprite got a one line mention. Andrea who in Executive Orders had to get used to being pulled into conversation by POTUS, was barely in the room. When she was in the room it was to get into (constantly) that everyone wondered how she liked not being able to be perceived as a man because of her morning sickness. Well DUH! No one did perceive her as a man, and I don't know why that was continually brought up. Pat and Andrea were invited to dinner with the Ryans, I expected a dinner scene, nope, just was alluded to in the next paragraph that they had gone. Mary Pat - What is up with this? Ending every sentence to Ed as honey-bunny? PUHLEEZE! Occasionally maybe, but most of their conversations ended this way. It got old the 2nd time. I found the thoughts of the Chinese very interesting and the way the different sides would interpret things. As always the technical aspects were pretty good. I had a hard time beleiving that the Chinese would let a news crew run around as freely as the CNN team seemed to, but I am not up on their news strictures. I would have thought smuggled cameras to be more beleivable. Also had a hard time with the seemingly just critisicms of Jack by the armed forces. Not used to him not being hugely well respected by them Overall was good book, but not his best. Would not make this your first Clancy. Start with Patriot Games. Looking forward to the next one anyway, and maybe by not anticipating it quite as much, I will have more to like instead of nitpicky things to dislike.
Rating:
Summary: old and tired
Review: Clancy has gotten boring!!! Just pages upon pages upon pages... Improbable plot, unbelievable characters. He has previously given us Japan attacking the USA, right. Get real, make it at least possible. And Jack Ryan was once a great character but did he have to become president? what is next, Ryan as Pope or just God? The book is way way to long and after the first 100 pages fatigue sets in. Skip to the end. Or better yet, just ask someone who has read it to give you a two minute overview.
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