Rating: 
Summary: You Know What You Are Going To Get
Review: This book is another competent effort by Clancy. I was excited that he was going back into the large scale war story line that he did so well with in Red Storm Rising. For me the whole Jack Ryan as President role just does not work. This book probably could have done with some of the uncut pages left out, it does go on and drags a few places. It must be the power he has gotten over this editors that each of his books that is driving them to be increasingly longer. With that said I am a big fan of Clancy and I thought the book moves along and is never dull. Let me add that you always get a lot of detail and fact with a Clancy book, this is one of he reasons I really like the books and the reason some of my friends are getting turned off. The extra pages on the detail and weapons bring extra value to me. If you like Clancy you will love this book and probably do not need these reviews to prompt you to buy one. If you are just curious then give it a try or grab one of his earlier books.
Rating: 
Summary: loooooong, boring and repetitive.
Review: this book took so long to write, that clancy forgot things he wrote and repeated it in the following chapters over and over.
He takes you on a journey of all, and i mean ALL that goes on in the characters heads, and there are whole chapters that you could skip and not lose the thread of the story.
And then there is POTUS, he can do no bad, he is a saint, he knows what to do and the right time to do it, hes got to be the most flawless character of any book i've ever read, and by that i mean hes just never wrong and he could teach a thing or two to the pope about morality, iv'e enjoyed all of clancy's books, but this one just [stinks].
Rating:
Summary: Predictable and boring
Review: ... This book is a massive disappointment, it is extremely predictable almost an insult to the reader. The plot could have been condensed in 60 pages and doing it in 800 really makes it a sleeping pil The xenophobic tendencies which have always been disturbingly present in Clancy books have climaxed in this one (sorry guys the US is not the center of the world and no the rest of the world is not filled with barbarians) In short DO NOT BUY THIS ...
Rating:
Summary: Repetitive, xenophobic, narrowminded; is this really Clancy?
Review: The first Clancy book I read (13 years ago) was pure bliss. Unfortunately, the last four have declined in content in a predictable slope until this one which falls off the cliff and proclaims it's superiority on the way down. There are so many things to criticize in this pile that I prefer not to waste anymore time (some of my precious life went to reading this thing after all) and just point out that the first 800 pages could have been condensed into 40 to 60, tops. Although I agree with much of his politics, it is sufficient for him to mention only once(if at all) what his characters feel about a certain subject; after that, most of us should be able to retain the wisdom he grants us from on high. The more I write the more I realize how much I hated this book.
I'll end it here and take back the 1 star I so graciously bestowed. UUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!
Rating:
Summary: SHAME ON YOU CLANCEY
Review: IF YOU LOVE TOM CLANCY'S BOOKS AS MUCH AS I DO THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON WILL BE A MASSIVE DISSAPOINTMENT. SHOULD YOU STILL DECIDE TO TRY IT AND AFTER 10 HOURS OF READING YOU STILL CAN NOT FIND ANYTHING OF INTEREST...THEN DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND STOP READING THIS WORTHLESS BOOK. I WISH I HAD TAKEN MY OWN ADVICE. IT IS SO BAD THAT I WILL NEVER BUY A CLANCY WITHOUT FIRST CHECKING THE COSTOMER REVIEWS.
Rating:
Summary: Surprised to see it rated so low
Review: Seems a lot of people don't think this one is that good, but I liked it a lot. Unlike long Stephen King novels, which drag on for me, with Clancy novels, they can be as long as he wants them to be. In my opinion, he needs the space to set the story for something as elaborate as World War III. This one had a lot more sexual references than previous Clancy novels I've read, and sometimes I wondered if we really need to know the ancient leaders of China get their stone-age stones off, but there can be no denying that spies in history have used seduction to gain access to secrets. I kept imagining the seduced Chinese woman as the "Honey" character that follows Duke around in the "Doonesbury" comic strip, but if they ever make a movie out of it, I'm sure someone much more beautiful would be cast. One thing I like about this series of books is that it attempts to show the everyday lives of people who wield the most power in the world. We see these people in the news all the time, but what are their daily routines like? While fiction, it's probably still as close as we are going going to get to seeing how these people live. Without revealing too much, a small problem I had was the relative ease with which our government succeeds in it's part of the big conflict. I realize we recently cut through Afganistan fairly easily, but even in this case, there is still a lot of mopping up to do. With the World War portrayed in this book, the foes go way up in class, and while it's nice to root for the good guys (us), it all seems to me it was a little too neat and quick. However, in my eyes, keep these books coming.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book - suspenseful and engaging
Review: Like all Tom Clancy books, this one is engaging and suspenseful. You'd never guess some of the twists. I picked this book up a week ago Saturday and could not put it down. The plot isn't believeable, but that's one reason you read Clancy - to escape from reality into the worlds he creates. If you like suspense, sharp plot twists, and incredibly detailed technical info, you'll love this book.
Rating:
Summary: Offensive, boring, and bad, bad writing
Review: I am a huge Tom Clancy fan. I have loved all the Jack Ryan books, and I always thought that despite being a bit obsessed with the technicalities of war, Clancy could really write characters as well. But this book was so awful I couldn't even finish it. It was xenophobic, obsessed with vulgar sexual references, repetitive, and badly written. Did Clancy's editor take a vacation for this one?
Rating: 
Summary: Drags On
Review: "Not Clancy's best work," is a common reaction to this book. The problem with that is it implies that Clancy "worked" and that conclusion is doubtful. Many reviewers have noted that "The Bear and the Dragon" is full of repitition, that Clancy repeats himself, says the same thing again and again. Others have noted that Clancy is becoming too "preachy." All of this is true. So, only read this novel of you are a true Clancy fanatic; otherwise, re-reading "Red October" or "Without Remorse" would be more rewarding.
Rating:
Summary: Long but OK
Review: This book is very very long. I started reading this last fall on a vacation which spanned 9-11 and dropped it at that point. I eventually picked it back up this year and fought my way through to the end. I liked it better than Rainbow Six, but the beginning is hard to get excited by. The best part of the book is the last several hundred pages. I give it 4 stars mainly because the story is fairly fast-paced and interesting once it gets going. Like most Clancy novels, the beginning of the story is a bunch of disjointed scenes which finally inter-weave with each other by the end in a manner that eventually makes sense. With an 1100+ page novel, it's not difficult to see why it is hard to get into it. Don't get me wrong, however, once you do get into it the story is pretty good. If you have the time, I'd recommend this book. I just hope that Clancy's next novel isn't any longer.
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