Rating: 
Summary: Too Much Extraneous Material
Review: First of all, I am not a Tom Clancy fanatic. The only one of his previous books that I have read is "Red Storm Rising", which I did enjoy. Part of my problem with "The Bear and the Dragon" begins with that. A few important plot points to this novel revolve around previous events in the Jack Ryan series. I am only privy to those events by inference in this novel and was sometimes left shaking my head at certain lines of dialogue or supposed rationales for action dependent upon some unknown history.That being said, "The Bear and the Dragon" deals with the advent of war between China (the dragon) and Russia (the bear). The Russians have luckily struck upon the largest gold mine and oilfield in the world. The location of these finds is Far East Siberia, which is due north of the Russia-China border. China has been pushed to the brink of economic collapse by American insistence that they open their market to American exports or face the enactment of trade barriers to Chinese goods in the US. China sees as their only means of avoiding economic ruin the invasion of Russia and securing of the gold mine and oilfield. Had this been the only plot revolution it may have been a better story. Instead, Clancy also brings in an assassination attempt on the head of the Russian Federal Security Service, the fatal shootings of the Papal Nuncio to China and a Chinese Baptist minister by Chinese policemen, the pregnancy of one of President Jack Ryan's Secret Service agents, etc, etc, etc. There are too many subplots and sideplots that create a too complicated story structure. In this particular case, simplicity would have been a far better route to take. Also, many of Clancy's plot points in this story are just too unrealistic. The main what that comes to my mind is the American peoples' reaction to the death of the Papal Nuncio and the Baptist minister. The American people react by boycotting Chinese manufactured products and companies that do business with China. This is what ultimately precipitates China's decision to invade Siberia. There is no way in the world that Americans would even bother looking at the label of the product they're purchasing, much less boycott any country's goods, just because two people were killed by that country's police force. It just wouldn't happen. This unfortunately negates all events in the story that Clancy has predicated upon this action. While I don't think anyone would mistake Clancy's writing for John Steinbeck or Charles Dickens, I think even the level in this novel is below something you would expect from such a well known author. Clancy breaks one of the cardinal rules of character development by telling us too many times what the characters are thinking and feeling. Do not tell how they feel or what they think, show it. Clancy just doesn't seem to have an ability to do so. "The Bear and the Dragon" is not even good during the part you would expect: the actual war. Clancy spends too much time telling us how awful the characters think this is, the killing of enemy soldiers. No duh! Like we're supposed to expect they like to kill people. Clancy's attempt at moralizing just makes you feel guilty for reading a book which is plotted around a war. "The Bear and the Dragon" was a let down from what I expected it to be. I anticipated another book like "Red Storm Rising"; but, "The Bear and the Dragon" is definitely not "Red Storm Rising." As a side note: as someone who lives inside the Capital Beltway, I can only say that I'm appalled that Clancy would refer to that highway as Interstate 695, when anyone with a map or access to the internet could easily find out that the Capital Beltway is Interstate 495. Interstate 695 is the Baltimore Beltway, which is maybe why Clancy got that wrong, since he's from Baltimore.
Rating: 
Summary: A huge disappointment
Review: This has got to be Clancy's literary version of color-by-numbers. The plot is far-fetched, while at the same time too thin. The characters are so well-developed from previous books that all we're left with is Jack Ryan's whining about how he's not right/adequate/suited for the job of president. And while I like Clancy's books, Ryan's philosophizing on subjects ranging from abortion to religion to government smack of the arrogance that Clancy often puts across in personal appearances. Puh-leeze, keep your views to yourself, willya? On top of that, the book was poorly edited, with typos (excusable) and recurring dialogue (inexcusable). To be fair, I read the first edition hard-cover, so maybe this has been corrected in the subsequent editions, but I doubt it. The author's and publisher's philosophy seem to be "ah what the hell, throw it out there, it'll make money". Come on, Clancy, you know you can do better.
Rating:
Summary: This must be Dubya's favorite book ...
Review: ...although it doesn't have pictures. Life is too short to waste your time with this book... or to write a review about it.
Rating: 
Summary: Continues the downward spiral
Review: Tom Clancy used to be a highly entertaining author who provided fast-paced action coupled with a deep understanding of the military and intelligence communities. His first several books became instant classics. I was a devoted fan and snapped up his novels as soon as they were published. His last two efforts, however, seem to be short on just that - effort. "Rainbow Six," while written well, was terribly predictable. His plot line seemed to be an excuse for the action rather than the foundation of the story. "The Bear and the Dragon" continues the downward spiral. The dialogue between characters is terrible. Another reviewer mentioned this complaint too. If you eliminate the long narratives/explanations between the lines of conversation, the dialogue sounds like it is between a couple of junior high students. Clancy has dramatically improved his talent for utilizing cliches and having his characters repeatedly state the obvious. The book seems like it needed one more draft until completion. While his plot moves along, I felt that it could have moved more quickly. Eliminating about 200-300 pages from the first half of the book would have helped. The high point of the book is the description of combat, a talent for which Clancy is unparalleled. The battles were fast-paced and exciting. They quite literally kept me on the edge of my seat. It is hard to justify 900 pages of (almost) boredom to get to the good parts. I do not recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Bore that Drags-on
Review: I have considered myself an avid Clancy fan for almost two decades. But, it just keeps getting harder. I purcased this, the latest Ryan adventure, as I have all the rest, as soon as it was available. And again it was a great disapointment. This book drags on in an attempt to peak suspense, but please Tom, give us some excitment. Give us a Jack Ryan that is as savy a president as he was a CIA operative. Remeber the good old days ( circa Cardinal of the Kremlin ) when Ryan was cooly smirking at his KGB captors after just having aided the escape of a high ranking double agent? Is this the same guy who is now bumbling around the oval office and whining about everything? I give this book 2 stars because I still consider myself a fan, even though I think the last good book in this series was The Sum of All Fears. Finally, the only other reason I think this book rates more than one star, is the ending action sequence, done in the bold Clancy style I know and love(thank god for Mr.Clark).You still got it Tom, you just don't have to waste so much paper getting there.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy at his worst...?
Review: The Bear and the Dragon was, by far, Tom Clancy's poorest attempt to revive the techno-thriller genre. Nine hundred and fifty pages of build-up to a conflict which is superficially resolved in the last one hundred pages is not the way maintain a devoted following. Even the last line of the novel (a crass reference to "Japanese sausage") is apt to leave a bad taste in the reader's mouth.
Rating:
Summary: Shameless.
Review: I've never read a more shameless attempt at using fiction to spread political views. I imagine Clancy sitting in his big leather chair before a roaring fire, giddy with boyish excitement, thinking he's used his popular Jack Ryan character to execute a successful covert propaganda operation on his loyal readers.
Rating: 
Summary: All-Encompassing Novel That May Turn Off Some Readers
Review: While I enjoyed The Bear and the Dragon very much, I must say that the book is not for everyone. While Clancy has written some of the best "techno-thrillers" of the past two decades, Bear lacks much of the raw action of Rainbow Six or Clear & Present Danger. Readers looking for a speedy action read will be disappointed. Despite the fact that Clancy is often slighly off-base with his political commentary or cultural depiction, I have always felt that the fact that his books include subplots in these areas to be a positive. This is most evident in The Cardinal & The Kremlin and can been seen again in Bear. The most important thing to know when picking up a Clancy novel is that he is in a genre by himself. No one else, for better or for worse, writes like him. Some readers may be put off by this or may not be able to follow Clancy's complex and multi-faceted plots. I couldn't critique anyone for not liking this book. However, if you are looking for a novel that is about more than guns, bombs, and missiles, I would recommend The Bear and The Dragon highly.
Rating:
Summary: Racism and tiresome main character sink this book
Review: I have read every Tom Clancy book since the beginning. Everyone knows his strengths and weaknesses, so there aren't many surprises. I do expect to be entertained by his books, but I wasn't this time. I simply can't stomach the endless racist remarks; Executive Orders got by with only a few references to "ragheads" to refer to people of the Islamic faith. Here, however, there are constant and ongoing racist and cultural slurs against Chinese people (I won't dignify them by repeating them). Also, Jack Ryan has become incredibly tiresome. He has turned into a self-righteous, ultra-right-wing character who loathes anyone who disagrees with him and spends all his time whining about how he doesn't want to be President. It's time for Clancy to move on from this series and get back to writing entertaining thrillers with interesting characters.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the worst Clancy I have ever read.
Review: The book is extremely lengthy, full of unnecessary sexual comments, and rubber-stretched passages. I found myself skipping entire pages. For me, beeing the biggest Clancy fan up to date it is really difficult to say that his work is bad, but every other book I have read was excellent-"The Debt of Honor," "Executive Orders," "Without Remorse," to name a few, - but this book absolutely does not grab attention and what is even worse, annoys.
Do not recommend.
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