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Summary: Review #737
Review: It is amazing that there's anything left to add after 736 reviews, but here goes... First, I went ahead and read the thing despite all of the trash talk on this page. I took everyone's advice and skimmed the middle part. Having done that, the book wasn't half bad. I think the cries of "racism" are overdone. Certainly there were a few racial slurs tossed around. But that is something present in every one of Clancy's novels--probably for the simple reason that such words ARE used by MANY people, particularly in wartime, when demonizing the enemy is considered natural. (In fact, many of Clancy's protagonists use such slurs to describe themselves....) The battle scenes were well done. I cannot speak for accuracy, given that I am not a soldier, but they were done well enough to hold my interest & credulity. The premise--Chinese attack on Russia--is plausible enough from an historical perspective. And the crusty old Great Patriotic War sniper was an excellent minor character. That being said, I think that the portrayal of Zhang and the rest of the PRC leaders was rather one-dimensional. In his other works, there was more character development--even Sean Miller from Patriot Games got better treatment, and he was just a minor-league thug when it came right down to it! Second, the whole war plot thing, well, Clancy has it down to a formula and it is getting tiresome. Evil Bad Guy Enemy Leader decides to wage war on innocents to take their oil/destroy their alliance/avenge himself. Thanks to the byzantine nature in which politics in the Enemy Country are done, he is able to manipulate the government to get his way. Moderate Enemy Government Official tries to dissuade Enemy Leader, but is pushed aside and reluctantly goes along. EVeryone is scared of him, so his underlings tell him what he wants to hear, rather than the truth. America's plucky intel people twig to the plot too late to stop it from happening but with enough time to sound the alarm. American technology and skill triumph on the battlefield, the bad guys ponder using nukes, but before armageddon can be unleashed, Moderate Enemy Government Official sees his chance, ousts Enemy Leader with the help of (or at least, in the name of), The People and sues for peace. Just seems tiresome. And, may God forgive me, but I was actually rooting for the ICBM to hit the U.S....would present an interesting problem to solve.... Third, the novel was decent at 1100 pages. It would have been good at 800 pages. It could have been GREAT at 500. Fourth, contrary to what Clancy has Zhang opine in this book, Ralph Peter's RED ARMY was a novel about a NATO/Warsaw Pact war in which the Commies won....and after only three days, no less!
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Summary: This Bear is benign,this dragon drags.
Review: Hi there Clancy! The journey from Red October to this Dragon tale has been a rivetting and rewarding one.Your research for every book is superb.But I think you've reached a plateau now with this genre of books and subjects.And this was obvious in The Bear and the D.....Ryan is a caricature of his early avatars.And you made the Chinese out to be stupid wimps(personally I would like to think they are) but they are not.They are the most inscrutable and dangerous race on earth. You've tried very hard Clancy, but sorry, it is nowhere near Red October, your most breathtaking offering.Why not look at third world nations?.Nithya Ramnath
Rating: 
Summary: Repugnant
Review: I found this book to be terrible. I am fan of Tom Clancy ever since reading Red Storm Rising and Hunt for Red October over a decade ago. This book seems to have no basis in reality at well. His description of China and its people are off the wall. It is obvious that Tom Clancy has never been to China or interacted with its people based on this book. I have been to China about 8 times in the last year and visit places as varied as Beijing to Guangdong to Kaifeng to Suzhou to Shaolin. Tom Clancy has this distorted view of China...
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Summary: The Eighth Book in the Series
Review: I have read all the Jack Ryan series by Tom Clancy, and this is the one i liked most. The setting is not a common one in Clancy's books and this creates an interesting atmosphere. This is one of my favourite books by Clancy, followed by The Hunt For Red October and the Cardinal of the Kremlin. After having followed Jack Ryan throughout the series, it is a culminating book that shows the culmination of Jack Ryan's Carrier. I must say that the Character of Jack Ryan is one of the Characters i like best in all the books i have read, both Clancy's and others. In this book, Jack Ryan shows his maturity and sense of direction adn i wish that everybody was like him in real life!!
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Summary: Bloated, B-grade Pulp Fiction
Review: With 700+ reviewers before me, I have nothing new to say. The book was an utter waste of time for me.
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Summary: I managed to finish it, but man it was painful....
Review: I've been reading Clancy books for years. While many of his more recent books have been disappointing, this one is by far the worst yet. The Bear and the Dragon is the first Clancy book that I found hard to finish. My comments: First - give the political rhetoric a break - PLEASE. I don't mind opinions, but not page after page of unnecessary preaching on the topic. There were points when I forgot whether I was reading a book or some ultra-conservative propaganda. Of course, that may be why some people actually like this book... Second - Ryan is not God. Ryan is not God. Ryan is not God. Just like in his previous 1000+ page books, Clancy builds up this almost impossible situation, and then the main characters make a marvelous and heroic come back. In Clancy's world, the good guys never make mistakes, never die, and are the most moral people in the world. Get real. I liked the Ryan character in Red October and Cardinal, but he's now gone past the point of being tired. I really hope that in his next novel, Clancy dumps this character, since I just don't think he can take him any further. Third - There was way too much superfluous background information that didn't do anything to the story. I felt like this book was more background information than plot. I think you could have made this a decent 500-page book. But at over 1000, it was boring. There were only a couple 'tense' parts, but even then, you knew the outcome before it started. Fourth - Clancy really seems to have left the plane of reality here. For some authors, this isn't a big deal, but for Clancy, he's always tried to make the plot seem somewhat feasible. Not here. I don't know how many times I thought 'yeah right' while reading this book. Finally (there is lots more I could say, but this is enough for now) - the thing I've come to dislike most about this book (and some of Clancy's other works) is they're predictable. You know the good guys are always going to prevail. They never die or get harmed, no matter how impossible the task. It's always the other guy that dies. It's kind of like Star Trek - the main characters always live to fight another day, but if an unknown crewman is part of an away mission, you know they're toast. The same is true here. Not one of the 'good' main characters died. I was hoping that the ICBM would succeed since it would have made for an interesting ending, rather than the tired and predictable one that you knew was coming. In summary, don't bother with this book unless you have lots of free time on your hand and/or you fervently support the current president in the white house. For anyone else, you'll be disappointed.
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Summary: Stop with the Irrelenvant Domestic Civic's Lesson
Review: Tom Clancy books used to mean international intrigue, interesting expositions on foreign policy and liberal amounts of high tech military hardware. In Clancy's latest work, Bear and the Dragon, the author uses the character of Jack Ryan as a mouthpiece for (seemingly) Clancy's own critical view on every aspect of US domestic politics. This novel, which is 1,100 pages, is overburdened with long stretches of wooden dialogue between Ryan and his Chief of Staff, Arnie van Damm where Ryan, the Mr. Smith Goes to Washington-type political neophyte, is given extended civics lessons designed to highlight the necessary evils of politics. This is done in a pseudo-Socratic dialogue which is numbingly boring The upshot is, Ryan is becoming unbearably whiny and annoyingly preachy. Second, are we actually supposed to believe that he could continue to be so naive after 15 months in the Presidency. Third, and most importantly, these poorly written dialogues (between Ryan and van Damm and other pairs of characters, such as Mary Pat Foley and Ed Foley) do not advance the story even a tiny bit. I had a very difficult time forcing myself to continue reading this book. Please, Mr. Clancy, next time stick to the story and save the civics lesson for some other forum.
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Summary: Oh brother.............
Review: ......I couldn't wait to finish this thing. Oops, I didn't finish it; I skipped to the end (that was a mistake too, as it was horrendous) after reading 800 plus pages of unbearable nonsense. Simply could not take it any more!... Where to begin, oh where to begin. Ok, 1000 plus pages? Easily could have been 600: enough said. Next, I became so sick of President Ryan crying every 40 pages about how much he hates his job. What a bore! And "Japanese sausage"? Is Mr. Clancy trying to appeal to 11 year old boys?... The title of the chapters, at times, had nothing to do with the content of the chapter. There were typos all over the place. I could go on and on, but enough is enough. I just want to put this memory behind me and reflect on the other books Mr. Clancy has turned out in the past. Why two stars? Parts of the story were riviting. I hope that Mr. Clancy reads these reviews and takes them to heart. Let's move on to something new. Please no more President Ryan, former super-spy. Oh well, maybe next time. That's all.
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Summary: I THOUGHT IT WAS GREAT!
Review: If your a fan of the Jack Ryan books you will like this one. I would guess this is the last of the series. I hope Tom Clancy contiues to write about Mr. Clark & Co. Alot of people dissed this book but I thought it was a great story.
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Summary: Great Ending -pity about the first 700 pages...
Review: Not Mr Clancy's best work. Until 3/4 of the way through the book it felt like a first draft. Then he got to the bit that he was interested in (the tech war), and the old 'Clancy Magic' began to take hold. I just can't work out how the novel in its present state ever made it to the printers. Maybe Tom couldn't be bothered to re-read and edit it, but surely an editor or sub-editor somewhere must have read it through once -mustn't they? Maybe they just skipped the boring, long-winded, poorly-written bits. Maybe I should have too! If this was the first Clancy I'd read, I wouldn't have persisted past the first 200 pages, and I certainly wouldn't have bothered with his earlier work-which would've been my loss. On a technical note, I don't believe that the C5 has ever been known to its crews as the 'Aluminum Cloud' (I think that was the B-36 from WWII) Isn't it an 'Aluminum Overcast'? If that little factoid is wrong, how much bother did he go to researching anything else. (Certainly his descriptions of Sydney in RAINBOW-6 were mistake-ridden and vague) This book is not the worst I've read -but it falls a long way short of the best. I couldn't recommend it to anyone. Please Tom! Bigger is not better! Better is better.
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