Rating: 
Summary: Old stereotype of China
Review: Great storyline. Lousy gratuitous overuse of the F--- word and sexual innuendos galore. Doesn't add to the storyline. Didn't need them in Hunt for Red October and the other early novels...why is it needed now? It's almost as if Mr. Clancy outlines the plot and some of the story, but others did the writing, especially the profanity and the stupid sex angles. Either that, or he's under the mistaken notion that this is what sells. Unfortunate for such a great storyteller. Research on the current China reveals a vastly different picture than the one portrayed by the characters Chester Nomuri and Ming. No one dresses in little Mao jackets in Beijing anymore! It's as modern looking as any big city and probably much more fashionable than Los Angeles these days. Was disappointed that his research on China was so poor. Have also been noticing that this novel, combined with the China incident is creating a backlash against Chinese Americans, much like what happened to the Japanese Americans during WWII. Some of the current talk shows have callers demanding that all Chinese restaurants be boycotted. What?!!? Let's be careful folks.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful story with 'fizzled finale'
Review: Like so many of his recent works, this starts with a great story premise and his unparalled attention to detail is there as always, but falls flat in the climax. Wars are not so perfectly conducted with no errors by the home team. The heroes, much as I'd like to know and be friends with them personally, lack the flaws of human nature that we all have to one degree or another. Rather than a crashing crescendo of a climax that builds to the final bar of music, this simply rolls down with the 'good guys' winning everything; an unlikely scenario for the large 'limited engagement' this is. I'll continue to read Clancy's Jack Ryan & Paul Hood series because I like their character and ethic, but hope Clancy does something to make the endings more realistic.
Rating: 
Summary: Perhaps It's Time to Retire, Tom
Review: After reading some of the reviews here on Amazon, either people hate it or love it. As for me, this was by far the WORST book Tom's written so far and I am utterly disappointed. I'm a big fan of Tom Clancy ever since Hunt For Red October. I think Clear and Present Danger and Sum of All Fears were some of his best works. I even own and enjoy his PC games Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear. However, after reading The Bear and the Dragon, it has become painfully clear to me that Tom's lost his skill as a master of suspense and action who can weave a complicated, but credible, storyline that keeps a reader glued to the very last page. In fact, in this book he seemed to try very hard to actually repel the reader. Here are some reasons why: 1. The storyline is completely incredible. You'd need to have a Cold War mentality, be an ultra right-wing conservative, or both to believe that China would invade Russia for oil and gold. And that thousands of Chinese tanks and hunreds of Chinese fighters were obliterated by a few bombs and a dozen American fighters? And hardly any American casualties in the end?
2. Characters. What happened to the Jack Ryan that I've come to love? He's become this chain-smoking, self-righteous, racist, pro-lifer that keeps reminding people that he doesn't like his job as the President of the United States.
3. Overuse of racist and foul language. I've lost count as to how many times Clancy uses the "F" word or refers to the Chinese as Joe Ch**k. Also, I'm not sure if the sexual references in his book are supposed to make me laugh or repulse me. Come on, Tom, a "Japanese sausage"???!!!
4. Length of book. My goodness, a 1,000+ page book that could've been written in less than 300. What a waste of paper and time to read those useless pages.
5. Misspellings and chronology problems. At least proofread the book before printing it. Am I the only person who noticed that the assassination attempt came before any oil or gold was discovered to become the reason for the assassination? I won't bore you with other reasons why you should't buy this book. If you must read it, I suggest borrowing it from the library like I did. That way, at least you won't feel cheated twice for wasting your precious money as well as the valuable time that you'll never get back after reading the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good but not his best.
Review: I thought this was a really good book. I finished it within 5 days I was so engrossed in it. It is a little boring at parts but thats a norm in Clancy books because of all the detail and length in his books. The climax at the end was great and inpredictable. Debt of Honor or Without Remorse are better but Clany is getting old and running out of ideas. I would put this book around #6 or so out of the 10 or so Clany novels. Better: Debt of Honor, Executive Orders, Without Remorse, Sum of all Fears, Clear and Present Danger. Worse: Cardinal of the Cremlin, Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Red Storm Rising.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best. Not his worst.
Review: Slow start, but great battle scenes. Jack Ryan has become a bit tiresome and the Hollywood ending is sort of silly.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of what he is good at...a little of what he is bad at!
Review: As a hard core Tom Clancy fan I found loads of the stuff that attracted me to Clancy in the first place...technically accurate mititary and governmental intrigue. In testing his skills at adding a little sex to his novels failed. Even I can come up with better name for it than a "sausage." The smartest thing Tom did, especially with 1,000 pages, was to keep the sexual encounters brief. He doesn't need the sex to be good, that what puts him above writers who have to rely on it to sell their books. Speaking as an avid reader of 1 to 2 books a week, I was not in the least bit turned off by the length. He had my attention all the way through and I'm all for longer books from Clancy and others. Well worth the read!
Rating: 
Summary: THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON
Review: I FOUND THIS BOOK TO BE VERY CLOSE TO REALITY. IT TAKES A LITTLE TIME TO GET TO KNOW ALL THE DIFFERENT CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL, BUT THE TIME IS WELL SPENT. CLANCY BRINGS TO LIGHT A LOT OF ISSUES THE WORLD SHOULD BE CONCERNED WITH ABOUT TWO ECONOMICALLY STRUGLING NATIONS AND THEIR DEALINGS WITH THE WESTERN NATIONS OF THE WORLD.
Rating:
Summary: Gratuitous use of the F word
Review: AS others have said, the book could have been shorter. It seems that the luster of Clancy's previous books has been replaced with the need to throw in a handful of profanity and an occasional limited sex scene. If this keeps up, the dialogue will become something akin to that of the Rogue Warrior series by Dick Marcinko!
Rating:
Summary: Most prolific use of the "F-word" since Blair Witch Project
Review: I've read every Clancy novel - usually getting it for Christmas and reading it before New Years. This one I started at Christmas and put down a while and didn't finish until April. Does that say something about how it held my attention or just turned me off? Maybe. China has depleted all of its cash reserves and their bargaining with the US to gain favored nation status is not going well when a televised tragic incident in Beijing involving the Chinese police, the Vatican ambassador and an American-educated Chinese Baptist pastor brings the negotiations to a sudden end. Meanwhile, Russia discovers a rich deposit of oil and gold in Siberia, not far from the Chinese border. What are the Chinese to do? It is typical Clancy. It is a well-researched technopolitical thriller with cliche character development, but many interweaving subplots. Throughout the series, we have watched, rather incredulously, the meteoric rise of Jack Ryan from history professor to the reluctant President of the United States. Now we watch great hordes saved by incredible luck. Don't get me wrong - I like the stories. As far as Clancy books go, I'll rate this one somewhere in the middle. The thing that completely turned me off, though, was the sex and language that contributed nothing to the story. It seems that Clancy sprinkled the book with profanity just for the sake of inserting profanity, and did similarly with the awkwardly-written sex scenes. Clancy should stick to writing about political exchange and weapons systems. So the story was good, but the sex and language took away from my being able to enjoy this book, so this will probably be the last Clancy book that I read.
Rating:
Summary: Ponderous!
Review: Clancy's right wing-nut politics are over exposed in this one. Of the 1,000+ pages, there are 500 pages of a good (not great) story, 300 pages of unnecessary detail (the minutia is overwhelming), and 200 pages of Clancy's overactive ego. This is not near a good as the early Clancy books (Red October or Red Storm). The ending was predictable, anti-climactic and incomplete. Clancy again demonstrates how misogynistic and racist he is. His revisionism of history is particularly annoying. He doesn't seem to remember his "heroes'" failings: Nixon (Watergate and Viet Nam, "we could've won"); Reagan (Iran/Contra, Ollie North ignoring the law); and Bush (Gulf War with the not-so-smart or effective weapons against an incompetent foe.) I recommend The Partner, by Grisham.
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