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Summary: Another Great Jack Ryan Story
Review: I thouroughly enjoyed this book! It's your typical Clancy story packed with great detail. He brings back many of the folks we have become familiar with including the Rainbow crew. The first 100 pages are tough due to all of the characters Clancy introduces. I especially hate when the Russian characters all seem to have at least two different names. Too much to keep track of.As usual, it picks up speed and I couldn't put it down. I've ready everything Clancy has put out (except for his co-author stuff) and can't wait for the next one!
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Summary: A Review of The Bear and The Dragon
Review: The novel, The Bear and The Dragon, by Tom Clancy is an extremely enjoyable story. It is written in much the same way as his other novels. Clancy uses several different and seemingly unrelated subplots in order to draw his story to a conclusion. One section of a chapter could be devoted to a CIA agent in Beijing, China, and the next section could jump to the investigation of an assassination in Moscow, Russia. As the story progresses, the different sections are strung together by several different methods. Clancy's novel is also extremely factual. The vast majority of his settings are real places and his events are compared to non-fiction events from past history, so as to give the reader something to compare the event to. Another positive aspect of this fiction is the great detail in which Clancy describes the characters in the book. Not only does the reader have a superb idea of the characters' physical traits, but each characters thoughts and mannerisms are examined until the reader gets the sense that he knows each character as a real person, not just an imaginary figure. One aspect of the book that could turn readers away, however, is the great detail in which the violence and gore are described. Clancy goes further than explaining the facts of the killings by elaborating on severed parts of the body and detailing the faces of dead men in a way that an actual image of the men is transposed into the reader's mind. Another negative point of the book is the usage of ethnic slurs, offensive to both minorities and Caucasians. Clancy uses the term " slanty eyes" more than once to refer to Oriental people and in the same sense referes to white people as "round eyes." The final aspect of the novel that could be offensive is Clancy's repeated references to sexual organ and participation in sexual activity. One entire subplot of the story is dedicated to a CIA agent who uses sex and seduction to pull top secret information out of a secretary. Several statements made by characters in the story also refer to the reproductive organs. I found the novel, The Bear and The Dragon, to be immensely enjoyable. Clancy shows a dedication to making the book and its characters as realisitc as possible, and as a side effect, the language, thoughts, and actions of the characters are not sugarcoated. This book could be equally enjoyed by both men and women. If you like a novel that pays extensive attention to detail and is extremely true to the real world and real-life actions of people, then The Bear and The Dragon, by Tom Clancy, is the perfect book.
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Summary: First Clancy I COULD Put Down
Review: OK, I admit it, I anxiously await each new Tom Clancy novel to be published (no, not op-center or net-force or the non-fiction works - just the fictionalized novels). This was the first one I COULD put down and not finish in 1-2 readings. I was able to read a couple chapters at a time over a week or so. At 1000+ pages and 60+ chapters, its almost mandatory. The plot was classic Clancy, lots of technology, espionage, sub-plots and characters - (the Chinese and Russian character's names are so similar that I found myself going back a few times to see who was who), but sufficiently exciting to keep my attention over a week's period of time. The first 75% of the book sets up the last 25% which describes the inevitable "war" chapters - definitely exciting reading. This book continues to portray the government of the People's Republic of China as the "bad guy", continuing the theme started a few novels ago, but not generalized to include the population as a whole. Deep cooperation and an alliance with Russia is also a primary theme. Finally, we get to see a very interesting (and realistic?) portrayal of Jack Ryan as a seasoned POTUS (President of the US). Enjoy the book, and the frequent reference to Japanese sausage!
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Summary: Great points, great read...
Review: I don't understand why people seem to have problems with Clancy bringing back all the characters from past works - I for one seriously dig continuity in a book series - which is what the Ryan books are - a series. As to the negative views on the PRC, c'mon people, have you done any research whatsoever about how terrible conditions really are over there? Obviously not - people need to wake up to the fact that the world is not all a pretty and happy place, and yes, we do still need to worry about national security. It's always refreshing to read a Clancy novel if for no other reason than to hear a logical and intelligent view on the world. I hope he keeps up the good work.
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Summary: Heavy Book!
Review: I just finished this epic novel of Tom Clancy's and I thought it was great. My arms got a bit tired holding it but other than that it was an enjoyable read. I liked the character development and enjoyed "seeing" old friends again - Jack Ryan et al. I disagree with most of the reviews here and wanted to get my view on record.
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Summary: CHINESE WATER TORTURE
Review: I found this book impossible not to put down.In many of his recent books Clancy has been in serious need of a ruthless editor,but never more than in "The Bear and the Dragon." There was so much fluff and extraneous material that I found it impossible to follow -- or eventually to care about -- the story line.Even worse,readers are continuously subjected to gratuitous doses of Clancy's political views.Do we really care in the context of the story about President Jack Ryan's views on abortion or social security? A good editor could have shortened this tome by several pages without damaging its content one iota.Then,perhaps we could have decided whether there is enough to the real story to make it interesting and entertaining.Unfortunately,we will never know. Instead,we are stuck with a cast of familiar characters who are no longer interesting or even credible and a world that is impossible to care about.
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Summary: Not Clancy's best work...
Review: The Bear and The Dragon was high on my Christmas wish list. Had I known that Clancy's ability to write fiction had declined so much, I might not have been so thrilled to receive this gift. In this effort, Clancy has gone overboard in both the amount of technical information included in the plot lines and his racist remarks against Chinese people in general. As one other reader wrote, it is okay to give us a character to hate but not a whole culture. I also found it very annoying that someone who could write so technical a book could not be bothered with making sure that the proofreading had been done correctly. In the copy I own, there are typo's throughout the text and it proves to be a stumbling block to what is already a slow read. I can normally blow through one of Clancy's novels in a couple of days because of the intensity and the on the edge of your seat excitement. This one lacked in both areas and took me an entire week to complete. On a positive note, it is still a Clancy novel and worth reading.
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Summary: Over the top or over the hill?
Review: I received this tome for Christmas, and read it over two very rainy days. Clancy hasn't lost his ability to design a compelling plot, however the book leaves much to be desired. Like many authors who write formulaic bestsellers, over time Clancy has gotten caught up in his own grandiosity and therefore won't let the publisher edit his books. This one REALLY needed a strong editor. At 1100 pages, it was too long, with too many subplots, too many long soliloquies of Clancy's John Birchish political philosophy, and too many repetitious banal catch phrases uttered by characters. Clancy has been headed down this road for some time--really since putting Jack Ryan in the White House--and I had vowed to stop buying his egotrips, and getting this one as a gift has only reinforced this stance. This piece is hugely disappointing for one who's read Clancy since The Hunt for Red October. Clancy either needs to get back to his roots, or give it up.
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Summary: A Dose of Realism.
Review: I found this book to be an immensely enjoyable read. Clancy constructs a very plausible world crisis situation. The China bashing is based upon real world assessments and fact. The book attacks the people who subvert the true will of the masses in that most ancient and honorable land. I am convinced that his sources are career diplomats and agency people who are eager to help Clancy present "what if" scenario's before they become real world occurences. Of particular note is the seduction of Ming. Blunt and honest in its execution, Clancy shows his overridding respect for humanity by giving the protagonist a conscience. The action is riveting and accelerates to a nail biting, gee-whiz conclusion for which Clancy is famous. If you truly follow world politics and history, this book is a must for understanding the dangerous but exciting world of the twenty-first century.
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Summary: The Bear and the Dragon
Review: I love the Jack Ryan series of books and eagerly awaited every new one. I have always found them to provide an excellent combination of story complexity, military strategy and technology, and interesting characters. This last book provides none of this. It is a single dimensional story with a totally predictable ending. In elevating all his characters to president and associates, Tom Clancy has written a book about politics rather than a military book. And in doing so Tom reveals his right wing attitudes e.g., Tom is very obviously anti-abortion, which is ok to a point but he pushes his views down your throat for pages on end (14 pages devoted to 2 priests berating China's One Child Policy!). And how many times were we reminded that Mao did it with 12 year old girls? Once would have been enough! As for his characters, Jack Ryan doesn't like being president so he winges about it for the first 200 pages, and surrounds himself with "real world" people that have to continually use foul language to make a point. As for the war that was eventually fought, totally predictable use of technology, no real strategy, just reactive tactics to what was happening. Oh, and if the US hadn't happened to get spy reports from a top level Chinese Minister's secretary (who did it for sex), we probobly would have lost the war. Obviously time for Tom and Jack to retire. Long live Jack Ryan, his series is dead.
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