Rating: 
Summary: The worst book Clancy has ever written
Review: The Bear and the Dragon is not worth reading. I found this out when I was about half way through the book but wanted to trudge on till the very end. Sure it has some good points, but is not nearly as good as all the others that I have read. I was disappointed, and agree with all the other negative reviews put forth here. I don't even know why I finished it, but I did, all 1028 pages worth.
Rating:
Summary: Linguistic Disappointment
Review: After being a Clancy fan for a more years than I wish to remember, I was ecstatic at the prospect of another blockbuster novel. While the plot plods along at a snail's pace, one expects it to pick up tempo through the novel as does many of his other works. However, the big disappointment and linguistic "slap in the face" is his prolific use of vulgarities throughout the novel. This seems to be a new Clancy, with new and needless usage of vulgar language that seems to have little reason other than shock value. Indeed, one is reading along and suddenly is confronted phrases of "f" this, or "mf" that, that derails the reader from the story. I hope Mr. Clancy reads this and reconsiders using such language to such an extent in the future. It's not that we don't know that it exists, it's just hard to imagine it exists at such a voluminous variety and with such rapidity.
Rating: 
Summary: The Worst Clancy Ever
Review: It cannot be coincidence that this is an election year! Clancy uses this book more as a right-wing political statement than as as an entertaining story. Yes, one can predict and expect the usual military-macho stuff, but one cannot tolerate the endless ideological musings that ruin the flow of the whole story. This book is basically a rant that is anti abortion, pro religion, anti gun control, anti liberal (referring to politicians who levy taxes as wanting to 'suck the blood' out of the country's citizens), anti Clinton, and so on. Mr. Clancy, you need to stick to what you do best. Hint: it's not politics.Oh, and by the way, the language in this book is unnecessarily foul. Tom Clancy seems to be caught in the same trap as Stephen King, thinking that coarse, sexually-explicit language is a way to build up the characters in his story. He seems to use this to try to make his characters appear to be 'regular guys'...and fails miserably.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing...
Review: After Rainbow Six, I told myself I would never read another Tom Clancy novel...but I gave him one more chance. I think I wasted my money. The Bear and the Dragon is dreadful slow to develop, wooden characters with wooden thoughts and wooden dialogue, too many sub-plots, anachronistic (has Mr Clancy been to China recently --- his China is not today's China at all). What's happened to Jack Ryan? Where's our decisive man of action gone? The book is far too long for the story. It needs a good editor with a sharp pen.
Rating: 
Summary: Clancy returns to an R Rated book
Review: Wow - another techno thriller that I could not put down. The content and structure, for the most part, was great and sure listed some very likely screnarios with all the techno info that Mr. Clancy is famous for. Unfortunately this will probably be the last Clancy book I read. Similar in nature to Without Remorse, Mr Clancy, with this book, is setting a new tone for this and coming books where gratuitous profanity and sex have a much higher profile than ever before. I wish that Mr Clancy would take a queue from Mr Cussler, who wanted readers of all ages and sensibilities to be able to read his books, and took his books to that level by taking out the gratuitous profanity and sex with great success.
Rating:
Summary: Boring, boring, boring
Review: I've read all of Clancy's books, excluding the paperback series. Progressively they haved grown longer and more tedious. I don't know that I would even read the next. I was very dissapointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding
Review: When I first got this book I thought it'll be bad 'cos of the reviews I read,but I found out something .The book to someone who hasn't been reading Clancy's book maybe 2-3,but for someone following all his books it's a 4.I think the only book that's beats it hands down will be Without Remorse.I honestly don't think he can beat that any longer.
Rating:
Summary: Good read, familiar Clancy strengths and weaknesses
Review: Confrontation between a weakened, fragmented Russia and a newly aggressive and acquisitive China, with the United States forced to take a hand in the conflict, forms the basis for Clancy's latest work. As always, Clancy makes it easy for the reader to suspend disbelief; anyone familiar with today's headlines can readily imagine that the events depicted in The Bear and the Dragon could actually happen (more or less). The book benefits from some traditional Clancy strengths: strong writing, a familiar cast of engaging characters and an superb ability to explain the technology, tactics and art of war in a lucid and compelling way that forces the reader to keep turning the pages. Unfortunately, it also suffers from some recurrent problems (to my mind, at least) that have become familiar to Clancy readers, and make this a good book, rather than a great one: gushy, uncritical adoration of the military and intelligence establishments, the tendency to portray the "good guys", all of whom are to the right of Albert Speer, as flawlessly noble, strong and wise, while depicting their antagonists as two-dimensional, fairly uninteresting characters who combine comic-book evil with enough doltishness to make their defeat inevitable. The biggest drawback to this book, though, is the same one we've seen in all of Clancy's recent work: his apparent inability to shut up. The Bear and the Dragon is at least 30 percent too long. Clancy's success as a writer gives him the ability to veto editorial suggestions that he blue-pencil a few hundred (or few thousand) words here and there, and Clancy fans quickly develop skill at the art of skimming. I've read all of Clancy's work, and, problems notwithstanding, I'll continue to read him. His strengths as a writer overshadow his weaknesses, and I still hold out hope that he'll return to the standards he set in Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising.
Rating:
Summary: Not too shabby
Review: This book is by far on of Tom Clancy's best novels besides Rainbow Six and Sum of All Fears. It's full of action, spy and mind racing adventure. The only downpart was the "japanese sausage" part. It was kind of lame, (especially since i'm a guy) Anyhow, I highly reccomend this book to all Clancy fans and others.
Rating:
Summary: Preachy and Slow
Review: I have read all of Mr. Clancy's books in this series. This one was something of a disappointment. From the outset, he uses Jack Ryan's thoughts and speeches to preach social conservative agenda items. I don't disagree with those items nor do I strongly agree with them but he should have toned it down some. For example, in several passages abortion is brought up. The story was predictable but slow to develop. Ther was also a problem with incomplete story lines. The Rainbow Six team at first seemed to be a primary part of the story but actually played a small role. All that aside, it was good to see what happened to Jack Ryan after the last book. I look forward to the next one in this series.
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