Red Rabbit

Rating:
Summary: Still a fun listen
Review: There are problems with "Red Rabbit", as with all Clancy's writing. But that's like pointing out flaws in Sophia Loren's looks; the imperfections don't matter because the overall effect is still magic. Clancy has a talent for writing page-turners that few can match, and despite the negative reviews others have given, "Rabbit" is no exception. It is, however, different from other Clancy books in a couple of aspects. Where he usually sets up several sub-plots and skillfully converges them by the end, in "Rabbit" he instead focuses on essentially one thread: the plan of a Russian communications officer to defect because his conscience disturbs him when his government hatches a KGB plan to assassinate the Pope. Another difference is that this book is shorter than usual, clocking in at "only" 600 or so pages, and Clancy doesn't waste any time explaining from whence this Russian captain's sudden sympathy for Catholic clergy might have come. A childhood friend, perhaps, or a grandmother who read to him from a carefully hidden family Bible? Naw. He just suddenly decides it isn't right because "this priest is an innocent man". That should not work, we as readers should not believe it. It's one of the flaws I referred to earlier. And yet I was engrossed in the story of this Russian officer and his family and worried about them as if they were real until the very last chapter. It's magic, that's all you can say.

Jack Ryan, Clancy's hero, spends most of his time complaining: about food, about airplanes, about the missions to which he's assigned, usually in rough language that seems, given that he's Catholic and his primary concern for most of the novel is to save his Pope, vaguely ironic. As usual, though, Ryan comes through in the end and justifies our attachment to him. Speaking of, you might ask, how does Clancy make a story to which we already know the ending - that is, if you were paying any attention at all to the news in the 80s - exciting? Without giving anything away let's just say Clancy, as always, has some surprises up his sleeve.

Dennis Boutsikaris' reading is masterful, handling more than a dozen characters with differing nationalities, accents and genders with such skill you often forget that only a single person is reading. His talent supplements Clancy's writing, helping to define the characters. For example, reading some of Clancy's other books I sometimes had a hard time keeping straight Judge Moore and Bob Ritter, two essential characters in the Clancy universe. Boutsikaris' voice characterizations enabled me to see them clearly: Judge Moore is the southern gentleman, Ritter is the know-it-all pipsqueak you'd like to punch.

Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Poor showing
Review: Most of Mr. Clancy's loyal readers probably recall the events of the Spring 1981. Yet Mr. Clancy fills 'Red Rabbit' with distracting anachronisms. Some examples include the following:

On two occasions, the British are grateful for the U.S. help in the Falkland Islands war (it did not begin until April 1982).
Jack Ryan uses an Apple IIe computer (released in January 1983).
Jack Ryan buys stock in Starbucks and, at an MI5 safe house in England, laments that the coffee he is drinking is not Starbucks (Starbucks did not offer stock to the public until 1992 and was virtually unknown until the mid-1990's).

One gets the sense that we are following the movements of Austin Powers in his time machine, not Jack Ryan. The Starbucks reference is particularly lamentable. In the movie, 'Forrest Gump', when Forrest's business partner buys him some Apple Computer stock, it is endearing; in 'Red Rabbit,' when Jack Ryan buys Starbucks stock, it is simply annoying.

Jack Ryan's admiration of Verdi's opera, 'Aida,' is similarly highly unlikely, since it was only re-popularized by Elton John in the late 1990's. More likely, it is a weak allusion to Mr. Clancy's second wife.

Finally, Mr. Clancy includes over a dozen references to men rushing to the bathroom to urinate. In Beverly Cleary's children's book, 'Ramona The Pest', the kindergarteners want to know how Mike Mulligan went to the bathroom when he was operating his steam shovel night and day, digging the basement of the town hall; I doubt that the fans of Jack Ryan share that level of curiosity. One can only suppose that Mr. Clancy is experiencing problems with bladder control and now feels that it is an important factor in any storyline; a similar line of reasoning can perhaps be applied to his newly-found fascination with oral sex in 'The Bear And The Dragon'.

Rating:
Summary: DID CLANCY REALLY WRITE THIS?
Review: AFTER STRUGLING WITH BOREDOM FOR 200 PAGES, I FINALLY TOSSED THIS BOOK. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY

Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother!
Review: Five years ago, a book this size by Tom Clancy would have taken me about a week to rip through. Red Rabbit took me a month and a half. This is definitely not due to poor eyesight. Since Rainbow Six, Clancy's tales have fallen short, each one worse than the last. Red Rabbit reaches a new low. Only two characters hold any excitement, the CIA Station Chief in Moscow, and his wife, and even then this is a stretch. Think about trying to decide which of the rotten apples to eat, these two characters don't have too many worms.

I forced myself to finish it, as I wanted to give Clancy one last chance before his career is considered retired for me and my wallet. The story was weak, the characters were shallow, the ending was pathetic. Perhaps the most thrilling part of the story was glazed over in a couple of pages.

This is the last new Clancy book I'll ever read. He has utterly failed me and I have no interest in seeing what he can vomit up next.

Do yourself and your intelligence a favor, don't read Red Rabbit.

Rating:
Summary: so so
Review: Taking place 5 months after Patriot Games, Jack Ryan and his family have moved to England. His first day on the job over there as a CIA anayalist, he sees a letter from the pope and realizes there could be problems! And problems there is. The russians are not happy with the current pope and end up wanting to assinate him. Put in a soviet who actually has a conscience, decides to defect to the west. So he travels to Hungary, where he meets Mr Ryan and is flown to England where Jack gets all the info he needs and ends up flying to Itlay to try and prevent the pope from being killed. I will not say how it ends. If you know history, you have a good idea. Also this book shows the beginning dislike of Rob Ritter and Jack Ryan and is a prequel to Cardinal of the Kremlin in many ways. All in all, not bad, but could have been better.

Rating:
Summary: Still Good
Review: Although this Clancy novel is not as tense and exciting as
his usual top-notch work, it is still very good.
The book details much of the facts and action that preceded
one of the most inhumane acts of Communism, the attempt to kill
the Pope. The shooter was a Turk, sponsored by the Bulgarian
Secret Police, at the behest of the Soviet Union's KGB, and the
plan had been initiated by one of the top KGB killers, Andropov,
who became, of course, the Communist Party's First Secretary.
Anyone interested in the Cold War needs to acquaint themselves
with this extreme action by the Soviets, and the Clancy book
gives a lot of detail, enhanced by the author's knowledge and
understanding of the true character of that Cold War.
The future of all of us was at stake during those years, and
Clancy is one who fully understands and can explain that.
Yes, there is less "action" in this book, which takes place
in the early years of hero Jack Ryan's place on the international stage, but the workings of the CIA and the British
SIS are further explored to great satisfaction, and the reactions of our great conservative leaders, Reagan and Thacher,
form a good background to Western civilization's response to
the truly evil actions by the USSR.
Clancy does a good job of explaining and exploring the movements
of people in the Cold War, and his writing remains fascinating
and engaging. He understands that not every battle results in
a lot of lost blood, and we, as readers, may need to be reminded
of that. An engrossing exposition, well written.

Rating:
Summary: Clancy gets worse as he gets older
Review: Don't even bother with this attempt. The plot had no imagination and was completely predictable. The so-called "good guy" Jack Ryan was pathetic. Someone with his education and professional experience wouldn't drop the "F-bomb" every other sentence or whine like a baby.

In the last half of the book Clancy reminds us, at least every other page, that Ryan hates flying and that he is "no field spook". This was repetitious and very boring.

Over the last few of his books I've become use to his characters staring out of a window and thinking inconsequential thought for pages on end with no plot advancement but this book brought it to a new low. How sad.

Rating:
Summary: Not Clancy's finest hour.
Review: I have to admit, I wasn't looking foreward to reading the novel after all of the negative reviews on amazon.com, but it wasn't that bad. It's probably the worst book in the series, it moves rather slowly, and it wasn't really neccisary in the Jack Ryan timeline, but it was kind of interesting. If your bored or you have nothing to do, read the book. I won't read it again, this would probably the last book in the series that I would read twice (followed closely by THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON).

Rating:
Summary: Pretty disappointing, coming from the King
Review: I have been a long time Clancy fan. This book is a sleeper. In fact, I am at page 301 right now, and I cant even read any more. I skipped half the pages actually, and didnt regret it... I dont want page after page of ... dialogue that signifies nothing. I want some action. I want suspense. Heck, I would even settle for some drama,... or even humor ...

My advice is to go back and read Clancy's earlier books, and just skip this one.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Book But Not Clancy's Best
Review: "Red Rabbit" is a good, well-written book from Tom Clancy. The primary reason it does not quite live up to his earlier works is the plot, which deals with the real-life 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. The problem is, we already KNOW the pope did not die, so that takes a lot of the suspense out of it. Having said that, I will reiterate that this is a good book that I did enjoy reading; I just hope that Clancy shows a bit more originality in his next book.