Rating: 
Summary: Red Rabbit Hops.....Slowly
Review: Tame plot, not much action. More of a sermon on religion than an adventure story.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but certainly not up to his past performance
Review: If you are like me (before I read this book), then you probably have checked out this book a couple of times and are trying to decide if you want to buy it or wait for the paperback.Ultimately, I took a chance on it because the last time Clancy went on a tangent (Rainbow Six), I enjoyed the book immensely. This time, however, I was disappointed. So let me take a moment and describe the pros and cons of this book so that you can decide whether to wait. This book seems to have sprouted from an interesting idea that Clancy thought up and researched...was the Pope's attempted assassination actually a nation-state's work rather than the "lone gunman?" Unfortunately, though the idea is interesting, the story is not. While there is some limited background on interesting characters from past novels (the Foleys, Ritter, and others), and there is some interesting insight into actual historical characters (Andropov, for instance), there is none of the tension in this book that makes Clancy's previous literary endeavors so hard to put down. In fact, the book is down right plodding for about three to four hundred pages before it begins to become interesting. Another annoying habit is Clancy's penchant for making his characters omniscient. For instance, with the book taking place in the early 80s, Jack Ryan is not only able to indicate how the Soviet Union is a house of cards (something that no one predicted back then), but also buys stock in Starbucks (long before they were on every street corner) and predicts who wins the World Series. Rather than making the character seem smart, it simply reminds the reader that you are reading a book...a rather dull one at that. In fact, it almost seems to steal a page from the Austin Powers movie! At its most basic, this book seems to be a response to the primary literary criticism that Clancy has faced in the past...namely that his books lack character development and are simply plot driven books. While this may be true, his plot driven books of the past were very fun and enjoyable to read...and this one is neither. Ultimately, there is some interesting stuff in this book and any fan of the Jack Ryan series will find the background of the characters interesting. However, there is no reason to run out and buy the book now...I wish I had waited for the paperback myself. With so many enjoyable books written by Clancy in the past, this book is a perfect example of how past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy Goes Grisham
Review: It's a sad day when a hero dies; a little innocence is lost, as when you discover Santa Claus doesn't exist, or that your dad isn't Superman after all. Red Rabbit is Tom Clancy's fall from grace, and it's no tiny tumble, but a full-fledged leap off the literary ledge to dash himself among rocks of other failed "franchise" writers.
John Patrick Ryan is back, which should be a good thing, though he's been "Affleckized" into a younger version of the venerable star, and like that talentless actor, just bumbles his way through a poorly scripted plot with no sparks or charisma.
I could in fact describe the entire plot in about 2 paragraphs and not give anything away, because there are no twists, no surprises, none of the artful weaving of disparate threads into the usual cohesive whole we expect from Clancy. Painfully absent are the technological descriptions that enlightened civilians and gave them a peek into the military arsenals and capabillities of East and West, the words that let them feel like they were sitting in a general's command throne.
By setting the book back in the Cold War 80's, Clancy missed a beautiful chance to paint his scenes with the facts and ironies gleaned by hindsight. He goes so far as to allude tongue-in-cheek to a "west coast coffee franchise" Ryan invests one hundred thousand in because of their good coffee, but ruins it with later references to something called "Starbucks."
Which leads to the most damning part of this novel. Clancy spends more time describing Ryan's wake-up rituals and what the character thinks of the coffee EVERY DAY than he does worrying about guiding the novel into halfway interesting scenes.
Red Rabbit is Tom Clancy's expose; it reveals him as a good ol' American boy in all his Yankee glory. The author obviously spent time in Europe recently, for he describes the experience in minutae, as all Yanks see it, ie: how things there are Unamerican; tea instead of coffe, numerous references to the differences between grass-fed cattle and the corn-fed American versions, the poor coverage of American sports, how Brits have two taps in their sinks while the superior Americans have but one, etc... The list goes on and on, and it's quite frankly embarrassing, and at times the book seems more a treatise on the differences between New World and Old than anything else.
The spark is gone, the torch must be passed; it's almost as if Tom let his new wife write the book for him, then he added in about 450 pages of filler, mostly made up of useless swearing and countless references to Ryan's past as a Marine (we know the character spent a year at Quantico in West Virginia, but to have the fact thrown out at least two times EVERY chapter becomes insulting). Clancy rambles and repeats himself as if senile, and you can be damned sure if he submitted the manuscript to an editor under a different name the work would have been tossed into the trash immediately. But, as evidenced on the cover, the font for the author's name is about three times larger than the title's, which says it all. The book is nothing but the cashing in on a legacy and I for one will never buy into it again. It's a sad day when a good man falls... Jerry Seinfeld and Gary Larson were smart enough to get out while they were still fresh, still on top, but people like John Grisham and now, sadly, Tom Clancy, couldn't resist going to the well one more time, and their greed and lack of talent were finally exposed.
Red Rabbit begs the question: Tom, what were you thinking?
Rating: 
Summary: A lot of pages for so little content
Review: I've read every novel Clancy has written by himself. I consider myself a fan of covert ops., especially if the clandestine meetings happen to involve the former Soviet Union. While reading this huge book I found myself pleading for something to happen. Hundreds of pages came and went with nothing more than day to day happenings of married couples and Jack Ryan pub hopping. Oh and did I mention that eye surgeons don't drink on the night before they are scheduled to operate? Well this little fact was forced down out throat every other page. Along with the fact that Jack was once a very successful trader on Wall Street. We get it, he made lots and lots of money! And this is how it goes...little things like these that are repeated over and over as if grandma or grandpa was telling a story. "Did I tell you that the Dodge got twenty miles to the gallon on the way down here?" Yes, about two minutes ago. Well to bolster my appreciation for the author I've started reading RED STORM RISING again and now know what a real cold war era novel should read like. "Did I tell you about the Dodge?"
Rating: 
Summary: Good Story, Poor Execution
Review: In "Red Rabbit", Clancy tells a fictional tale of the events behind the actual 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John II. While much of Clancy's traditional appeal lies in his attention to detail, it is overdone in "Red Rabbit", resulting in an overly long and sluggishly paced novel. The treatment of Jack Ryan was most surprising. While much has been made of his rather minor role in this book, as Mary-Pat and Ed Foley take center stage for the good guys, that was a refreshing change of pace. Rather, I found the relationship between Jack and Cathy Ryan distracting and, frankly, annoying. Eliminating Ryan completely would have shortened the book and improved the story line. The avid Clancy reader will want to read this to fill in some background, especially behind the Foleys, while fans of 20th Century history may enjoy this plausible and apparently well-researched account of the attempted assassination. But in the final analysis, this is not Clancy's best work. A thorough edit-out of about 200 pages would bring significant improvement.
Rating:
Summary: Anxiously awaited reading---mildly disappointed
Review: I have always given Mr.Clancy 4 stars minimum...except now.After reading most of the other reviews, a common theme emerges....a lot of words written with little effect....this was probably the only book he has written where I could put it down without continually thinking about the "what comes next". Granted, the Bear and the Dragon was a little long on text, but at least it moved. I hope that Mr.Clancy was just a little "tired"--I would hate for him to drift towards this standard. Look forward to the next one!
Rating:
Summary: Boring!
Review: I was a Tom Clancy fan. No more. I only finished this book because it was a gift from my wife. I could not wait to get the misery over with. By the way, check the rank of the character Zaitsez. He goes from captain to major - and even colonel - at random. This book is as exciting as the pamphlets you get with your credit cards.
Rating: 
Summary: It's been too long since we had a fun Cold War novel!
Review: Ignore the naysayers about this book. Few remember that it was Tom Clancy that made the Cold War technothrillers break out in the 1980s. Yes, Jack Ryan is back, and in a "prequel" mode, but the fact is that reading this book brings back the haunting "Evil Empire" and all of its former sinister implications. The book does take its readers back into the way life used to be for many of us, and adds an unusual twist of creating historical fiction around the attempted assassination plot against the Pope. Overall, I had been disappointed by the increasingly fantastic scenarios in Clancy's Ryan books, and this one seems to go back closer to the way it began. Trust your instincts, and if the last few books seemed a little bizarre, then this should put the world closer to its rightful place in your mind.
Rating:
Summary: A Clancy Disappointment
Review: I'm a Clancy fan, having read all his other novels, and I must admit that this was a disappointment. What makes Clancy great is the treatment of so many story lines at once, keeping you interested in various story threads. In this book, though, the number of threads is greatly reduced and the reader is left wanting more. Reading this book is worth it only if you are a Clancy fan in need of a fix. Since I'm in that category, I can overlook many of the flaws but still ask Mr. Clancy to please take more time with his next novel and truly deliver like he knows how.
Rating:
Summary: This is a big disappointment
Review: I waited for a month (from a library) to get this book and all I have to say is "thank God I didn't buy it". I am in the middle of the book now, and I am struggling to finish it. I am a fan of Tom Clancy (read all of his books), but this is simply a rediculous book. The plot is shallow, the characters built without much care, and the whole books reeks of "incompetence" by the author. First of all the whole book is based on a single plot that is unrealistic: a veteran KGB defector who sticks his hands in American-tourists pockets? Give me a break. Second of all, all the characters on the American and British side are perfect! No character flaw, extremely high I.Q., perfect spouses (Ryan's and Foley's etc), where as the russians are inherently corrupt and evil. He bashes any body but the american and British in the book (arogance bordering on the suprmacist view). It almsot read like a propaganda letter. This book ... because there is no story to tell. It is filled with people taking coffee breaks and talking non-sense. Don't buy it!
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