Red Rabbit

Rating:
Summary: WARNING
Review: audible.com audiobooks may or may not work. may or may not take longer than reading the book. tech dept keeps banking hours and has one phone line.

Rating:
Summary: Red Rabbit
Review: I guess Tom has finally run out of ideas. "Red Rabbit" should have been named "Dead Rabbit" as it is the most boring book I've read in the last 10 years. As I read along thinking that any minute something really good was going to happen, as in most of the other books that he has written but NO nothing was there. I was surprised and couldn't believe that Tom was doing this to me and the great Jack Ryan. I dozed off several times and finally speed read the rest of the book. I am very unhappy that Tom has pulled this fraud on me and the rest of his loyal readers. Shame on you Tom!

Rating:
Summary: Clancy has some fun with history
Review: By taking Jack Ryan back to the 80's Clancy is able to use the retrospectoscope as a vehicle to score some points for his increasingly less hidden political agenda. I happen to agree with his positions, but the Left might be less happy with his views. This is not nearly as gripping as most of his earlier works, but it was a satisfying read nevertheless. I have to criticize the editor for not picking up the misspelling of Moorfield's Eye Hospital in London, mentioned several times. To us ophthalmologists that place is revered.

Rating:
Summary: A novel from the cutting room floor?
Review: I concur with other reader's disappointment at this very ho-hum Clancy novel. My suspicion is that it was duct-taped together from unused earlier work to meet a contractual obligation, but that may just be my cynical mind at work. Like another reviewer, I'm also a Brit, and I was irritated by several minor inaccuracies in descriptions of things British. (examples: 'station wagon' = 'estate car' not 'estate wagon', the derided Taster's Choice coffee is a US brand, not a UK one) not very important, but if things you know about are wrong, what else is? Clancy/Ryan also comes over as insufferably condescending and anti-Brit, anti-Russian. This is quite a skill, given the cardboard characterizations other reviewers have noted. At best, an airplane book, if rather heavy!

Rating:
Summary: Ease Up!
Review: Come on folks, this book wasn't as bad as the reviews I've read! Tom Clancy is one of the greatest writers of our time and this book is actually pretty entertaining. Sure it's not one of his best works, but it was still able to keep me interested and excited to keep reading! His insights into the KGB and the plot to kill the Pope were first rate as was his view of the world through a low level KGB clerk. Only Clancy's knowledge could give us such insights!
Go easy on the man that has given us fantastic reads...this one included!

Rating:
Summary: Great dissapointment from a former die-hard TC fan
Review: Tom,

You owe your readers more than this. I used to celebrate the publication of your books, and remember the thrill of reading The Sum of all Fears and Rainbow Six. What a let-down. One more like this and I won't be back.

Rating:
Summary: Sleeping Rabbit
Review: Red Rabbit is the first Clancy novel that I had to force myself to finish. There is very little action and absolutely no suspense. The characters are flat and the dialogue is unrealistic. If these CIA and KGB agents had ever met, they could have talked each other to death.

The story is also extremely repetitive. I lost track of how many times the CIA bosses discussed the fact that Ryan wasn't a field agent but that he wouldn't disgrace them because he had been a Marine. Or the way Clancy repeatedly had Ryan ruminate that "little girls gave the best hugs" whenever he greeted his daughter.

I was also confused about where this book fits into the sequence of events from the other books. Since Ryan is writing his biography of Halsey, which he discusses with the Russian submarine commander in Hunt for Red October, Red Rabbit comes before Hunt for Red October. But in Red Rabbit he has already received his honorary knighthood, which should have come after Red October. Am I missing something that would explain this discrepancy?

Your guidelines for reviewers say that we shouldn't give away the plot - don't worry here, there isn't anything to give away. I would have preferred giving it zero stars but your scale doesn't go that low.

Rating:
Summary: Red Rabbit - More Dog Than Rabbit
Review: I've purchased all of Clancy's fiction and usually love them. "Red Rabbit" is an absolute dog. I got about 1/3 of the way through it and just couldn't punish myself anymore. This is as non-Clancy a book as is possible. The pace is agonizingly slow and the book (as far as I could stand reading) is all character development. For an author that's known for techno-thrillers, there's no "techno" and no "thriller" in Red Rabbit.

Rating:
Summary: Red Rabbit
Review: Do not waste your time or money. Red Rabbit takes you to the duldrums. If it wasn't for Tom Clancy's past novels and the Jack Ryan character I would have applied my 100 page theory that if a book has not captured you by the first 100 pages give it up. After 600 pages I was not captured and very disappointed with the ending.

It seems that Tom Clancy was looking for a pay day and if it was his first novel it surely would have been rejected. Wake up Tom and start writing again. Or did you employ a ghost to put me to sleep.

Rating:
Summary: Please let this be a case of Ghost Writing!!!! (ZERO STARS)
Review: I typically enjoy Clancy's work - I've avoided the Op Center stuff from the beginning because they were only using his name. A Ghost Writer either wrote this book or else Clancy phoned it in. While it starts well enough - many interesting story lines are left unfinished and then it devolves into Jack Ryan sniveling about being "an instrument of God". The Clancy of old would have spun a satisfying tale focused on the Rabbit and how his information was used. This looks like a cheap knock off written by a Ghost for the purpose of a screenplay to showcase Ben Affleck's lack of talent.

Editors typically fight to keep Clancy under 1,200 pages. At a little over 600 pages I could have edited this down to about 325. But in good conscience I would have sent Tom back to the drawing board (or rehab). The typical Clancy work ethic is not in evidence.

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY!!!!!

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