Rating: 
Summary: Will the Real Tom Clancy Please Stand Up
Review: Will the real Tom Clancy please stand up? I couldn't find him in this book. No high-tech weaponry, no complex plot (was there a plot at all?), no suspense, and no surprises. In this book Jack Ryan goes on European holiday, or may as well have. The story is so predictable that it is not predictable. You never expect a Clancy story to go so smoothly for the characters. There are always snags and plot-twists. I kept waiting for something to go wrong in Operation BEATRIX but the "other shoe" never falls. It's a text-book spy operation, almost boring. They all live happily ever after. The End.
Rating: 
Summary: Red Rabbit Not Up To Usual Clancy Standards
Review: Tom Clancy's latest novel, Red Rabbit, continues the Jack Ryan saga by going back to a time after Patriot Games but before Hunt for Red October. The story centers on the attempted assassination of Pope John-Paul II in 1981 and inserts Ryan into the intrigue.I found the book a little dull as no real crisis arises to create tension. Everything seems to go according to plan with none of Clancy's usual twists and turns that have all the best-laid plans of the good guys go amiss and leave Ryan to improvise his way to a solution. Jack is a young CIA officer and as such is not the prime mover and shaker he usually is. It feels like a book that Clancy did because the public keeps demanding more of Jack Ryan rather than a story he really wanted to tell. Some will be happy that the book doesn't contain a lot of the complex detail of scientific or military operations that have been the hallmark of most of his earlier books. Personally I missed that detail as Clancy is, after all, a writer of techno-thrillers and most of his readers enjoy that aspect of his books. I was also disappointed in the writing itself. Jack Ryan seems to be getting whinier and dumber in every book. In Cardinal of the Kremlin, Ryan was a well-spoken, literate Doctor of History who often approached the problems he encountered with trepidation but also with resolute courage and intelligence. In the last couple of books before Red Rabbit he's become increasingly whiny with a lot of "Why me?" stuff. In this book he's been dumbed down to the point he talks like a stevedore with not only a lot of swearing (even Cathy's using the F word!) but poor grammar as well. He definitely does not sound like a highly educated man who made millions on Wall Street and taught history at the Naval Academy. For those of you who have read all of Clancy's Jack Ryan books it's a moderately enjoyable read and does fill in a few details of the young Ryan's life. If you're new to the Ryan series there are better books to start with.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh Come On Tom
Review: It used to be that I could not wait for the next Clancy book to come out. After this fiasco I won't even waste my money buying a used paperback of any future Clancy efforts. This guy has lost it. His one star rating is only because amazon does not use fractions. The idea for the book is inspired. Mixing historical facts and people with the fictional characters we all know so well was a great idea. I hoped that Clancy had gotten his second wind after his last book disappointed me so much. Sadly, he did not. The legendary Clancy attention to detail now leads to over 300 pages of mind-numbing boredom. I don't care what Jack and Kathy eat for breakfast, who cooks it, who drives them to the train station when they are done eating or what they read on the train on the way to work. He introduces characters like the cab driver and the nanny and you suspect there is more to them than he is letting on, but they do nothing but take up space. I always thought of Clancy as a 2/3 and 1/3 writer. He usually spends the first 2/3 of the book setting up the final 1/3. The final 1/3 was the action, the payoff for all the detail he gave us in the beginning. There is no payoff here. It is an anti-climatic climax. There is so much more he could have done with this plot line and I am very disappointed. It is a very good idea gone to waste. I really dislike the expression "burned out", but I think Clancy has reached that point. Save your money.
Rating:
Summary: The Worst
Review: Butter Bars, English Bacon, English don't know how to make coffee, Marines, Marines, and more Marines, cliche after cliche. Where's the story? Where's the suspence?
Rating:
Summary: Clancy's passion is gone
Review: When Red Rabbit was released, I read an interview where Clancy was asked if he would encourage his kids to be authors. The response was a strong no, because writing just isn't fun after a few books. It's unbelievable that Clancy would say something that foolish while hawking a new book. So I had a bad feeling about this, guessing that Clancy wouldn't put much passion into Red Rabbit. Sure enough, this book is boring and repetetive. For all of the problems with Rainbow and Bear/Dragon, those books at least had lots of excitement and tension. Reading this book is like slowly nibbling on a Saltine. Pretty flat, and it doesn't get much better as you keep going. There is almost no conflict for the plot. Normally Clancy creates a bunch of independent plot threads that all come together at the end; Sum of All Fears is the best example of this. Here, Clancy didn't even bother with doing that. The quality of writing is once again questionable. For example, the rank of the Rabbit changes from Captain to Major several times. Clancy again finds ways to toss in his new favorite word ("niggardly"), which he beat to death in Rainbow. I would not be surprised if we were told more than fifty times that Jack Ryan is an ex-Marine. Clancy has to insert Ryan into the major action scenes, of course, but can't devise any legitimate reason for doing so. Ryan essentially tags along with the story just for the sake of being there. Because of this, his character doesn't even need to be in the book. Clancy, probably inspired by George Lucas, felt the need to write the book as a tongue-in-cheek prequel instead of a seamless integration into his Jack Ryan timeline. He keeps making references to the early 80s (Starbucks, the Orioles in the playoffs, Cal Ripken as a rookie, etc). And he makes far too many references to Patriot Games, as if we haven't figured it out where we are in the timeline after the first ten references. If you read all of his books according to timeline, beginning with Without Remorse, Red Rabbit would stick out so much because of the different writing style. This book is definitely not one to buy as a hardcover; maybe as a paperback if you just want it for a Clancy collection.
Red Rabbit is definitely the worst of his novels.
Rating:
Summary: Disapointment
Review: Tom Clancy is one of my favorite authors, however of late I noticed that his style is getting tired. I was able to skip over complete paragraphs and not miss a thing, he kept on repeating things over and over again like he was dealing with children. It is nice to be a patriot and think the world of your country and your culture but there is no need to put down others in the mean time (the incident about the british doctors drinking during an operation) how is that related to the story line. For someone in Clancy's caliber to release a book with spelling mistakes is a little below par. As for the ending it came as an anti-climax, it took him over 500 pages to build a storyline (which by the way was completely predictable) and he decided to end it in less than 2 pages. I believe the book would have been complete and satisfying in 300 - 400 pages, that's how much repetition and non-story related text was there. Mr. Clancy if you ever read these reviews, we hope your next book will be of the same style and caliber we got used to in your previous novels.
Rating:
Summary: Save your time and save your money.
Review: I saw Tom Clancy on The Jay Leno Show peddling this turkey,he said this book was harder to write than any book he had written in the past. He said the reason was he was had just stopped smoking. Well in my humble opinion he should either stop writng or start smoking again. Tom you should be ashamed to put your name on this.
Rating: 
Summary: Despite all, it's a good novel.
Review: I predicted this novel would receive bad reviews from Clancy fans (and especially Clancy haters who pretend to be fans) but even I didn't expect such a deluge of complaints. This is a GOOD novel, but it isn't a shoot 'em up, and certainly won't satisfy those who think writing is bad unless someone gets killed every fifty pages. But for what this novel is, a taught dive into real history, it's the best read I've had in years. Do not listen to those here who complain about Clancy's syntax, or his poor grammar. They're not only wrong, they're dead wrong. Clancy's grammar and syntax match the way the characters speak, which is what all good writers strive to do. Yes, if you're a boring person who needs fake slam bang action on every page, you'll find this a boring novel. But if you enjoy history, if you enjoy how things really work as opposed to how Hollywood would have you think they work, if you like getting inside real people instead of cardboard characters, you'll love this novel. This simple truth is this: Had this novel been written by a literary writer and submitted to a literary publisher, it would be getting rave reviews and might be up for a Pulitzer. But since it was written by Tom Clancy and published for genre readers, the reviews are bad. I think this says more for the novel than anything I can possibly say.
Rating:
Summary: Invest Your Time Elsewhere
Review: Clancy, like Ludlum and Grisham has seemingly run out of stories to tell. In 600 pages Clancy, in Red Rabbit, provides details about the spy business and more characters than is comprehensible without providing any reason for the reader to continue turning the pages except that many of his previous books have been page turners. The story is trite and the ending is disappointing. When the reader finally gets to the final page he is left with the question, why did I read all of this? For me, it is time to find a new author with fresh ideas. Tom Clancy's formula does not work anymore.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy has completely lost it
Review: I thought The Bear and the Dragon was bad--but given how much I loved his earlier works, decided to give him one more try. He has completely lost his ability to write a thriller. Very boring and drawn out. It does not matter how much you liked his earlier books--you will hate this one. The same observations are repeated over and over again every chapter. His editor needs to be fired. Very predictable also. It was a good idea to go back in time with Jack Ryan and look at well known historical event, but he completely blows it. I do not think he even cares what he is writing. I will never read another Clancy book and suggest nobody read this long piece of garbage--total waste of time and money. I wish you could give negative stars.
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