Rating: 
Summary: Red Rabbit
Review: Clancy's latest is a change of pace for the author, a drama and "fictionalization" of real events with very little suspense and action until the end, but even that isn't very much. I thought the book was great. It's a defenite improvement over "The Bear and The Dragon" without so much material that should not have made the final cut. The only problem is that Jack Ryan seems to be in it for no other reason than to have Jack Ryan in it, so until the last few chapters he does nothing more than talk to British intelligence people and his wife. Oleg Zaitzev, the Red Rabbit, and the Foleys are the real main characters here, and I think it would flowed a lot smoother had Clancy decided not to use Ryan at all, or maybe even have brought John Clark into the picture. There may be no suspsence but it still is fast paced and flows together nicely. I would not recommend this for first time Clancy readers however.
Rating: 
Summary: Paid by the word?
Review: I've read all of Tom Clancy's books and this one is by far the most mediocre. It almost seems that he was being paid either by the word or by the weight of the manuscript. He uses big words where they are not very appropriate as if he was using the thesaurus on his computer. The story is predictable and not that exciting. If he wanted to write a book about baseball teams he should have just done it instead of using it for filler. Altogether very disappointing book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good start, slow finish
Review: One of Tom Clancy's better recent efforts, particularly the first half or so where he puts together the story. A major improvement over Rainbow Six and The Dragon and the Bear. It is interesting to see the young, pre-president Jack Ryan starting out as a lower-level CIA analyst,and early investory in Starbucks, and follow the Foley husband and wife spy team set up their Moscow operation that will come to fruition in Cardinal In The Kremlin. The story begins to lag heading into the second half as the author tries, it appears, to stretch the story out so the book reaches a Clancy-size 600 plus pages. Clancy recent pentient for using mouthfulls of foul language at innopportune times truly drags the book down even while his command of detail for every situation remains intact. I do recommend the book for avid Clancy fans, but don't expect a it to rival Patriot Games, Cardinal In The Kremlin or Sum Of All Fears.
Rating: 
Summary: Sir Tom Clancy, the Verbose
Review: The political rehtoric is horrible. If Clancy wants to make a difference and implement his political views he should run for office. I'd vote for him, but I'm not going to buy his books again. This must have been a "contractually obligated" book because it reads as if he wrote it at gun point. The plot is sloth-like and it takes FOR-EH-VER to develop. I found myself putting the book down over and over to keep from throwing it across the room from the frustration of reading a stagnant plot. If Tom Clancy is your favorite writer and you have an urge to support him regardless send him 15 bucks and spare yourself the agony of reading this thing. It's really, really bad.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but not great
Review: Glad to see Ryan wasn't president! I thought tying the story to a specific historical event was interesting, but all-in-all the plot lacked tension and drama. The "Red Rabbit" excursion didn't offer any "what's going to happen next" moments. Give Clancy credit, though, for coming up with an new story line in a series that dying out book by book. A book only about the Foleys would be a good next step, a la John Clark. Worth the read, but no "Hunt for Red October".
Rating:
Summary: geographical errors
Review: The KGB major and his family are escaping to the west with CIA help. The plan is for them to take a train from Moscow to Budapest and then to be smuggled to Yugoslavia. However the train route in the book is as follows: Moscow-Beograd-Budapest.
There is even a short passage on the train in Beograd, the Capital of Yugoslavia. Why bother then to go from Yugoslavia to Hungary to be smuggled back. They could just have disembark in Beograd and avoid all that smuggling across the border.
Secondly, no train takes that route, not even a communist one.
Beograd is much to the south from Budapest, about a day trip.
Seems somebody did not look up the map when writing this poorly constructed plot.
Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected... and sub-par Clancy.
Review: I had high hopes for Red Rabbit. Clancy was taking us in a different direction than the previous novels, and the plot seemed like a good setup. Unfortunately, the novel disappointed me. To sum up the three biggest reasons: 1) the plot goes no where, it just meanders along; 2) the prose, even for Clancy, is just awful. It reads like a middle school book, or worse. 3) simpy no suspense. As a read in an earlier review, Clancy should have stuck with more techno-thriller/spy novels, not geo-political "thrillers" with an element of spying thrown in the mix to "get things cooking". Bottom line: If you are a first time Clancy reader, or an ocassional, get some of his middle works, like "Cardinal of the Kremlin", "Sum of all Fears" (definitely not the movie version), "Clear and Present Danger" or "Rainbow Six". But if you are a die-hard Clancy fan, and therefore you probably already have this book, buy it, just for the bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: Come on Tom Get Back To The Good Stuff
Review: This has to be, of the Jack Ryan series, the worst of the lot. I am highly disapointed. It is very dry, slow in action and plot. I love the series, or would have given it only one star. Yes it fills in some blanks, but after "The Bear and The Dragon" this book seems like someone else wrote it trying to copy his style.
Rating:
Summary: Rabbit Falls Down Its Hole
Review: I struggled to stay with this book, knowing it followed Clancy's same old formula. Ryan comes across as half golden boy and half wimp. Clancy should retire with his millions and leave this alone! And Starbucks in 1980? Please tell me where in Maryland Ryan had Starbucks. Clancy mentions it too often. Several points are repeated ad nauseum in fact, making this a flat, predictable, skim read at best.
Rating: 
Summary: "Red Rabbit" a fun run through history
Review: Hardcore Tom Clancy fans will likely find this book more to their liking than the casual reader, but the author offers an interesting inside look at the making of actual history. At the surface are the efforts made by American and British intelligence officers to stop the assassination of Pope John Paul II. Aiding the efforts is a humble clerk at KGB Headquarters, whose moral code is challenged when he learns of his country's malicious plans against the Pontiff. Along the way -- mostly at the end -- the key to the fall of the Soviet Union is revealed. It's an interesting look at what, if true, is the most amazing covert effort in modern history. Instead of the usual theory that the USSR could no longer afford to fund a massive military machine, we find out why the Soviets kept up their pace, why they didn't see the writing on the wall, and how the West (supposedly) used a Wall Street-approach to bring about a geopolitical conquest. Of course, the ever humble Jack Ryan stumbles upon the answers to ending Communism as we knew it. His philosophy is apparently simple: the quest for life, liberty, and a decent cup of coffee -- coffee is a recurring theme in the book (and will probably be the focus his his next volume...a takeover of Jamaica's Blue Mountain coffee region). He not only assists in a daring defection, he's also on hand for one of the most terrifying moments in the past three decades. He also professes his love for his wife, his country, and the stopping power of hollow-point ammunition. Ryan, though, personnifies the many people who worked behind the scenes during the 1980s to undermine Soviet efforts to, if not dominate the world, than to survive in it. The book provided good company on a recent business trip, and kept me glued during my off hours. Some readers might be put off because, well, we know the end of the story -- the Pope was shot and the USSR is no more. Yet it's the plausible -- if not actual -- story behind the story that will fill in a gap in US and Jack Ryan history, and make one enjoy the tale.
|
