The Teeth of the Tiger

Rating:
Summary: This tiger needs dental work - Very clearly subpar
Review: I had high expectations for this novel, but ended up sorely disappointed. The characters, particularly Jack Ryan Jr., are extremely poorly developed. The Caruso twins talk to each other like actors in a bad 80's movie, constantly saying things like "Roger that," and "Bro". Several phrases are inexplicably repeated throughout the novel, such as "There's more men need killin' than horses need stealin'," and "being a spook ain't like in the movies."

The worse part of this book, however, is the ending, or non-ending, as the case happens to be. Nothing HAPPENS! There is no tying up of lose ends, not even any hint of a sequel. This and the many, many, unbelievable logical stretches that the author makes in this novel truly make for an unpleasurable reading experience. Do yourself a favor, and go read some GOOD Clancy - books like Red Storm Rising and Without Remorse are much better indicators of what he can really do.

Rating:
Summary: Time to move on . . .
Review: Perhaps Mr. Clancy didn't write this book. At least that's what I choose to believe. It just isn't coming close to what readers of novels such as Patriot Games and Clear/Present Danger grew to expect. It reads more like Op-Center stuff.

Time to move on to the next gen in this genre, like Brad Thor and Michael Hawke.



Rating:
Summary: What a horrible effort by one of my favorite authors
Review: I found myself checking the front cover again and again while reading this book. Could this half-hearted effort really be written by Tom Clancy? Trust me, fellow Clancy fans ... do NOT waste your money. If you really want to read it, then you should visit your local library.

The Teeth of the Tiger has all the ingredients of a quality Tom Clancy book. There's his usual mastery of technical gadgetry and procedures, a government agency and operatives facing evil-doers, travel to foreign countries, and the chance to root for the good guys. So why does this book fall so flat? The ratio of the ingredients is all wrong. It's 2% plot, 5% government agency insight, 3% gadgetry, 4% rooting for the good guys, and 83% "filler" slop that reads like a badly written travel guide by Lonely Planet.

Clearly Tom Clancy's spent a bit of time travelling through Europe. It's unfortunate that he devotes much of this book to inane observations on very mundane subjects such as the cleanliness of German streets or the brand names of suits one can find in Italy.

I wish I had never read this book, but not just because of the money and time I wasted. I wish I had never read this book so my favorable impression of Clancy as a writer that would never merely "phone in" a performance would remain intact.

Rating:
Summary: Meh
Review: Yeah this book wasn't that good. It moved fairly quick, so it was easy to read, but it was like a bad episode of some cheap TV action series.

The entire duration of the book I could not remember which brother was Aldo and which was Baldo or whatever his name was. All I knew was that one was a Marine and the other was an FBI agent. Those two were just stupid, but not quite as bad as Jack Ryan Jr.. who to me seems like an attempt to just restart the Jack Ryan character rather than come up with anything new.

It was also a real letdown with the action. I was expecting something different to happen, but they just stick three people with needles and that's all. As I read in a earlier review... it was like "thats it?"

Tom Clancy is really not doing so well.

Rating:
Summary: Good But Slow for the First 150 Pages
Review: Many judge each of Clancy's newest book by some standard that refers to all of his past writings. That is okay but short changes any new book since it is impossible for Clancy to top some of his old writings.

I was surprised by this book. The first 50 to 100 pages are by any measure just average, very average and I considered throwing away the book, and if you stopped reading there I would agree with some other comments on the book - it would be a dud. But read on! After 150 pages or so the book really picks up and just flashes by. I ended up reading most of the book in just two sittings (one all night seemingly), and once I got to somewhere around page 150 to 175, I could not put the book down until the end - and to me that is the measure by which I would judge all of these types of books.

One can argue the plot in which an FBI agent and a marine do extra judicial killings Israeli style, but that misses the point. It is a compelling and entertaining read with an uncertain ending. What more can one ask for? But you have to read past the first marginally interesting 100 pages to 150 pages. Still I can see it merits at least 4 stars, clearly more than 3, but possibly not 5 stars. In any case it is very entertaing once you get past the first third or so.