Rating: 
Summary: If you want a narrative for the video game...
Review: Rainbow Six is not one of Tom Clancy's better efforts. The reader is taken through an escalading series of contrived terrorist crises driven a most implausible antagonist. The book reads so much like a video game, that I was not the least bit surprised to see the video game on store shelves shortly thereafter. To me the book seems like an afterthought of the software development.
My advice is buy the game (if that's your sort of thing) and skip to The Bear and the Dragon if you're a Clancy fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Tom Clancy's books have gone steadily downhill. Hopefully, this is rock bottom. I received this book as a gift, but I have never been able to get past the first 200 pages in two attempts to read it. This is from someone who was a huge Clancy fan after his first four or five books. The problem with the book for me is that I just cannot get interested in the characters or the story line. Summary of the first 200 pages. There is a new super-duper top secret multi-national anti-terrorist outfit headed up by Mr. Clark. They effortlessly blow away a bunch of terrorists in a couple of incidents that were set up by the real bad guys to fail. Meanwhile, some other real bad guys (or perhaps the same ones) are working on a really nasty biological weapon with the goal of wiping out most of the people on the face of the planet except for themselves of course. They appear to be environmentally motivated. Bet you can fill in the rest of the story from here. Summary of character development in the first 200 pages: The bad guys are bad. The anti-terrorist unit trains really hard and worries about losing its edge. If you are new to Clancy start with Red October or Red Storm Rising. The Cold War setting is now dated, but they are riveting stories that show Clancy at his best.
Rating:
Summary: rainbow six
Review: This being the only Tom Clancy novel that i have read, i have to say i was greatly dissappointed. I found Rainbow Six an extremely predictable story of good guys versus bad guys. This book logged in at nearly 900 pages and yet the charactors were all one dimensional, the plot could be seen a mile away, and there were no suprises at all. The women, although educated, were incapable of comprehending the hard realities of the job the men performed - killing terrorist. Huh? The sexist nature of this novel portrayed women as liberal, pouting, drones best left to mothering children than worrying about politics. The vigilanty style justice at the end of this book was pure fantasy.
On the positive side about this novel was, although way too long, it was a quick and easy read. The action was fast paced and rarely bogged down too much. My recommendation is that if you like this type of genre, you would be much happier reading anything by Robert Ludlum. His novels are far superior to Tom Clancy's.
Rating:
Summary: Save your money (unless a Clancy fan)
Review: What a gagger!
Clancy's 1-dimensional characters get more and more boring, and here they're in a plotline that's improbable at best. His treatment of women is condescending, to say the least (one wife, a doctor, says to her spec ops operator husband, "You kill people? I'm not sure I like that...")
The story, albeit interesting, goes on altogether too long. I found myself reading the last 200 pages or so just to find out what happened.
The more detail Clancy goes into, the more he gets wrong. He's descending into Mack Bolan territory, it seems. It takes more than several heads "exploding like a ripe melon" to make a decent novel. If you're already a fan, you'll love it-- it's the same crap he's been pumping out since "Sum of All Fears." If you're not a fan, grab "Hunt for Red October" or "Red Storm Rising"-- 2 really good ones by Clancy; before he started believing his own press releases.
Rating:
Summary: sloppy, dull and all that
Review: I'm a fan of Clancy's early efforts but stopped reading after the Debt of Honor fiasco. I sympathize with the author in that the end of the cold war has led to a dearth of good material. However, Clancy doesn't need my sympathy in that plenty of people who read Red October and loved it, keep buying these stupid books (like me). Put it this way, when you start to suspect that this is going to be the worst novel you have ever read, stop reading. You'll be doing yourself a favor because I can promise you that your suspicions are correct.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazeing book!
Review: I have read some of the reviews by some people and it seems like they have not read the book or just decided to trash it because tom clancy is not one of the run of the mill leftist authors. Its one of the best of his works and if you want to get more into the book you should pickup the PC game its a lot of fun also.
Rating:
Summary: Failed to generate any! excitement.
Review: Basic course in human psychology:The main motivator for the human species is; the survival and continuity of the human race.
That is why Mr. Clancy's latest and perhaps most appalling attempt at litterature, plotwise ,missteps horribly.
The idea that a network of well educated "eco terrorists" could congregate to develop and unleash a virus so deadly ,it will wipe out the entire human race (save a few select individuals) so that "it would be possible to hunt deer among the ruins of New York City", is so over-the-top hilarious, that even the most devoted Tom Clancy fan should notice that something is not quite right.I must STRESS the word should!!
And I haven't even mentioned the quality of the writing: It's on par with what an average high school student could come up with.The prose is an uninvolving paint-by-the-numbers job ,that would never have been considered fit for printing, if it weren't for the "Tom Clancy" brand name.
Other concepts in the book are equally improbable, like the multi-national counter-terrorism force (so much for Op-Sec) after whom the book is named.
Granted, good and realistic ,special forces litterature is hard to come by but you could hardly do any worse than "Rainbow Six".
By the way, I would have liked to give Tom Clancy's "Rainbow Six" a rating of "zero" stars.
Rating:
Summary: Intense "Bolt"-Action Thriller
Review: In today's world, terrorism is rampant. The definition of terrorism is "the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological." This means that there are people out there trying to inhibit our freedoms by any means possible. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six revolves around the world of terrorism. It is the story of John Clark, master of the Covert and Black Operations world. Clark also stars in many other Clancy novels such as "The Bear and The Dragon."
The novel is about an international Counter-Terrorist team, named Rainbow due to its multi-national make up. Different members are recruited from the world's best Counter-Terrorist teams around the world such as Seal Team 6/DEVGRU (Naval Special Warfare Development Group), SAS (Special Air Service), HRT (Hostage Rescue Team), and GSG-9 (Grenshutzgruppe 9). The team's mission is to effectively resolve terrorist situations world-wide.
The setting is modern day. Although Clancy wrote this novel in the late 90's, the equipment that Rainbow uses is still currently used in real Counter-Terrorism teams today, except the Heart Beat Sensor, which is purely theoretical. However their equipment which includes H&K MP-10s, flash bangs, NVG (Night Vision), infrared, Primacord explosive, and tactical radios are all very real and all used today.
In the novel, Clancy uses a plain, straight-forward style of writing. He also is very descriptive. His descriptions include thoughts and feelings of both Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists. He offers an insight on our recent tragedy by letting us into the minds of the terrorists within his novel. Of all the descriptions, most memorable are his bullet impacts. For example, he details how a headshot from a sniper's 7mm bullet leaves a bloody mess. I believe he uses these descriptions to symbolize the horror that terrorism aims to create, and in many cases succeeds in doing so.
I am not an avid reader; however I felt that I could not put this book down. I am very interested in the area of Counter-Terrorism and have done personal studies on the subject, so naturally this book appealed to me. However, if you enjoy reading books or novels full of action, excitement, suspense, and emotion, read Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, and I guarantee you will like it.
Rating:
Summary: excellent anti-terrorism thriller
Review: Another great book by the master of the genre, Tom Clancy. Carrying on with his trend of introducing new characters and then following their exploits across many novels, this time we are treated to something different. Instead of Jack Ryan in the spotlight, we get two individuals that have grown in importance in the last few books, mainly since (and primarily starting with) Clear and Present Danger; John Clark and Domingo Chavez. The President in this book (Ryan, but never mentioned by name that I recall and not an important character) orders the creation of Rainbow, a multi-national (primarily NATO with some Israeli particpation) anti-terrorism task force. Based in the United Kingdom, the highly secretive organization is comprised of two teams, one always on duty, set to respond to hostage and terrorists activities anywhere on the world at a moment's notice. Clark is called up to be pretty much in charge of it, with Chavez as a right-hand man. Rainbow is formed and trained, comprising American, British, German, and other nationalities, and is ready for action. They don't have to wait long as a series of terrorist and hostage situations occur in Europe, first in a bank in Swizterland, then in a private residence in Austria, and then again in a Disney-esque amusment park in Spain. What is the linkage, or is there one? Why the sudden rash of terrorism? Rainbow deals with each indicedent very effecitively, but is something larger at work here? It isn't long before the reader finds that there is someone behind the attacks, at least some of them, though it is while before events become clear to the reader (and much longer to the characters in the novel, not only the members of Rainbow and the intelligence, military, and law enforcement communities that support them, but also in the guise of former KGB agent Colonel Dmitriy Arkadeyevich Popov, who works for the main antagonists in the book, but does not have the "full story," at least at first). The main villains, it is revealed, are members of a very secretive cadre of very hard core environmentalists, ones who are experimenting with biological warfare, with the goal of wiping out all humanity except for a elite few, ones who can properly "appreciate" the natural world. How this ties in with Popov, Rainbow, and the rash of terrorism is revealed, and it is chilling. Soon, the all of humanity is at stake here. Some have criticized making environmental terrorists the key vilains in this epic novel. Some have said that this represents Mr. Clancy's views on protecting the environment. Personally, I thought the villain choice was unusual and interesting and made for a great story. He has already dealt with Irish and Arabic-Islamic terrorists, I think he was going for something that he (and others) had not explored previously. While I don't think he was condeming all environmentalists and conservationists, he clearly felt (my opinion here) that some are capable of such actions, and I don't think he is that off base. Not all terrorists and mass murderers come from Northern Ireland or the Middle East; one need only look at Jonestown Massacre, Oklahoma City Bombing, and the Heaven's Gate mass suicide. The scariest thing is that those in government might not see the next source of terror, one that might come from among its own members, and Clancy explores that with skill. Clancy does not discount all of the concerns of these very radical environmentalists, but he makes clear that their ultimate goal in this novel is postitvely ghastly. A good book, a few flaws, but all in all highly enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Best book ever! (By Tom Clancy anyways)
Review: I've read many of Tom Clancy's novels (The bear and The Dragon, Executive Orders, The Hunt For Red October, and Patriot Games to name a few), but none of them even compare to this book. I usually like to watch the moive rather than the book, but as there was no movie out for this book, I sat down to read it. This was one of only 4 books I've ever read in my life thatr I literally couldn't put down. The others being 1984, The Outsider, and Animal Farm. And while Rainbow Six doesn't strike out against society as the previously mentioned books do, it is still a very entertaing and exhilerating book. Personally, I believe it is the best Clancy novel I've read to date.
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