Rating: 
Summary: Not as bad as I thought
Review: I cringed at the side of yet another doorstopper, with memories of Bore that Dragged On (the bear and the draggon) painfully fresh.Not as bad as I thought. Many things from Ryan's past explained - in painful detal, I might add. It is, thought, a bit unnerving to read stories - plot-wise - backwards, but still, the book fills the missing bits. Could've been 100-150 pages shorter, without major loss of plot. Hopefully, NEXT Ryan novel will be spot on.
Rating:
Summary: A bit flopsy.
Review: Okay, so this wasn't everyone's favorite Clancy book. For those still interested, the book falls between Patriot Games and the Hunt for Red October. To classify this novel as a techno-thriller would be an injustice. This is more of a historical thriller based around the Soviet operation to assassinate the Pope. Clancy develops an intriguing back story that includes Jack Ryan, the SIS and the CIA. Along the way we get to meet a younger version of the Foleys, Admiral Greer and Bob Ritter. At first blush, this should have been a plot line that Clancy excels at--the old Soviet Union vs. the allied American/British intelligence services. However, before you write it off, you need to consider what Clancy has accomplished. While the gun play and the technology aspects of his other novels does not occur, there is the cat and mouse interplay between the KGB and the CIA. This a book better compared to John le Carre's THE CONSTANT GARDENER or the TAILOR OF PANAMA. Yes, we know the Pope will be shot, and Clancy (in some ways) fails to enrich the drama, but knowing the Pope will be shot and wondering why the good guys are going to fail is the other side of the novel--and it is an important side. There is a wealth of history in the information brought out by a defector from inside Moscow Centre's communicatiions area. There are the historical fingers pointing at well known spy cases (both here and in England). There is triumph in this book, it just doesn't go bang and boom all the time. Don't dismiss RED RABBIT, because there is a lot going on in this novel and there is a lot to think about why we spent trillions of dollars and 40 years defeating the Soviet Union. Douglas De Bono...
Rating:
Summary: Classic Clancy
Review: THE end of the Cold War made life difficult for writers such as Tom Clancy, taking with it much of his material.
While Clancy did turn to the new bad guys - terrorists - for a few books, in Red Rabbit he has turned back the clock and returned main character Jack Ryan to his days as a CIA analyst during the height of the Cold War.
Living in England, Ryan is asked to join the British SIS as a freelance analyst, with one of his first assignments being to debrief a high level Soviet defector.
The defector tells an amazing tale: top Soviet officials, including Yuri Andropov, are planning to assassinate Pope John Paul II.
While the Cold War once was quite frightening, it now seems tame in comparison to today's woes - at least no shots were fired.
Red Rabbit is comforting in a way, taking the reader back to a world that is further removed from today's harsh reality, as opposed to Clancy' later novels such as Executive Orders, which details an America after its president and half of Congress has been wiped out by a terrorist flying a plane into the Capitol building (a story told pre-September 11).
Red Rabbit is classic Clancy, but it doesn't have the complexity of some of his later novels.
For Clancy fans it will hold no surprises. The plot is reasonably paced but it turns out as you would expect.
If you're looking for a novel that holds some insights into the way today's bad guys operate - usually a Clancy trademark - you won't find it here.
However, if you enjoy a good read with enough action to keep you satisifed - and miss the days of dead drops and Russian border crossings - Red Rabbit is for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Tom Clancy writes novel no one wants.
Review: I have been a big Tom Clancy fan. Since I first read "Hunt for Red October", I have loved the multiple strong characters and story lines that he blends together to make thrilling, compelling reading. That said, this book was BORING! The action in this book didn't start until around pg. 500 and wasn't in high gear until pg. 580. By that time, I just wanted to finish. Since I normally read paperbacks, I was even more disappointed by a book that I'd paid so much for. This book was a lot like "Star Wars 2". You already knew the start (of the "Jack and his friends" saga) and had seen the journey to its conclusion at the White House. Now Mr. Clancy has tried to fill in the blanks about his CIA characters that I really didn't care about. Trying to fit a story around details that have been told many times before doesn't make for easy writing. Mr. Clancy wasn't any more successful that George Lucas. The only thing positive I can say about this novel is that in carrying it around, I improved my muscle tone.
Rating:
Summary: Jack Rabbit
Review: For fans of Jack Ryan's escapades (of whom I am one) this novel gives some interesting background on his earier history. But I must confess to getting pretty overdosed on Jack Ryan's overload of accolades. Man he's got every honor and a "babe" (as he himself says) of a wife. I think I like Clancy better when he writes non-fictionally about war, cold or hot.
This was a page turner, but, like Micheal Crichton, Clancy missed a chance to connect with a younger generation of readers. This book, like his others and those of Crichton, seem to me to be aimed at Baby Boomers. Apparently, even when young, Ryan had it made. I recently discovered some more youthful military fiction in a strange place: Dinosaur Wars, by Thomas Hopp. In this book and its sequel, Counterattack, there is some great military action where our tanks and planes battle a force of space invaders. But the military is quite well researched and deals with younger, more modern soldiers: a tank commander named Vic Suarez, an Apache helicopter pilot and others. Quite realistic action, and the heroes are young soldiers yet to prove themselves. That makes for some great page-turning excitement. Clancy ought to read Hopp before trying another politico-military thriller. He might deliver more thrills then, with more relevance to younger, non-Boomer readers.
Rating:
Summary: Been There, Done That...
Review: How dissapointing. It seems as though our esteemed Mr. Clancy has given up writing about current events or even relevant topics. This book revisits the "Cold War Era" in what appears to be nothing more than a money grab by realizing that the story line of the hero, Mr. Ryan, as President of the United States, was just a little too far fetched. So, through the magic of print, he continues the Ryan sagas by setting this book mere months after the "Patriot Games" shenanigans.
It is time, I believe, to retire the Ryan stories, as well as the maddingly overused phrases "Been There, Done That..." (Once is too many for that gem),or "Get the Hell Out of Dodge City...", and lastly, the infuriating use of the word "Babe" after every second line of dialogue by Jack Ryan towards his wife. No one talks like that. Ever. It is these phrases and words that have done the most damage regarding my opinion of Clancy as a writer. That, and his penchant for using his books to slag Ian Fleming and the 007 series continuously. If this fellow wants me to shell out good money for another of his books, he'd be well advised to show more effort than just mailing in garbage like this. I would hazard a guess that it took me longer to read this rerun that it did for him to write it. Don't waste your time or money.
P.S.- Those giant aviator sunglasses Clancy wears in all his jacket photos...Been and Done, Tommy boy!
Rating:
Summary: Red Dog
Review: This book should have been titled "Red Dog", because it was a real barker. In his last two books, Clancy has become a boring, plodding writer who often strays into lengthy discussions by his characters that have nothing to do with the plot he is trying to develop. I have read all of his books, but "Red Rabbit" took me longer to read than all the others combined. I will not read another Clancy book unless he somehow returns to his old form.
Rating: 
Summary: Clancy was trying too hard with this one
Review: I guess this is one way to tackle the problem with what do do with a character who's climbed all the way to the top, won two wars, and made peace in the world. I got the impression that this book was never edited. Catch phrases are overused, and sometimes multiple characters describe an event or person in nearly identical language. It seemed as if some sections were included with the contingency that another, similar one, would be removed. They just forgot to do the removing.
Rating:
Summary: Hate to say it.....
Review: ....but I agree with the folks who gave it only 1 or 2 stars. I've always absorbed his books in a limited number of seatings (to my wife's dismay -- she never sees me until I'm done). With this one, I read the first quarter of it....put it down....and never picked it up again.
Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointed Clancy Fan
Review: I have read and enjoyed almost every TC novel that he has created, and can honestly say that this is the most disappointed I have ever been. The plot was predictable and without incident. The culmination was not intriguing. It took me two attempts to actually read the book. The first time through, I couldn't even make it through the first hundred pages, the story was very boring. On a positive side, if you are new to clancy try reading without remorse or the cardinal of the kremlin. don't waste your money on this book though.
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