Rating: 
Summary: A lot of pages for so little content
Review: I've read every novel Clancy has written by himself. I consider myself a fan of covert ops., especially if the clandestine meetings happen to involve the former Soviet Union. While reading this huge book I found myself pleading for something to happen. Hundreds of pages came and went with nothing more than day to day happenings of married couples and Jack Ryan pub hopping. Oh and did I mention that eye surgeons don't drink on the night before they are scheduled to operate? Well this little fact was forced down out throat every other page. Along with the fact that Jack was once a very successful trader on Wall Street. We get it, he made lots and lots of money! And this is how it goes...little things like these that are repeated over and over as if grandma or grandpa was telling a story. "Did I tell you that the Dodge got twenty miles to the gallon on the way down here?" Yes, about two minutes ago.Well to bolster my appreciation for the author I've started reading RED STORM RISING again and now know what a real cold war era novel should read like. "Did I tell you about the Dodge?"
Rating: 
Summary: Good Story, Poor Execution
Review: In "Red Rabbit", Clancy tells a fictional tale of the events behind the actual 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John II. While much of Clancy's traditional appeal lies in his attention to detail, it is overdone in "Red Rabbit", resulting in an overly long and sluggishly paced novel. The treatment of Jack Ryan was most surprising. While much has been made of his rather minor role in this book, as Mary-Pat and Ed Foley take center stage for the good guys, that was a refreshing change of pace. Rather, I found the relationship between Jack and Cathy Ryan distracting and, frankly, annoying. Eliminating Ryan completely would have shortened the book and improved the story line. The avid Clancy reader will want to read this to fill in some background, especially behind the Foleys, while fans of 20th Century history may enjoy this plausible and apparently well-researched account of the attempted assassination. But in the final analysis, this is not Clancy's best work. A thorough edit-out of about 200 pages would bring significant improvement.
Rating: 
Summary: Anxiously awaited reading---mildly disappointed
Review: I have always given Mr.Clancy 4 stars minimum...except now.After reading most of the other reviews, a common theme emerges....a lot of words written with little effect....this was probably the only book he has written where I could put it down without continually thinking about the "what comes next". Granted, the Bear and the Dragon was a little long on text, but at least it moved. I hope that Mr.Clancy was just a little "tired"--I would hate for him to drift towards this standard. Look forward to the next one!
Rating:
Summary: Boring!
Review: I was a Tom Clancy fan. No more. I only finished this book because it was a gift from my wife. I could not wait to get the misery over with. By the way, check the rank of the character Zaitsez. He goes from captain to major - and even colonel - at random. This book is as exciting as the pamphlets you get with your credit cards.
Rating: 
Summary: It's been too long since we had a fun Cold War novel!
Review: Ignore the naysayers about this book. Few remember that it was Tom Clancy that made the Cold War technothrillers break out in the 1980s. Yes, Jack Ryan is back, and in a "prequel" mode, but the fact is that reading this book brings back the haunting "Evil Empire" and all of its former sinister implications. The book does take its readers back into the way life used to be for many of us, and adds an unusual twist of creating historical fiction around the attempted assassination plot against the Pope. Overall, I had been disappointed by the increasingly fantastic scenarios in Clancy's Ryan books, and this one seems to go back closer to the way it began. Trust your instincts, and if the last few books seemed a little bizarre, then this should put the world closer to its rightful place in your mind.
Rating:
Summary: A Clancy Disappointment
Review: I'm a Clancy fan, having read all his other novels, and I must admit that this was a disappointment. What makes Clancy great is the treatment of so many story lines at once, keeping you interested in various story threads. In this book, though, the number of threads is greatly reduced and the reader is left wanting more. Reading this book is worth it only if you are a Clancy fan in need of a fix. Since I'm in that category, I can overlook many of the flaws but still ask Mr. Clancy to please take more time with his next novel and truly deliver like he knows how.
Rating:
Summary: This is a big disappointment
Review: I waited for a month (from a library) to get this book and all I have to say is "thank God I didn't buy it". I am in the middle of the book now, and I am struggling to finish it. I am a fan of Tom Clancy (read all of his books), but this is simply a rediculous book. The plot is shallow, the characters built without much care, and the whole books reeks of "incompetence" by the author. First of all the whole book is based on a single plot that is unrealistic: a veteran KGB defector who sticks his hands in American-tourists pockets? Give me a break. Second of all, all the characters on the American and British side are perfect! No character flaw, extremely high I.Q., perfect spouses (Ryan's and Foley's etc), where as the russians are inherently corrupt and evil. He bashes any body but the american and British in the book (arogance bordering on the suprmacist view). It almsot read like a propaganda letter. This book ... because there is no story to tell. It is filled with people taking coffee breaks and talking non-sense. Don't buy it!
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: I am an avid Clancy fan... but this one is worse then WITHOUT REMORSE... Setting for book is between Patriot Games and Hunt for Red October. The Foleys are undercover in Moscow, and are involved in trying to stop a major assasination of a world leader. Jack is on loan to British Intelligence and based in London. Exciting part is getting a defector out of 1980-83 Russia. I hope I can sell this one used! Its like 2 different people writing. Bear and the Dragon was great, this one is at the other end of the spectrum.
Rating:
Summary: tom's review
Review: Of the thousands of books I have read, this is perhaps the most lame. There is no story, there is no character development, "hero" Jack Ryan does nothing except be the recipient of adulation from various factions of the U.S.Government while doing absolutely nothing except resuming smoking and whining about being away from his wife. The setting is the 80's but the dialog and thinking processes are 50's. How in the world did this ever get published. I read it from cover to cover, (if there is a story its a 50 page one in a 600 page book), because i couldn't believe it would stay so inane, second grade writing at best. I threw my hard-back book in the trash, wouldn't consider selling it to anyone to have to suffer through the same ridiculousness.
Rating:
Summary: What a letdown.
Review: Thought I was going to tear through this like I did the Bear and the Dragon. Still a good read, but not Tom's best by far. I found the fact that Ryan bought stock in Starbucks to be interesting the first time I read it, but by the last time I read it you'd think that they are part of the plan to bring down the Wall. That's it! That is the plan. American Consumerism at it's best. Open a Starbucks in Red Square and the virus will supplanted in the heart of the enemy! I know that this could have be incorporated into the next story and cleaned up a lot.
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