Rating: 
Summary: I was a Clancy fan until this came along.
Review: I have read all of the Clancy novels until now. I waited eagerly for each of them. Then this one came along. I will wait for reviews before picking up another.
Maybe he has forgotten how to write. Or this could just be ghosted ...
Rating: 
Summary: Yawn
Review: I am a huge Tom Clancy fan. I've read all of his fiction stuff and have loved all of them. That's why Red Rabbit was such a disappointment. I didn't think it possible for Clancy to write a spy thriller with ABSOLUTELY NO ACTION. It was a little bit interesting to read his research/speculation about how things worked in the KGB and CIA but the story went nowhere. Compounding that was the fact that we all know how the Pope assassination went. I hope he can write a more exciting story next time.
Rating:
Summary: Too many mistakes
Review: ...I must say that this was a disappointing Clancy effort. Like many others, I have read all of his books and look forward to new ones. However, he has obviously run out of material for Jack Ryan and that character has run its/his course. There are too many mistakes in this book to try and put it into a historical event.This book HAD to be set in 1983, if the Orioles are playing the Phillies in the World Series and Cal Ripken was a rookie. But Starbucks, while a small company in Seattle at the time, was not selling coffee in retail outlets and didn't go public until 1992. As well, the historic event, the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul, was not in 1983. Also, Ryan says he missed Vietnam because he was too young, but then also says he is over 30...in 1983...which means that he would have in the Marines in the early 70's. Too many mistakes. ...One thought, give us a book about the Foley's in Iran...or bring back John Clark. Unfortunately, I will likely buy the next Clancy book and wade into it as well...
Rating: 
Summary: Lite Clancy Fare
Review: This is not Tom Clancy's best work, by any stretch of the imagination. It is a good book in my opinion with an interesting story, good character development, and a look inside the field-spook business that we haven't seen in a while. This is not a techno-thriller, and I don't think anyone will argue with that. This is a diversion from Clancy's other works as we have no military hardware or high-tech gadgetry, nor do we have the complex and interesting plotting that I myself have grow to love of his earlier work. Instead, this is what I would term as Clancy-lite. This is a story much more concerned with character and much less with an exciting plot. It was interesting to see a young Ryan family and see how they started out when he was new to the "business." Are there many "Patriot Game" references-- yes, but that event just happened a matter of months before this story. Yet, seeing Cathy especially come to grips with not knowing what her husband is doing on a daily basis and Jack's early feelings of leaving his family were interesting and ironic seeing where this family would be going in the years to come. Still, I think there were many missed opportunities to make this novel so much more. There were no surprizes-- that in itself was a surprize. How much more interesting would it have been to have a communications officer who stayed in the Soviet Union passing on information for a time, maybe to be suspected by his superiors at a later time, as opposed to leaving immediately. We could have had much more spycraft and intrigue. You keep looking for something to happen-- from the guy delivering the secure phone to the Ryan home (hoping that maybe he's a bad guy) to the ongoing contacts with the soon-to-be Rabbit (hoping that somewhere we'd find that he'd been made by someone else). Even without, this novel has some great field-spook work, a nice development of the Foley's and their contributions, and all in all a good story. Yes, its 600+ pages, but Clancy's recent works have been in the neighborhood of 800-1000.
Rating:
Summary: Laughably bad,unless you actually paid for this.
Review: Tom Clancy has made himself into a multimillionaire by writing high tech, sometimesexcellent[Red October] often banal[Clear and present danger} Thrillers. His alter ego, Jack Ryan, is supposed to be an everyman[who happens to buy stock in Starbucks on the ground floor, with his ususal preternatural sense of goings on]but who is as realistic as James bond. this soporific thriller,is about ,allegedly, the Attempt on HH John Paul II by and agent of the Bulgarian secret Police operating under orders form Andropov and the KGB. Sigh. Besides Claire Sterling having done this as non-fiction and better[though euqally loose with facts],Clany gives us his other novels as product placement throughout the novel. Perhaps he thought it was clever. Or done with a wink and a nod. Either way, it is insulting.I thought the KGB files showed that Agca was NOT acting under the guise of the KGB? This book, the first third, is a valentine to Ronald Reagan{and The Pope,sort of for his anti-communism, anyway]. The suspense is not there[we know the pope lives,etc.The writing is so insipid that I either think Mr clancy let someone else write this, or someone else wrote the HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER.Save yourself the [money]and buy something like Alan fursts BLOOD OF VICTORY , and treat yourself to real spy fiction. This is terrible, excreable stuff, and Mr clany, if he had any shame,would never had published this .
Rating:
Summary: Not terrible, but certainly not great.
Review: I didn't read the reviews of Red Rabbit before I picked it up myself, but I did notice that it had been generally less than well-received. However, after reading the book myself, I have to say it's not as bad as some would have you believe. First off, Red Rabbit is not up to Clancy's usual par. But, honestly, his previous two books, Rainbow Six and especially The Bear and the Dragon were also less than stellar. What Red Rabbit offers is a return to less than outrageous times where his main character, Jack Ryan, can be a semi-normal guy again (instead of being the driving force that saves the world...again...and again....and again...) The book is filled with over-used phrases (but not as many as The Bear and the Dragon) and some campy dialogue, but its story and plot are interesting. Unfortunately, the most exciting part of the book comes about 200 pages from the end when dealing with the rabbit himself, and just kind of plods from there. Had this book come out directly after Executive Orders, I would have been much more dissapointed as a fan. However, with the mediocrity of Rainbow Six and with the 700 pages of fluff that composed The Bear and the Dragon, this one's not a big shock to me. It's worth a read, but wait for the paperback.
Rating:
Summary: WOW...What a dud
Review: Having been a Clancy fan for years...and wading through 250 page introductions before, I was hopeful that Red Rabbit would grab my interest...at some point in time. This book is not worth the purchase, even in paper back. True fans of Clancy will be disappointed and should save their time. A book on the Foley's adventure's in Iran might pique some interest...or another John Clark adventure. However, it has become apparent that Jack Ryan has run his course and trying to insert him into a real-life event has turned into a massive dud. And what year is this supposed to be any way? Ripken was a rookie and the Orioles played the Phillies in 1983...but the assasination attempt of the Pope was in '81 and Starbucks went public in '92. This was just terrible.
Rating:
Summary: Pot Boiler or Rabbit Stew?
Review: A new Clancy novel great! Adventure, suspense, thrills? If you were disappointed by Dragon's and Bear's you ain't seen nothing yet. This Rabbit's no 'pot boiler' just Rabbit stew. A 'hash' of the usual cast. OK, enough of the cooking cliches. Most of what Tom writes has nothing to do with the story. Tom rightly points out, the British do make the best beer in the world! - but a British pint is 20 fluid ounces not the 16 ounces the wayward eye surgeons are apparently served. What has this got to do with the plot? Absolutely nothing - get the point? Perhaps you could entertain yourself through this 600 page leviathan by counting the bounty of inaccuracies. Nah. Don't bother.
Rating:
Summary: When is something going to happen
Review: I love Clancy but this book is a bore. Almost nothing happens. Skip this in favor of one of his older books you'll be happier
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I like Clancy a lot. But this book is a misfire and a mess. It's even badly (or barely) edited -- typos, historical mistakes, repeated sentences in different chapters, on the whole about 200 pages too long. I'm sure it was hard to take Ryan back to an earlier point in his career, but if this is the result, then either take him forward or drop him. Just re-read The Hunt for Red October; at least it had suspense and plot complications.
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