Rating: 
Summary: Biggest disappointment of the year
Review: And I was so looking forward to this.Bear and the Dragon was slower then previous books but I did not realise it was the start of the Clancy sleepwalking years. Clancy has chosen a scenario where the tension is lost because we already know the outcome. Where pace and tension might have been added to the plot, Clancy slows things down into turgid detail and needless repetition. On a purely intellectual basis, insights into the Russion mind set and international espionage might be interesting, but not there does not seem much else. I'm British and his views on Merry Olde England in the early 80's were quite accurate, but who cares unless they are put into context of the overall story! Astonishingly this is a thriller by perhaps the biggest name in the business and he fails to deliver one single thrill in the entire book. A terrible effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Zzzzzzzzzz
Review: I just finished Red Rabbit. I must say I was rather disappointed. A very dull and ordinary re-telling of a historical event. Here is the whole story: Someone reads a letter from the Pope to Moscow, KGB guy feels bad
about plans to kill the Pope. KGB man tells CIA guy. CIA guy tells his boss, boss sends Ryan to help KGB guy and family defect, Ryan arrests one of the assassins, Pope gets injured, everyone lives happily ever after (except assassins). Easily a 100 page story......not 618! Very dull reading, absolutely no drama, suspense or suprises. I have read, and own all of Clancy's books Fiction and non fiction. What happened with this one?
Rating:
Summary: Tommy is taking dull to new heights!
Review: Tommy's last few works (which were written primarily by his ghost writer) were excruciatingly long, with rare action segments. Red Rabbit takes over 600 pages of aimless conversations to follow a simple and obvious course. What small suspense there is comes as a result of Tommy taking 50-100 pages to tell us the most simple information, while we plod through side narratives which are meaningless to the reader and the plot. Reads like a high school novel written by someone being paid by the word.
Rating:
Summary: Pedantic at best
Review: Clancy always has a political point(s) to make, but he really over does here. His criticism of the British socialized medical system may be on point, but seemed exaggerated and supercilious to the book's plot. The defector may have had a bout of conscience, but Clancy spends far too many words agonizing over the moral dilemma. Jack Ryan is one of Clancy central characters, but he is unnecessary to the main plot. He was however, the vehicle for Clancy to moralize. The novel could have been a page turner, if it were 200 pages instead of 600 pages.
Rating:
Summary: Yawn
Review: Typically, Clancy spends a good deal of time and effort developing characters and the story, building up to a wonderful, fast paced ending. In this LACKLUSTER effort, I kept waiting for the Clancy of old but it is more than apparent that even Clancy has TIRED of Jack Ryan. A very DISSAPPOINTING effort and it has left me skeptical on any further Clancy books without thouroughly investigating reviewer comments.
Rating:
Summary: Very poor indeed
Review: Not convincing, either in it's reason for the attempt on the Pope, the portrayal of the UK, or the characters. Regarding the assassination attempt he is at odds with the Pope's own memories and actions. ... On the UK, he is way out of line on the NHS. It is supported by all major parties, including conservatives, and the slur on surgeons is, frankly unforgiveable and narrow minded. Clancy does this a lot. In previous novels he has poked contempt at the UK for our gun laws, without mentiuoning the event that triggered it - a conservative member of a gun club slaughtering 16 seven year olds and their teacher. On the characters, Ryan comes across as a bit of an airhead. As a major fan of his work for years this is dreadfully disappointing. Will (Liverpool, UK)
Rating:
Summary: Deserves no stars.
Review: Its mind boggling that an author who wrote books as good as Red Storm Rising and Clear and Present Danger could write a book as bad as this one. I was no big fan of the Bear and the Dragon but this book is just beyond the pale. I've read alot of reviews here which think this is a good 100 page book stretched into 600 pages; I completely disagree. The BASIC plot that the KGB conspired to kill the pope back in the eighties MIGHT have some potential but the storyline Clancy has chosen to relay the event is mind numbingly boring for a book of any length. Here's a quick breakdown: There is NO suspense. None. There are NO cool technology descriptions. Jack Ryan, Mary Pat and everyone else in the Mickey Mouse club are 100% infallible in their decisions (and their gut instincts). The storyline isn't resolved in any way. The KGB wants to kill the pope cause he's threatening to resign and go back to poland. They try, they fail (for the sole reason that their assassin can't shoot straight). He's STILL threatening to go back to poland, they STILL have reason to kill [him]... The only reason this book is averaging two out of five stars when is because there are alot of people here who are saying "I've only gotten to page 80 but so far I'm disappointed" and then giving the book 3 stars. I wish I could give this book no stars because it truly doesn't deserve any.
Rating:
Summary: Will the Real Tom Clancy Please Stand Up
Review: Will the real Tom Clancy please stand up? I couldn't find him in this book. No high-tech weaponry, no complex plot (was there a plot at all?), no suspense, and no surprises. In this book Jack Ryan goes on European holiday, or may as well have. The story is so predictable that it is not predictable. You never expect a Clancy story to go so smoothly for the characters. There are always snags and plot-twists. I kept waiting for something to go wrong in Operation BEATRIX but the "other shoe" never falls. It's a text-book spy operation, almost boring. They all live happily ever after. The End.
Rating: 
Summary: Red Rabbit Not Up To Usual Clancy Standards
Review: Tom Clancy's latest novel, Red Rabbit, continues the Jack Ryan saga by going back to a time after Patriot Games but before Hunt for Red October. The story centers on the attempted assassination of Pope John-Paul II in 1981 and inserts Ryan into the intrigue. I found the book a little dull as no real crisis arises to create tension. Everything seems to go according to plan with none of Clancy's usual twists and turns that have all the best-laid plans of the good guys go amiss and leave Ryan to improvise his way to a solution. Jack is a young CIA officer and as such is not the prime mover and shaker he usually is. It feels like a book that Clancy did because the public keeps demanding more of Jack Ryan rather than a story he really wanted to tell. Some will be happy that the book doesn't contain a lot of the complex detail of scientific or military operations that have been the hallmark of most of his earlier books. Personally I missed that detail as Clancy is, after all, a writer of techno-thrillers and most of his readers enjoy that aspect of his books. I was also disappointed in the writing itself. Jack Ryan seems to be getting whinier and dumber in every book. In Cardinal of the Kremlin, Ryan was a well-spoken, literate Doctor of History who often approached the problems he encountered with trepidation but also with resolute courage and intelligence. In the last couple of books before Red Rabbit he's become increasingly whiny with a lot of "Why me?" stuff. In this book he's been dumbed down to the point he talks like a stevedore with not only a lot of swearing (even Cathy's using the F word!) but poor grammar as well. He definitely does not sound like a highly educated man who made millions on Wall Street and taught history at the Naval Academy. For those of you who have read all of Clancy's Jack Ryan books it's a moderately enjoyable read and does fill in a few details of the young Ryan's life. If you're new to the Ryan series there are better books to start with.
Rating:
Summary: Oh Come On Tom
Review: It used to be that I could not wait for the next Clancy book to come out. After this fiasco I won't even waste my money buying a used paperback of any future Clancy efforts. This guy has lost it. His one star rating is only because amazon does not use fractions. The idea for the book is inspired. Mixing historical facts and people with the fictional characters we all know so well was a great idea. I hoped that Clancy had gotten his second wind after his last book disappointed me so much. Sadly, he did not. The legendary Clancy attention to detail now leads to over 300 pages of mind-numbing boredom. I don't care what Jack and Kathy eat for breakfast, who cooks it, who drives them to the train station when they are done eating or what they read on the train on the way to work. He introduces characters like the cab driver and the nanny and you suspect there is more to them than he is letting on, but they do nothing but take up space. I always thought of Clancy as a 2/3 and 1/3 writer. He usually spends the first 2/3 of the book setting up the final 1/3. The final 1/3 was the action, the payoff for all the detail he gave us in the beginning. There is no payoff here. It is an anti-climatic climax. There is so much more he could have done with this plot line and I am very disappointed. It is a very good idea gone to waste. I really dislike the expression "burned out", but I think Clancy has reached that point. Save your money.
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