Rating: 
Summary: The Worst
Review: Butter Bars, English Bacon, English don't know how to make coffee, Marines, Marines, and more Marines, cliche after cliche. Where's the story? Where's the suspence?
Rating:
Summary: Clancy's passion is gone
Review: When Red Rabbit was released, I read an interview where Clancy was asked if he would encourage his kids to be authors. The response was a strong no, because writing just isn't fun after a few books. It's unbelievable that Clancy would say something that foolish while hawking a new book. So I had a bad feeling about this, guessing that Clancy wouldn't put much passion into Red Rabbit. Sure enough, this book is boring and repetetive. For all of the problems with Rainbow and Bear/Dragon, those books at least had lots of excitement and tension. Reading this book is like slowly nibbling on a Saltine. Pretty flat, and it doesn't get much better as you keep going.There is almost no conflict for the plot. Normally Clancy creates a bunch of independent plot threads that all come together at the end; Sum of All Fears is the best example of this. Here, Clancy didn't even bother with doing that. The quality of writing is once again questionable. For example, the rank of the Rabbit changes from Captain to Major several times. Clancy again finds ways to toss in his new favorite word ("niggardly"), which he beat to death in Rainbow. I would not be surprised if we were told more than fifty times that Jack Ryan is an ex-Marine. Clancy has to insert Ryan into the major action scenes, of course, but can't devise any legitimate reason for doing so. Ryan essentially tags along with the story just for the sake of being there. Because of this, his character doesn't even need to be in the book. Clancy, probably inspired by George Lucas, felt the need to write the book as a tongue-in-cheek prequel instead of a seamless integration into his Jack Ryan timeline. He keeps making references to the early 80s (Starbucks, the Orioles in the playoffs, Cal Ripken as a rookie, etc). And he makes far too many references to Patriot Games, as if we haven't figured it out where we are in the timeline after the first ten references. If you read all of his books according to timeline, beginning with Without Remorse, Red Rabbit would stick out so much because of the different writing style. This book is definitely not one to buy as a hardcover; maybe as a paperback if you just want it for a Clancy collection.
Red Rabbit is definitely the worst of his novels.
Rating:
Summary: Disapointment
Review: Tom Clancy is one of my favorite authors, however of late I noticed that his style is getting tired. I was able to skip over complete paragraphs and not miss a thing, he kept on repeating things over and over again like he was dealing with children. It is nice to be a patriot and think the world of your country and your culture but there is no need to put down others in the mean time (the incident about the british doctors drinking during an operation) how is that related to the story line. For someone in Clancy's caliber to release a book with spelling mistakes is a little below par. As for the ending it came as an anti-climax, it took him over 500 pages to build a storyline (which by the way was completely predictable) and he decided to end it in less than 2 pages. I believe the book would have been complete and satisfying in 300 - 400 pages, that's how much repetition and non-story related text was there. Mr. Clancy if you ever read these reviews, we hope your next book will be of the same style and caliber we got used to in your previous novels.
Rating:
Summary: Save your time and save your money.
Review: I saw Tom Clancy on The Jay Leno Show peddling this turkey,he said this book was harder to write than any book he had written in the past. He said the reason was he was had just stopped smoking. Well in my humble opinion he should either stop writng or start smoking again. Tom you should be ashamed to put your name on this.
Rating: 
Summary: Despite all, it's a good novel.
Review: I predicted this novel would receive bad reviews from Clancy fans (and especially Clancy haters who pretend to be fans) but even I didn't expect such a deluge of complaints. This is a GOOD novel, but it isn't a shoot 'em up, and certainly won't satisfy those who think writing is bad unless someone gets killed every fifty pages. But for what this novel is, a taught dive into real history, it's the best read I've had in years. Do not listen to those here who complain about Clancy's syntax, or his poor grammar. They're not only wrong, they're dead wrong. Clancy's grammar and syntax match the way the characters speak, which is what all good writers strive to do. Yes, if you're a boring person who needs fake slam bang action on every page, you'll find this a boring novel. But if you enjoy history, if you enjoy how things really work as opposed to how Hollywood would have you think they work, if you like getting inside real people instead of cardboard characters, you'll love this novel. This simple truth is this: Had this novel been written by a literary writer and submitted to a literary publisher, it would be getting rave reviews and might be up for a Pulitzer. But since it was written by Tom Clancy and published for genre readers, the reviews are bad. I think this says more for the novel than anything I can possibly say.
Rating:
Summary: Invest Your Time Elsewhere
Review: Clancy, like Ludlum and Grisham has seemingly run out of stories to tell. In 600 pages Clancy, in Red Rabbit, provides details about the spy business and more characters than is comprehensible without providing any reason for the reader to continue turning the pages except that many of his previous books have been page turners. The story is trite and the ending is disappointing. When the reader finally gets to the final page he is left with the question, why did I read all of this? For me, it is time to find a new author with fresh ideas. Tom Clancy's formula does not work anymore.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy has completely lost it
Review: I thought The Bear and the Dragon was bad--but given how much I loved his earlier works, decided to give him one more try. He has completely lost his ability to write a thriller. Very boring and drawn out. It does not matter how much you liked his earlier books--you will hate this one. The same observations are repeated over and over again every chapter. His editor needs to be fired. Very predictable also. It was a good idea to go back in time with Jack Ryan and look at well known historical event, but he completely blows it. I do not think he even cares what he is writing. I will never read another Clancy book and suggest nobody read this long piece of garbage--total waste of time and money. I wish you could give negative stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but tells us the end is near for the Jack Ryan saga
Review: The story was good. However, again, Clancy could have written either a shorter book by eliminating things about the characters that we did not care about, or he could have written more to the story to make it more interesting. Clancy probably made this one as short as it was because of the past remarks people have made about his book, saying he inserts things that have nothing to do with the story.
This time, I completely understood the story even with the background on the characters. That's what made me stay interested in it. But, I do have the feeling he is running out of ideas and that is why he wrote this story occuring before "Clear And Present Danger", and long before Jack Ryan becomes POTUS. There just are not too many more ideas you can have these days with recurring characters. I hate to say this, but I think Tom Clancy needs to write one more, perhaps at the end of the presidency, or maybe at election time, but making sure Ryan is not reelected.
Rating:
Summary: It grabbed my interest but I already knew most characters
Review: If you have not read at least most of the other John Ryan books don't read this one first. Even though in the chronological timeline it occurs third, without the emotional investment in the characters it probably wouldn't be worth reading. I actually liked this book much better than Bear/Dragon which I considered to be a good 300 page story wrapped in 700 pages of history & essays and Rainbow Six which was a series of action vignettes separated by forgettable bridges. But I realize that I like it because it fleshed out some characters that have already met in the previous books. The story flows and you keep turning the pages; you know nothing serious will happen because you know the future. The whole thing is over before you realize there is no there there. It's not a techno thriller. There isn't much action, suspense or mystery. It does fill a gap in Ryan's life story and his ongoing guilt trip over smoking. The next book is suggested to be another caper before Red October, I hope it is less concerned with his smoking and has more action, suspense, technological magic and surprises. I consider it worth reading but not until 2 or 3am.
Rating: 
Summary: Wait for the paperback.
Review: Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later - after the disappointing _The Bear and the Dragon_, Clancy has sunk even lower with the bizarrely flawed _Red Rabbit_. Clancy's shortcomings (cardboard characters, unconvincing dialogue, trite political preaching) have always been acceptable in the face of his terrific plotting and edge-of-your-seat action sequences. Not this time. The story moves along at a slow pace, there is little to no action, and Clancy barely even provides conflict. Instead, he annoys the reader with repetitive pap.
Longtime Clancy readers will grow tired of being constantly reminded that Mary Pat Foley is a "cowboy", Caroline Ryan is a "doc", and that the thought of his wife slicing into someone's eyeball gives Jack Ryan the heebie-jeebies. Clancy has also decided that if he is to refer to a psychiatrist as a "shrink" (and he does it quite a lot), he must spell it "pshrink", so we'll know what he means.
The book overflows with anachronisms. Ryan apparently bought Starbucks stock a good eight years before the company was formed, mourned the loss of a football team that hadn't relocated yet, "thought outside the box" long before anybody else did, and coined the phrase, "been there, done that, got the t-shirt". All this in 1982.
I found myself annoyed with the Ryan family while reading this - their interaction seems even more shallow than usual in this book. Apparently, the estimable Dr. Caroline Ryan cannot understand that intelligence officers aren't supposed to discuss their work with their families. She comes off as a little bit silly sometimes - certainly not like a woman who can operate on eyeballs like few else in the world, play a dazzling if somewhat mechanical piano, deal seconds like a Las Vegas cardsharp, and charm heads of state while bringin' home the bacon and fryin' it up in the pan.
The plot revolves around a real historical event - the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul. Of course, we all know how that came out, and Clancy doesn't rewrite history here. Unfortunately he doesn't even make the event very exciting. I don't wish to provide a spoiler. Rest assured that Jack Ryan, in an extremely unlikely denouement, saves the Pope and the day.
I did enjoy parts of this book, particularly the Foley sections (a book about Ed and Mary Pat would be very welcome), and the Russian defector's story. The espionage passages were satisfyingly realistic and provided the only tension in the book.
I am a big Clancy fan, and up until now have eagerly purchased his books as soon as they were released (not those "Op Center" things, just the novels). The last two books have been disappointing enough to make me check the reviews before buying future Clancy offerings. _Red Rabbit_ is by no means a terrible book, it's just that one expects more of Clancy, especially now that he's a well-established author - or is the phrase "firmly entrenched"? I hope not.
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