Rating: 
Summary: Just putting ink on paper
Review: After reading his last three books, I am convinced that Clancy and his publishers are all about just getting ink on paper and money from the masses. Clancy doesn't even proof read his work. He descibes the hills of Pest and the plains of Buda. The last time I was in Hungary Buda had the hill and Pest was farm land. Come on Tom at least visit the city you write about!As for the story, its too historical and predictable. For a major publisher and a centerpiece release there were way too many typos in the copy I received. I felt taken after reading it
Rating:
Summary: Too many pages, too little story
Review: I have been a big fan of Tom Clancy, having read his
novels, the week after they came out. Red Rabbit is a total disappointment. There are
innumerous parts covering irrelevant issues, like
a whole treaty on coffee quality in England.
Actually, you could read one page, then skip the
next 50 pages and follow the story without problems. Tom, please go back to your roots.
Rating:
Summary: "Dead" Rabbit
Review: It's hard to understand what was on Clancy's mind for this book. Very little really works in this turgid piece, including our good friend, Jack Ryan. I guess that Clancy was having a hard time deciding what to do for an encore, after having fought wars with Japan, Iran and China and having killed off the entire US government, with one obvious exception, and then recreating American democracy in Ryan's image. While this certainly might have been an interesting plot, had Clancy been able to summon up some of his usual imagination, there's a whole lot of nothing going on here for hundreds of pages. Jack and friends do very little of interest for much of the book. The Red Rabbit himself jumps into lap of the CIA's station chief, Ed Foley, all on his own. Everything you ever knew about the Foleys and Jack from previous novels is repeated at great length and little if anything new is revealed about anyone. The Soviet characters are less than believable and no one is as interesting as the late great Cardinal of the Kremlin. The dialog of the Soviet leaders is largely diatribe and Clancy doesn't even put together a convincing or at least interesting scene when the Leaders of the Evil Empire decide to put a hit out on the Pope. Just in case you miss how evil this all really is, the Soviet message traffic that deals in the plot against the Pope ends in 666. And just in case you might have missed it the first time, or the first 50 times, it's repeated over and over again, frequently on the same page. Clancy should have had some more of his ... Coffee, this book is entirely lacking in any caffeine rush.
Rating: 
Summary: Great read
Review: I have read all of the Jack Ryan books. I have also read the reviews, and find it difficult to see that I have read the same book as those who rated it so low. I read it all the way through without stopping today, and did not put it down. Several of the early books were too dull and too political. Sure he puts some of his politics here, however he has toned them down so they fit the story.
Great history of the Pope and cold war. I just came back from Russia this week, and fascinating to read what it was, and what it is now. Gread read. Great comments on the cold war, now that we know how the cold war ended and we won. For the basic story you can read the publishers review. For your own enjoyment you should read this one if you like to follow history. Jim Comfort
Rating: 
Summary: Not quite ....
Review: I was eager to dive into another Clancy classic, but as I am only 1/4 into the book, I am tempted to jump ship. The book is set about 20 years ago and is meant to spotlight Jack Ryan's blossoming CIA career. I find the young Jack Ryan very annoying and immature. His manner of speech does not dignify the position of professor/business man/CIA Analyst or the level of intelligence that he posesses. I know that Clancy wants to protray Jack Ryan as a novice, but his use of slang and sloppy speech is over the top. Unfortunately, Clancy injects terms and sayings like "think out of the box" that were not used 20 years ago.
I will finish the book, but not with the eager devotion and page turning excitement of Clany's previous works.
Rating: 
Summary: A 100-page story squeezed into 618 pages......
Review: Very disappointing. Writing a book about a popular character in a setting 20-years ago, a writer can make them look omniscient. Examples in this book: Having invested in Starbucks, the Japanese ecomonmy is riding for a fall, the Soviet economy is very shaky (and even the internal reports gloss over the problems) - all these in the very early part of the book. In this book, even Jack's inward thoughts are almost completely error free. This happened in other Jack Ryan books, but not in this concentration. And then, as it becomes clear how little is actually going to happen in this entire 618-page tome, the shock sets in: That's all there is? Few plot threads, mostly uninteresting characters. I hope the next one is better.....
Rating: 
Summary: Red Rabbit runs real to life
Review: This is a very slow paced read. The concept is interesting and plausible. Clancy certainly has the credibility to pull the storytelling off in his usual manner. The characters feel real, especially Zaitev and his Russian counterparts. Ryan, his family, Foley,...all of them feel and act like the real deal, which serves to bring the book to life. The plot is great! The insider stuff is fabulous! The story however, just seemed to drag in too many spots. I think that Clancy gets too bogged down in minutia. I own every book he has written and have enjoyed some more than others. The other Jack Ryan novels are better than this one...by a bunch. The two novels covering Jack Ryan's move into the White House need to be made into movies, and soon. Red Rabbit would not make a good movie. I gave it a four because of Clancy's attention to detail and to history. Suspense...it rates a one. I knew how it would end very early on. His last few chapters were feeble attempts to scramble the obvious outcome, and they failed to do so. Love his work, less tiny little details and more drama please.
Rating:
Summary: Take A Pass On This One
Review: This is not Tom Clancy's best day. I was disappointed in "Red Rabbit". It's too late for me, I already bought the book. But my advice to everyone else is --- take pass on this one. Read Bowden's riveting "Blackhawk Down" and Remick's outstanding allegory for what it is to be an American, "West Point".
Rating:
Summary: Highly Disappointing
Review: Until publication of this book, I would have chosen Tom Clancy as my favorite author without hesitation. All of the reviews that cite the lack of excitement, constant repetition and endless rhetoric are dead on target. And for those who attribute this failure to the difficulties of writing a prequel, I refer you to Without Remorse, which was an excellent piece. Bottom line: I have always finished each of Clancy's prior works within 48 hours; this one took me a week, and I had to force myself to complete it. I hope this is a fluke and not the end of the Jack Ryan books, but I would prefer that Clancy never write another Jack Ryan novel rather than publish another work of this caliber.
Rating:
Summary: Red Rabbit
Review: This book is booring! You can predict from the first 30 pages what is going to happen in this book. There are no surprises at all. The plot is extremely simple. I am a big Tom Clancy fan, so I bought the book before it was published. Boy, was I disappointed. What I have always admired about Clancy is his stories paint scenarios that eerily seem like they can come true. So, when Ryan predicts the downfall of the Japanese economy, which already happened 20 years ago, I was not impressed. This is not up to Clancy's standards. He has checked out on this one. Or did he really write it? Basically the previous reviewer, Henriqe N Teixeira nailed it on the head. Don't waste your time or money on this book.
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