Rating: 
Summary: Sir Tom Clancy, the Verbose
Review: The political rehtoric is horrible. If Clancy wants to make a difference and implement his political views he should run for office. I'd vote for him, but I'm not going to buy his books again. This must have been a "contractually obligated" book because it reads as if he wrote it at gun point. The plot is sloth-like and it takes FOR-EH-VER to develop. I found myself putting the book down over and over to keep from throwing it across the room from the frustration of reading a stagnant plot. If Tom Clancy is your favorite writer and you have an urge to support him regardless send him 15 bucks and spare yourself the agony of reading this thing. It's really, really bad.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but not great
Review: Glad to see Ryan wasn't president! I thought tying the story to a specific historical event was interesting, but all-in-all the plot lacked tension and drama. The "Red Rabbit" excursion didn't offer any "what's going to happen next" moments. Give Clancy credit, though, for coming up with an new story line in a series that dying out book by book. A book only about the Foleys would be a good next step, a la John Clark. Worth the read, but no "Hunt for Red October".
Rating:
Summary: geographical errors
Review: The KGB major and his family are escaping to the west with CIA help. The plan is for them to take a train from Moscow to Budapest and then to be smuggled to Yugoslavia. However the train route in the book is as follows: Moscow-Beograd-Budapest.
There is even a short passage on the train in Beograd, the Capital of Yugoslavia. Why bother then to go from Yugoslavia to Hungary to be smuggled back. They could just have disembark in Beograd and avoid all that smuggling across the border.
Secondly, no train takes that route, not even a communist one.
Beograd is much to the south from Budapest, about a day trip.
Seems somebody did not look up the map when writing this poorly constructed plot.
Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected... and sub-par Clancy.
Review: I had high hopes for Red Rabbit. Clancy was taking us in a different direction than the previous novels, and the plot seemed like a good setup. Unfortunately, the novel disappointed me. To sum up the three biggest reasons: 1) the plot goes no where, it just meanders along; 2) the prose, even for Clancy, is just awful. It reads like a middle school book, or worse. 3) simpy no suspense. As a read in an earlier review, Clancy should have stuck with more techno-thriller/spy novels, not geo-political "thrillers" with an element of spying thrown in the mix to "get things cooking". Bottom line: If you are a first time Clancy reader, or an ocassional, get some of his middle works, like "Cardinal of the Kremlin", "Sum of all Fears" (definitely not the movie version), "Clear and Present Danger" or "Rainbow Six". But if you are a die-hard Clancy fan, and therefore you probably already have this book, buy it, just for the bookshelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Come on Tom Get Back To The Good Stuff
Review: This has to be, of the Jack Ryan series, the worst of the lot. I am highly disapointed. It is very dry, slow in action and plot. I love the series, or would have given it only one star. Yes it fills in some blanks, but after "The Bear and The Dragon" this book seems like someone else wrote it trying to copy his style.
Rating:
Summary: Rabbit Falls Down Its Hole
Review: I struggled to stay with this book, knowing it followed Clancy's same old formula. Ryan comes across as half golden boy and half wimp. Clancy should retire with his millions and leave this alone! And Starbucks in 1980? Please tell me where in Maryland Ryan had Starbucks. Clancy mentions it too often. Several points are repeated ad nauseum in fact, making this a flat, predictable, skim read at best.
Rating: 
Summary: "Red Rabbit" a fun run through history
Review: Hardcore Tom Clancy fans will likely find this book more to their liking than the casual reader, but the author offers an interesting inside look at the making of actual history. At the surface are the efforts made by American and British intelligence officers to stop the assassination of Pope John Paul II. Aiding the efforts is a humble clerk at KGB Headquarters, whose moral code is challenged when he learns of his country's malicious plans against the Pontiff. Along the way -- mostly at the end -- the key to the fall of the Soviet Union is revealed. It's an interesting look at what, if true, is the most amazing covert effort in modern history. Instead of the usual theory that the USSR could no longer afford to fund a massive military machine, we find out why the Soviets kept up their pace, why they didn't see the writing on the wall, and how the West (supposedly) used a Wall Street-approach to bring about a geopolitical conquest. Of course, the ever humble Jack Ryan stumbles upon the answers to ending Communism as we knew it. His philosophy is apparently simple: the quest for life, liberty, and a decent cup of coffee -- coffee is a recurring theme in the book (and will probably be the focus his his next volume...a takeover of Jamaica's Blue Mountain coffee region). He not only assists in a daring defection, he's also on hand for one of the most terrifying moments in the past three decades. He also professes his love for his wife, his country, and the stopping power of hollow-point ammunition. Ryan, though, personnifies the many people who worked behind the scenes during the 1980s to undermine Soviet efforts to, if not dominate the world, than to survive in it. The book provided good company on a recent business trip, and kept me glued during my off hours. Some readers might be put off because, well, we know the end of the story -- the Pope was shot and the USSR is no more. Yet it's the plausible -- if not actual -- story behind the story that will fill in a gap in US and Jack Ryan history, and make one enjoy the tale.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy needs to find new charcters and revive his writing
Review: You will be extremely disappointed- long and rambling without much techno or thriller. Not worth buying, even in paperback. Borrow the copy from the library and save the $$.
Rating:
Summary: A Fan
Review: Red Rabbit was a disappointment. There was little to no suspense, Clancy was just plugging in a formula. There are only so many times one needs to be told that Jack Ryan was a marine and hates to fly. The book was worth reading through - but I would recommend waiting for the paperback version
Rating:
Summary: This Rabbit Don't Run
Review: Not worth reading, let alone purchasing. As a big Tom Clancy fan, I was more than disappointed by this very SLOW moving travelogue. There was none of the typical Clancy mystery or excitement but there was 600 pages of descriptions about
1) why communists are bad people (they don't like god)
2) why America is great (women can shop anytime they want)
3) why England isn't so bad (their beer is better than ours)
4) why the CIA can't be expected to stop bad things from happening (they have limited resources) It really seemed that Clancy wanted to vent about how great our country is after 9 11 and give a little support to the Vatican after all the scandals. (Both understandable) But what is not understandable is how completely lacking in plot this book is. As a diehard Clancy fan, I am so disapointed with this book and so glad its over.
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