Rating: 
Summary: One of Clancy's Classics
Review: Generally, Tom Clancy can do no wrong in my eyes (except when he lends his name and his ideas to authors less able than himself so he can take a cut of whatever they earn). Clear and Present Danger is a perfect example of Clancy at his polished best - the guy simply sets new standards of storytelling excellence. Though he occasionally drifts into needless description [...], Clancy delivers the ultimate thrillers time after time. Where I might downgrade another author for ever-elaborating, Clancy can be forgiven because the rest of the book makes up for its few shortcomings. In brief, the U.S. ambassador to Columbia is murdered by drug lords. Enemy agents filter into the jungles and Central America is ready to explode. Jack Ryan, who has just been named CIA deputy director of intelligence is enraged when he discovers that has been left out of the loop of Colombian operations, because a group of highly trained American soldiers are stranded on an unfinished mission that officially never happened. Ryan decides to get the men out. Clear and Present Danger has all the ingredients of a Clancy Classic. And Clancy doesn't disappoint, sprinkling a plot her, a counter-plot there; a pinch of action here, a measure of suspense there. And finally stirring the carefully balanced ingredients so that the finished product is a tale that won't disappoint. When Clancy delivers, he delivers big time, and Clear and Present Danger is one of his best deliveries.
Rating: 
Summary: This was Clancy when Clancy was Clancy!
Review: i enjoy clancy's earlier works in the jack ryan series (Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Cardinal of the Kremlin). to me, clear and present danger is one of the best in the jack ryan series. actually, ryan's role in this book is almost secondary. a lot of the emphasis in this work is on the green berets and their special ops in columbia. in this book there is not a great deal of technical information to try to understand...it is just a good story. clancy paints a realistic picture in this one...the lines between the good guys and bad guys are blurred and it gives the book a greater feel of realism. the book is MUCH better than the movie. don't skip the book just because you saw the movie. the book is 10 times better.
Rating:
Summary: Some problems...but good overall
Review: Clear And Present Danger starts out with the Coast Guard finding three top American officials killed on their yacht, and the men charged with the murder are from the Cali Drug Cartel in Columbia, so to get back at the Cali Cartel, the President then prepares a secret covert operation of selected Special Forces to bring back justice to the Cartel. Jack Ryan comes back into the picture, with Admiral James Greener dying of cancer, and now he is left in charge as DDI of the CIA, but Jack does not know about the covert operation in Columbia, since they dont want Jack to intervere in the operations. So comes in Domingo Chavez, a East L.A. Chicano who turn his life around by joining the U.S. Army and becoming a Ranger, and now he is the selected person to go to Columbia to fight the drug lords.
Now as they get ready to train for the operation, Jack has NO IDEA what is going on, but he knows that something is not right, and they are keeping quiet about the operation. As they arrive to Columbia, John Clark is running the operation and in charge of the whole thing. Jack and John Clark know each other from rescusing CARDINAL (a U.S. spy in the Kremlin) and bringing him to America where he lives in exile.
Now one of the Cali Cartel's men brings in a woman who works for the CIA and has top secret information about the operation, and finds out that one of the top men who is running the operation is going to Columbia, so his men sets up a ambush and attacks their convoy. Now, the operation gets more intense where they bomb the drug lord's house, and it makes it look like a car bomb. Now, as the Cali Drug Cartel finds out what is going on, they now are hunting them in the thick forests of Columbia thanks to the Columbian military which he has complete control of thanks to money. Jack Ryan then finds out what is going on, and now the covert operation is dead, and they are leaving the men in Columbia on their own. Jack then goes down to Columbia to rescue the men from the hidden dangers the Cali drug cartel has to offer. Now Jack rescues the men, and the President lost the election, and now President Fowler is in office, so now Jack has a new boss, along with a new enemy: Elizabeth Elliot; the National Security Advisor who hates Jack with a passion. The book starts out slow, but it is still worth a good read to get into.
Rating:
Summary: Another great read by Tom Clancy
Review: First of all, let me admit that I'm a big Tom Clancy fan. Although I approached the book with that bias I found it a thoroughly enjoyable read. In Clear and Present Danger Clancy tackles the hot subject of America's war on illegal drugs. His solution is one that I think most readers will, at least secretly, harbor some admiration for. The U.S. undertakes a covert war on the Columbian drug lords. As usual in Clancy's novels there's lots of action on many fronts. And as usual the CIA's Jack Ryan is right in the middle of it. The book moved a little quickly at the end for my tastes (I thought the resolution of such a complex plot deserved a little more time than Clancy gave it), otherwise I might have given it 5 stars. If you're a Clancy fan you'll love this one.
Rating:
Summary: One of Clancy's best
Review: I'm a huge Tom Clancy fan, so I won't mind if you think this review is a little biased. I do want to mention, however, that, having read all of his works of fiction, that Clear and Present Danger is one of my favorites. There's lots of action, intrigue, and plotlines in this one, just like his other fine books, but at 650 pages, he's put it all in a tighter package. (For the unintiated, Clancy books have been known to exceed 1000 pages.) Two of my favorite characters, John Clark and Ding Chavez, get a good amount of airplay (readplay?) here. Other books with the characters, including Without Remorse and Rainbow Six, were lackluster, but they really shine here. One can't help but feel a sense of loyalty between these two after reading their stories here. This was the first Clancy book I re-read...it's really that good! (I could also add at this point how the movie didn't do justice to the book....but you knew that already, didn't you?)
Rating:
Summary: Clancy Always Asks ... What If?
Review: What if... the President decided to get serious about the war on drugs? What if he used the military as not only to stop the transport, but also stop the manufacture of drugs? In this tale, three soldiers do battle. Mr. Clark is the CIA operative who provides intelligence for the military action. Domingo Chavez is a warrior; an infantryman sent under orders to do battle - and ultimately abandoned. Jack Ryan is the new CIA deputy director who figures it all out - and won't abandon faithful soldiers even if it means his life.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring and Trite
Review: I believe most of Clancy's works are unoriginal and somewhat boring, but Clear and Present Danger was personally offensive to me as a woman. The only female character is protrayed as unintelligent and permiscuous. She was the one who gave away the top secret plans, and went about it in a very tacky way: during an afair with someone who used her for her information. This was rather hard for me to look past. Plus i did not enjoy Clancy's monotonous rambling anout insignificant items such as how powerful a rifle is, or how large a ship is. To me it was simply uninteresting, and I usually enjoy descripvtive novels.
Rating:
Summary: A Few Problems but Good Over All
Review: This book has its problems, but over all, it's pretty good. I really like Tom Clancy's style of writing; he never goes more than a page or two without spicing it up with dialogue. The story was a kind of slow to get going, although some of that is excusable by the size of the book (half of Clear and Present Danger is a lot more pages than half of your average novel). I like the large number of sub-plots, and during the last hundred pages I could barely put it down. Actually, I finished the book in less than a week. The main problems I have with this book are the cursing (Tom Clancy really went overboard), and the overuse of the word "bastard". I know it seems strange, but it really distracted me from the story to have people from all over the world using this single word to denote someone who is disliked. A word of warning - this is a LONG book. A total of 656 pages, it is not a short read. Like I said above, this is a good book. I have read a number of classics ranging from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to King Rat by James Clavell, but Tom Clancy is my personal favorite. Be sure to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Marvelous!
Review: This was my first Tom Clancy and still is my absolute Favorite!
Rating: 
Summary: The U.S. gets serious in the "war on drugs"
Review: The Coast Guard intercepts a luxury yacht where a brutal murder of 4 U.S. citizens has occurred. The two Columbians aboard are coerced into confessing to the murder, and the gov't ends up with critical information regarding the drug trade. With this information and the decision from the President that illegal drugs represent a "clear and present danger" several operations are launched to hit the Columbian cartel where it hurts. Between financial seizures in the hundreds of millions and surgical strikes on supply lines, the action stays fast-paced and interesting. While not my favorite Clancy book, it was nevertheless fun to read right down to the intense end. Also, the progression of Jack Ryan's career with the CIA and the addition of John Clark (a minor charcter in "Cardinal of the Kremlin"), adds to the human element of the story. The action is great, and although the language is at times pretty coarse, I enjoyed reading it.
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