Rating: 
Summary: Clancy Has Become...
Review: Tom Clancy has become Joseph Wambaugh. This will be the last time I buy one of his books. He needs to get a new family of characters. Why not start with the Air Force weatherman from Red Storm Rising?
Rating: 
Summary: Clancy phoned in this one!
Review: As an avid Clancy fan, saying I was disappointed reading his latest is a gross understatement. Clancy has taken his readers for granted this time, offering about half a book with disappearing plot lines, huge editing mistakes, and ludicrous dialogue. First, the book ends so abruptly that I wondered if Clancy just got tired of writing and sent in (or phoned in) what he had so far. Second, he had a hard time keeping his story straight. On one page, the terrorists are going to his 4 cities, including Sacramento. The author even makes a point of saying that two of the targets - the other being Des Moines - are "Provincial capitols." A few pages later, Sacramento is relaced by Provo, Utah, of all places, and the story goes on as if Sacramento never existed! Third, dialogue used to be a Clancy hallmark. Now we have the most trite exchanges between the brothers Caruso (roger that, bro). The only people that talk like these two are the main characters in Clive Cussler's books! Surely Clancy is going to finish this story, but I suppose we'll have to shell out [more money] for that one.
Rating:
Summary: 1/2 of a story
Review: He's still long-winded, and seems to be getting slower of the starting block. The first 2/3 of the book are situation and character development, and almost no activity. When he finally gets around to action, it's thin, predictable, and ends too soon. I'm hoping that "Tiger 2" will simply pick up where "Tiger" left off, and get into the "teeth" of the matter immediately. I also found the right-wing political snipes both unnecessary and distracting. Stick with story, leave political commentary to Rush.
Rating:
Summary: What else can I say?
Review: I think many others have expressed in detail their disappointment with this book. As others, I have read all of Clancy's others. One bad sign was that it took me two weeks to read this book. I have read some of his others in a weekend. Another bad sign was the thickness of the book. Not the typical Clancy thickness. While most of the book was entertaining and mostly believable, it seems like it was only half a book. As I got near the end, I kept looking at the few pages left and wondered how it was going to end. Without giving away the ending, suffice it to say that it seems like someone got tired of writing or had a deadline and just spent a couple of pages wrapping things up. There are much more engaging and better written books out there. Try Brad Meltzer.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best
Review: This Clancy work is about an illegal anti-terroist organization known as the Campus that is set up under the shadow of our government. The Campus is disguised as a normal buisness, and only a few individuals know of its existance.
I haven't read a Clancy book in years but I thought that I would give this one a try and although the concept of the story is very interesting not much else is worth noting in this book. Also, when did Clancy become such a sellout? Every time he describes a product in the book it has a brand name attached to it. "He grabbed a cup of coffee from his Gevalia coffee maker." OR "He was driving down the street in his Mercedes S-Class 240 L" or whatever. I wonder if he gets compensated for mentioning those products. Nice way to supplement your income. Hopefully Clancy can come up with something good soon.
Rating:
Summary: Progressively getting worse
Review: Tom Clancy's books are getting progressively worse. This is by far the worst of his books. I am a die hard fan but finding in harder and harder to get through his books. I couldn't even make it 50 pages through Red Rabbit. I'm basically all the way through this one and can't believe how poor the writing, the story line, the characters all are. It's almost comical - I picture Tom Clancy laughing all the way to the bank. I wonder if he even wrote any of this or let his 13 year old neighbor or grandson write it. Stay away from this book. There's much better writers of Clancy's genre and the story line of Jack Ryan & Co. is essentially dead.
Rating:
Summary: A Feat of Endurance
Review: I was hoping that Clancy would rebound from whatever funk he fell into with Red Rabbit, getting back to the present timeline with Teeth of the Tiger. Unfortunately, The Teeth of the Tiger is plagued by too many references to the Jack Ryan mythology, too much exposition, and not enough of a reward plotwise. By far, this is the thinnest plot of any Clancy novel, and getting through the 431 pages felt like a feat of endurance.
Rating:
Summary: Very boring
Review: I have read many of Clancy's books and this is easily his worst work. Lazy writing and predictable plot lines. Is this a blip in Clancy's career or has he made so much money that he doesn't try very hard anymore? We won't know until his next novel.
Rating:
Summary: The Sun Also Sets
Review: What on earth can you possibly make of a book that actually sports the following sentence at the beginning of a chapter: "The sun rose promptly at dawn." Well, I suppose sometimes it could be a little late, dawn being such a stickler. Or, even on the early side. Who knows? I don't get up at that ungodly hour myself. I do know it almost always goes down smack dab on the button at sunset. This is the only book I've read by the master since a paperback Hunt For Red October a few years ago. A truly great book. My great regret is that I've cheated myself of all this kind of subsequent hilarity lo these many sequels. Who knew? You actually find yourself reading some sentences aloud just to see who's nuts, you, or the author. Somewhere, for instance, there was a reference to a supposedly terrific Italian restaurant with, quote, "a wine cellar from hell". Which is a mildly confusing use of that tired metaphor and never explained. You can only assume that the food was great but the wine--oh, never mind. Time for somebody to ride promptly off into the sunset.
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Summary: Mr. Clancy's morality succumbs to radical ideology
Review: In "The Teeth of the Tiger", Mr. Clancy lays out his scenario for dealing with the threat to the United States posed by shadowy terrorist organizations, driven by religious ideology. The scenario is replete with its own neo-conservative ideology. As such, it provides entertainment for those who disagree with Ghandi, who said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." But it repulses those who believe that, in the struggle against terrorism, if we give up our morality, and abandon the rule of law, then we have sunk lower than the terrorists themselves. Mr. Clancy first posits that his erstwhile hero, Jack Ryan, has set up an illegal organization called The Campus, using his power as President. The Campus steals intelligence data from NSA and CIA. It uses this intelligence to, first, manipulate financial markets, in order to obtain the funds for its operations; and second, engage in political assassination of terrorist opponents. One wonders how a good Catholic like Jack Ryan (and by extension, Mr. Clancy himself) can flaunt the Ten Commandments at will, not to mention the U.S. Constitution: Ryan has given The Campus a set of blanket pardons, for use when and if The Campus is ever caught in its illegal activities. Mr. Clancy then posits that members of The Campus -- specifically a former Senator found guilty of financial felonies and disgraced (apparently a ruse, to allow him free rein to set up The Campus), Jack Ryan's son Jack, Jr., and Junior's cousins, conveniently members of the FBI and the Marines' Force Recon -- use their illegally-obtained information to track and kill four members of an Islamic-based terrorist group which has executed an attack on the U.S. The Campus, through these members, (and again, Mr. Clancy by extension) rationalizes its use of murder and assassination on the soil of foreign powers (specifically Britain, Austria, and Italy) as necessitated by the attack of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. The three young men quickly become enthusiastic experts in tracking and assassinating their unsuspecting prey. Finally, Mr. Clancy posits that the physician brother of an investment broker, killed in the WTC attacks, breaks his Hippocratic Oath (not to mention the law) by developing the injection system and chemical (succinylcholine) used by Junior and his cousins to commit their acts of assassination. In particular, the chemical mimics symptoms of heart attack, to the extent that the victims exhibit no residues which might arouse the suspicions of the post-mortem pathologists. Of course terrorism outrages our sensibilities. But to suggest that simplistic, neo-conservative answers will solve our terrorist problem ignores the fact that such immoral, unethical, and illegal behavior undermines the rule of law, and sacrifices our souls on the alter of vengeance and retribution. Churchill warned of the dangers of simple solutions to complex problems. Mr. Clancy's simple solution must be rejected. And the only manner to do so is to stop putting money is his pocket through the purchase of his outrageous and dangerous writings. At the moment, I am certain the only way he can sleep at night is through the comfort of the greenbacks stuffed into his mattress. It is high time that his sleep be disturbed. And, yes, I did not buy this book; I checked it out of the library. And I will not read Mr. Clancy's writings any further. And, yes, there is another way to deal with terrorists, which preserves the rule of law, as well as our souls. But that description is for another time and place.
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