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The Teeth of the Tiger

The Teeth of the Tiger

List Price: $27.95
Your Price: $11.18
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Clancy's Worst to Date
Review: As a loyal fan of Tom Clancy, I have read every book that he has written, including his non-fiction books, but this one has made me wonder if it is time to find a new "favorite" author.

This book is even worse than his previous novel, which would have been better titled "Red Dog" than Red Rabbit. At least Red Rabbit had some tiny bit of the "old" Clancy in it, while Teeth of The Tiger is none of the reality and analysis that used to distinguish Clancy's stories.

After two poor releases in a row, I am going to wait for the reviews before buying another Tom Clancy book.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I want to know more!
Review: I was just a little bit disappointed in Mr. Clancy's latest book "Teeth of the Tiger." This effort didn't seem to have the depth of previous books, as well as more character development. One suggestion to Mr. Clancy, if you are introducing younger characters, then at least have them using language that relates to their generation. I don't think 20-somethings relate to Grace Kelly as a beautiful woman as much as they might relate to Cameron Diaz, J. Lo., or some of the many 20-something women in today's media. And please, update their language...you have the young Jack Ryan Jr. using the same language as his father. And the cousins, please help us to connect them to the set of characters in place.
Mr. Clancy, please put the time in to let us know what happened to President Ryan, his vice president (you assasinated him, but didn't get into the details, which would have added much needed depth to this book).
There were many flaws that I didn't expect to encounter, and I have to say, this book was average at best. I expect more from Mr. Clancy.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: How Trite
Review: So now we have a novel from Tom Clancy which is so obviously directed at the latest crop of Hollywood's finest(teen throb division.) I gave this book three stars because it is, after all, a Clancy book and one can hope for better in the future. Of course, following Red Rabbit and most of the direct to paperback Op Center and Net Force novellas you gotta worry a little.
The ending is so contrived you know that it was written to "encourage" the purchase of the certain follow up book. I think that Tom Clancy has one more chance to remain on my list of "buy the hardback" authors. Come on, Tom... publish better or perish

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Lossing his style
Review: Tom... please go back to the 2 year cycle. I would wait anxiously for the next Jack Ryan series and devour it.. fulfulled. Unfortunately -this tigers teeth has cavities.

To many coincidences (twins and Jack's son all on same team?) The terrorist were caught sooo easily. Yet in reality we cant catch Osama and Sadam.

Also - mistakes. TOM! mistakes. The knife at the end fell on the floor BUT on that same page, Junior takes it out of his hands? And the chemical would be detected by the man run over by the street car. This was FLAT... Kick it back up Tom - your involved in to much and it shows. see ya in 2 years!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A marginal effort that seems to be setting up a sequel
Review: I have been a fan of Tom Clancy for a good many years, but it has been increasingly more difficult to write favorable reviews of his recent efforts. I was hoping for a chance to write a positive review for his latest effort, "Teeth of the Tiger", but unfortunately, I can do no better than submit a marginal one.

With the past few novels, it seems that Mr. Clancy is scrambling to keep a hold on his loyal readers by adapting to criticisms from those of us who brought them forward. "The Bear and the Dragon" was a good story, except that it was far too long and was distasteful for the sudden proliferation of sexual references and innuendo not found in his earlier efforts. So, with "Red Rabbit", he scaled back the length and removed the sexual references, but the story took too long to get going. Now, in "Teeth of the Tiger", he shortens the book more, and surprisingly departs from Jack Ryan to focus on the "next generation".

"Teeth of the Tiger" sets up with a promising premis - that of an "off the books", covert intelligence operation disguised as a financial institution. Its mission is something that is wholly realistic and timely for actual, real-world situations regarding the war on terrorism. Mr. Clancy even presents an intriguing character in the form of Gerry Hendley, a disgraced politician who is friends with Jack Ryan and is head of the firm which Ryan helped establish. This is really where the positives of the book end.

The length of the book outwardly seemed to imply that Mr. Clancy would quickly set up the story, then kick the action into a furious, 200-page race at full throttle, which is one of his strong points. However, he applies the same plodding set-up that has been a staple of his previous, lengthier works. The result is that when the usual mad dash is supposed to occur, the story is still being set up, but due to page constraints, he sets off on an action sequence without tying up the various loose ends that he created. Worse, Mr. Clancy omitted some necessary detail so that the reader could understand how they made the link to each of the terrorists being hunted down. He spent so much effort getting to the killing of one terrorist, and suddenly they were killing other terrorists that were supposedly connected, yet there was no mention as to how they figured out who the target was.

The story also stopped abruptly, and left a big plot line hanging, as if to set the foundation for a sequel. This is not entirely new to Mr. Clancy's books, but this one was far different. In his previous novels, Mr. Clancy would leave a story thread out there that could be picked up in the next novel, but it wasn't necessarily so big that it demanded a follow-up. So, essentially, he created novels that could stand alone on their own, yet if Mr. Clancy chose, there were minor things that he could pick up and run with. In "Teeth of the Tiger", though, the dangling story thread was so large, and the way the story was so underdeveloped, it made me feel like this was the first part of a new "franchise".

As noted, the character of Gerry Hendley was the most interesting to me, and that is another problem with the book. Gerry Hendley is introduced fairly well, but then he is kicked back to near-obscurity for the majority of the story. Instead, the focus is on Jack Ryan, Jr. - yes, Jack Ryan's son - and his cousins, the Caruso brothers. None of these characters were very interesting. Mr. Clancy didn't develop any of them all that well, and quite frankly, the three characters are so generic and bland that I didn't really care what they were doing. I can understand if Mr. Clancy was trying to convey the point that these are young men, new to the "game", and learning the craft, but still...there is none of the magic, intrigue, diversity, and depth of character that he had with Jack Ryan, John Clark, and Ding Chavez. Mr. Clancy is going to have problems if he intends to carry on with these three as the future of his novels.

I honestly feel a little cheated out of a better story, and am a little upset that he so obviously set this up for a sequel. I have never felt with one of his Jack Ryan novels that he was trying to milk the reader for more money, but in this case, he seemed to be doing so in that "if-you-want-to-find-out-what-happens-next, buy-my-next-novel" sort of way. It is very disappointing.

I also wish that Mr. Clancy had stuck with Jack Ryan, Sr. as the focal point of his franchise. There seemed to be some more room to "play" there as far as potential storylines, despite the age of his franchise character. He also had some good room to play with his "Rainbow Six" crew, which was perhaps his last really good novel. To ditch Jack Ryan for his son as an attempt to kowtow to his critics - who thought a "youth movement" was needed to resuscitate the novels - seems to be a foolhardy adventure. If he doesn't think he has stories for Jack Ryan, Sr. or Rainbow Six, then he might be well-served to shut things down and focus his writing talents on other ventures (i.e., his nonfiction works).

All in all, "Teeth of the Tiger" is marginal at best. For those of you die-hard Tom Clancy fans that haven't yet read this, you would be well-served to avoid it. It will only serve to disappoint you. If you haven't already been questioning Mr. Clancy after the last few novels, you certainly will after this one, which is a pity. He is a great writer, but he seems to have lost his way.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Killer Serial
Review: This book is a great read but I found it disappointing in the end. It seemed like just another series is coming on just like "Op-Center" and "Net Force." I always found the previous Clancy hardcovers to be stand alone even though they two seemed to flow from book to book. But this one definitely sets the stage for a Jack Jr. series. This also makes me wonder if this is co-written like Net Force and Op-Center (or is it ghost written according to the rumors). Nonetheless a great read but I'd probably wait for the paperback next time.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: TigerBeat
Review: The fact that I am taking the time to write a review is a tribute to how bad this book really is. It follows the typical Clancy pattern of increasingly low quality fiction that began somewhere around Executive Orders and Rainbow Six, both of which look like stars compared to this book. Most disappointing is the utter simplicity of the book. It reads like a young adult novel-something to read in 7th grade or in high school if you are slow. Clancy has become arrogant in his writing. He is so in love with Jack Ryan that he allows for zero development of his other characters, including Jack Jr, who is constantly, and I mean constantly referring to his father, as do all other characters. Jack Jr's twin cousins are the most prominant characrters in the book, I guess, who both have the intellectual capacity of a sixteen-yr old, so why not send them into the field as your ultra-secret assasians. Forget that they are nearly identical in appearance, nobody would notice that. THE most annoying feature of this, and most of Clancy's recent novels is his repitition of himself. It's almost as though he has these key phrases like, "patience is a virtue," and about four others in this novel, that he wants to work into his novel, but either he forgets that they are already in there, or I don't know what, because you find yourself reading the exact same line, often by a different character, twenty pages later. I read that he fired his editor years ago and now edits his own books. If this is true, I would rehire somebody, anybody, to edit his books before they are published. I really wouldn't be suprised if he didn't write this book at all. It is short, simple, and bears little resemblance to books like Red Strom Rising. Did I mention that the title is stupid? If his is going to continue this pattern of low quality fiction, his books should really be moved to the Jr literature section of the bookstore. If I was in sixth grade, this novel would be an excellent read, but as it stands, it is not worthy of the time or money. The reason I am so hard on this book is because I used to be a huge fan. I can only recommend this book if you have a long airplane flight in front of you, but a magazine would be a better investment. Perhaps something a little more challenging such as TigerBeat or Teen People.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst book so far
Review: I've read every Tom Clancy novel in the Jack Ryan series and some of his non-fiction books as well. His last couple of books have been bad. He seems to have developed a taste for black-ops and he seems to go away from a little thing called the Constitution.

This book goes way beyond that though. This black-op scheme that he has developed has everyone related from some family member or marriage and there is very little character development except for Jack Jr. And that isn't that much either.

In the future, I'll read the reviews before I buy another Clancy novel.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Looks like half of a book
Review: This book looks as if it is the first half of a larger book, that was divided to keeps the size reasonable. I expect to soon see a follow-up book in which the Americans take on the real leaders of the terrorist group.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Peat and re-peat
Review: For those of us who have read all of Mr. Clancy's novels, the opportunity to explore one of his children is interesting. Wrong.
Arduous character development leads us to phrases such as, "Bro.", "jarhead", "roger that", etc. It would have been
to all of our advantages to hire a young journalism student to
write the dialog!!
How many times do we need to be given the explanation of a new
paralyzing drug and how it interacts with the human body. The repetition takes from the storyline.
Where is Jack Ryan when we need him? Not in this novel. Just
"Junior" as reference is made to young Jack. How many kids even
like the 'Jr.' handle?
And last but not least, the philosophical repetition of religious dogma, bureaucratic beliefs or why the central 'Company' was even formed. All of this just to fill pages.
After reading the above, maybe I'll change my rating to one star
in hopes Mr. Clancy's next work is at least interesting!


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