Rating: Summary: It's just sad Review: I, like most of the other readers, was extremely disappointed in this latest Clancy effort. The dialogue was horrible - who talks like that?, the nicknames of the twins seemed to be tacked on later, and the references to Grace Kelly, Maureen O'Hara, and Humphrey Bogart were just strange. There were too many unrealistic moments to even begin to mention them all (They'd never seen a Ferrari dealership before? - A son of a former President being able to slip into Vienna? This is the last Clancy book that I'll ever read - I'm donating it to the library.
Rating: Summary: Not worthy of Clancy Review: I was excited about the release of a new Clancy book because it's publication date was perfectly timed with a long planned and much needed vacation. But the more I read the more I developed the feeling that if I heard Jack Jr. start one more sentence with "When Dad...", or "Dad says..." I would throw the book into the Atlantic and go buy the latest Catherine Coulter!Besides the sin of being overly preachy, which is an unfortunate trait Clancy picked up a few volumes ago, this book is just BAD. The character development is childish, the plot is predictable and dumb, and the dialogue is weak (unless you want to hear the two cousins refering to each other in every other sentence in their cute little nicknames from childhood). Alas, if this is what we can expect from Clancy going forward then maybe he needs to consider hanging up his pen and enjoying the well deserved reputation he built up over the years. This book is not worthy of his talent - or your money.
Rating: Summary: Who wrote this? Review: This book had none of the depth and development of a Tom Clancy book. It reads more like one of the "created by" knock offs. I started reading Clancy with a Naval Inst. Press version of Red October, and love his work. I have never been so disapointed.
Rating: Summary: Can you hear me groaning? Review: I've always been a fan of Clancy, notwithstanding his lack of skill when it comes to writing dialogue. But this latest effort is too abysmal to ignore. Lines like "That's a roger, bro" made me groan aloud as I read the book. Add to that the weak characterization, lack of any sort of a satisfying ending, and an overly-simplistic plot and I can only come to one conclusion: Clancy mailed this one in for the bucks. Frankly, it's insulting to the people who paid good money for the hardcover.
Rating: Summary: Tom, it's time to quit... Review: Yet another entry into the "Jack Ryan Saves the World" series, only this time there are Ryan surrogates: the ex-president's son and two of his cousins who happen to be twins. This book is so bad, it almost beggars belief. It is slow, preachy, abysmally written (sample sentence: "Does not the Mafia know how to kill people?")and a complete waste of paper. At best this was a paperback thriller, one of the kind you buy at an airport kiosk, and once you read it, you leave it on the seat. This whole improbable story could have been told in about 180 pages or in a screenplay. At least had it been a movie, you wouldn't have expected a lot. Now think about this: supersecret "black ops" government entity, complete with undated presidential pardons for their illegal activities and the only assassins they can find to recruit are the ex-president's cousins?! And his son, irritatingly referred to as "youngster" or by his full name time after time, works his way into the organization "but don't tell Dad" and is just a whiz at intell work? Ah, give me a break. The full name business (which W. E. Butterworth aka "W.E.B. Griffin" does all the time and it's irritating in his books too) makes one wonder if the author is being paid by the word. Also, the twin cousins have cute little nicknames which they and everyone else uses ad nauseum The conversations are stilted, preachy or patronizing and frequently use first names, i.e. "Well, Bill, what do you think?" "Joe, I think..." you get the picture. No one talks that way. Bad writers, however, write that way. On the plus side, Clancy is very complimentary about the police and the military, although he really has a very, very, very simplistic view of how they operate. But kudos for combat professionals, whether on city streets or in Afghanistan, don't save this not so little (400+ pages!) novel. The book will sell, based primarily on Clancy's fan base, but surely their patience with this sort of stuff is diminishing. Surely Tom Clancy doesn't need the money. It's time to push back from the old word processor and enjoy past triumphs. Spare us all more of the Ryan saga, Mr. Clancy. Ernest Gann said it best in FATE IS THE HUNTER: it's all about knowing when to quit. If this is the best you can do, Mr. Clancy, it's time.
Rating: Summary: Clancy, Schmancy! Review: Tom Clancy seems to be running out of steam and it may be time for him to retire the pen. I have been an avid reader since Red October but I don't think I'll ever buy another book by him. This was the most disappointing novel and I'm just happy that I didn't pay the full price on the cover.
Rating: Summary: Good story, POORLY written... Review: I do not know what has happened to Tom Clancy. Either he was ghostwritten before (I doubt it) or is now, because "Teeth of the Tiger" is one of the most poorly written books I've read in ages. The dialogue is painful to read ("Gotcha, bro."). Bro, Bro, Bro your boat. You'd think he'd have read the speaking parts aloud just to to see if they sounded natural (which they do not). Clancy also repeats things over and over and over and over and over and over to the point of insanity. The "pen" used in the book get explained about five different times. Normally, you'd show us this once and then alude to it when necessary (as in "Bubba showed him how the pen works."), but no. Clancy has to beat us over the head repeatedly. And then, in narrative, he makes some statements... "The world is analog, not digital." Which is fine -- UNTIL he has a character use that exact phrase in dialogue. ARGH!!!! The story, however, was quite interesting. Unfortunately, there was really no conflict or risk to the main characters. As someone else said, it was all a setup for a sequel. Fine, I loved the cliffhanger in Debt of Honor. However, everything moves smoothly for "The Campus" and its operatives. No conflict at all. No sense of peril. Just, we want to do A and they do A. Time to do B and they do B. Then a lot of fraternal backslapping and cheerleading. Again, I liked the story itself and where he was trying to head. But after the negative reviews of "Red Rabbit" I think Clancy was trying to get back in the game -- and in doing so gave this half of his effort. ...
Rating: Summary: I used to love his books - he is now terrible Review: This book has a very poor plot & very little action. The book spends far to much time dicussing insignificant banter with Jack Jr. This is amaturish at best -...
Rating: Summary: Keep them coming!!! Review: Reading this book made me feel old. Now we have John Ryan Jr. It seems like only yesterday he was born. As a retired member of the U.S. Air Force, 17 years of which I spent with Special Forces/Operations, these books always amaze me. Where does Mr Clancy get his information? A lot of this items are still classified. I can never get enough of his books.
Rating: Summary: An improvement, but.. Review: The good news is that this is a vast improvement on the previous two novels! Set after Pres. Ryan has completed his term of office (about 10 years after the last book as a guesstimate) the focus here is on his son (Jack Ryan junior) and two of young Jack's cousins. Young Jack starts to dabble in the intelligence community while the cousins are trained up to become assassins, all of them working for an unofficial part of the intelligence community and answerable to no-one. It is a much thinner book then we would expect and does read like half a story and the start of the series. Clancy must have read that some of his views of Britain had not gone down well, so he is very nice about the Brits this time! There were aspects of the story that did not quite sit right, although set 10 years in the future, there was no sense that technology had moved forward or that anything really happened over the 10 years. Also an assassin should blend in, having a set of twins working together in plain sight would be inclined to attract attention, but there is no mention that anyone even notices or comments that they were twins! Thre is quite a slow build up to the main action scene which is in the middle of the book and, surprisingly for a Clancy, I felt no sense of tension or danger at any point of the book. Overall, not bad but not up there with the great Clancy novels by any means. I have to confess it came over as a little bit of a cop out, a thinner book and going back to the Ryan family. I think the time had come to move away from Jack Ryan (senior or junior) and to give us some fresh characters, but I suspect Clancy will milk the current lot for a while yet...
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