The Teeth of the Tiger

Rating:
Summary: Tom Clancy Is Back
Review: I set a new record with this book. I could not put it down. Like the title implies my appreciation of Red Rabbit was nil to none. Ole Tom was loafing. Like he wrote that one with one arm tied behind his back. But with The Teeth of the Tiger he came back full tilt. He is the king! His prose was back in battery. The discriptions were again crisp, readable, and understandable. Continuity was back. It is obvious by only one word misuse that he has now put some bucks into some good proofreaders.
Welcome back T.C. Keep 'em coming.

Rating:
Summary: Good book even if long in the tooth
Review: Teeth of the Tiger is a good read and in some ways makes up for the switching of villains from Islamic extremists to closet nazis in the Sum of all Fears big screen debut. Clancy relies too much on familiarity with Jack Ryan to attract new readers but keeps loyal readers on board. As a former Marine I appreciated the respect given to the World's Greatest Fighting Force by this latest work and am eagerly looking forward to the next installment. My advice to Clancy is keep the villains the way they are portrayed in the book when it shifts to the big screen as this book surely will.

Rating:
Summary: The Teeth of the Tiger
Review: You can't always hit a home run. So after Tom Clancy produced the dreadfully boring Red Rabbit, I assumed it was just one mis-hit and he would get his swing back. I was wrong.
The Teeth of the Tiger is so overwritten and boring that one has to wonder if Clancy has lost his touch or if someone else is writing under his name.
So little happens in the book that a good editor would have pared it down to 100 pages.
For Clancy fans, it is an exercise in frustration. Instead of the excitement that made his earlier books so enjoyable, Clancy wastes many pages with meaningless facts. Did you know that a Porsche has small trunk space? Clancy thought that was so important he mentioned it more than once. Did you know that the Mercedes' navigation system actually tells you where to turn? He mentioned this numerous times but never developed it into the storyline.
In the book, his old hero, Jack Ryan, has left the limelight and gone into semi-retirment. It may be time for Clancy to follow.

Rating:
Summary: Tom Clancy fans won't miss Jack Ryan (that much)
Review: Rating: 3.75 stars

I just finished reading The Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancy and found this book to be both entertaining and confusing. Much like Clancy's earlier work Red Rabbit, he tries to create a story based in our world rather than the Jack Ryan universe. If you are a die hard Tom Clancy/Jack Ryan fan you will be delighted to read familiar names and events, but you will also be confused. This is apparently the first of a series of novels chronicling "The Campus," an independent intelligence organization, the Caruso brothers, Jack Ryan's nephews, and Jack Ryan Jr. (I heard that Tom Clancy wanted to kill off his centerpiece character, Jack Ryan due to legal reasons, but apparently he couldn't do this, so he decided to introduce this new character) At first, this premise sounds like a desperate and stupid idea, but the characters of Jack Ryan's son (or "Junior") and nephews work well in establishing a new direction. Jack Ryan fans will noticeably see that his son is truly a chip off the old block.

As for the book, it is well-paced and not filled with the usual techno-jab that Clancy is famous for, which makes this novel easier to read compared to Clancy's other books. However, the ultra-descriptive narrative of an assassination weapon will leave readers in disbelief and wonder if such an item exists.

My only gripe is the frequent references to the World Trade Center and Afghanistan. I say this because in the Jack Ryan-universe where a nuclear bomb goes off in Denver (The Sum of All Fears), the Ebola virus is released in the US (Executive Orders) and missiles are launched at Washington DC (The Bear and the Dragon), I have a hard time believing terrorists would launch an attack on a country that survived all the above tragedies and is also headed by a President Jack Ryan.

The unbelievable coincidences and lack of twists make this novel borderline formulistic, I'm hoping the next installments will address this issue. For now, I will wait until the next installment to make my decision if I really like this book. But, for now it is nice to read Jack Ryan again, in any form.

Rating:
Summary: Without remorse: The Next Generation
Review: Before Jack Ryan left office, he established an off-the-books organization called the Campus. The purpose of the Campus was to identify and deal with threats to America. This is obviously the first book in a whole new vista of Clancy books or you could say it is the Post Jack Ryan Senior world.

The next generation includes Jack Ryan Junior and his cousins Brian and Dominic Caruso. Through different avenues, they become part of the Campus.

A word about the Campus, obviously, this is Clancy's version of the ideal intel agency - one not over burdened with stifling bureacracy, meddling oversight committees and cumbersome legalities. It is a lean, mean fighting machine.

The familiar Jack Ryan universe still exists, and it is referenced through out the book, but this is the Next Generation with an edge.

The Colombian drug lords and the Islamic fanatics make a deal to help each other out. This provides a quick entry into America via the sotuhern border, where they branch out to do their worst.

Payback time comes due, thus the book's title.

A very satisfying read, and I look forward to more!

Rating:
Summary: Time to Retire?
Review: I have read each of Clancy's novels and was excited to purchase this new one. However, I must say I am very disappointed. Clancy's characters are all new, the familiar ones are old and retired. The story is not fresh but rehashed from past stories. The plot is predictable and has no surprises. This is one of the shortest of Clancy's books. The ending is rushed and has no point. This novel is basically an introduction to a new series of stories that Clancy is sure to write. Unfortunately, none of the new characters are interesting enough to warrant another novel. Maybe it is time for Clancy to heed the actions of his characters and simply retire. If you must read this book, wait for the paperback.

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC! One of clancy's best!
Review: This is Tom Clancy's best novel since Executive Orders. Now I've enjoyed the past few novels but none of them have been this good.A new generation of heroes is front and center in the Ryanverse now. The main characters are Jack Ryan, Jr and his twin cousins Brian and Dominic Caruso. The novel examines the mind of the Muslim terrorist and why he does what he does so it is timely for our day. It also examines the minds of those who fight to protect the ordinary citizens from terrorism. There is not much action in the novel but the highlight is a shootout halfway through the novel.

Rating:
Summary: Getting back to the good stuff
Review: This is a better Clancy book. It's not Patriot Games or Red Storm Rising or Hunt for Red October, but it's a good one, and much better than Red Rabbit.

There are some parts where it seems a tough editor might have come in handy, as there is some dialouge that gets re-used throughout the book. Catch phrases work great in a 1-1/2 hour action movie, but this shouldn't read like a screenplay, which it does, at times.

I was slightly (underscore and emphasize slightly) dissapointed in the ending, but not enough to not reccomend the book to any Clancy fans. The ending most assuredly affirms that sequels to this will be coming. That's fine, but there isn't really a plot-arc; the book reads more like a first act.

It's a much easier read for non-Clancy fans than some previous books, but I wouldn't tell my mom to read it. I'm giving it four of five, as compared to Clancy books, not literature as a whole.

Rating:
Summary: Clancy's Worst
Review: After nearly 20 years of considering Tom Clancy a must-read author, The Teeth of the Tiger removes Clancy from that category for this reader. Rather than resurrecting the one and only Jack Ryan, we are introduced to Ryan's son and his two nephews, Dominic and Brian. These 3 are all hired by a super secret non-government spy agency, run by a former U.S. Senator who has a wall safe full of Presidential pardons signed years before by then-President Ryan. Question: Would an organization that is intent on remaining ultra secret hire an ex-President's son and 2 of his nephews? This is the premise of the novel and it seems absurd, as does the notion that all 3 become assasins. It is difficult to buy into a story with such a far fetched cast of characters. As our "heroes" travel around Europe bumping off terrorists, we are given a sort of travelogue of London, Munich, Vienna and Rome.These guys like the best hotels, Italian food, and fast cars. Its hard for me to believe that Tom Clancy actually wrote this drivel. I've read all 12 of his prior novels and enjoyed every one--until Teeth of the Tiger. Hurts to say it, but he's either washed up or in a very bad slump, sort of like watching Willie Mays at the end of his career.

Rating:
Summary: Clancy Abbreviated and Lost His Strength
Review: Tom Clancy at his best gives us a wealth of information, history and background to match the movement, excitement and drama of his stories. His novels usually ring true, compelling many an airline passenger to lose themselves in rapt attention to his novels. That is how this reviewer was introduced to The Hunt for Red October -- half of the airline seemed to have young men reading the same book with eyes glued to the pages! When guys don't even look at the attendants or female passengers, something good has got their attention.
Clancy has never minced words until this latest novel. This book lacks the depth and character development of his earlier Jack Ryan series or the efficiency of his Net Force novelettes . Although the subject matter is intense and relevant today, and the reader wants to cheer for the main characters, it falls flat. This is an outline of a true Clancy novel which needs a rewrite to fill it out into a novel worthy of the author's name. It reads as though a formulaic editor got hold in the beginning of the project and coached the master to write a "fast novel appealing to yuppies." The attention to menus is particularly striking. Every menu was included whereas character and plot were not fully developed. WHo edited this book? Even the syntax is unlike his usual novels. It does not work.
Even with a strong background in Clancy novels where the reader is familiar with the past characters, this book somehow does not even portray our favored characters with the depth and personalities we have come to know almost as well as we know our friends. The character depictions made in passing of familiar names suich as Ed and Mary Pat Foley don't ring true. Why would an author stereotype his own characters of prior novels just to add their names in this one? It would have been better leaving the references out as they do not ring true to the characters themselves.
Quick, formulaic mentions of favored characters almost does them an injustice as they play no significant roles in this book. Even Jack Ryan Sr does not seem like the Jack Ryan Sr we knew in say Red Rabbit, which was excellent, or ditto with Patriot Games. He was a complex and complicated character through his inner thoughts and his actions depicted in the novels. That development is lacking for Jack Jr, Brian and Dominick.
The characters in this book who are identified as the son and nephews also contrast widely with the character of the Jack Ryan we know. One cannot believe the man who valued life so strongly he even saw the human side of the souless enemies he was bound to defeat would have a son and nephews with any less character and conscience. It is all due to the brief way the characters develop short of experiences, inner dialogue and intensity so key to Clancy's work up to this novel. It falls short because it falls short of words! The format of one or two incidents just does not build the momentum we have come to expect from a fully developed work by this usually excellent author.
Overall, this does not read like a book by Tom Clancy at all -- yet most of the key elements are there. The plot is excellent and the ideas are sound -- it is the character development that makes this book fall short in pages as well as quality.
This is not Tom Clancy as we know him or as his best.