Rating: 
Summary: The Teeth of the Tiger
Review: This is the worst book Tom Clancy has written. Way too many paragraphs spent on what a person is thinking. I was very disappointed in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Clancy's new book
Review: The first thing to note about this book is the cast of characters. Clancy has decided to move on to a new generation and while this book is set in the same background as his previous works, no characters from previous books make an appearance. If nothing else, I commend Clancy for being willing to take a risk like this. But some fans will undoubtedly be disappointed by the absense of old favorites.The plot involves a secret organization set up by now ex-president Ryan to kill terrorists. But their mandate appears to as wide as they wish; at one point the organization's leader says he would have killed Hitler and Lenin when they took power. I wonder if Clancy would be in favor of Presidents Fowler or Clinton setting up similar organizations to carry out their ideas after they left office. Lesser plot elements like blank presidential pardons and twin brother surveillance teams also strain credibility and bely Clancy's reputation for careful research. As to the actual writing, this novel suffers from some of the same problems as "Red Rabbit" but to a lesser degree. There are still overworked cliches and pointless scenes, but both are fewer (and at 431 pages this is probably Clancy's shortest book). The plot is better and political preaching is lessened. On the downside the book relies on some coincidences that would make Dickens blush.
Rating: 
Summary: Mr Clancys Worst book yet
Review: Clancy was my favorite writer, until I finished reading "Teeth". Im sorry, but in my opinion this book is proof that hes just out to make a buck. Not only was it one of his shortest books yet, but it has to be his most boring and unorigional stories to date. Using Jack Ryan Jr as his new "Jack" is one of the problems. He way over used the phrase "dad would have", "dad did", "dad is" and "junior". Then, what are the odds of a new "secret orginazation" set up outside of the government but with access to more information then the CIA, FBI, and NSA combined recruiting and training two brothers with different backgrounds as their first agents. Ten their nicknames "Aldo and Enzo", arent these the names of the two chef's on the Maccaroni Grill Restaurant commercials? I also feel that the "Jack Ryan World" that we have all grown to love has gone too far. Lets see, off the top of my head we had two terrorist plane crashes, a nuclear bomb set off at the superbowl, a successful computer attack on our stock exchange, the assisination of our president and other high government officials that when combined, somehow got Mr Clancy (oops, I mean Jack Ryan)to the position of President. How many world wars were also diverted during this timeline. Then, to top it all off, it seems that he is also throwing in the fact that in "Jack Ryan world" the attack on the world trade center also happened as he described a person who is deceased because he was in "tower one". Damn, all that going on in one generation? And to finish my complaint, the story ends unlike any of his other books with almost a "to be continued: feel. It never got going like all of his other stories that have caused me to call in sick to work the first day the are released so I can stay home and read the entire book. I always buy Clancy in hardback the day it comes out, and then I get the paperback version when its released to re-read without wearing out my hardback. There will be no paperback of "teeth" on my shelves and it will also make me really consider waiting for the paperback version of his next book instead of the hardback the day it is released. One final opinion. I read his first op-center and did not care for it. I know he doesnt write them, just kind of throws his name on them for marketing. I really feel that the story line in "teeth" was just his own version of one of these books and should of been left that way. Come on Mr Clancy, lets face it, you are a great writer, but maybe its time to "retire" the name and world of Jack Ryan and develope some new characters (junior is nothing more then a way for you to keep yourself, "Jack Ryan" alive, kicking and fighting until hes 120 years old) Please dont continue this series with "junior" its all used up and I for one doubt I would read any more of it.
Rating: 
Summary: A new Jack Ryan emerges
Review: We all wondered where Clancy would next take his long saga of the Jack Ryan universe, and here's the answer: The continuing fight against Islamic terror, with his grown-up son ("Little Jack," who was only born at the end of "Patriot Games") winding up as part of a surprisingly organized new team. This is Clancy, so the good guys wear white hats and the bad guys wear black. You Howard Dean voters can go read Harry Potter or Hilary's book or some other kind of fiction. The rest of us, who have been following Ryan's world of action since "Hunt for Red October," will take pleasure in the details and the behind-the-scenes feel and the Clancy worldview ... a worldview that has proven to be remarkable in peering over the horizon to Sept. 11-style terror attacks and lightning-fast U.S. military successes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, to defeat terror, we're going to have to fight it on its own terms. And to do it right, the Tiger is going to need some pretty mean teeth. Clearly, this is intended to kick off a new cycle of stories with young Jack as its hero and the elder Jack in the background, just glimpsed in the shadows of this fast-paced volume. If you've enjoyed Clancy's Ryan saga to this point, you'll find this a satisfying addition to the canon.
Rating:
Summary: What happened to this book?
Review: The first thing any fan will notice is that this book doesn't have the heft one has come to expect from Mr. Clancy. At 425 odd pages it is half the size of Clancy's flagship works. Evidently Clancy is using this book as a vehicle to set up a new cast of characters, but beyond some marginal character development, there isn't much going on. Like everything he touches, this book is eminently readable. However I consider it a far cry from his better work. After reading the book I really wonder if there isn't a sequel scheduled for release soon, as the book honestly seems to end midstride, accomplishing nothing but laying the ground work for some larger plot.
Rating:
Summary: Teeth are getting a little dull. . .
Review: Well, I'm surprised that no one else has finished this book so far as it is relatively short for a Tom Clancy novel. I will also let you know that I have read all of his previous "Ryanverse" novels and have always been a fan.This latest outing details the stand-up and first operations of a new super-secret organization dedicated to hunting down enemies of America and dealing with them appropriately where other U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies are encumbered by such annoyances as civil rights, laws, and international treaties. Wasn't that what Rainbow Six was supposed to do? Oh well. The new organization, "The Campus", recruits Jack Ryan Jr. and his two cousins, Dominic and Brian Caruso. With the help of illicitly acquired intel from CIA and NSA, they track down the bad guys and try to do them in. Various interminable inner dialogues regarding the morality and legality of their tasks ensue until a bunch of terrorists acts first on U.S. soil. Then the team swings into action at home and abroad. I won't offer up any spoilers here for those who haven't read it.Now for the criticism. Mr. Clancy's action takes place mostly in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Austria, and Italy. In this respect, he appears to have dredged up whatever lingering observations he had about London life and Italian chaos left over from his research for "The Red Rabbit." The main characters are serviceable though Jack Jr. is the kind of egotistical, do-no-wrong, rich kid we all hated in high school. The weird thing about Jack Jr. is that, even for a rich kid raised in the White House, he sure is an old fuddy-duddy. He doesn't like modern music. He doesn't goof off. He doesn't have a girlfriend. He likes to go shooting at the Secret Service's range. At one point he even speculates that if a Ferrari were a woman, it might be Maureen O'Hara(!). Now I love Maureen O'Hara as much as the next guy, but what twenty-first century twenty-something kid compares a Ferrari to Maureen O'Hara? First of all, Sofia Lauren would be a better choice. Second of all, Jack Jr. would be expected to compare the car to a more contemporary sex-symbol. Basically, Jack Jr. wants to be just like his dad. It is clear that Mr. Clancy, like he did with Jack Sr., is projecting himself onto Jack Jr. As usual, Jack Jr. is a fish out of water, too smart to play by the rules or be a bureaucrat, but bored by the prospect of working in finance. He becomes an intel analyst but is then thrust unexpectedly into the ops world. We've seen it all before. Brian and Dominic Caruso are much more likeable guys with more mainstream personalities. But we are reminded over and over of their exploits in the Marines and FBI, how such and such experience prepared them for dealing with this situation, how the situation is nevertheless different, how they have honor, integrity, shooting skills, and the stamina to go for a three mile run at 5:00 am every morning. The other characters, basically Jack, Jr., Brian and Dominic's bosses, are totally forgetable.As for the ancien regime, Jack Sr., the former Commander in Chief, does not appear in this novel but is referred to constantly and almost to distraction. A few of our other old time favorite characters (John Clark, Dan Murray, and Robby Jackson) are mentioned here and there but none play a role and we learn some truly disturbing information about Jackson, which seems to be a completely pointless and even mean-spirited plot development (trust me, you'll know it when you see it). The bad guys are kind of lame Islamic extremists, but they are lame in the way that Islamic extremists probably really are (that is, they're lame like the rest of us ordinary people, except we're not terrorists). It is refreshing that said extremists are not the raving, scripture-spouting lunatics we usually see in the movies. Rather, they are often self-serving and even question their own motivations from time to time. Unfortunately, every single one of them has at least one inner dialogue debating whether the Prophet would have approved of their consumption of alcohol to help them sleep, or their use of tobacco, or their use of prostitutes, yada yada yada. In any case, the Islamic terrorists establish a mutually agreeable partnership with some South American narco-terrorists. The deal helps the former smuggle themselves into the U.S. while the latter are assisted in opening up a new coke market in Europe. The Cartel kingpin and his assistant are vaguely reminiscent of the villains of "Clear and Present Danger" and the cross-cultural terrorist collusion of course recalls "The Sum of All Fears."One of the great things about Mr. Clancy's previous books was his description of how things work (submarines, nuclear bombs, terrorist cells, the logging industry, the CIA, spy tradecraft, etc.). His last couple of books have had very little of that. They have explored how the human mind works. Unfortunately, this again has resulted in long internal dialogues about everything from morals and due process to whether the coffee is good in Rome to speculating on the efficiency of Germans (how old is that?).The terrorists manage to pull off a shocking attack on middle America. I fear that Mr. Clancy may be prescient here again as it is the next logical step in the terrorists' war on America. But it is hard to believe that it would be that shocking in the Ryanverse where Islamic extremists previously blew up the Superbowl with a nuclear bomb.However, this is where we really hit the wall in the Ryanverse. September 11 was a real, horrifying, tragic, and world-altering event. It changed the international political landscape as well as the way our government works, how law enforcement and intelligence agencies operate and how we all view the world. This day is only referred to obliquely in "Tiger". The war in Afghanistan is mentioned but there is no reference to Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, or the war in Iraq. The Department of Homeland Security is referred to a couple of times. But the problem with the Ryanverse is that there is no room in it for what has already happened in OUR reality. In the Ryanverse, Denver was nuked, Congress was wiped out during our war with Japan and India, Jack Ryan became president, and Saddam Hussein is long dead. How we can reconcile this with 9/11, the war in Afghanistan, and everything else going on in the real world is beyond me. This, sadly, is why the Ryanverse MUST be brought to an end. Clancy's books from "Red October" to "Clear and Present Danger", plus the prequels "Patriot Games", "Without Remorse" and "Red Rabit", all took place in our world and offered glimpses of the secret worlds of the CIA, the Pentagon, the Kremlin, and international intrigue. From "The Sum of All Fears" on, the Ryanverse books have been pure science fiction and have added little to our understanding of the real world of intelligence and the military. This is why fans have dubbed them the "Ryanverse", as if it's some alternate reality from "Star Trek." I had heard that this would be the last of the Ryanverse books. However, the novel ends abruptly and a lot of threads are left to be tied up. Due to the relative brevity of this book, I suspect Mr. Clancy finished about half a book and just decided to publish it. I am pretty confident that we will see Jack Jr. in action again.In conclusion, if you are a die-hard Tom Clancy fan and a follower of the exploits of the Ryan family, you should probably read this book. It still has interesting parts and a few action scenes. If you are looking for the armor battles and carrier group confrontations of old, pass on this one. If you are new to Mr. Clancy's books, pick another one. If you really want to read about terrorists and the U.S.'s attempts to take them out, read Robert Baer's "See no Evil" or the even more frightening if somewhat questionable "My Jihad" by Aukai Collins.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy Bomb
Review: Being a big Tom Clancy fan even with the last couple of books being somehat below par I bought this as soon as it hit the stands. First thing I noticed it was somewhat thin in page count but immediately cracked the cover and was soon beginning to realize that was going to be a big disappointment. Besides bringing in totally new characters all at once, the plot is very thin, non tech (unlike Clancy) and just a run of the mill jar head and cop going around Europe killing terrorist with no more prep than a 15 year old going out on Friday night. Save your money and pray that TC puts some real effort into his next one.
Rating:
Summary: Finally
Review: Finally a Clancy book that's not too long and has been properly edited! This is a great story, of course dealing with terrorism and terrorists and what we do about it set in the Clancy-universe. He introduces three new characters (Jack Ryan's son and 2 nephews) that I hope will be featured in future tails. My only complaint - the ending seemed as if he was counting words and hit his number and just stopped. Too many loose ends. So, Tom, please don't make us wait 2 years for the next book. Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: Improving, but not there yet
Review: Tom Clancy has rebouded from his low. "The Teeth of the Tiger" is an improvement on the dissapointing "Red Rabbit". Still, the books reads more like notes from an European vacation trip ( with a few deaths, along the way) , than the witty novels that Clancy produced in the late 80's and early 90's. I recommend the book for those Tom Clancy die hards ( like me ), but for everybody else, you can skip it.
Rating:
Summary: A New Generation
Review: I would actually give this book 3 1/2 stars. Clancy's latest installment in the Jack Ryan series introduces several new characters including a grown up Jack Ryan Jr. Jack Jr. and his cousins are part of Hendley Associates or "The Campus". This self-funded "government" agency which was set up with the knowledge of President Jack Ryan, fights the war on terrorism in a whole new way. The Campus isn't hampered by typical government bureaucracy and oversight and can therefore deal with the terrorist threat in a much more responsive way. Following in his father's footsteps, Jack Jr. is a fledgling analyst, while his cousins, the Caruso brothers, are responsible for taking the fight to the terrorists. The Carusos are "the teeth of the tiger", although Jack Jr. does get into the act. One plus for this book is that the plot moves along at a good pace because Clancy doesn't incorporate unnecessary technical details which have bogged down the action in previous books. I've read all the other Jack Ryan books and this is apparently Clancy's way of continuing the series. It will be interesting to see how Clancy continues the adventures of Jack Jr.
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