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Liked It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “'Red Rabbit', a book about a defecting KGB agent during the Cold War, was a fantastic book. There was not one single word that I didn't read with great enthusiasm. This book increased by love for Tom Clancy by quite a lot. The amazing manner in which Clancy wrote the book creates great mental...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “What a disappointment! Tom Clancy's books used to be real nail biters, but this one is just a sleeping pill. This has all of his worst writing habits amplified and without a decent plot to ameliorate the tedium. I don't think he's actually writing anymore. I think he just came up with a...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Very Enjoyable Just petered out towards the end.”
Keith Barraclough wrote this review Tuesday, April 17, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“What a difference a lot of hindsight makes.It was my first and probaly last Tom Clancy.Every single american in this book is super competent,super sagacious,can plot out the future events of soviet history in the most precise detail,and all in all are almost superhuman.I was continually annoyed at the patronising tone about the rest of the world,none of whom were shown as more than semi-competent.While the americans were supermen,the brits were bumbling around,and the book gave a bashing to almost everything british except the bacon!.The National Health service was derided,the only doctors were two drunkards who left their patient halfway through the operation to go for a drink.The Hungarians,oh well,the american spies didnt wash that morning,so that they could pass as Hungarian workmen.A whole nation tossed aside as dirty and unwashed.
dustydigger wrote this review Sunday, August 14, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The Italians? Ryan's smug wife Cathy seriously states that its possible that Italy may have a few competent doctors,but wishes the Pope had the services of brilliant american surgeons!
But Clancy's opinions of the Russians! Whereas every single american is saintly,every Russian is venal,cold,selfserving,and totally focused on getting western goods.Mary Pat,american spy is totally scathing of evrything russian-even the furs are not as good as US furs,even before they are sloppily sewn.Really.I never knew even US animals were superior to russian ones.
Even american spies are angelic,they gave up killing spy opponente years ago,and even at the end of the book,they hand over the spy,of COURSE captured by Ryan,to the british,who then murder him after 2 hours questioning.
No wonder the american armed services adore Clancy,he shows americans as the saviours of the world,so he is their poster boy.As I said at the beginning,everything is wonderful with 20 years hindsight.But it made me smile as Ryan seriously pontificates about the russians failure in Afghanistan,This book was written probably in 2001,and 10 years of american failure to cope with Afghanistan was still in the future.Not so wise and clearsighted with no hindsight,was he.
No,this book seiously infuriated me with it patronising attitude,smug belief that America is the greatest in every sphere of life.Couldnt some of the american characters have had at least a few human flaws,or made a couple of mistakes?I am more used to Len Deighton and John Le Carre where everyone is flawed,there is rarely a victorious outcome,and the whole murky world is one of rather sad depression.This whole book seemed a sort of updating of Ian Flemings ludicrous hyping of the british secret service,which other brit writers spent decades knocking down.Clancy just seems to have modernised the whole thing,but from an american perspective”
“I liked the story plot, but Jack Ryan seemed whiney in this book. Yikes!”
Jolene B. wrote this review Saturday, July 2, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“average, typical Tom Clancy”
Mike D wrote this review Friday, October 29, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“One of my favorites”
John W wrote this review Saturday, October 2, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“What a disappointment! Tom Clancy's books used to be real nail biters, but this one is just a sleeping pill. This has all of his worst writing habits amplified and without a decent plot to ameliorate the tedium. I don't think he's actually writing anymore. I think he just came up with a two-paragraph synopsis and fed it into a "ClancyBot" computer in his basement, then took the 600 pages it spit out straight to the publisher-- who apparently is afraid to offend its cash cow by actually editing him. Does Clancy really think we all love Jack Ryan so much that we want to hear what he has for breakfast every day? The most mundane of activities are compulsively related as if they have anything to do with an interesting story. I'm surprised he was able to restrain himself from transcribing the actual one-time pads that were used to encrypt the Russians' coded messages. This is a book where one little thing happens and we then are forced to read ten pages of different characters musing about how the event fits into their personal philosophies before the next little thing happens to inch the plot along. And it's so repetitive. How many times do we have to read about how Ryan's wife Cathy "cuts people's eyeballs" for a living, or how Ryan hates being called "Sir John" because he "doesn't own a horse or a steel shirt"? Annoyingly, Clancy decided that it was cute to spell "pshrink" with a p, and he repeats it like twenty times throughout the book. It's a sad day: the former master of the techno-thriller has managed to barf up a book that has minimal techno and NO thrills.”
Alex R wrote this review Friday, August 6, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Kept me motivated to stay on the bike for 27 hours to listen to it. Ahhh... the cold war and the 80's...”
Wayne W wrote this review Monday, June 7, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Took me like a year to finish this book. I find Clancy's dialogue to be somewhat middling and he loves using descriptions like "exclaimed" or "retorted" instead of letting the dialogue itself give you the emotion behind it. I hate that. It's very distracting to me as a reader. There are also a LOT of characters with a LOT of backstories and it really takes a while for the plot to get going (the book should have been much shorter than it is). And I kept expecting a climactic action scene before the ending but the "climax" was over and done relatively quickly and rather anti-climactically (especially for a 600 page book).
Jeremy M wrote this review Friday, April 30, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
That said, this is a Jack Ryan novel and it's hard to hate when you envision Harrison Ford while reading.”
“Thought it was a little plodding. Of course, haven;t read Tom Clancey in a long time and decided to give him another go with this audio book. It was fine, but now seemed really dated with the Russians being the bad guys.”
powderhorngreen wrote this review Monday, April 26, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
