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Avg. Rating: 2.07
A Good Yarn - But Too Predictable
I have read all of Tom Clancy's novels. Since Jack Ryan in his later years solved the Arab-Israeli conflict, beat Japan, beat Iran/Iraq, beat China and saved Russia, he's run out of things to do as President. And, given that Harrison Ford has been deemed too old to play Jack Ryan, Mr. Clancy needed to go back in time to create roles for the callow Ben Afleck. Hence, Red Rabbit - a story from the Cold War, akin to the Cowboys and Indian movies. I enjoyed this book because I enjoy the characters - most of whom come from the other Ryan novels. Admiral Greer, Judge Moore, Bob Ritter, the Foleys ect. all populate this book. Yet the plot seems quite derivative from other books. Because of this, there are no surprises in how the story develops. I'd like to see Tom tackle a new area - such as Al Queda - with a new set of characters. Or as someone else suggested, how about a novel where Jack runs for re-election? For hard-core Clancy fans, Red Rabbit is okay. If you're just starting with Jack Ryan, I'd recommend Patriot Games or the classic Hunt for Red October.
Early Clany writing is apparent
This book takes places as a young Jack Ryan and really explains more on Jack Ryan's wife Cathy. I really liked how clancy put the suspense in this book, but certain parts of this book was a little slow at times, but the ending is great. You will be shocked at the ending of this book.
Slow and boring
I read this book only because I have read all of Clancy's other fiction books. This book was disappointing. It's as if Clancy has realized that in order to keep the franchise going, he has to youthen the character and return to the Cold War. Perhaps Clancy was hoping that this book would be used as the basis for a new Ben Affleck movie. Whatever his intentions, he failed miserably.The plot is boring and without action. What happened to the military genius that Clancy displayed so many times in his past books? He built a book around a story about a guy who wants to get out of the Soviet Union, and the resolution of that story was anticlimactic. There were so many things that irritated me about this book. Chiefly the fact that Clancy went out of his way so many times to remind the reader that we were in the 80s. So many references to the events of "Patriot Games". So many references to "I don't like to be called Sir John." So many references to his wife, the eye surgeon, cutting open eyeballs. (If Ryan was 31, Cathy would at most have been a recent graduate of an opthalmology residency/fellowship. Surely not experienced enough to be considered a top notch doctor with all these connections.) This book was irritating, and I was relieved when I finally finished it.
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