5 comments about Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces (Study in Command).

1. Some of the events mentioned in the book were not detailed enough for the reader to reach to the same conclusions that the author did. Maybe because I know these events and I some what disagree with him. But I can't talk on behalf of the people that are not aware of these events.
   I would like to stress that I did not rate 3 stars because I disagree with the author, a lot of other topics I think that he was spot on and could not agree more with him. The reason I gave him 3 because The author lost my attention in the middle of the book and because it is not TOM's best work.



2. Why this book? You can understand why they are called special forces not only commando.



3. The book is boring. Stiner is a joke. Clancy is a joke. Clancy has no military background so why is it that he writes so much about the military? Get a life Clancy. We don't want to read boring stories about pencil pushers like Stiner.



4. I labored through about half of this book, anticipating that it would begin to relate in some way to its title. The first part about the origin of SF was interesting. But it went downhill once it commenced with the biography of a former Green Beret without any special ops combat experience, and with only a very short time spent in that community. Stiner's command experience in the spec-ops world seems overstated in this book. None of the other numerous historical books I've read on spec-ops - many by the operators themselves - ever mention Stiner. Clancy seems to know what a good story is, but somehow completely missed it on this one.



5. This book is an odd mix of fascinating stories, boring detail about some irrelevent off-subject matter, and lots of other stuff piled into one. I'm not sure whether to recommend it or not because there were some geniunely exciting stories related here, but also a lot of junk that casual readers would want to skim over. Probably the worst part is that it's title is misleading, this book is not dedicated to special forces. It's more about what Carl Stiner did during his military career.

5 comments about Clear and Present Danger.

1. Clear and Present Danger is your prototypical Tom Clancy Jack Ryan novel. This one gets a sort of slow start and contains a lot of extra stuff that seemed unnecessary. The book was really longer than it needed to be an lost my attention in some spots. Minus that, the story and basic plot is one of the best around. The movie, as usual, completely butchered the story. I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn't mind a long read



2. A good read to a good book, I just wish that they had an unabridged version of it.



3. It's bad to wage war on drug dealers in South America?!?!?!?!?
   I wish Tom Clancy would do us all a big favor and keep his silly Libertarian views to himself.



4. If I had to describe this book with one word it would be long. This book goes on forever. It wouldn't be so bad if it were interesting, but long stretches of this book are very dry and boring. It takes several hundred pages to set up the story, and much of this is wasted on extensively describing characters and subplots that have very little to do with the main story.
   
   When the main part of the story is going, it goes very well. There is intrigue, suspense, exciting gunplay, and surprises that are typical of Clancy novels. But there is so much in between that the book as a whole drags.
   
   In addition, the discussions about the rape early in the book and the foul language did nothing to contribute to the story, and in fact detracted greatly from it.



5. I won't add to the already excellent user and critical reviews other than to post one nitpick observation:
   
   All the original novels in hardcover had "signature" fonts, artwork, and layout, and most importantly, the artwork was relevant to the story.
   
   A photo of two obviously much older F106A Delta Darts of the Montana Air National Guard, which have zero role in the story, is typical of the careless approach to the paper back covers. These aircraft technically were in service until the late 1980's before completely being phased out (which started in 1983), but have *nothing* to do with this story!
   
   It's not that hard to get it right, the original has a Sikorsky Helicopter which actually figures prominently in this story, not two second-line Firghters who come no closer to the story line than the Canadian Border. Even some stock artwork of a Tomcat would have made more sense!
   
   I warned it was a "nit", but given the number of people who read these books with an appreciation of the level of effort Clancy made to be reasonably accurate w/re to equipment, I can only ask, "Did he ever see this cover? He would have had kittens!"
   
   :)

5 comments about The Teeth of the Tiger (Jack Ryan Novels).

1. After an intriguing prologue, this book went nowhere. I read nearly 300 pages before anything remotely interesting happened, and then another 200 before Clancy mercifully found his way to an ending. Don't waste your time.



2. This was not my favorite Clancy novel, but it was still good. I liked it.



3. slow no much action. clancy never finished writting the book. i felt somewhat cheated



4. Another Spy novel by Tom Clancy full of international intrigue and suspense. It provides insight to the process of intelligence gathering and covert operations. The author's attempt to justify assassinations in violation of law came through to this reader as having a political agenda. The story is well written, however it is not one of his best works.



5. I read the entire book on a flight from Dubai to Dulles and I suspect that it wasn't even Tom Clancy that wrote it. It just didn't "feel" like his writing at all. He oughta fire whoever he hired to write it for him and take his laptop down to the beach and write us all a new version of it. It could've been a great story, from time to time I've fancied the notion of some rich do-gooder vigilantes going out and dispensing some justice to the idiots in the world and I was excited to hear that the idea had been incorporated but yeah, blah.Rabin's Turn by Scott McHardy actually did a better job of it than this.
   
   I think Mr. Clancy has still got some good stuff left in him, but it's gotta be the real deal. Somethings can't be outsourced.

3 comments about Tom Clancy (Three #1 Bestsellers in One Collection: The Cardinal Of The Kremlin, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum Of All Fears).

1. If your a Tom Clancy fan, This collection is for you. Included in this collection are The Sum Of All Fears, Clear And Present Danger, and The Cardinal Of The Cremlin. Believe me, this is one of the best collections of Clancy's works out there today! Definitely worth the money!



2. These three novels by Clancy were all excellent stories. If you are a true fan of Tom Clancy, do not let these take the place of reading the novels. However, I still enjoyed listening to the abridged version after reading his novels.

   Those new to Tom Clancy should enjoy this series of stories, as all of them are intriguing. My introduction to Tom Clancy was through an audibook, and now I've read thousands of his printed pages. See for yourself.




3. I have always wanted to read these books but have never had the time to. I bought these to listen to them at work and they worked out great. Tom Clancy is an amazing writed and theses are some of his best books. I would also recomend that you get Rainbow six on CD if you like this collection.

5 comments about Red Rabbit (Tom Clancy).

1. It was an ok read but I kept waiting for something to happen, it all went too smoothly. No real intrigue.



2. Of the Jack Ryan series this one can be skipped. If I read or hear "Rabbit" now it causes me to cringe



3. This is Tom Clancy at his best! A Regan-era cold war spy novel about a Russian KGB communications officer wanting to defect to the west. The bulk of the novel covers the planning and execution of the CIA plan to get the "Rabbit" and his family to the west.
   
   The abridged audio book was well performed with good Russian accents as needed. The abridgement was well done and the story hung-together-well. Yep, a must read.



4. This is an average thrown together Clancy novel. Does not focus on Jack Ryan, he is more of a bumbling ancillary character. If you skip this you will miss almost nothing in the Ryanverse. I read the book 4 years ago, so I do not remember the particulars , just that I was unimpressed.



5. A good story idea, but a mediocre execution.
   Worst, however, Clancy lost the bubble on Jack Ryan.
   
   There are inconsistencies in the character in his relationship to his previous and subsequent "history," but most notably in his personal character.
   
   Clancy seems to have decided that vulgarity sells books. Using that vulgarity in the character of Jack Ryan,, a Marine officer, has definitely cheapened Clancy as a novelist, and is a real insult to all Marines - officer or enlisted.
   
   Shame on you, Tom Clancy!

5 comments about Executive Orders (Tom Clancy).

1. I'm 1/3 of the way into this long (1358 pages) novel, it is a continuation of the Jack Ryan series as is classic Clancy. If you like his work, you'll love this one!



2. Clancy's quality shot downhill, man. This is where his books moved from entertaining, engaging reads throughout to techno-porn and drivel. Red October, Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games, and Without Remorse are his best ones, and the reasons are simple. They also provide a clear contrast with this book.
   1) The best, particularly Patriot Games and Without Remorse, are character and plot-driven. When characters develop, you can see it happen and understand the reasoning. They also don't solely fulfill stereotypes/archetypes, like the godless, moral-less mercenary terrorist. This loses that completely aside from Ryan and Ryan alone, and he's been developed plenty in the preceding books. I don't care about archetypal Indian Prime Ministers who are solely politicians and offer nothing interesting. I don't care about the aforementioned terrorist who is never even named. If a character arises that I do find interesting (IE Badrayn), I expect them to stay in the plot or at least have some resolution, not disappear halfway through when they should be central to the plot.
   2) They're not techno-porn. Part of Clancy's appeal has always been his realism, of course. The battle towards the end of this book is about a full 100 pages too long. Running through the minutiae of a large-scale tank battle without providing background on most of the commanders? Boring. Sum of All Fears is the worst about this but only in an isolated section - the techno-porn pervades this entire book and makes it quite hard to read, even for an engineering grad student.
   3) They're not preachy. The morality of the characters, fine, help explain their motivations. Discuss the problems associated with treating drug lords as criminals vs terrorists vs enemies of the state. This is where Clancy decided that he knows the solution to every political problem and his views are the only ones that make sense. Ok, rebuilding the government from scratch essentially is an interesting topic - doesn't mean I care at all that Clancy wants a flat tax. Red Rabbit is easily the worst in terms of this, but this book is where it started. Political drivel spouted from the characters fits - political drivel spouted from the narrator doesn't. You pick no-nonsense types to head your agencies and they push for new ideas - that doesn't mean theirs are the only ideas that make sense, unlike what is put forth here.
   4) The subplots are meaningful and tied together. The books aren't padded out (at least the good ones) with ridiculous plots that do absolutely nothing for the story. The subplot in this book about the Mountain Men serves no purpose whatsoever besides lengthening the story. They never meet up with any other characters, there's no evidence that any other pivotal characters ever learn they exist, and their plan amounts to nothing in the middle of nowhere. I can't believe the editor let this garbage stay in the story. Solely padding the story out.
   
   You can see the problems I have with this book. There are some interesting ideas, though - the reaction of world leaders to an untested new president who has never been scrutinized is intriguing. The political aspects are, also. There are way, way too many flaws here to overcome them, though. Clancy used to be able to spin a good yarn - Without Remorse is an excellent story and an excellent book. This is neither. Avoid this book if you haven't yet read it, and I can't say I recommend any of his later works. Stop before Debt of Honor, even.



3. Like Treason by Don Brown, which predicted Fort Hood, Tom Clancy years before that essentially predicted 9-11 with Executive Orders. I'd highly recommend this plus the novel's of Brown's Navy Justice Series for an insight into Islamic Terrorism.



4. Tom Clancy is one of my favorite authors, however my enjoyment of this book was marred by errors I took to be typos at first. Then, remembering my own OCR experiences, I realized that when there was an lc where there was supposed to be a k it was an OCR error. Similarly, a lot of the e's were changed to c's or c's to e's - it was a bit annoying. Love the Kindle - hate the errors. To sum up - 5 stars for the book, three stars for the Kindle edition.



5. Good novel, but extremely poorly published......at least in the Kindle edition. The text appears to have been optically scanned.....as "1" (numeral one) is extremely often used in place of "I" (capital i). Spelling errors of the same character name appear often. Didn't anyone proofread this thing???

5 comments about Without Remorse (Tom Clancy).

1. What makes this book a treat is all the technical information that goes into it. I'm not a soldier, weapons expert, or engineer, so I found the plethora of information a bit overwhelming, but I did come away having learned a few new things. The fact that this book is so well-researched gives a solidity to the novel that utilizes this information to tell us what is going on and what is being used. This was my first Tom Clancy book, and I was not disappointed at all. This tale of revenge and the man who metes it out rather meticulously - can't help but admire Tom Clancy for detail - made for a very enjoyable read. I do feel that the ending was just a bit cheesy (I shan't spoil it for you) but it was overall solid and satisfying. Two thumbs up!



2. I used to read Clancy's novels, such as "Red October" and "Clear and Present Danger," then lost interest as he became more technically minded and lost some of the heart behind his storytelling. Nevertheless, fellow readers have insisted for years that I need to read "Without Remorse." I finally dove into the story on a long flight--and without remorse!
   
   Clancy goes further back in time in this story than in any other, visiting the years of the Vietnam war and burgeoning drug trade on the streets of Baltimore. John Kelly, later known as the infamous Mr. Clark, is the lead character. Clancy readers are familiar with him from Jack Ryan books, but this novel is all Kelly's. It starts with him in mourning over the loss of his pregnant wife, then gives him a chance at a new life when he picks up an alluring, yet darkly mysterious, woman alongside the road. That fateful decision will bring him love and peace, as well as deep anger and violence.
   
   As Kelly sets out on a path of vengeance, hunting down despicable men on the streets of Baltimore, he also trains for a mission to rescue American pilots from a Vietnamese POW camp. These two stories converge, with Kelly at the center. Not all will go as planned. And we will understand why, where, and how "Mr. Clark" became the feared CIA agent in later (chronologically) books.
   
   Clancy focuses on the human story here, and it's a potent formula when bolstered by his weapons and military knowledge. This ranks up there with some of my all-time favorite action novels, and certainly ranks as my favorite Clancy title.



3. 'Without Remorse" is what I like best about Clancy's stories. Intense, a touch of danger, good characters, a real feel to the details. This one kept me reading past my 'bedtime'.



4. i like clancys stuff and this was enjoyable for me i listen to it on trips down road in truck



5. This is by far my favorite Clancy book, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Jack Ryan series, or anyone with an interest in military fiction. It is definitely a 4-5 star book.
   
   The reason that I give it 3 stars is the Kindle conversion. The formatting is just not professional enough for a Kindle book priced at $6-$7. There are a LOT of misspelled words, and many of them aren't even properly-spelled but wrong words -- they are just gibberish. Also, Clancy makes heavy use of italicized text, which the Kindle version tends to munge up. If it was one or two, I could live with it, but it's at least one every few pages, and some have so many that it distracts from the story.
   
   Summary: great story, fantastic writing, just a horrible editing job in the Kindle version.

5 comments about The Bear and the Dragon (Tom Clancy).

1. A pathetic, narcissistic excuse of a story line with cardboard characters. The storyline is entirely unbelievable...all good ideas are from one side, all sagacious leaders are from one side, all heroes are from one side, all mistakes are from the other side... I suppose the claptrap about the weapons may interest some but anyone looking for a realistic description of international intrigue by evenly matched players is wasting his time here...



2. I'm actually surprised, given all the insightful reviews here, that no one else is irked by his characters' "Hollywood" dialogue. As much as I admire Tom Clancy's story development and research, his characters' conversations are stilted and 1950s Hollywood. In his earlier novels, his work has been a sort of antithesis to Stephen King's universe: in Clancy's world, all men are overachievers, Decidedly Republican, and if not in possession of a Master's Degree, most assuredly working on one! Conversely, in King's realm, all men are drunks, given to child molestation, and of course had abusive parents! But I'll give it to Stephen King: his characters' dialogue is so true to life as to be, well, a bit scary. Contrast that with a typical exchange between Clancy's ongoing protagonist Ryan and his wife:
   "Hi, Honey. Do anything today?"
   "Went to the mall. Didn't buy anything."
   "Bargains?"
   "Didn't see any. Came on home."
   Earth to Tom: having spent a few years in the United States Army, I can confidently say that there are very few guys in or out of the military that actually talk that way ( clipping pronouns and articles in speech )...and absolutely NO females I've encountered that do it! However,
   like so many avid Clancy readers, I absolutely love his meticulous attention to detail ( Earth to Stephen King: stay away from the military and UFOs!! ). Nobody does his research quite like Tom Clancy ( although I've always thought the Late Michael Crichton came very close, plus some very realistic conversations between his characters ). So I too was disappointed with this gargantuan effort. As to political leanings, the not-so-subtle digs at the Clinton administration didn't surprise me, although I also wondered just who, other than President Fowler in Clancy's universe, represented the token Liberal Democrat...Clancy probably would like to go back and reissue his novels, substituting Fox News in place of every reference he made to CNN.
   One more point on the dialogue critique, Mr. Clancy: Please stop assigning stereotypically poor grammar to enlisted folks! I've met more than a few NCOs throughout my tenure in the U.S. military with very eloquent speech...and quite a few officers who were never taught the finer points about employing double negatives in speech, much less pronoun/antecedent agreement. Characters in Clancy's universe fall into one of two categories: Overachievers ( the vast majority of every American he introduces, along with his educational resume ), and the token wino/terrorist/criminal. Where are ordinary, average people in Clancy's world? Nary a store manager or public school teacher is introduced. Oh, they live; just working out their underachieving lives as best they can...but, in Navy parlance, just "below the radar".
   If you approach a Clancy novel as one more platform for Tom showing the world just how smart he is, you won't usually be disappointed...I only wish he could find a way to be less didactic about it ( something Mr. Crichton achieved in virtually every one of his novels ). And one final note, Mr. Clancy: very, very few people actually "chuckle" anymore. Most of us Laugh, sometimes Uproariously!



3. Bonzo! Dead Eye! Fire Away! This sequel to "Executive Directions" is dyanmite! No movie could ever do justice to the multi-layered dynamo of War, Espionage, and International Intrigue. What a whale of a story! So fast-paced that it leaves you on the edge of your seat! No other work of fiction on current issues on war and intrigue could ever match this! A complete course in international relations--- all contained in this incredible book! Tom Clancy is a national asset! Politicians and military alike could benefit from this master genius with so much awareness and depth from whom we all could learn so much!



4. I have to admit that I've seen better from Mr. Clancy. It was a long book, maybe he gets paid by the word now? - and there were several issues of repeated phrasing. Then again, I think I would run out of new things to say after a thousand pages as well.
   
   However, there are some things that people take for granted. Of course the plotline is going to be a bit unbelievable. The problem with big global-spanning action is that it would be too unbelievably complex as issues and events would take years to unravel to their final conclusion. Things that begin in the beginning of the book are all neatly wrapped up by the end. Unrealistic perhaps but not surprising.
   
   Clancy is a man who has his opinions about people and those best suited to run countries and which ones are worst. That being said, I'm convinced there aren't ten people in the world that don't have their own (likely dissimilar) views who lack but the forum to share them. Would they stop themselves if they had the chance? I doubt it.
   
   In short, it's a decent book. Worth the read, but nothing to get too excited for.



5. Bought the book in a used-book sale a few years ago, and thought I'd finally read it. Too much narrative, not much dialogs. But I kept reading it until the author starts to write about the Chinese, and then I skimmed it to find more ignorant and racist remarks, some of those came out from the mouth of Jack Ryan, a character I'd liked before. I don't think I'm going to read another book by Tom Clancy. As for this one, it is not worth the 50c I paid and belongs to the trash can.

5 comments about Rainbow Six (Tom Clancy).

1. I read this book about 7 years ago so forgive me for missing the details. Here is what I remember. This book blew me away so ferociously that the next week we went out of town and I stopped at a used bookstore and bought every hardcover Tom Clancy book they had on their shelves.
   
   The pace, intensity, and tension were so satisfyingly crafted that I just assumed that I would be as satisfied by the rest of his work, and for the most part I have been.
   
   This novel is about Rainbow, and international group of counter terrorist agents who are set against a group of environmentalist terrorists who see human life as the ultimate scourge on the planet and the human race must be destroyed ... i found the book to be fascinating.



2. This is an ok novel, but not as good as clancy's earlier work. However, if you check out some of the "lunitic fringe" websites and then look at who President Obama has as some of his un-vetted czars such as Science Advisor, Dr. John P. Holdren, Regulatory Czar Dr. Cass Sunstien (Obama's good buddy, or Dr. Zeke Emanuel you have to wonder what the hell is really going on? Art (i.e. the Rainbow Six novel)is being imitated by life. Dr. Holdren helped Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne H. Ehrlich with their "population bomb" doom and gloom books back in the 70's. Check out Sunstein's buddy, Bioethics Dept (Eugenics) Chair Dr Peter Singer, or Dr. Anitra Thorhaug, President the Club of Rome - American Chapter. Take the time and read up on these folks and the Club of Rome, the founders of the envirormental movement and you will see these are really scary people... (For more on the founding of the Modern Enviormental Movement see ecellent "Memoirs of a Boffin" Chapter 13: The Club of Rome, by J. Rennie Whitehead available online at [...].) They are not just obscure acedemics in the irory tower andymore, but sit at the right hand of power. Maybe they could get cameo roles when Rainbow Six comes out as a movie next year! Maybe we could have the intrepid Rahm or "Dr Stangelove like" Zeke call up their Hollywood "Super Agent" brother Ari Emanuel and hook them up! Remember the words of Hamlet and Horatio in scene one, ghost scene:
   
   Hamlet:
   Swear by my sword
   Never to speak of this that you have heard
   Ghost:
   [Beneath] Swear by his sword.
   Hamlet:
   Well said, old mole, canst work i' th' earth so fast?
   A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.
   Horatio:
   O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
   Hamlet:
   And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
   There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
   Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
   Hamlet Act 1, scene 5, 159-167



3. Has anyone been able to find this in unabridged audio, I was about to purchase and realized it was abridged. ; ;



4. Listened to this on a long trip back from Washington state. Chilling story, well done!



5. This book describes the odyssey of former KGB agent Popov to make enough money for a safe and comfortable existence in the Western world. Popov undertakes a nebulous job for a rich corporate scientist. The nature of the job, which involves setting up terrorist attacks, puts him at odds with a new "world police" organization, Rainbow 6. As Popov learns more about the organization that is paying him a generous salary and other "bonuses", he needs to make a choice...

5 comments about Debt of Honor (Tom Clancy).

1. The book itself - well, you love clancy or hate him. This is a favorite of mine.
   
   This review addresses the Kindle version however - be warned. The converter has added double spacing - essentially a paragraph break - between every sentence. This is doubly frustrating due to Clancy's use of short sentences during conversations; kindle readers will have about 7 sentences per page, and be flipping pages twice as often as they need to. Hopefully, they will fix.



2. This is the book that leads into Executive Orders and is a must read before you can read that. Very detailed and complicated but extremely interesting.



3. My lower jaw hit the floor when I finished this one. On 9/11, when I got to class and saw what had happened, I could hear clearly the voice of Tom Clancy saying on the Today show when he was plugging the sequel that every intelligence agency in America said they loved it but that they didn't have a contingency plan for the ending. This is the book I would recommend to everyone even if they hate thrillers.



4. Once again Tom Clancy has given us a novel of truth and fiction. How much of each is let to the reader and their reasoning and fantasy.



5. By far, an excellent novel worth keeping to read again in the future. Tom Clancy's novels are all terrific, well written, and seemingly real, but this one is very near the top of the list of his very best, worth every penny.