Red Rabbit [Paperback]

But this book was disappointing. It was strongly nationalistic, sickeningly pro-american (to be expected but this was too much - possibly done in response to recent american developments?), anti-communist, patronising, and in parts racist, whilst not providing much in the way of redeeming features such as excitement or suspense.

On the upside, it was interesting to read a theoretical "how this could have happened" story, but this was constructed more like a biased documentary than a spy thriller; the lack of real action or plot twists ensured that my most common thought was "So what?"

If you're not a Jack Ryan fan, don't bother. If you are a fan, you'll probably want to read it simply so you don't miss anything, but don't expect too much.

Personally, I'm going to use this book to prop up my broken sofa.

Also large bits of the book can be summaried as:-
Everything American is great, everything Russian is awful, everything British is somewhere between the two (but closer to rubbish). OK, Ryan and Clancy are American, so maybe that's forgivable especially given the political situation at the time.

However, what isn't forgivable at all is the terrible editing. There are lots of repeated facts and text...I don't know how many times I was informed that Jack's wife is a surgeon....maybe my attention span is much better than Clancy's average reader?

Don't bother with this book, you'll regret it.

Well, perhaps Tom Clancy has had an off-day or is toying with the idea of writing children's books.. either way this book is rubbish (and I'm trying to be as polite as possible), and I've never said that of any book I've reviewed on Amazon.

The story itself is a combination of fact (the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II), a conspiracy theory (that it was orchestrated by the KGB) and fiction (enter Jack Ryan... who I always think of as Harrison Ford due to his film roles). For those familiar with Ryan from other books, Red Rabbit is set in the early 80s, Ryan has an honourary knighthood (for saving the royal family in Patriot Games) but is not yet President (Executive Orders and thereafter).

So what do I dislike about this book so much:
- Weak storyline - as Clancy books go, there really isn't much to get excited about in this one. Once I got about a third of the way through I was convinced there would be another thread of the storyline to grip the reader but no, there was nothing.
- Where's the weapons and action? - A Clancy book without detailed description of weaponry, warfare and operational tactics just isn't a Tom Clancy book.
- Terrible writing style - I'm not sure why I've picked up on this but the style Clancy has adopted for this book is a bit like "Jack went up the hill. It was raining. Tomorrow would be an important day. "Hello, I'm Jack - do you want to be my friend?" etc. I know the writing style isn't the strongest aspect of Clancy's books but this is truly dire.
- Brit bashing - now, I don't normally take offence at this but there's a bit too much of it in this book... there's one point (and this takes nothing away from the storyline) where Clancy spends pages explaining how in British hospitals surgeons will pause halfway through an operation and pop out to the pub for a couple of pints before returning and completing the op. Obviously this would not be allowed in America, and Ryan and his wife are rightly outraged. Oh for god's sake... next he'll say us Brits don't clean out teeth, all have Mad Cow Disease and can't spell properly.

No, this book fails on all counts, it really is truly terrible. Oddly I will probably read the next Clancy book that comes out on the hope that this is the only lemon he produces, but you never know. I also think he should give up on the Jack Ryan character, as the John Clark one is far stronger, but that's just my opinion.