The Bear and the Dragon

But you bet The Bear and the Dragon is fun--over 1,000 swift pages' worth. In the opening scene, a hand-launched RPG rocket nearly blows up Russia's intelligence chief in his armored Mercedes, and Ryan's clever spooks report that the guy who got the rocket in his face instead was the hoodlum "Rasputin" Avseyenko, who used to run the KGB's "Sparrow School" of female prostitute spies. Soon after, two apparent assassins are found handcuffed together afloat in St. Petersburg's Neva River, their bloated faces resembling Pokémon toys.

The stakes go higher as the mystery deepens: oil and gold are discovered in huge quantities in Siberia, and the evil Chinese Minister Without Portfolio Zhang Han San gazes northward with lust. The laid-off elite of the Soviet Army figure in the brewing troubles, as do the new generation of Tiananmen Square dissidents, Zhang's wily, Danielle Steel-addicted executive secretary Lian Ming, and Chester Nomuri, a hip, Internet-porn-addicted CIA agent posing in China as a Japanese computer salesman. He e-mails his CIA boss, Mary Pat "the Cowgirl" Foley, that he intends to seduce Ming with Dream Angels perfume and scarlet Victoria's Secret lingerie ordered from the catalog--strictly for God and country, of course. Soon Ming is calling him "Master Sausage" instead of "Comrade," but can anybody master Ming?

The plot is over the top, with devastating subplots erupting all over the globe and lurid characters scaring the wits out of each other every few pages, but Clancy finds time to insert hard-boiled little lessons on the vileness of Communism, the infuriating intrusions of the press on presidential power, the sexual perversions of Mao, the poor quality of Russian pistol silencers ("garbage, cans loaded with steel wool that self-destructed after less than ten shots"), the folly of cutting a man's throat with a knife ("they flop around and make noise when you do that"), and similar topics. Naturally, the book bristles like a battlefield with intriguingly intricate military hardware.

When you've got a Tom Clancy novel in hand, who needs action movies? --Tim Appelo

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Good but not the best!, 2008-10-09
I think this novel is where Clancy stumbled. He as taken Ryan from being a CIA officer to President of the United States. I think that was too much of a leap.

But I think Clancy is trying to end the Ryan-verse series and the only way to do that, other than killing him was to make him President, which equals out to the same thing.

The plot of a China war with Russia is a very plausible one and this is where Tom Clancy shines, he created a very credible story, of corrupt Chinese officials staging a plan that will lead them, in their view, to a more powerful China and that would mean a war with Russia. The history between Russia and China is not the friendliest and that could mean at anytime they two could go to war, especially during the cold war era.

What I found to be very implausible was the ending, America airlifting Tanks that arrive just in time to repel China from Russia and a Nuke being shot down by Jack Ryan before it explodes over Washington.

But overall, Clancy does weave a good story and it is worth the 1,0000 page read.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Lengthy, but interesting - I recommend it, 2008-09-26
For President Jack Ryan, things have never just rolled along smoothly. After the Russians discover great mineral wealth in Siberia, the CIA discovers that China is casting greedy eyes to the north. America is in a race to block China from grabbing the wealth that is just across the border, but will they succeed?

OK, when reviewing books, sometimes you are with the majority, and sometimes you are with the minority. For this book, I am definitely in with the minority. I am a big fan of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series, and I really enjoyed this book. As with the others in the series, the author does a great job of running a number of parallel storylines, keeping each one interesting and avoiding confusion and chaos.

Now, this book has been criticized for a number of flaws, including its length, which is a valid complaint. Mr. Clancy definitely wanted to include many details and sub-stories, but personally I thought he kept the overall story interesting. This is not a quick read, and just looking at its fatness, you know you are in it for the long-haul.

But, that said, I really enjoyed this book. As in real life slower moments punctuated moments of exhilaration and drama. Many a time, I was totally gripped by what was happening, unable to put the book down. Was it totally realistic? Perhaps not, but the action and adventure make for a great ride. I really enjoyed this book, and don't hesitate to recommend it.


1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

The Typos Detracted From The Story!, 2008-06-24
A reel disappointment. Four a book to bee enjoyed it helps if it does knot contain sew many speling and typograffikle errurz.

I usually enjoy TC's books---but this one was indeed a disappointment. Decent story, but the typos and errors became tedious. Halfway through the book I started circling the obvious errors for entertainment value alone. Obviously the publisher opted to use an automated spell-checker because the book was filled with typos---some funny, but most were annoying and detracted from the reading experience. Just because a word is spelled correctly does not mean it's the right word to use! Next time the publisher might consider having real people proofread TC's novels.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Good but not great, 2008-06-21
As usual I enjoyed the technical aspects of Clancy's Bear and Dragon. And incidentally I happen to agree with his politics, and I think he was actually quite kind to a certain former President. I'm also fairly patient about cliches and over-workings. So I only have one real criticism: Even with 1,000-plus pages, this story ended far too suddenly. I hate it when it appears that the author simply got tired of writing. Several deliciously rich threads were left to dangle in the wind. So I might hope for a sequel, just to wrap up a few very enjoyable subplots, but I'm sure it wouldn't work very well. From page to page I enjoyed Bear and Dragon, and I always enjoy the pleasant fiction of former enemies being such close pals -- fiction only in the sense of so readily allowing massive foreign military assets to touch native soil -- but this book most certainly needed another 20 or 30 pages of closure.



1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Ugh, So Very Bad, 2008-03-24
So Clancy would have us believe the Russians would not have employed nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons to repel the Chinese in this scenario?

Maybe Mr. Clancy is not as knowledgeable about the Russians as his earlier work would lead one to believe.

The premise that Americans would be invited to help defend the "Motherland" is just the final nail in the coffin of the Tom Clancy legacy of good writing.

Save your money, or if you insist on reading this, buy the paperback version.

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