Red Rabbit (original 2002; edition 2003)

This was an extremely disappointing book. I have liked Tom Clancy in the past but I could hardly force myself to finish this book. The plot of this book could have been completed in 200 or less pages. There was a lot of unnecessary "filler" and I had a really hard time with the Rabbit's wife being so complacent and willing to unthinkingly "obey" her husband. I had a very hard time believing a lot of the characters and their actions in this book. ( )

This book flowed along pretty well up until the ending. I felt that Clancy grasped the reader well, but then rushed the last two chapters. I am trying to read the Jack Ryan novels in chronological order so this novel was the third novel that I have read. I can say that this was not his best work so far. ( )

Brilliant. Couldn't put it down. ( )

NIL

A decent story featuring the Jack Ryan character. In re-reading this novel, I found myself a little bored with the manner in which Clancy throws around his knowledge of various Russian historical figures. There's a major tendency for him to refer to these historical characters with their relatively unknown middle names, which comes off in a "know-it-all" manner and actually does detract from the story for me. Furthermore, his pacing is excruciatingly slow...enough so that you would swear that the Russians were trying to torture you (the reader) for state secrets. Originally, I gave this novel three stars - I dropped this down to two stars from this re-reading. In retrospect, definitely not a novel I would recommend to anyone other than a die-hard Clancy fan. ( )