6 reviews for Red Rabbit
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Red Rabbit
by Tom Clancy
Description:
Long before he was President or head of the CIA, before he fought terrorist attacks on the Super Bowl or the White House, even before a submarine named Red October made its perilous way across the Atlantic, Jack Ryan was an historian, teacher, and recent ex-Marine temporarily living in England while researching a book. A series of deadly encounters with an IRA splinter group had brought him to the attention of the CIA’s Deputy Director, Vice Admiral James Greeras well as his counterpart with the British SIS, Sir Basil Charlestonand when Greer asked him if he wanted to come aboard as a freelance analyst, Jack was quick to accept. The opportunity was irresistible, and he was sure he could fit it in with the rest of his work.
And then Jack forgot all about the rest of his work, because one of his first assignments was to help debrief a high-level Soviet defector, and the defector told an amazing tale: Top Soviet officials, including Yuri Andropov, were planning to assassinate the Pope, John Paul II.
Could it be true? As the days and weeks go by, Ryan must battle, first to try to confirm the plot, and then to prevent it, but this is a brave new world, and nothing he has done up to now has prepared him for the lethal game of cat-and-mouse that is the Soviet Union versus the United States. In the end, it will be not just the Pope’s life but the stability of the Western world that is at stake. . . and it may already be too late for a novice CIA analyst to do anything about it.
About The Author
Clancy, Jr. (April 12, 1947 October 1, 2013) was an American novelist and video game designer best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science story lines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of his novels were bestsellers, and more than 100 million copies of his books are in print. His name was also used on movie scripts written by ghost writers, nonfiction books on military subjects, and video games. He was a part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles and vice-chairman of their community activities and public affairs committees.
Clancy’s literary career began in 1984 when he sold The Hunt for Red October for $5,000. His works, The Hunt for Red October (1984), Patriot Games (1987), Clear and Present Danger (1989), and The Sum of All Fears (1991), have been turned into commercially successful films. Actors Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine have played Clancy’s most famous fictional character, Jack Ryan; his second-most famous character, John Clark, has been played by actors Willem Dafoe and Liev Schreiber. Clancy died on October 1, 2013, of an undisclosed illness.
Skryf Review
“Amazing Reading”
Angaan
Tom Clancy is not, by conventional literary-critical criteria, a great novelist. But he is, without question, the novelist with the biggest ideological clout currently active.Jack Ryan, his cold war superhero (stockbroker, two-fisted marine, doctor of philosophy, CIA spook, president of the US), is battling on two fronts. The movie, The Sum of All Fears, out in the UK this week, has been showing on screens in the US since May. Red Rabbit will, for a certainty, be the beach book of 2002.It’s a feature of a sophisticated, ideologically driven country like America that its parts function in unison, without any formal instruction from above. Clancy, quite transparently, is preparing readers and filmgoers for war. The Iraq adventure, that is. In The Sum of All Fears, the American population is alerted to the imminent likelihood of a dastardly terrorist strike, and the urgent necessity to pre-empt it. In the original scenario, the terrorists were Arabs. The film was made before September 11 and the producers were prevailed upon, by lobbyists, not to demonise Islam. The villains were duly recast as European neo-Nazis. Same difference. Most of America thinks that Europe is comprised of anti-semitic liberal pacifists. In the fight to come, America stands alone.Red Rabbit exudes a terrifying new confidence. The Vietnam syndrome is wholly purged. America can conquer by virtue of its simple faith in God, its “system” and its cutting-edge weapons technology. Praise the Lord and pass the smart bombs.
Vishvesh
It has been over a decade since I have last read a Tom Clancy novel. Each time I think about starting one, I look at the thickness of the spine, take a brief look at the word count per page and then I slowly slide it back on the shelf in defeat. The fact that I also lean pretty far to the left politically doesn’t help things too much, either. For those who don’t know, Clancy himself probably leans nearly as far to the right. I found the characters of Ed Foley and his wife far more entertaining than Ryan. The pair are a husband and wife team of spies living in Moscow who discover the Russian defector (the “Rabbit”) in the first place. They were smart, funny and really quite charming. Once Ryan got involved in the main action, they essentially went away and were never heard from again, which was sad. I missed them. They could easily have replaced Ryan for the climax of the book, which I would have very much preferred. The book could still exist in the Jack Ryan universe, it just wouldn’t have Jack Ryan in it. If you are a fan of spy novels and don’t mind the slow pace of Tom Clancy, I would think that you would find “Red Rabbit” and fun and interesting read. I know I did.
Shrawan
Well, it wasn’t quite as much fun as Patriot Games, or The Hunt for Red October. The story involves a KGB communications officer escaping out of the Soviet Union, and the escape itself . There’s also a 1980s plot with the Pope and Solidarity in Poland and so forth that I’m not sure integrates as well with the rest of the Ryanverse. At any rate, it’s still an interesting read. Next up in my chronological reread of the Ryanverse: the Hunt for Red October. Now that should be fun.
Anupama
This book is based on the true experiences of a CIA agent named James Olson who was teaching in the Bush School of Government at Texas A&M University in 2004. I heard him speak at a State of the State conference here in Austin. Nobody in the CIA seemed to know where Tom Clancy was getting this information and he (Clancy) refused to divulge anything to the CIA. Per Mr. Olson, Clancy is, indeed, an asshole.
aashna
Well, the now famous but once well-rejected wanna-be author whose adventure The Hunt for Red October the Naval Institute took a flyer on years ago, and since then writer of thrillers that have rung more cash registers than the rest of us writers can even imagine, has again given us a gripping yarn. Once more we join Jack Ryan and his cast of modern characters in a high pressure, geo-political struggle.he continually shifts into the points of view of a multiplicity of characters. This lets us sympathize with, or at least understand, even villains, but sometimes one loses track of the story. In early books readers might have become confused about who to cheer for, who was the protagonist. Red Rabbit didn’t give me that problem, but then I knew most of the characters and their story weights from the sequels already read.Clancy has exploited his well-earned fame by issuing a plethora of non-fiction, some co-authored by recently retired general officers, and all bearing on military hardware and doctrine. One wishes he would instead sit at the feet of journalists, environmentalists, minority advocates — and bleeding-hearts generally. He might then see deeper into the world’s pains and try for a more nuanced art. Try for an American War and Peace, for example.