false 19687 31 Power is delightful, and absolute power should be absolutely delightful--but not when you're the most powerful man on earth and the place is ticking like a time bomb. Jack Ryan, CIA warrior turned U.S. president, is the man in the hot seat, and in this vast thriller he's up to his nostrils in crazed Asian warlords, Russian thugs, nukes that won't stay put, and authentic, up-to-the-nanosecond technology as complex as the characters' motives are simple. Quick, do you know how to reprogram the software in an Aegis missile seekerhead? Well, if you're Jack Ryan, you'd better find someone who does, or an incoming ballistic may rain fallout on your parade. Bad for reelection prospects. "You know, I don't really like this job very much," Ryan complains to his aide Arnie van Damm, who replies, "Ain't supposed to be fun, Jack."<p> But you bet <I>The Bear and the Dragon</I> 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. <p> 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?<p> 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. <p> When you've got a Tom Clancy novel in hand, who needs action movies? <I>--Tim Appelo</I> 5054713 2000 The Bear and the Dragon total:2728|5:499|4:920|3:928|2:279|1:102| 2728 9619 3366 83 1 2 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Fri Jan 04 07:45:26 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 04 07:46:20 -0800 2008 2 1 false false Sun Nov 16 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 10 21:03:57 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 16 16:37:54 -0800 2008 Red Storm Rising), decides to start a war with Russia. The Chinese are lead by a cadre of arrogant, out of touch oligarchs (Debt of Honor) who are un...more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jan 26 23:28:31 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 26 23:48:23 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed May 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue May 27 11:19:39 -0700 2008 Wed May 28 11:01:18 -0700 2008 I didn't think Clancy was consistent with the cause for this war. Was it over the gold or because of the killing of an American diplomat? There were too many im...more...]]> 2 1 false false Sun Jul 27 08:32:29 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 27 08:35:31 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Mar 25 12:09:28 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 12:09:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Feb 11 09:44:28 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 19 08:09:54 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Thu Dec 11 15:40:01 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 11 15:42:49 -0800 2008 1 Nuclear weapons misplaced, Chinese troops moving to annex large portions of Russia, kooks and meglomaniacs (and that is just in the US Senate :)
Jack Ryan has to use all of his skills in order to bring everything b...more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Sep 27 07:55:41 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 27 08:02:49 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 1 false false Fri Aug 15 20:05:20 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 16 13:32:27 -0700 2008 2 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 11 08:44:35 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 11 08:45:26 -0700 2007 1 0 false false Fri Sep 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 31 21:27:50 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 13:53:07 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Dec 19 18:29:27 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 19 18:29:53 -0800 2007 4 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 15 14:37:23 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 15 14:42:28 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Mar 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Feb 15 09:04:02 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 30 13:35:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2002 Mon Dec 03 20:58:12 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 03 21:00:29 -0800 2007 Audible.com

Narrator: Frank Muller
Publisher: Random House Audio, 2002
Length: 6 hours and 3 min.

Publisher's Summary
In The Bear and The Dragon, the future is very near at hand indeed.

Newly elected in his own right, Jack Ryan has found that be...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon May 18 15:36:16 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 19:00:48 -0700 2009
Finished this last week and it was a bit of a trial towards towards the end. I switched between reading it myself and an audio book so I could wade through it in the car on lon...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Feb 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 03 12:57:10 -0800 2009 Wed Apr 29 17:14:31 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Nov 11 12:01:36 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 11 12:07:17 -0800 2008 1
China looks north and gets a little greedy. They decide to invade Russia (post cold war) and take the gold and the black goal for themselv...more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 30 05:53:19 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 05:56:35 -0800 2008 more...]]>