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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
Loved it before, it grabs you from page 1. Good read in the aftermath of Osama Bin Laden. Clancy can be wordy, but I still love him.
I just could not get into this book. One of the only books I did not hang in there to finish.
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Después de sacarse un buen libro como Sin remordimientos, Clancy se deja llevar por la inercia y se casca un mamotreto de 900 páginas que meh. John Clark es ahora jefe de una unidad antiterrorista de la OTAN, ultrasupersecreta, pero cuya existencia conocen todos los gobiernos extranjeros (?) y a la que llaman para que les haga intervenciones en suelo propio (??). Clancy hizo una vez el guión de un videojuego de submarinos y este libro parece lo mismo: el guión de un videojuego en el que cada vez que matas a un jefe de fase pasas al siguiente, que es más difícil. Los personajes son planos planísimos y aparte del habitual holier-than-thou que nos imparte Clancy por defecto no hay mucho más que cerebelo usado en esta novela. Y sin embargo, se deja leer, que es lo que tienen las drojas, que sabes que son malas y sigues queriendo más.
Rainbow Six is a hold.
Overall Thoughts
As I say with many of my reviews, where do I even start with a book like this?
I grew up with Tom Clancy, and with Rainbow Six specifically. Before I ever knew it was a book or a series, I knew it as a videogame for the Sega Dreamcast. I remember it being SUPER difficult and liking that there was a character named Chavez.
Now, much older, Tom Clancy is a name everyone knows. "Clear and Present Danger" is one of my favorite CIA / spy thrillers, and Jack Ryan is a new series I like. Because of that, I decided to pick up Rainbow 6 and give it a shot because I've heard great things and wanted to experience something that has been a big part of my life for basically as long as I can remember.
Holy shit, I wish I didn't. Fundamentally, each section of Rainbow Six was great. Clancy can definitely write some great action scenes, and it's obvious he knows about weapons and consults on them -- but I'm saying that as someone that doesn't really know the nuances of weapons or the military.
I would even say that his plot and intrigue is good at the surface level, but the more you find out about characters and their motivations, the worse things get.
This book is, quite simply put, incredibly anti-environmentalist, full of homophobia, misogyny, and succumbs to poorly veiled racism. Let me break down each part here. There'll be some spoilers.
Anti-Environmentalist
The main terrorist faction in this novel are people that want to save the environment. I can understand where they're coming from - we're messing up the planet horribly, and this book does a good job of recognizing that we had a problem even way back in 1998 when it was written. But they go ALL OUT about it, and decide THE ONLY WAY to actually save the world is to kill off like 90% of the population with a virus, but they can save them and their friends in "the new world."
So like... not only do we take wanting to save the planet and make it extreme, but we also make the core beliefs of this group (that natural selection is good, and nature is indiscriminate) but then make them... cherry pick who they want to live? It's ridiculous.
With how much money and the amount of resources this terrorist faction uses, they could have just lobbied. Because if history shows anything, it's that politicians are super corrupt.
Homophobia
The book makes it a point to call out how Popov had no problem shooting someone in the back of the head because they were gay. So he's cool killing gay people, but lets just be ok with the fact that the "Good guys" let him live in the end because mass genocide is seemingly too far for him.
Why make the call out that those characters were gay at all, let alone the fact that Popov enjoyed / didn't have an issue killing them? There's literally no point; it isn't pivotal to his character, and you're not supposed to HATE him anyway. So why? Because homophobia sells to the reader-base, is my guess.
Misogyny
Why are there no women in Rainbow, and if there are, they are... secretaries or wives?
You can look anywhere in the world and see women being bad-ass mother fuckers the same as men. If you believe certain reports, having women to infiltrate where men can't is even MORE important in a shadow organization. But lets make them emotional baggage, or "things to want to go home to." Lets also make sure one of the villains is a women, and call out how men treat her.
I just don't get why Clancy seemed to write characters that could have been awesome, but threw them away. Malloy would have been a super easy way to write a woman into the book, as would have Noonan. But Clancy thinks that only "macho men" who "aren't pussies" can do something like the book describes.
Maybe it's a reflection of his time in the armed forces, maybe it's a reflection of 1998, but it's just stupid and made me roll my eyes at the 99 times he points out how macho everyone is.
Veiled Racism
This is something I'm noticing more and more in my books.
Ok, so we got Chavez, who is Hispanic, and mixed nationalities throughout the Rainbow org. But they base in England, and everyone is basically white outside of Chavez and the clear tokens from each country. Clancy even makes Clark call out how the Brits are running the majority of the show. In an organization where every country should be represented, there was a distinct lack of color here.
Plus, with the majority of the Brits, they simply say, "Quite." whenever Clark or Chavez or anyone else gives exposition. What the actual hell? They say more than 1 or 2 words.
The book isn't all bad. It just isn't very good.
Pros
1) The action scenes are wonderful
2) The way you see both the Terrorist POV and Rainbow's POV is pretty cool, but overdone
3) I love that characters from CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER are here, and their story continues. I didn't put the pieces together until this read.
Cons
1) Everything I referenced above; I won't rehash it
2) The book is 2/3rds too long. The first time you get: a) Macho men, b) evil corporation, c) random terrorist cell attack, d) takedown, e) what could we do better? It's pretty cool... but not 4+ times.
3) Clancy repeats himself over and over. How many times did I need to hear about Noonan's feelings on being a tech nerd and wanting to run with the big boys? Or Clark being unable to keep up with the guys doing PT? Stupid.
4) The ending completely undoes everything the book fought for - law and order. The irony was great, but... wow.
Closing Thoughts
I feel like 24-27yrs old would have been the prime spot to read this. I would have been mature enough to read through it, but immature enough to not see the glaring issues here.
Clancy isn't a bad writer. But why was this book this long? Why did anyone who isn't some hard-ass military buff dude seem bad?
There was just so much that made me go:
that it was distracting from the novel.
If you're a hardcore Clancy fan, read it. If you want some cool scenes, maybe read it? But be ready to want to skip 90% of it.
Overall Thoughts
As I say with many of my reviews, where do I even start with a book like this?
I grew up with Tom Clancy, and with Rainbow Six specifically. Before I ever knew it was a book or a series, I knew it as a videogame for the Sega Dreamcast. I remember it being SUPER difficult and liking that there was a character named Chavez.
Now, much older, Tom Clancy is a name everyone knows. "Clear and Present Danger" is one of my favorite CIA / spy thrillers, and Jack Ryan is a new series I like. Because of that, I decided to pick up Rainbow 6 and give it a shot because I've heard great things and wanted to experience something that has been a big part of my life for basically as long as I can remember.
Holy shit, I wish I didn't. Fundamentally, each section of Rainbow Six was great. Clancy can definitely write some great action scenes, and it's obvious he knows about weapons and consults on them -- but I'm saying that as someone that doesn't really know the nuances of weapons or the military.
I would even say that his plot and intrigue is good at the surface level, but the more you find out about characters and their motivations, the worse things get.
This book is, quite simply put, incredibly anti-environmentalist, full of homophobia, misogyny, and succumbs to poorly veiled racism. Let me break down each part here. There'll be some spoilers.
Anti-Environmentalist
The main terrorist faction in this novel are people that want to save the environment. I can understand where they're coming from - we're messing up the planet horribly, and this book does a good job of recognizing that we had a problem even way back in 1998 when it was written. But they go ALL OUT about it, and decide THE ONLY WAY to actually save the world is to kill off like 90% of the population with a virus, but they can save them and their friends in "the new world."
So like... not only do we take wanting to save the planet and make it extreme, but we also make the core beliefs of this group (that natural selection is good, and nature is indiscriminate) but then make them... cherry pick who they want to live? It's ridiculous.
With how much money and the amount of resources this terrorist faction uses, they could have just lobbied. Because if history shows anything, it's that politicians are super corrupt.
Homophobia
The book makes it a point to call out how Popov had no problem shooting someone in the back of the head because they were gay. So he's cool killing gay people, but lets just be ok with the fact that the "Good guys" let him live in the end because mass genocide is seemingly too far for him.
Why make the call out that those characters were gay at all, let alone the fact that Popov enjoyed / didn't have an issue killing them? There's literally no point; it isn't pivotal to his character, and you're not supposed to HATE him anyway. So why? Because homophobia sells to the reader-base, is my guess.
Misogyny
Why are there no women in Rainbow, and if there are, they are... secretaries or wives?
You can look anywhere in the world and see women being bad-ass mother fuckers the same as men. If you believe certain reports, having women to infiltrate where men can't is even MORE important in a shadow organization. But lets make them emotional baggage, or "things to want to go home to." Lets also make sure one of the villains is a women, and call out how men treat her.
I just don't get why Clancy seemed to write characters that could have been awesome, but threw them away. Malloy would have been a super easy way to write a woman into the book, as would have Noonan. But Clancy thinks that only "macho men" who "aren't pussies" can do something like the book describes.
Maybe it's a reflection of his time in the armed forces, maybe it's a reflection of 1998, but it's just stupid and made me roll my eyes at the 99 times he points out how macho everyone is.
Veiled Racism
This is something I'm noticing more and more in my books.
Ok, so we got Chavez, who is Hispanic, and mixed nationalities throughout the Rainbow org. But they base in England, and everyone is basically white outside of Chavez and the clear tokens from each country. Clancy even makes Clark call out how the Brits are running the majority of the show. In an organization where every country should be represented, there was a distinct lack of color here.
Plus, with the majority of the Brits, they simply say, "Quite." whenever Clark or Chavez or anyone else gives exposition. What the actual hell? They say more than 1 or 2 words.
The book isn't all bad. It just isn't very good.
Pros
1) The action scenes are wonderful
2) The way you see both the Terrorist POV and Rainbow's POV is pretty cool, but overdone
3) I love that characters from CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER are here, and their story continues. I didn't put the pieces together until this read.
Cons
1) Everything I referenced above; I won't rehash it
2) The book is 2/3rds too long. The first time you get: a) Macho men, b) evil corporation, c) random terrorist cell attack, d) takedown, e) what could we do better? It's pretty cool... but not 4+ times.
3) Clancy repeats himself over and over. How many times did I need to hear about Noonan's feelings on being a tech nerd and wanting to run with the big boys? Or Clark being unable to keep up with the guys doing PT? Stupid.
4) The ending completely undoes everything the book fought for - law and order. The irony was great, but... wow.
Closing Thoughts
I feel like 24-27yrs old would have been the prime spot to read this. I would have been mature enough to read through it, but immature enough to not see the glaring issues here.
Clancy isn't a bad writer. But why was this book this long? Why did anyone who isn't some hard-ass military buff dude seem bad?
There was just so much that made me go:
that it was distracting from the novel.
If you're a hardcore Clancy fan, read it. If you want some cool scenes, maybe read it? But be ready to want to skip 90% of it.
A fast paced covert operations action techno-thriller with a world ending eco-terrorist plot at it's center. John Clark is heading up an international terrorist response team that is faced with several early terror tests that lead to something much, much bigger. A lot of operational detail and information about weapons and tactics, as is Clancy's usual style, set up the action sequences well. The story does a good job of working previous Ryanverse events and characters (except oddly President Ryan) and does a good job building up to a satisfying, if a little bit disappointing, ending to this entertaining read.
Den Plot hab ich schon 10x in anderen Büchern gelesen. Laaaangweilig.
I read this for the "Military Related" part of my 2019 reading challenge. It was my first Tom Clancy and overall I didn't enjoy it. I found the first 2/3 of the book had too many characters to keep track of and multiple pages of gun details was unnecessary. The final 1/3 was good and I was actually interested in what was going on, but then the ending felt rushed and tied up too conveniently.
Clancy writes a nice espionage thriller, with just enough twists to seem fresh. You’ll want to root for the characters, but it might not feel genuine.
Full review at http://cheapblackpens.tumblr.com/post/12758338720/book-rainbow-six-author-tom-clancy-my-rating-3
Full review at http://cheapblackpens.tumblr.com/post/12758338720/book-rainbow-six-author-tom-clancy-my-rating-3