Red Rabbit

I'm re-reading the Ryan books in chronological order and this book suffers greatly being placed between Patriot Games and The Hunt for Red October. Aside from mixing up character traits (Cathy wants a nanny in Patriot Games then suddenly doesn't in Red Rabbit), Clancy's personal interjections keep pulling me out of the narrative: every citizen of a NATO country fawns over Reagan and Thatcher; the UK's National Health Service is an irredeemable socialist disaster; journalists are a bunch of self-righteous, lefty buffoons (contrast with Marty Cantor's nuanced view in Patriot Games). Maybe I'm mis-remembering books I read 25 years ago but it's just so heavy-handed here.Some reviewers claim Clancy's writing got better with time but it certainly doesn't show in this one. The pacing is off and he constantly repeats himself. (Hey, did you know that Mary Pat likes to take risks but Ed is more cautious? You might have missed it the first five times and it's VERY important to the story.) I end up skipping most of the Introspective Andropov sections out of sheer boredom.In short, unless you're compelled to read *all* the Ryan books, skip this one. It adds nothing to your understanding of the characters except for maybe Mary Pat and Ed and even that's overwhelmingly tedious.

Of all Clancy's original novels, this is the one I've liked the least. The plot moves slowly forward> there is a lot of dialog and description of mundane things ( like what the Ryans eat for breakfast) that seems to be there to fill space and prevent the main action from moving forward. And most of it is repetitive, like thoughts on how the KGB operates and the Rabbit fight with his consciousness. The way Ryan and the British treat the Rabbit after extraction seems naive disclosing their true identities to a defector they've just met. The interaction between the Rabbit and Foley at the Moscow metro seems also naive, several encounters on the same metro car, at the same time, after initially showing the reader that Foley had been tailed. I like Tom Clancy's books a lot but I'm only giving this book 4 stars.

'Cause if you didnt, the book will remind you at least every other page. Once I realized how often the book made reference to Ryan's USMC service, it became like an annoying tic that I couldn't not notice. Now you can notice too! (Also, im relatively certain that "there's no such thing as an ex-Marine." But Ryan is referred to in this manner several times.) My point is, I guess, that the book is almost uncomfortably repetitive. The constant "rabbit" metaphors are also more than a little annoying. This is not up to the quality of Clancy's best stuff. I'm in the middle of a "chronological order" re-read of the Ryan novels. It's evident that this was written well after the others, and that Clancy himself probably did less work on this than the others. I finished it, and did not HATE it. But it took me longer than it should have, mostly because it did not hold my attention like the books sandwiched around it And I am thankful that it is located where it is in the chronology. Its almost like a quiet (and somewhat boring) intermission in the middle of an action-packed series.

I am a huge Clancy fan and am in the middle of reading all the books he wrote over again and this has to be his worst. Unfortunately I didn't realize this was a prequel of sorts so I re-read them sort of in the wrong order. I was waiting for the typical "heart pounding out of my chest" part and never found it. Sure, there is about 3 pages that's piqued my interest towards the end, but the rest was just dialog and creating of characters whom I really didn't care about. I can see there was supposed to be at least one or two books after this one, but obviously he never got around to writing them. I agree with a previous reviewer - many parts of this did not seem like Clancy at all and that was sad and disappointing. I'll continue with The Bear and The Dragon and then the Rainbow Six books but not likely to read the co-authored books. It's just not in the Clancy style and this one didn't seem to be either.

Book Review - ”Red Rabbit” is an old 1980’s Soviet Union Tom Clancy read I thought I’d revisit. A ‘classic’ Clancy political espionage thriller regarding Poland, the Soviets, and the CIA. The suspense is minimal but there’s enough tension between the old Soviet Union and Poland that mirrors Russia invading Ukraine right now. Extremely lengthy read - 618 pages - but if you’re a Tom Clancy enthusiast, you’ll spend the time checking it out.

"There's a saying in economics: 'Bad money drives out good.' That means poor performance will take over if good performance isn't recognized.'"Actually it means currency that's inflating is spent fast; good currency is not spent when it's the alternative.Book is okay.ADDED [in Budapest] "One more day in a strange city, Zaitzev thought, as the sun began to rise in the east, two hours earlier than in Moscow. At home he'd still be sleeping..."Wrong time zone direction

Love the book but it is out of sequence. When I read a series I expect the next numbered book to be in order. There seems to be several listings for the Jack Ryan series. One listing, 7/17/2018, has Red Rabbit # 9. Another listing, 4/30/2020 has Red Rabbit #11. Red Rabbit takes place long before Ryan was POTUS as in #7 & #8. The 4/30/2020 list has "Rainbow Six, A JOHN CLARK NOVEL, (Jack Ryan Book 9).I don't know which list to believe and who is John Clark?If you have an accurate listing, say by publication date, I would be very interested in having a copy.Perry W. Caldwell

A number of reviewers have left poor reviews about the lack of detail compared to other Clancy novel. I think what they've failed to realise is that this audiobook CD-ROM is an abridged version of Red Rabbit. That's why it's only 5 hours long versus other unabridged Clancy audiobook on, for example, Audible which are close to 30 hours long.If you want the full detail read the full 640 page unabridged book. As far as I am aware there is no English language unabridged audiobook version of Red Rabbit.

Finally got round to reading "Red Rabbit" after someone recommended it to me. Having read many Clancy novels in the past I was rather looking forward to this little talked about book..... and I was a little surprised... and disappointed.Lets be honest, it could be a bit better. Whilst I enjoyed the characters and certainly felt the old Clancy magic behind the words, I was left feeling empty. Despite wanting to know what happened, there was no suspense, unlike "Cardinal" and "Executive Orders". The plot was also a little flat and I got the impression that Clancy had written it because he had been contracted for an extra "novel" by the publisher. There are some mistakes as well, with Clancy describing my home city of Manchester as a city in the "English Midlands" !! I was almost offended !It was a literary one night stand, I really wanted it, but afterword was ultimately left feeling empty and cold. There were some good points, however, especially the search to provide three "bodies" as cover for the escape.Not bad, but could be a lot better, and maybe 300 pages shorter.

I found this one disappointing to read. The plot centres around the attempted assination by the KGB of "Pope John Paul" in the '80's and the communications clerk in the KGB who is horrified at the idea. The story begins in Poland during the strike of the shipyard workers and the formation of "Solidarity". The "Pope" having sent the Polish Government a letter threatening to intervene if it takes excessive action against the protests. The letter is sent to Moscow where it it is deemed a threat to Communism and the fall of the Soviet Union in particular.Jack Ryan on secondment to SIS is sent to London and is tasked to find out what is going on. He ends up in the field helping a defector and generally saving the day.Like most reviewers I too imagined Harrison Ford playing Jack Ryan in this story. I admit the plot was a bit plodding in places and there was a bias towards the US being good, The Brits so, so and the Soviet Union as overly beaurocratic and bogged down in dogma. Overall Mr Clancy could have done better.

I bought and read this book as I love Tom Clancy novels after starting them last year....as I'm a bit behind I'm reading them all in the order of the year the action takes place. This is not typical Clancy, I will not spoil the plot but suffice to say there's very little action or excitement throughout the book. I'm reading "The Hunt For The Red October" now (next book) and its loads better and back to expected qualities.I would also recommend reading the book in year of action, as I am, it makes the action easier to follow and you gain real good background on the main characters who run through these book. Do a web search for the chronological order of the action.

Haven't read it but looked inside big writing bought it for a gift