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Money makes the world go round. And in Tom Clancy's new über-thriller, The Bear and the Dragon, money -- along with chronic machismo and conflicting cultural ideology -- spawns a terrible world conflict. No surprises here: The Bear and the Dragon's 1,000 plus pages hold exactly what Clancy fans are hoping to find. Part murder mystery, part spy/technothriller, The Bear and the Dragon also offers suspenseful human drama and a fascinating -- and frightening -- glimpse at how the wheels within three powerful governments might churn when the threat of world war looms large.
The Bear and the Dragon sees Clancy's most popular creation -- POTUS (President of the United States for the uninitiated) Jack Ryan -- back in the limelight after five years riding the pine. Even though Jack's back, calling The Bear and the Dragon a "Jack Ryan thriller" is an injustice, for Ryan is simply one thread in this complex, techno-lovin' tapestry of political maneuverings, military muscle pumping, and state-of-the-art -- and old fashioned "charm the ladies" -- espionage. The cast is enormous; while plenty of new characters are introduced, scads of familiar ones (such as John Clark and his "Men in Black" of Rainbow Six) play important roles.
The story begins in present-day Russia; Sergey Nikolay'ch Golovko, the Chairman of the SVR (the former KGB), is on his way to work in his supped-up Mercedes-Benz. While pondering the social and economic growing pains his country currently endures, Golovko notices a second car -- identical to his own -- pull up alongside. Suddenly, a man holding an RPG (a hand-held missile launcher) emerges from the rear of a near-by garbage truck; before Golovko or his driver can react, the man fires his weapon at the other car, killing its occupants instantly. Now the question arises: Was Golovko the intended victim?
Meanwhile, Russia scores its first good luck in years. Two discoveries in Siberia are made: One is an enormous oil field; the other is an equally sizeable gold mine. Together, these new resources will drastically change the scope of the dilapidated Russian economy...and make other nations jealous in the process.
Also, a CIA spook stationed in Beijing -- who's posing as an employee with the computer company NEC -- establishes a relationship with the young female secretary of Fang Gan, one of the China's senior ministers. Shortly, detailed accounts, direct from Fang's office, of dirty politburo scheming will be available for Ryan's perusal.
These -- and several other occurrences -- are the building blocks for what will soon develop into one heck of a light show. While The Bear and the Dragon is fiction, the casual reader becomes convinced of the situation's plausibility. Is the Russian relationship -- not to mention our own -- with China as unstable as The Bear and the Dragon suggests? Well, this reviewer can't say for sure, but that's Clancy's power and appeal: multi-faceted, high-stakes thrills with an engrossing and convincing insider feel.
The Bear and the Dragon is a masterfully woven tale -- one that will have readers contemplating the potential truths behind the fiction. Frightening indeed.
--Andrew LeCount
The Cold War might be over, but you wouldn't know it from President Jack
Ryan's disposition. Our world-roving chief executive is tracking down terrorists
in Moscow, dealing with an Asian economy spiraling out of control, and facing
down an evil Chinese communist cabal. Red-blooded, rip-roaring American fiction.
From
the Publisher
Time and again, Tom
Clancy's novels have been praised not only for their big-scale drama and
propulsive narrative drive but for their cutting-edge prescience in predicting
future events.
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 being President has
gotten no easier: domestic pitfalls await him at every turn; there's a
revolution in Liberia; the Asian economy is going down the tubes; and now, in
Moscow, someone may have tried to take out the chairman of the SVR--the former
KGB--with a rocket-propelled grenade. Things are unstable enough in Russia
without high-level assassination, but even more disturbing may be the identities
of the potential assassins. Were they political enemies, the Russian Mafia, or
disaffected former KGB? Or, Ryan wonders, is something far more dangerous at
work here?
Ryan is right. For even while he dispatches his most trusted eyes and ears,
including black ops specialist John Clark, to find out the truth of the matter,
forces in China are moving ahead with a plan of truly audacious proportions. If
they succeed, the world as we know it will never look the same. If they
fail...the consequences will be unspeakable.
Blending the exceptional realism and authenticity that are his hallmarks with
intricate plotting, razor-sharp suspense, and a remarkable cast of characters,
this is Clancy at his best--and there is none better.
Reviews
From Dallas Morning News
When the door blows open
and the shooting starts, nobody does it better than Tom Clancy.
From USA Today
Clancy is a natural
storyteller.
From Barnes & Noble
Guide to New Fiction
Newly elected President
Jack Ryan faces a number of unstable and hostile political enemies, including
China and Russia, in this forecast of future events by best-selling author
Clancy.
From Publisher's Weekly -
Publishers Weekly
"Klingons" is how
hero Jack Ryan describes the villains--the Communist Chinese Politburo--of
Clancy's mammoth new novel; other Yanks refer to Chinese soldiers as "Joe
Chinaman." It's not for subtlety of characterization, then, that this
behemoth proves so relentlessly engrossing. Nor is it for any modulation in the
arc of its action, which moves insistently from standstill to hurtle. Nor is it
for the author's (expressed) understanding of life's viscissitudes; in this
Clancyverse, no white hat with a name dies, but every black hat gets whupped
bad. Partly it's for the sheer bulk--if ever a book should come equipped with
wheels, it's this one--which plunges readers into a sea of words so vast that,
after hours of paddling happily through brisk prose, the horizon remains hidden
from sight. Mostly, though, it's because that sea glitters with undeniable
authority. Clancy has demonstrated in earlier books (Rainbow Six, etc.) that he
towers above other novelists in his ability to deliver geo-political, techo-military
goods on a global scale--and here he's at the top of that war-gaming. With
aplomb, he spins numerous plot strands--among them: a Sino-American spy seduces
his way into Politburo secrets; enormous oil and gold reserves are discovered in
Siberia; the new Papal Nuncio to Beijing is murdered; the Politburo orders a hit
on a top Russian official--that lead to a Chinese invasion of Russia and a
credible war scenario that occupies the novel's last quarter and that
culiminates in a nuclear crescendo. Each thread carries a handbook's worth of
intoxicating, expertly researched--seemingly inside--information, about advanced
weapons of war and espionage, about how various governments work, complemented
always with ponderings about the tensions between individual honor and the
demands of state. Add to that the excitement for Clancy fans of this being the
first novel to feature not just Jack Ryan but also, in significant subordinate
roles, Jack Clark and Ding Chavez of Rainbow Six and other tales, and you've got
a juggernaut that's going to hit #1 its first week out and stay there for a good
while. 2 million first printing; BOMC main selection; author tour. Copyright
2000 Cahners Business Information.|