The Bear and the Dragon (Jack Ryan)
by Tom Clancy
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tom ClancyEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-08-01
ISBN: 0425180964
Number of pages: 1152
Publisher: Berkley
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780425180969
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Bear and the Dragon (Jack Ryan)
Book Review: The Eagle & Bear Extinguish the Fire-Breathing Dragon
Summary: 5 Stars
The first major event is the unsuccessful attempt on the life of Sergey Golovko Chairman of the SVR (formerly First Chief Directorate) which sets off warning bells throughout the free world, all the way up to the President of the USA, Jack Ryan. The second event of global magnitude is that President Jack Ryan has reestablished free trade with the Peoples Republic of China (PRC, i.e., Communist China). The third episode is a power play in which Chester (Chet) Nomuri is sent on assignment to the PRC on behalf of Nippon Electric Company (NEC) but his primary or real assignment is "intelligence gathering", to collect as much information as possible via espionage ... all this occurs within the first 40 pages of the book. The writing is pure Tom Clancy ... there is the right mix of political intrigue, detailed technology including computers, military weapons and satellite capabilities, global issues, and even complicated romantic encounters ... all of which make for a suspense-filled captivating reading experience.
The genius of Tom Clancy shines brighter than ever. There is no rival to this author to date. Clancy casts a hypnotic spell over the reader. The characters are genuine, the future thrills are guaranteed. The reader anticipates a complex puzzle of espionage, politics, global threats, military encounters ... by the world super powers or power-wannabes, all vying to control more of the world's limited resources.
Chet Nomuri manages to seduce a top level secretary, Ming, who works for a minor Chinese Politburo member, Fang, who happens to keep a diary of political transactions on a computer. He is no fool! He has witnessed political rivals destroyed based on these types of conflicts. His goal is to survive, no matter which faction, moderate or conservative, is in control. Ming was given a a special computer program by her lover Chet Nomuri which she attaches to her computer. It has a hidden program that downloads encrypted messages of all transactions ... Fang's diary is transmitted straight to the CIA in Washington, DC.
There is an unfortunate incident which occurs in a Chinese hospital that is captured by CNN television live ... it creates a serious negative impact on the Chinese economy. The economy was already teetering on the brink of collapse due to an imbalance of trade and lack of capital reserves. World opinion crashes down on Chinese businesses. The bureaucratic political red-tape is tied and knotted so tightly that the Chinese Politburo fails to react appropriately to the unexpected murder of the Ambassador from the Vatican and a Chinese Baptist Minister. The PRC is punished on a global scale as an undesirable trade partner. This creates near panic in the PRC "Parliament" until ... the solution is discovered: secretly invade Siberia where newly discovered oil fields and gold mines will solve the economic needs of the Chinese, freeing them forever from dependence on world trade.
The scenario is set again for yet another daring, exciting and exhilarating World War III episode. How Clancy does it, I do not know, but he can make the players all seem real, the events hair-raising and awe-inspiring in their believabilty. Tensions build as battle scenes are fought. Read the book to discover the final resolution to this depiction of how the-world-as-we-know-it nearly ends ...
Erika Borsos (erikab93)
Summary of The Bear and the Dragon (Jack Ryan)
President Jack Ryan faces a world crisis unlike any he has ever known, in Tom Clancy's extraordinary new novel?.
A high-level assassination attempt in Russia has the newly elected Ryan sending his most trusted eyes and ears?including antiterrorism specialist John Clark?to Moscow, for he fears the worst is yet to come. And he?s right. The attempt has left the already unstable Russia vulnerable to ambitious forces in China eager to fulfill their destiny?and change the face of the world as we know it...
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."
But you bet The Bear and the Dragon 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.
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?
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.
When you've got a Tom Clancy novel in hand, who needs action movies? --Tim Appelo
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