Of the Jack Ryan series this one can be skipped. If I read or hear "Rabbit" now it causes me to cringe

It was an ok read but I kept waiting for something to happen, it all went too smoothly. No real intrigue.

1 part narrowminded ethnocentric ramblings, 1 part ideological propaganda, 1 part spy story. As if the first two parts were not boring enough, clancy is so repetitive you might suspect him of murder. He is boring the readers to death.

My personal take on Clancy as a writer is that he had one story to tell, he told it in Hunt for Red October, and everything since is just recycling.

Never has this been more evident in this tedious tome. It takes place in 1983, involves a Soviet defector and a plot to kill the Pope, and takes about 600 pages to tell it, with endlessly repetitive scenes that seem designed to fill space. Clancy has a notoriously tin ear for dialogue, but in this book he surpasses even himself, with almost all character's speaking identically, although he throws in a "comrade" or two when its a Soviet character. Even more laughable is his use of idiom, which apparently is world wide in uniformity, and we are treated to the amusing spectacle of several characters using the phrase "get out of Dodge" from a CIA spook, to an upper class British Security analyst, to a Soviet KGB colonel, among others.

The books worst failing, however, is that in its 600 plus pages, virtually nothing happens. Sure, a KGB officer defects, but its about as eventful as a trip to the shopping mall, and yes there's an attempt on the Popes life which effectively takes place off stage. Other than that its just people talking and talking and talking some more, interspersed with Clancy breaking in to take four pages to explain why the English drive on the left side of the road, or how hollandaise sauce is made, or insert a diatribe on medical care.

The story, such as it is, could have been told in about 150 pages. I strongly suspect that if any other writer had submitted this monumentally boring drivel to a publisher, it would have been rejected out of hand with a note suggesting they take up ditchdigging. But Clancy's name on the front of the jacket will sell copies, so his crap gets published.

This novel is like "Cardinal of the Kremlin" a character based novel, and this one is based off an actual event. John Ryan and the Foley's have to stop an assassination by the Russians.

The Foley's move to Russia and Jack is starting his career in the CIA. Clancy is introducing his main characters all over again and showing how they got started and how the Foley's got to Russia, when we meet them again in Cardina, as main characters.

Even though this is a Ryan Novel, this as well as Cardinal, should be Foley's novel. They are the real main characters and the events surround them more than they do Jack Ryan. I think Clancy tried to hard to insert Ryan into both novels. That aside, the two novels are Clancy's best character driven novels.

This is one of the earlier books in the Jack Ryan enterprise. It starts off pretty slow and does not really take off like many of the others. Jack and Cathy Ryan have just moved to London with Sally and Jack Jr. The Foleys, Ed, Pat and Little Ed, have just started in Moscow. The Russians are crazy as ever and want to kill the Pope. A Russian communications expert gets a case of morals and wants to try and save the Pope. I should not say much more, or I will ruin the best part. I have read many Clancy's and this would not be in my top 5 but it does put a few things together so I am glad that I read it. I guess I would give it a C+.

Clancy's take on history in this novel is interesting, but it is much too slow of a read to be a great novel. Clancy took Jack Ryan and the corresponding characters back 20 years, which is a hard thing to do in my opinion, because he has already shown his avid readers so much of his characters futures. It was different than his other books, but overall not as entertaining.