Rainbow Six has one of the most amazing plots I've ever seen in a book. Tom Clancy bends the seemly irrelevant beginning all the way around to ultimate climax of the story. My mind was truely blown when I got to the end of this absolutely stunning book. Now, Rainbow Six isn't a page turner all the way through, but there are some very suspensful chapters.If you keep with it for about a hundred pages, you won't be able to put down. Clancy is an amazing writer, and with all his military access, he was able to make the book really authentic. All the equipment and training the soldiers do is right on the mark.I It was very enjoyable and hard to put down. Clancy really nailed it this time around.

I would recommend this book all mature young adults, but it is not for people who can't handle graphic violence. The author is very descriptive, and it is a counter-terrorism book. Besides that, Rainbow Six was a wonderful and exciting story that kept me reading until the end.

ABANDONADO al 82% (casi 800 pags según mi Kindle)

¿Y por qué abandona uno tras esa burrada de horas sin saber el final? Conste que el planteamiento de la historia está bien. Un poco manido, pero bien.

La cosa va de un grupo de elite anti-antiterrorista compuesto fundamentalmente por americanos, ingleses y un francés, un alemán y un israelí (por eso de que sea “internacional”). Y “malos” que organizan atentados terroristas y un grupo ecologista, Earth First, que quieren cargarse a todo quisqui para dejar la Tierra hecha un paraíso llenos de animales, árboles…y ellos, claro. Y allá que van estos supersoldados “maquinasdematar” (pero más buenos que el pan, ojito), frustrando los planes a los malotes.

Y yio me quedo sin saber el final, tan cerquita de llegar a fin…porque, a pesar del interés de la historia, no hay guapo que aguante el machismo, militarismo, anti-ecologismo, ultra-americanismo y devoción a las armas que exuda toda la novela. Y los personajes planos y clichés a mas no poder.

Machismo : las mujeres en la novela son solo esposas (nada de miembros del grupo antiterrorista, claro) y con los roles tópicos a las cuales hay que cuidar, y proteger. Ejemplo : “y decidió dejar las tareas femeninas en manos de las mujeres de la casa”.

Militarismo : ni os busco textos, pero todo se arregla metiendo miembros de grupos de elite de todos los países para cargarse a malos : SAS, SEALS, GSG, etc, etc.

Antiecologismo : no es que sea yo un fan a ultranza de los grupos ecologistas, donde creo que hay de todo, pero en el libro se les califica de “abraza-árboles” y otras lindezas por el estilo.

Americanismo : mira, que me canso de que hasta el ex-espía ruso que sale en la novela vea que todo lo de Estados Unidos es maravilloso. Cansa ver esa exaltación de lo americano tan exagerada (y no tengo nada contra USA, conste. Sí contra Trump, pero eso creo que cualquier persona sensata).

Amor por las armas : el autor –y sus personajes- casi se corren de gusto cada vez que hablan de los modelos de armas. Lo siento, tal vez les pase a los estadounidenses, pero al menos este españolito ve con desagrado ese furor por los modelos de armas de fuego.



Y para acabar, los personajes son planos y sin interés. Maniquíes que cada vez que abren la boca dicen lo que se espera de su rol. Y lo estaba leyendo en español latino y, con todo mi aprecio por nuestros primos de allende el Atlántico, las expresiones me resultaban muy extrañas de leer y eso tampoco ayudaba al agrado de lectura.



Resumen : Ale!, tras mi segundo intento con Clancy no me vuelvo a acercar a él. Y mira que alguna de sus obras, pero en cine, me han gustado bastante. Supongo que la adaptación al cine estaba “suavizada”.

I chose Tom Clancy's Rainbow six because of my favoring of books militaristic in nature. Rainbow six was no let down; The story features John Clark, an ex-Navy SEAL, leading a multinational group of counter terrorist experts from different countries. The group encounters multiple terror attacks, dealing with each one with precision and professionalism. Later, they learn that one Russian agent was responsible for these attacks. The Russian agent Popov soon defects after learning about his client's business with biological weapons of mass destruction, used to wipe out earth's populace just because of their harm to the environment, and decides to warn Rainbow. My favorite quote is "My name's Clark and I suppose I'm the boss here." This quote gives of a supposed feeling of control that a group like Rainbow has over things. The book is written in third person omniscient point of view. The writing style is extremely descriptive and offers constant point of view changes. I enjoyed this book because of it's pure action and suspense. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves action books/movies/games.

One of my favorite Clancy novels, right behind Without Remorse. John Clark faces challenges he never faced before, commanding troops without taking part of the operations. Domingo Chaves, the fiery Latino leads Team Two on missions he never had dreamed about in his time with his Light Infantry Unit from Clear and Present Danger.
This fast paced, roller coaster ride of excitement takes us into the life of Special Operators and their struggle to save lives of innocent people, and to end the lives of those who threaten them. From a bank robbery, to a home invasion, to terrorist taking children hostage in a Spanish Theme Park, to and attack on Rainbow’s own people, Clark is in charge, and Chavez is charged and ready to kill.

This book was very good in my opinion. The reason why is because of how descriptive it is and how much action it has at some points. In general it was peaceful to me and it was a good read that I wish I could’ve done sooner.

Tommy Clancy is an impressive story-teller and I really like his work....BUT he’s also a major word glutton and very promiscuous with regards to the sheer volume of prose he pours into each tale. The man loves, loves, looooooooves him some letters and it seems he will do nothing in 5 pages of text if he can possibly coax 10 or 15 out of it. A bit more brevity if you please, sir.

That said, Clancy is a grandmaster of the big, global threatening, spy-guy thriller and he packs plenty of worthy into the narrative despite the occasional bout of overabundance. Just make sure when you pick up one of his tomes that you’re prepared for a massive, sprawling epic that spends considerable time just enjoying the surroundings before marching into the promised land.

It’s a good trip, but it travels the scenic route to get there.

n  PLOT SUMMARYn

John Clark (aka Super Spook Extraordinaire) has been tapped by his buddy, President Jack Ryan, to head up a new top secret, multi-national, counter-terrorist group called Rainbow to deal with post cold war threats to the good people of Earth. Headquartered in the U.K. and comprised of the crème-de la crème of elite, mega badasses from the U.S. and Europe, Rainbow is the ultimate squad of no-nonsense, life takers out to bring the pain to those that would dare cause trouble for the freedom loving world.

On the other side of Rainbow is an ex-KGB heavy working for an extreme group of gaia-loving, radical Eco-terrorists looking to perpetrate some real nasty on the Planet’s most environmentally offensive species (...and no, we aren’t talking farting cows here). I don’t want to spoil the central goal of the bad guys are but it is well-planned, well-funded and seriously scary. It is also complex and includes as part of the overall scheme some “old guard” terrorist operations that spotlight the new Rainbow group, some secret medical experiments on the homeless people and security at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

n  MY THOUGHTSn

After reading a bunch of Clancy around the time the movie version of The Hunt for Red October was released, this was my first novel of his in over 10 years. I liked it. I wasn’t quite as blown away by this one as I have been in the past and I think that is less a reflection of the story (which was among his best) and more an indication that my reading tastes have evolved and that the thriller genre has caught up to Clancy who at one point was miles ahead of the crowd.

My only real gripe goes back to my introductory reference to Clancy’s word whoring and page count promiscuity. The book was just toooooooooooo loooooooooong for me given the events of the novel. Tommy could’ve written a 500 page book (rather than almost 1000) and lost none of the plot or narrative detail. It never got so bad that I was actually frustrated, but it got close a few times.

That page bloat cost the book a star from me.

However, despite the plot plod, the story is still wonderfully done and Clancy has a real gift for complex, well-thought out scenarios and both the good and bad guys do some very interesting things. His attention to detail is also as sharp as ever. My favorite this about Clancy’s stories are his characters which stand out among others in the genre for their perfect balance between true blue patriotism, inner decency and the willingness to take the gloves off and put a fatal hurting on the baddies. Nobody does this kind of character better and both Jack Ryan and John Clark are among my favorite literary leading men of all time.

Overall, a good solid thriller that could have been made more enjoyable with a reduced thickness. Thus 3.0 stars for what in many respects was a 4 star story.

Still, recommended for fans of the genre.

The first and only Clancy book I shall ever read and quite possibly the worst book I have ever read. My god what a boring book! All it is, is one chapter they go somewhere, the next they do something, then in the next they come back, that's all it is, interspersed with the odd chapter about some very obviously dodgy Russian bloke and some estate in the middle of nowhere in America. It's taken me 9 years to read less than 600 pages, one day, I shall finish it, and leave it on a train for someone else to endure, although I'm guessing that will still be a good 10 or 15 years away!

Pretty good book, I wish it had a more interactive video games aspect

Clancy's later books are...entirely predictable. I mean, it's not like the ending of "Hunt for Red October" came as a mind-blowing surprise or anything, but in "Rainbow Six" and "The Bear and the Dragon", especially, it seems that he relies on the repetition of phrases/ideas in order to get a high page count.

The constant political proselytizing also got old. Yes, we understand: people who care about the environment are deluded murdering psychopaths; drilling for oil is Alaska is the most patriotic and awesome thing ever; the military is full of people who have PhD's from elite universities. Give it a rest.

Rainbow Six
Tom Clancy
29 May 2018

In the book Rainbow Six the author Tom Clancy shows how John Clark and his buddy become part of top secret Anti-terrorist group called Rainbow in this realistic fiction book. The group is all of the toughest people from the US and Europe who want to keep the whole world free and safe. The bad guys are terrorists who have many plans do destroy the environment in many ways. This book was mostly entertaining for me but because it was so long I feel like the same plot could have been expressed in a book that is only 600 pages. I am not the fastest reader and so I was very eager to get to the problems in the plot. Other than that I enjoyed the book a lot. I think Tom’s writing was effective and I personally likes a lot of his word choice. I think one of the main things to take away from this book is that freedom and safety is something worth fighting for. I would recommend this book to someone who likes action and a complex plot.

In this next book by Tom Clancy, he departs on a tangent from the Jack Ryan saga to follow John Clark, as he did earlier in his book Without Remorse. As part of the new post–Cold War world, terrorism is rising to be a major area of threat, as evidenced from Clancy's two earlier books, and also from our world situation today. In response to this threat, Clark, with the endorsement of President Ryan (who basically doesn't figure in the book), starts a special international squad, Rainbow, of highly trained special-operations troops to be a terrorism response squad. Joining him are Chavez, another of Clancy's favorite characters, and a broad cast of troops from the US, Britain, and other NATO countries.

They are quickly put to the test. Terrorist activity first at a bank in Zurich, and then at the home of a prominent businessman in Austria give the team a chance to show what they are worth. They carefully coreograph a response and decisively put down both incidents. Their third response is to a terrorist takeover of WorldPark (a EuroDisney immitation), and again their action is impressive and decisive. Each episode is full of Clancy's vivid descriptions of tactical maneauvers, technological advances, and personal stories. Vintage Clancy.

Part of the impetus behind these terrorist attacks is coming from John Brightling, head of Horizon Corporation. Brightling and a group he calls the Project are out change the world. They want to eliminate all but a chosen few humans from the planet, in what they see as the only way to save the Earth from human destruction. To do this, they want to raise global awareness of terrorism, in order to get their guy a consulting contract for the upcoming Olympic Games in Australia. That will be their delivery point of Shiva, an engineered form of Ebola that will spread from there throughout the world. Once the outbreak is known, Horizion plans to step in with a "vaccine" that is actually a virulent form of Shiva, thereby infecting most of those who haven't yet been reached with the epidemic. Only their own people and those they deem worthy get the real vaccine.

The last terrorist attack they plan before the Olympics is a direct attack at Rainbow, which they see as a threat to the success of their plan. So they carefully set up an ambush of Clark's wife and daughter (Chavez's wife) at their place of employment, the hospital near the base. They plan to ambush the Rainbow troops as they respond. But the plans fall apart when Noonan, the Rainbow tech-guy, disables all cell-phone communications and disables their ability to act in a coordinated fashion. Wife and daughter escape unharmed as Rainbow is again able to act decisively to counter the terrorist plot, but this time taking two losses and a few injuries in the process.

Their plan is working, until Dmitry Popov, the ex-KGB agent they have enlisted to set up the terrorist attacks, gets wind of the big picture for the Project. He is horrified by Brightling's intentions, and finds his way off of the Project facility in Kansas and heads to New York. He contacts Clark, and asks for a meet, and even though he set up the hit on Clark's wife and daughter, Clark accepts. As soon as he learns of the plot, Clark informs Chavez, who is consulting at the Olympics with a few other Rainbow troopers. They stake out the fogging system room (the planned point of deliver for the virus) and nab the Project member who is going to plant the virus.

As soon as Brightling realizes that he can't reach his man, and that things are falling apart, he orders all physical and electronic evidence destroyed, and gathers up the members who know the whole story of the Project's plans and flies them off to the Project Alternate facility in Brazil. But the FBI and Air Force are able to track the plane, and Clark decides that Rainbow will follow the planes down. Because they are sure most of the evidence has been destroyed and because they fear making the details of the plot public, FBI agents aren't sure about if the group can be successfully prosecuted, and if it should be. In face of this, Clark faces them head on, sending in his troops. He gives them an opportunity to surrender, but Brightling sends out armend men to counter the force. Using an advanced people-finding gadget that Noonan has been plaing with, Clark is able to vector in the Rainbow troops to neutralize the threat from the Project defenders. Once it becomes clear that the battle is won, Brightling and his group surrender. Instead of taking them back to the States, Clark destroys all of the facilities at the Project compound and releases the members into the jungle to try fend for themselves (to commune with nature, as he puts it).

With Rainbow Six, Clancy again demonstrates his narrative sense, as well as his ability to tell a great military story with a moderately complicated plot. He also builds some interesting and clearly flawed characters who just try to do the right thing. And the reader clearly wants to empathize with them. But there are some clear weaknesses in the book. One, a weakness that has cropped up in a few of his other novels, is torture. Clark is a character with a dark side, and torture, or the threat of it, is a necessary instrument to elicit information and serve a greater good. And at first blush, in Clancy's narrative world, that may seem true. But who should be allowed to weild this terrible sword, and decide when it's really serving a greater good. The fear that evil will win out makes it seem easy to do whatever we can, and at whatever cost, to make the good triumph. But we should never allow torture to be justified. It violates the basic humanity, of both the tortured and the torturer. And it most certainly flies in the face of our most basic Christian convictions about right and wrong, and about sin and reconciliation. Which brings up the other major flaw in Clancy's story: retribution. The one unasailable fact that seems to drive his logic as the story concludes is that the perpetrators of this ghastly plan deserve full and complete punishment for their intentions. They must be delt with, decisively. And if the law might have trouble doing that, or if we don't like all of the consequences, it's justifiable to bend the rules a bit to exact "justice" in a slightly different way. Again, the line of thinking is tempting, but it again sees retribution as good, and sees all actions toward that end as justifiable. The victims become the perpetrators in a new act of violence. Where does it end?

Another serving of jinjoism and macho pablum from Tom Clancy. This book is essentially a sequeal to Without Remorse, and very similar thematically to that book. It features the same main character, John Clark and includes a bunch of revenge killing by a group of amoral special forces soldiers. This doesn't so much illustrate the ambiguity of military violence though, since all the characters seem to be unable to reflect on their actions and instead mouth idiot platitudes about serving God and country.

The plot, if you care, revolves around a bunch of eco-terrorists that plan to wipe out the world with the ebola virus, to return to a state of nature. Lame. This is the second novel in a row by Clancy where characters try to spread the ebola virus to an unsuspecting population. Clancy's characters are impossible to tell apart and no "good guy" is ever killed or injured except for a couple of minor characters.

Nonetheless, this book is better than Executive Orders. For one thing, it's shorter (though still over 900 pages). It's also got the ideological nonsense toned down somewhat, though it's still present way too much. I guess the reason it gets two stars instead of one is that the hostage situations that occur in the first half of the book do generate some tension. But it's really useless to review Clancy at this point; you know if you like to read this stuff and know more or less what you're getting yourself into. As far as Clancy books go, this one seems to fall right about in the middle of the pack.