This the last Tom Clancy book I will ever try and read. I'm afriad that as of today i have Black Balled the author and will be removing all his books from my collection.

Too many repetitive words an thoughts I fell asleep reading the book. Why say something in three words if you can say it in three pages.

What can I say? Wow! Right from the start, that most excellent of storytellers, Tom Clancy, throws us into action with a detailed yet gripping account of a hijacking. In some of his previous books (most notably Patriot Games, Executive Orders and The Sum of All Fears) the story dies for a hundred pages or more as Clancy explains the story (and regrettably, this has resulted in many readers stopping reading mid-way through a book...
But no more. Rainbow Six keeps up the heart pumping action right the way through as though there is no tomorrow - and there may well not be! Long as it is, Clancy has once again kept my full attention resulting in late nights, staying up far too late turning page by page to find out WHAT HAPPENS!

I was worried that Clancy was beginning to dull in his stories, having read Executive Orders which was explosively exciting in the last pages but, I felt, took too long to get there. And having read the co-authored Op-Centers, I was very worried as they all lacked the quick pace and exciting realism common to many Clancy books.

However, I felt that singling out environmentalists as the bad guys was not a good marketing move (if not resulting in an excellent book!) and that their methods and ideals were not credible enough to bring a true sense of realism. I did enjoy the fantastic end to the story and hope that, true to Clancy style, Dmitry Popov will appear in another book in the near furture!

And for the second time, Clancy has focused the book on John Kelly (otherwise known as Clark). Clark has definitely changed since the torture days portrayed in Without Remorse, become more mature, even mellowed in age. I missed good old Jack Ryan however although Clancy referred to Clark's good relationship with "The President". I felt that Jack deserved more place although, I think Clancy may have brought an end to Jack Ryan as a major role in Executive Orders. Keen followers of Clancy will note how Jack gradually rose through the ranks - ordinary history teacher and a lucky stock investor, then working at CIA, eventually becoming, DDO, DDI and eventually head of the CIA (which I believe is DCI, right?). Then going on to National Security Advisor, Vice-President (albeit for a short time) and finally President. I can think of no higher occupation for Ryan and this leads me to believe Clancy has decided to leave him out of future novels. I hope I am wrong...

Is Clancy, in his usual portrayal of realistic events (as opposed to fantasy ones) going to let John Clark and Jack Ryan simply die of old age? Whilst this would be true to form, they would be sorely missed, and only Ding seems to be able to replace either of them. Are future books to hold only Domingo Chavez and not the beloved Clark-Chavez team? Will Jack retire?

We can't tell. Clancy has shrouded us in a black cloak of curiosity until he chooses to reveal antoher piece of the unending story he weaves. And even then, we surely will not get the last piece of the puzzle. We will be left again to wait until it is time...

One of the scariest and most threatening situations to be in is being a hostage. You’re life is put into the hands of others who see you only as leverage in getting what they want. The people who take you against your will in these situations utilize terror and fear to get what they want, whether it’s based off money, politics, or anything else they have to gain from your life. Any attempt that is made to stop these terrorists may very well end in your death or the death of other innocent people. Luckily, the people trained for this are more experienced, funded, and trained than any terrorist, and unlike each individual terrorist, they will see more than one situation like this.

In the book Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy these threats are just as real all over the world, from a failed bank robbery in switzerland turned to a hostage situation, to German terrorists capturing a wealthy businessman in Austria. These situations are handled by a black organization under the codename “Rainbow,” originally proposed and run by the now middle-aged veteran John Clark. It consists of soldiers from all around the world, mainly from the US who founded the organization and from Britain, where the members of Rainbow are housed at Hereford base.
Rainbow is known by very few and are able to be deployed rapidly at the scene of a terrorist attack or international crisis from the first call. They’re is still more at play, though, when both attacks were organized by one former KGB agent who is part of a much larger conspiracy remaining hidden to even him.

I found the book to be very well organized and found the antagonist’s end plot to be very well laid out in how the book presented information. They had linked up different points of view from either members of Rainbow to the former KGB agent to a almost distant and surreal perspective of scientists experimenting on humans. The book had connected all these points of view just before the ending climax in a bigger plot against the whole world than could be expected. The amount of detail and description in the book had allowed jumps from character to character just to describe something like a call to a base or tracing information. This story allows readers to follow every part of these processes rather than just what the main characters see.

However, there were a few plot holes and negatives in the book that kept them from being truly great. The book seems to drag on and on at times without action and feel like they are not needed in the whole story. They may take a chapter explaining the process of how Rainbow arrive to a country to face the ongoing terrorist attack and the planning behind it, while taking only a page to describe the action of the attacks. There may also be points overlooked like how they say the organization is “blacker than black” but will deploy in public in countries outside of the US and Britain. They even allowed themselves to be linked by the former agent to multiple attacks across Europe by staying out in public after they stopped each attack.

Overall I found the book to be very enjoyable to readers who may enjoy spy and espionage stories and even action stories when they describe the attacks. The story may feel like it drags on at times but it’s all part of the build up towards action in the novel. I enjoyed how they built up the information for each perspective slowly linking them all together to the ending. Many readers who don’t enjoy slow buildup and prefer action may not want to read through so many pages of exposition and explanation but for people who like knowing how people and procedures may operate in these situations the book explains these processes very well. All in all the book is a very good read for those who enjoy the genre and the antagonists intentions will keep you guessing what they will do next. I recommend this book to anyone who likes action and espionage and really enjoyed the story.

Lauseen tasolla pätevästi/sujuvasti kirjoitettu, mutta toisteinen, suoraviivainen, yllätyksetön, tylsä.

Kerta toisensa jälkeen sitä saa pettyä "trillereihin", jotka eivät ole jännittäviä! Eikö näissä pitäisi olla jotain twistejä, käänteitä, sankareiden heikkoja hetkiä? Clancyn suoraselkäiset hyvikset ovat niin päteviä, että juuri mikään ei mene mönkään.

Ja lopussa suoraselkäisyys muuttuu kostonhimoksi, jota ei problematisoida ollenkaan, vaan oletetaan että näinhän lukijakin tekisi, tämähän on hyvä ja oikea ratkaisu, eikö niin.

Tällaisen "American exceptionalism" militarismikirjan ja -kirjailijan moraalista tai etiikasta voisi tietysti kirjoittaa sivukaupalla tylsää "ei näin"-pohdintaa, mutta Rainbow Sixissä vuodelta 1998 on yksi ihan kiinnostavakin teema näin 2020-luvun näkökulmasta: kirjan pääpahikset ovat ekstremistejä joiden aate on radikaali ympäristönäkökulma.

"Global warming" mainitaan kerran, mutta se ei ole kuitenkaan terroristien pääsyy toimintaan, vaan yleinen saastuminen, luonnon häiritseminen ja (ei ihan tällä termillä ilmasitu) lajikato - asia, jota emme vieläkään ota yhteiskuntana tosissaan.

Terroristien keinot ovat tietysti ekofasismia ja thanosmaista "tapetaan kaikki"-liioittelua, mutta (tahattomasti) kiinnostavaa on se, miten Clancy ajatusmallia kuvaa - ja miten suoraselkäisen selkeät hyvikset asiaan suhtautuvat. Sankarit näyttävät huvittavilta junteilta, kun väheksyvät otsonikerroksen aukkoja ja uv-säteilyn vaaroja ihmisille. Aurinkorasva, pah!

Ja vegaanit, ne ne vasta onkin ihme porukkaa!

Aug 03, 1998 was a very different time and was the first time I read this book in Hardback

And I loved it.

February 2022 I was less enthused.

My biggest complaint is the formatting. The late author organized the book in a weird way that gives you no indication that a change or characters, scene or location is happening. At least not in the Kindle version
BRB
In the 1998 Hardback version there was a font size and type change whenever a scene changed but that was missing in the Kindle version at least my kindle version so back to 4 stars

this book is set in the Jack Ryan universe so maybe it is 25 minutes from Hereford to Gatwick Airport - although I suspect that it was a bit of laziness in research there is a town called Gatwick which is 38 miles from Hereford. And in all honestly I wouldn't know this as a lazy American if my extensive reading of P&P what ifs and the Roy Grace series hadn't informed me of these facts.

The book is very Jingoistic. Terrorists are bad, ecologists are bad, the MIC and spies and commandos are good.

I am not sure I would recommend this book except as a piece of historic fiction

I had originally started Red Storm Rising but bogged down about 1/2 way through just feeling like I was reading cut and pasted excerpts of Jane's Fighting (planes, ships, etc)

I’ve never felt the need to read any military-themed action adventures before - I’m not even interested in shooting games or things like that - but my father and brother both read Tom Clancy, and they aren’t gun fanatics or bodybuilders (which I’d always stereotyped as Clancy’s main demographic for some reason - maybe because of the videogame); and I recently found out one of my coworkers (who also isn’t into shooting things or pumping iron) also reads a lot of Clancy, so I decided I should stop being presumptuous and give him a try.

While there is some of that overly-macho, testosterone-filled “bro” talk, that personality trait of the Rainbow Six members was actually really toned down. In fact, they’re all family men, and very professional about their work. It also turns out that Tom Clancy is actually a huge history and military buff (I might have been the only person who didn’t know that - don’t judge me), so instead of just being a lot of shooting and blowing things up, the apparent research he put into the book really makes it seem it was written by someone on the inside. I obviously don’t know much about covert operations and combat tactics, but it all seemed very realistic and accurate.

Let’s talk a little more about all the research and details in the book, though. Clancy makes a point to include the model of everything from guns to aircrafts - and that’s fine; I’m sure there are weapons buffs who care about that - but I have to draw the line at making a point to tell me what kind of laptop the tech guy uses. Does anyone really need to know that the Noonan uses an Apple PowerBook? Sometimes it feels like Clancy put more time and thought into describing the hardware than the crew.

Sure we get a little bit of insight on characters like John Clark and Domingo Chavez, but even a lot of that is just the same thing repeated over and over again. Clancy tells you more than once that John Clark is getting a little too old to be out in the field, but is uncomfortable being a “suit,” and that “Ding” Chavez is a competent squad leader but a little self-conscious about his skills compared to his troops. And the redundancy isn’t limited to characters either, there are several instances of recycled phrases…
(e.g. “…squeezing off the burst as routinely as zipping his pants after taking a leak,” p. 91; “He’d zapped a guy the previous night, just as fast and automatic an action as zipping his zipper,” p 107; “He’d killed men with his own hand, and done it as casually as zipping his fly,” p. 238. <- Really? Is that the standard for nonchalant behavior?)

…and reiterations and recaps
(e.g. “It was somewhat unsatisfying that others got the credit for his successful mission, but that was the whole point of Rainbow…,” p. 88; “The front page had a story on the previous day’s events in Bern… The Telegraph’s correspondent must have had good contacts with the cops…whom he gave credit for the takedown. Well, that was okay. Rainbow was supposed to remain black,” p. 108)

… which make a lot of sentences/paragraphs just seem like filler. I mean, seriously, how many times does the reader need to be reminded that the crew is "perfect" and that they actually can’t get any better but have to keep it up just so they don’t lose their edge?

Not that the first 15 chapters are “boring,” but they are a fairly formulaic series of terrorist attacks foiled by the Rainbow Six counterterrorist team, as the more mysterious laboratory tests sections haven’t been that developed quite yet. Then, in chapter 16, the novel becomes less shooting and more sneaking. The espionage element is far more interesting, and the book as a whole becomes much more suspenseful as a result, but it also yields some less-than-believable moments.

First off, how plausible is it that Popov would only have to wait less than the length of a football game in the first bar he tried before he heard someone talking about a top secret military base? And wouldn’t the guy, plumber or not, have been briefed on not discussing these things with civilians? Or bringing them onto the actual base? Even if the guy is going to sell you some real swell Rigid wrenches? And then the offered explanation for how Popov gets on the base without so much as a glance from any of the security guards is that… they’re British? Isn’t this supposed be a “blacker than black” organization?

And it’s not only the good guys! These scientists didn’t think to password-protect their computers until after one of their patients moseyed on out of her unlocked room and sent an email from the unmonitored desktop? I password protect my laptop, and I’m not even manufacturing a super virus to wipe out most of the human race.

And then, later, Popov absent-mindedly tosses his fake passport and credit cards into a trashcan at the airport? What about all that “The KGB knew how to train its people” (p. 654) talk? Hm? What? He was jet-lagged? Oh, okay, that makes sense.

I get it, people slip up, even professionals like FBI anti-terrorist specialists and intelligence officers. But Clancy spends so much time making everyone sound so professional, skilled, and competent… but the nature and number of things that everyone overlooked (password-protecting computers, a helicopter, a siren for Noonan’s car, etc.) seem like a stretch. What’s more, the plot only moves ahead because of just how big of a group of blundering idiots these administrations appear to be.

And this is a really small gripe, but why include the sentence, “It was amazing how large America was, Dmitriy Arkadyevich thought.”?? In all of his research did Clancy overlook the fact that Russia (Arkadyevich’s homeland) is nearly twice as big as America (17.1 million km2, compared to 9.857 million km2)?

I’d be lying, though, if I said I wasn’t thoroughly entertained nearly the whole time. I just think more time could have been spent on developing the characters and/or figuring out a better way to come to the same ending without relying entirely on obvious mistakes that seem pretty unlikely to have been made by professionals of this caliber.

Three stars seems too low, but I wouldn't say I really liked it either, which means I can't exactly give it four either. Let's call it 3.5.

Great Book! Reminded me why I love Tom Clancy’s books. Also, Clark is one of my favorite characters.

This is a long story that takes its time developing characters and plot. If you want a high-speed, action-packed, easy read, this is not for you. There are several high-adrenalin sections, but the story takes its time building up to these in satisfying detail. A military novel, there is violence and weaponry (lots of weaponry). One dubious high-tech gadget is utilized to bring it to a quick end, which you may find disappointing, but it's still a good read.

Espionage is always a favorite of mine, more particularly in films than in books as it seems better a visual than what words can offer. Nonetheless I read this a few years ago because I loved the title. I think I may have played the video game, too, but not so much that I remember enjoying. It was just after the film 'The Sum of All Fears' came out and Liev Schreiber played John Clark (a mere supporting role there, whereas here the main player), and quite well. I imagined him older here, as he is supposed to be near retirement, but that made the reading easier. If you have never read a Clancy book, start here because I think it's the only book I could get through without going into a coma after each chapter. Granted, he has his moments of ranting, mostly about technical jargon only a military colonel would understand, not to mention his need to explain every detail in every character's (major or minute) life. Anyhow, the story is enough to keep you going, and don't worry it does end in a way you won't expect. I may never read it again for fear that I will be eighty or so by the time I finish, but it's still worth the read.

Another great story featuring John Clark and Domingo Chavez.

Let me start out by saying that the idea of starting rainbow six was intriguing and I do enjoy some of these characters. In saying that the whole plot and how redundant the author was throughout the book was horrible. This book should be completed at least in a quarter of its time. I was very disappointed. He contradict himself throughout the book. Other books seem he was trying to stay right on the edge of reality and this one seem more of a satire at times and went way over the top. This one part was simple in the book but it just made me roll my eyes. You had Clark and Chavez sitting at the table with their wives having dinner and talking business. They know their wife’s and specially Chavez his wife does not like killing people and did not know everything they do but they proceeded to talk about their business and help people do get hurt and even killed well they are just in training. They proceeded to talk even more about how close they came to him being killed. It was just too much and ridiculous. Oh yeah, and on rainbow six all the members are so stereotypical, the Hispanics are 5‘6“ and built like a bull wow the Caucasians are usually tall blonde and blue-eyed. The narrator of this book did not do it any justice, I do not want to hear another English accent for a while. Another thing, even though there’s some smart women characters in this book he really goes back to the 60s or 70s the way he has the men more domineering. I will now go to the next book in this series and I’m hoping he steps up his gane.
One other thing that I just recalled and it really did bother me is the word that the author chose to use more than a handful of times throughout was “niggardly“. I know what the meaning of this word is but again as I mentioned before, I listen to these books, there’s a narrator and I had to go back and listen to a few times to make sure I was hearing it right. And again I know what the meaning of the word and how it was applied but just the way the word looks and for me the way it sounds was a little much. This author is very bright, there’s an abundance of other words that could’ve been used. I’m disappointed in him and the editor and any proofreaders not to catch that.