I have read all of Tom Clancy's fiction so far and have been rarely dissappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed this entry as well, although it seems to be written at a level one notch below his usual standards. There is lots of action and lots of insights into the world of anti-terrorism but I felt one element was missing. I never found myself fearful of danger. All of the Rainbow organization are supermen with little chance of being bested. You knew they were going to win out every time; the interest was in how they would accomplish each mission. The only time I was concerned for the safety of the characters was when a different group of guys was brought into the main action. I expected some to die there, and they did. It was like watching one of the original Star Trek TV shows where the one guy you've never seen before that beams down to to the planet was the guy you knew was going to get eaten by the slime monster. I expect a lot from Clancy so I am being very critical here. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It was an easy read, despite the number of pages, and the whole thing flowed together nicely. Read it for the action, read it for the familiar characters, read it for the "Good guys win" feeling, but just read it.

I think this book showed that Tom Clancy has run out of ideas and that's probably why this series seems to have finished after one more book (and two prequels.) This made two straight books on biological warfare with Ebola and I can only think he had more to say, or another scenario to play out, and thought to tell it from John Clark's point of view. This certainly had none of the complexity or richness of his previous books, bringing disparate threads together. This was just a straightforward vanilla thriller, and way too long for that kind of banality. Nor was the surprise ending much of a surprise since he'd painted himself into a corner by the time it arrived. A disappointment.

This is my first Tom Clancy's book. I enjoy espionage and military story, hence his plot really suit me. At first, i am still worried about his word glutton and draggy (repeating of events) style of writting, that might lead me to boredom or difficulty to understand, but it seems fine to me after a while.

In fact, i am amazed by so much details about military weapon and machine that the author put in his book. Information of the counterterrorism operations, mainly from intelligence and special unit, is thoroughly told which drew me even deeper.

The plot is very organised and new elements are added at stages. It started off by forming counterterrorism unit called Rainbow Six which comprised of two elite teams and lead by former CIA commander, John Clark. These are just bare minimum teams which consists of team leader, snipers, negotiator, technical expert and assault troopers.

Every detail in missions and even After-Action-Reviews (AAR), which most authors will skip, are emphaised. In the AAR, complete discussion and short-coming are brought up and unit commander will address the issues.

First improvement is the introduction of a new element, a utility helicopter MH60K night hawk, into the operation. The helicopter increases the unit's capability by its ability to transport troop to short distance, inaccessible area, troop roping which allows roof assault and sometimes it can even distract enemies.

Subsequently, more state-of-the-art jammed equipment, which disrupted cell phones and disabled terrorist's communication, and tracking system, which able to know the terrorist's exact position, are used in their mission.

One last point which worth mentioning is the author's perception towards the terrorists mind. His prediction is quite close to real thing.

Overall, i feel that it is a great accomplishment to complete such a thick book - almost 900 pages.
I will recommend readers, who enjoy espionage and military stories, to pick up this book as well.

This book tells the story of the formation of RAINBOW, an elite NATO counterterrorism special ops team in Tom Clancy's universe. The first 2/3rds of the book was slow--this is probably the most episodic Clancy book I've read so far in the Jack Ryan/John Clack universe (the book neatly fits into 5 terrorist attack sequences that are only understood as a whole at the end). Most of the subject matter is also a repeat from earlier Clancy--Ebola as a bioweapon, Provos shooting up our CIA hero, and even again grandiose plans for bringing back the bison to the American plains. Almost 20 years after Clancy wrote this book, his contemporary conceptualization of the terrorist threat as underground European Marxists who took hostages for political points seems quaint.

So, I generally love Tom Clancy books but I really struggled throughout this one. It was incredibly repetitive and overly long. The same story could have been told in a much more compelling way in under half the length. Overall, it's a great premise - a multinational counterterrorism force responding to world crises as they occur.

But in practice, page after page is devoted to boring training and planning conversations, and the action - when it occurs - is a repetitive hostage rescue scenario over and over again. The overarching plot - crazy environmentalists seeking to destroy the world's population to save mother nature - is dull and unrealistic. Clancy also devotes a strange amount of time to his protagonists dismissing climate change and mocking tree huggers.

The book opens with our CT leaders flying commercial to England to start the Rainbow program. Suddenly - what a coincidence! - the plane is hijacked by Basque terrorists. It was so absurd a scenario that I thought the reader was about to learn this was a training exercise. Nope....

And as the story continued it got even more and more absurd and repetitive. Clancy presents the U.S. bureaucracy as far more effective than it is. In one critical moment, a Russian spy ditches a fake passport. And within 24 hours it goes from a trash man finding it, to a lost and found, to the FBI, who discovers its a secret Russian spy's passport. Yea....right. In real life it would sit in lost and found for the next 6 months.

Clancy also loves to highlight interagency cooperation. Every time a character hears about a random FBI agent or air force pilot, the character says some version of "I've heard of them - great reputation" or "I've worked with them, smart person." About half way through the book I started counting how many times that was happening - I got to over 12 by the end of the book. It's a bit absurd.

I'd like to think that if Clancy wrote this book in the age of the war on terror, it might have been more focused on interesting CT work around the world. At it stands, however, this 90s-era story fell completely flat for me. As Clancy's characters, apparently without irony, say at three separate points in the book (referencing the environmentalist's terrorist plot) - "This sounds like the plot of a bad movie!" It sure does, Tom Clancy, so why didn't you write a better one?

Was pretty good, but lasted at least 100 pages longer than it should have. I enjoyed the action sequences, but there are moments where it’s an absolute slog to get there. It’s mostly well-written and helps expand on various characters/ideas, but after a while I just didn’t care about another section concerning a characters thoughts when the idea is that they don’t know anything and don’t realize other investigations are going on in the background. The main antagonists weren’t all that interesting either. Popov had his moments, but the environmental group wanting to destroy humanity to save the world just seemed kinda silly with how many people ended up being a part of it while still being “secret.” It’s not a bad book and the actual military aspect along with the fights and the relationships concerning John and Chavez were great, but it wasn’t enough to make the book a 5/5 in my eyes.

Solid, and researched.

Not quite the finesse of Brent Weeks or Patrick Rothfuss, but these authors would not publish their masterpieces until 10-15 years after Rainbow Six was written. For me, the sometimes clunky and testosterone laden writing style was trumped by the scope of the plot-which I certainly found mind-expanding, and no doubt skull crushing for its day-and the pace and rising intensity leading up to the climax. There were a few inside military references I did not understand but maybe I just have not read enough books.

I remember the NU64 adaptation of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six as intense and enjoyable 2-player action with my best friend at the time (with GnR Live also playing on his dad's boombox in the basement as background music). I remember one level or map that seemed to reflect an event in the book, but that would have been 15 years before I would read what would later turn out to be the inspiration for the game.

Going even further back, and for the record, I called this way back during sophomore year of high school. Everybody thought I was crazy, but the major part of the plot, I said would happen. Although I said it would happen in China, not where it did in the book.

I think there was potential for the author, god rest his soul, to have explored the actual shape of a double rainbow in the book with the plot, metaphorically speaking of course, or even in the form of writing style. Create an event, or have a character appear in the very beginning, or write at a certain angle or flare, then leave a huge space,and refrain from using it, and then tie it back in the end, like the ends of a double rainbow road. Neat! Maybe even figure out how to write sentences in the shape of a double rainbow. The dog ran home. Noun, verb, noun. I don't know, just an idea, but a potential cherry on top with a beginning/end rainbow.

Anyways, speaking of shapes, like Stephen King's Doctor Sleep, I was struck by the geometric shape of an "A" in summation of the contents of this novel. Both groups were headed in a similar direction of what they believed was for the greater good. Anyone else similarly perceive this shape?

On a personal level, I think its high time the rainbow was liberated from the symbol of the LGTB community. I recognize their intent to represent their...lets say LGTB ways, or rather, different colors of lifestyle, orientation, or biology, but the backlash has been a stigmatization of the rainbow by those of conventional or straight orientation. I bought a winter hat one time that was rainbow colored, and sure, it was bright, but I liked the style, especially because it fit my big head, which can be rare. Well, it only got worn a handful of times because like a lighthouse, it was a beacon, attracting attention from the wrong team. Look, we're all a team okay, so lets legalize the cannabis, connect major cites with bike paths, start using renewable energy sources more, and stop hassling the LGTB community so we can all enjoy the rainbow no matter what our orientation. I offer the idea of using all possible variations of 2 male and 2 female symbols, and 2 "other" symbols as the LGTB flag in return.

You're homosexuals, you can have ONE color. 1.

I mean, c'mon, lets get real here for a second. What does a rainbow mean? It literally means, "the reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow)

That's literally what the rainbow means in terms of science.

I really enjoyed this one, but it's an almost completely different kind of story from all of the other Clancy that I've read. Those are all, in essence, espionage stories (spies!). This is a different kind of beast.

John Clark (Mr. Clark, Mr. C) decides that someone should set up a counter-terrorist unit that isn't beholden to just one country. It's a sort of "team of experts" idea. He talks to the CIA, and up the ladder, and is given approval. What he forms, together with a member of British Intelligence, is essentially a NATO team, Code Name: Rainbow. That gives John a new title, as it's commander: Rainbow Six. He brings along Ding Chavez, now his son-in-law and about to be a first time daddy, with him as one of the two team leaders within Rainbow and they relocate to the SAS base in Hereford, England.

Just as they set up shop, a new threat starts to unfold. It will culminate in an attack meant to be centered at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. It's a big plot, and very well thought out by the author. He uses his characters within skill sets we know they have, even though neither John nor Ding has been military for quite a while.

I won't tell how the plot unravels...I'm sure there are enough reviewers willing to do that. I will tell you that I like Clancy's plotting. I like his characters, who have great internal consistency over a series of books. I like that his characters have realistic and maintained relationships. I like that things don't always work out well. I like that that is handled realistically, too.

I'm reading this now, because it comes before The Bear and the Dragon. Goodreads says that's the next chronological book in the Jack Ryan series AND in the John Clark series. So, I'm set, and I've got that for '21. My next long book is already queued up, so this will come after that one.

The action scenes in Rainbow Six are excellent. Made up primarily of hostage-taking scenes, they are tense and exciting, and Clancy's writing conveys the urgency of the situation and the concerns of the protagonists well. They are spread evenly throughout the book, and they're all gripping and entertaining.

Outside of the action scenes, Clancy's prose is serviceable, for the most part, but marred by repetition, poor flow, and a tendency to ramble. One almost gets a feeling of deja vu at some points, when certain passages seem to be cut-and-pasted from one section of the book to another. His transitions between scenes are sometimes a bit rough, and he changes perspectives too abruptly, sometimes doing it in the middle of a paragraph.

The characters tend to be broad stereotypes, and they never display any character development or growth, but that's typical for this type of fiction.

The plot is interesting, but has a few technical holes in it. That wouldn't normally affect my enjoyment of a novel, but Clancy's reputation is built (in part) on the detail level of his books, so the errors I could recognize (specifically relating to the internet) are bothersome.

The finish of the story is a little disappointing. I don't want to spoil the ending, but after a steady build-up throughout the story, with each mission and encounter getting tougher and tougher, the last two missions that Rainbow completes are too easy and pat to be rewarding. After wading through nearly 900 pages, I would have appreciated a bigger payoff.

All in all, a nice action story, and a good bit of escapism, but it's too long, has too many dull spots, and lacks the big finish it needs to be really satisfying.

Tom Clancy has written another big hit that has readers all over the world on the edge of their seat. When terrorists in Europe are aroused there is only one team that can stop them quickly, and efficiently. Rainbow 6. They are a team comprised of the best soldiers that every country has to offer. They got the most and best high tech equipment in the world. They have a great commander, John Clark. They have everything you can imagine.
When some extremist tree huggers come to kill all the people who threaten Mother Nature, Somebody has to stop them. They rile up the terrorists in Europe to act as a distraction for their diabolical plan to destroy the human race. Rainbow 6 defeats the terrorists every time without a loss of a man. The race is on to find out who is trying to kill the whole world.
There is lots of figurative language in this book. There is also a lot of foreshadowing that gives the book a sense of suspense. The book is really nicely written and there is lots of simile’s and metaphors. Clancy has great finesse when he writes this book. It is a great book that I hope you will love. t

Listened to this as an audiobook with my dad.
If you asked me what happened in this book, I wouldn’t be able to tell you… I was so lost the entire time I stg. Also, it’s so obvious that this book was written by a man in the 90’s simply by the way women are described (I won’t go into it because I don’t actually care enough). But yeah, the ending was pretty funny I suppose?

This is honestly one of the best books I have ever read, and I haven't even finished the book yet. However I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone. The weak stomached should probably refrain from picking up this book due to the gruesome descriptions and depictions the acclaimed author and ex-NAVY SEAL gives during the book. One of the main reasons why I really kike this book is because a clear and vivid image of what is going on can be created so easily and the strategy that is behind every move that the team makes. Basically the book is about a secret special forces organization called "Rainbow" due to their objective which is protecting countries on an international scale, from everything; bank robbers to full blown terrorists. The "Six" part of the title comes from the organizations leader, whose codename is "Six." However, the story is definitely not just based around blood and gore, it was a deep underlying conspiracy mystery that entangles, European terrorists and even corrupt biochemical lab physicians. On the whole so, far not one thing in this book has not had a hint of some literary device and it very creative.

To be Continued.....