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!

Rainbow Six
Owen Wahl
8-30-18

Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy is a continuation in the John Clark series by Tom Clancy. Tom Clancy is a top secret FBI agent who is offered to become the Top Dog for a brand new operation called Rainbow Six. R6 for short is a multinational anti terrorism group who all have a very particular set of skills. Their mission is to eliminate a new group of terrorists who recently have been on the uprise. Follow John Clark and his best friend Ding Chavez lead their teams through Bank Robberies, Hostage situations, and Bomb defusals in the most intense book i have ever read. I recommend this book to anyone who has played any of the Tom Clancy Video games or is interested into Government special operations or anything along those lines. This book had me jumping out of my seat after very descriptive content of the aftermath of an operation. I found out about this book through my father who has read almost all of the Tom Clancy Books. Can John Clark and his team beat eliminate the terrorist group? Find out by reading R6.

John Clark was referred to as “Rainbow Six” at least 22 times. Fuckin hell yeah

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

great book kept interesting the whole way through which is no small achievement for an 800 page book the reasons i liked it were its engaging style, complex plot, in depth characters, strong real life research and brilliant fight scenes. Tom Clancy’s style i found very engaging because of the way that he can add details while not drifting off the story too much and his in depth interesting writing. The plot while not overly fast paced was complex enough to make up for it and kept on twisting until the end of the story. The characters all had an in story background for the reader to read giving more knowledge about the psychology of the characters making the book much deeper. The author obviously either has a background in military or spent a long time gathering information about the weapons and equipment he writes about which also helps the reader get more from the story. The fight scenes are some of the best I’ve read as rather than plain action there is some waiting with characters pointing guns waiting for exactly the right moment tensed fingers holding the triggers and it builds suspense in a way that standard action scenes can't.

So after being a fan of the Tom Clancy-inspired games for over 20 years, I thought it was time I gave some of the man's literature a try.

Rainbow Six might not be the best place to start with his work, but that's because it's so damn dense. The first half reads like an instruction manual, as John Clark builds Rainbow. From there it has the anthology feel, and to be honest - there are is books worth of material in here.

The second half is where the shit really kicks off though. There is a cool thriller underneath the intimidating barrier to entry. The main plot had me gripped and as the book came to a close I was honestly hooked.

Though, I understand when some people might say that this is too long at parts. Maybe I'll attempt one Clancy book a year...

But at least now I can say, I love the book some of my favourite games are based off.

I first read this in the Fall of 1999 when I was a rookie Airman 1st Class undergoing technical training at the USAF Security Forces Academy at Lackland AFB (San Antonio), TX. I loved it then.....and I love it even more now that I've had an additional 17.5 years of military, Federal civilian law enforcement, and overseas Private Military Contracting under my belt.

Of course, this time around, I have a few itty-bitty nitpicks and "WTF?" moments that I didn't catch on the first reading, which I shall elaborate on below.....

RANDOM STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS:

"Nice thing about first class was that they pretended you had a name." Um, that's true of Business Class as well.

--p. 22: "this was an **American** airliner..." But didn't the author say earlier that it was British Airways?

--p. 30: Wow, still using "stewardess" and not "flight attendant" in 1998? How delightfully politically incorrect!

--p. 34: Was the term "RCAF" still in official use in 1998?

--p. 39: "....captain, which was about the best rank to have in the Army, high enough that the NCOs respected you as worthy of command, and low enough that you weren't a staff puke and you played with the troops." Well, I saw my fair share of Army O-3 staff pukes at Scott AFB!

--p. 49: Beretta .45 as in the Cougar? And oh, BTW, the 10mm cartridge wasn't originally developed for the FBI or Smith & Wesson, it was developed for the Bren Ten.

--p. 68: "Czech 58" as in Vz-58?

--p. 102: "It was called Potomac Fever, a disease easily caught and less easily cured." How very true!

--p. 112: "Dealing with the media frightened him more than facing loaded weapons." Ha, who could blame him!

--p. 113: "The worst part was the traffic circles the Brits seemed to like better than real interchanges." Yeah, no bloody shyte, them and the Emiratis!

--p. 122: Uh-oh, that un-PC word "niggardly!"

Better than I expected :) Too long, some chapters starting with repeating everything that happened so far, for the readers who managed to forget. Different characters dwelling on very similar thoughts as they discover and digest new information (which is reasonable, but no need to tell me this).

Still, I thought this would be a description of several glorious military operations, and it started that way, but developed into a global overarching plot with spooky spies doing international spooky things, large corporations conspiring, and CIA, FBI, KGB, SAS (and the other SAS) dancing around the task with decisively heavy jaws and silenced weapons.

This ain't Dostoyevsky, but for its genre — good stuff, though prolonged more than it has to be. :)

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.

I’ve read a few Tom Clancy books and this by far was my favorite. I was enthralled the whole time, the tension built beautifully for a great ending. The characters are interesting and relatable more so than in any other Clancy book I’ve read.

This book has everything: gun fights, spies, globe trotting, biological warfare, terrorism, fatherhood, environmentalism. However, it is not without its flaws. I agree with other reviewers who say it’s a bit too bloated and I whole heartedly agree. It could have been skimmed down by quite a bit and still have the same impact. But I know Clancy is not known for his brevity. So as a Tom Clancy book, it’s as good as it gets in my opinion.

Overall not a bad story but following executive order which was very engaging, this one was just different. it really was a stand off novel all about John Clark, Jack Ryan was only even mentioned by name once.
I do look forward to see if and how Rainbow work in the rest of the Ryan / Clark universe.

The HYPE was real!! I have been told by a ton of friends that this was their favorite book. I can agree. This book was amazing. An all time classic. Only my 3rd Tom Clancy book and I am hooked. John Clarke is the MAN. Cant wait to read more.