Rice? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Rice
Written: Sep 02 '00 (Updated Mar 12 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Solid and fun
Cons: Predictable
The Bottom Line: If you like seeing what US weapons can do to Second World technologies, buy this book.
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| buffoonery's Full Review: |
The techno-fiction genre has been languishing of late and its leading author, Tom Clancy, had a large role in that sad state of affairs. Clancy can be said to have invented the genre (that's an overstatement, of course, but many believe it to be true, hence it must be true) with the surprise breakthrough novel "Hunt for Red October", published back in 1984 or so, built around the unlikely premise of a Soviet ballistic missile submarine trying to defect to the United States. With one exception, ("Red Storm Rising"), Clancy built a cottage industry around Red October's hero and Clancy's alter ego, Jack Armstrong All-American Boy--oops, I mean, that heartless tool of the capitalist oppressors of the people, otherwise known as the redoubtable CIA spymaster Jack Ryan.
Here is a write-off of the latest Clancy novel, "The Bear and the Dragon", involving the also redoubtable Curtis Edmonds and that boll weevil Democrat lawyer Markham Shaw Pyle, aka mshawpyle, joined by your humble Midwestern High Catholic Republican, buffoonery. Please hasten to their pages and read their opinions. Both Curtis and I have also opined on the entire Clancy oeuvre, so please check out our work if you get the chance.
Clancy's string of successful Ryan novels followed the character's progress up the CIA hierarchy and beyond, to his de factor deposition of a President in "The Sum of All Fears". Clancy then suddenly changed gears--maybe he was bored--and present his readers with "Without Remorse", a great thriller set in the early 70's, loosely based on the abortive Son Tay POW rescue and in fact the first novel in the Jack Ryan series.
Things then began to get a little silly and, indeed, out of hand. It became clear to me in "Sum of All Fears" that Ryan was going to rise to the Presidency. As I feared, he did, and through the most absurd premise of surviving the destruction of the Capital Building in "Debt of Honor", which spoiled an otherwise solid novel. Things got worse in "Executive Orders", in which the United States is subjected to biological warfare while the President's children fall victim to kidnapping attempts and outnumbered by valiant National Guardsmen use assorted bad guy Iraqi-Iranians for target practice. Talk about more of the same. That ridiculous story was followed by the utterly absurd "Rainbow Six", in which insane greeners try to save the planet by killing everyone on it. Now, I hold no brief for enviro-Stalinists and would be positively delighted to see many of them turned into fertilizer, but even this was too much for me.
At long last, things have improved substantially with the release of "The Bear and the Dragon", which brings to a boil the Sino-Russian conflict that was simmering in "Debt" and "Orders". In both of those books, the Chinese Communists (more commonly, in Clancy's lingo, "Chicoms" or "Joe Chinaman" for the more casually inclined) were the powers behind the Japanese and United Islamic attempts at conquest. This time around, the Reds get a little more obvious.
The premise is simple. The Russians have discovered huge gold and oil deposits in Siberia. The Chinese want them, and aren't willing to trade rice for them. As the Chinese maneuver to attack Russia's sorely depleted military--including what may or may not be an assassination attempt on a key Russian official--unbeknownst to them a CIA agent is sleeping with the secretary of a Politburo member. How convenient. To make matters more pleasant, the Politburo member has his secretary transcribe his meeting notes on a PC.
Guess who's reading his mail?
And here is an objection of mine. First, I'm not a big fan of pornography, and Clancy is needlessly graphic. I'm even less of a fan of badly written pornography, which is what these "love" scenes are. Clancy, with whose Catholic views I am largely in alignment, should clean up his act; I'd like my boys to read this book, and with this language, it's not going to happen for a while.
In the meantime, Ryan has been reelected President and his VP is his old pal, Robby Jackson. Along the way, we meet a host of other old pals, including Mr. Clark, Ding Chavez, Arnie van Damm, Bart Mancuso, Marion Diggs, and even Bob Holtzman--indeed, we meet almost everyone but the kitchen sink. Let's be honest, as a consequence the first 200 pages or so of this 1,000-page tome are a little slow. It's basically police investigation and incompetent smut. But things start perking up when Chinese cops kill and American-educated minister and a Vatican diplomat who are trying to stop an involuntary abortion, and do so in the presence of a CNN reporter.
That's worse than a crime. It's a blunder.
Now, here is another issue. There may be a lot of readers out there who don't care for Clancy's pro-life views, as enunciated here. I presume such readers, in the interest of fairness and consistency, also object to the way John Irving expresses his strong pro-choice views in his novels.
In any event, these murders spark some serious worldwide anti-Chicom feelings. Brushing these complaints aside, the Politburo moves foreword with its plans while it is placed under extreme economic pressure as manufacturing contracts are cancelled left and right. Indeed, 5the whole situation reminded me of the way the US economic embargo on Japan stimulated Japanese war plans, and I'm surprised that Clancy, with his thorough knowledge of history, didn't make the parallel more express.
As things begin to escalate, and it is clear that the Chinese are not backing down, Ryan invites Russia into NATO, giving him a pretext for U.S. intervention if the Chinese invade. They do invade, we do intervene (ignoring the old dictum "never get involved in a land war in Asia"), and the last 300 pages or so are some of the most thrilling, tightly written if somewhat fantastic military fiction I have read in a long time. Naturally, the good guys win, thanks to good old American know-how and some dogged Russian resistance.
To be more specific, Clancy has an admirable grasp of ground and air tactics. By that, I don't merely mean his ability to describe a battle, which is good. What I mean is he understands what should and should not be done in combat, what operational and logistical considerations are involved, and the importance of leadership and morale. The man has read a lot and has talked to a lot of military men. He's also read a lot of Samuel Huntington.
The novel isn't perfect. To be honest, the plot is incredible (though not nearly as farfetched as the last two books and some of the competing stuff I have read). I can live with that, but more so, the good guys win everything: the book is just a collection of straw men (or events), and Clancy has a ball knocking them down. It's a little hackneyed.
In addition, as one might expect, the novel is loaded with technical jargon. Clancy fans, of course, expect this, but he goes to extremes. Not everybody knows off the tops of their heads that "TOT" means "time on target" (I knew that, of course) and even I had forgotten that "barcap" means "barrier combat air patrol". Be prepared for a tour through Acronym City.
As usual, Clancy can't write dialogue between men and women. I'm not just talking about that soft porn at the beginning of the book. If I see the Foleys call each other "honey bunny" again, someone is going to pay.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is Clancy's portrayal of China in general and the Chinese leadership in particular. Neither portrayal is flattering, although there is great deal of historical basis for the former--the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution have their tens of millions of dead (although China never got the international brush-off for murder that South Africa got for apartheid--the left has no enemies on the left, it seems) while Tianamen Square, Tibet, forced abortion, and the crackdown on religious freedoms are more recent examples of a truly brutal regime. So Clancy got that part right. ON his portrayal of the leadership, I'm not so sure. Maybe these people are as foolish and arrogant as Clancy depicts them. I doubt it, though. People who rise to power, particularly in a country as authoritarian and corrupt as China, tend to have certain shrewdness if nothing else. And they're certainly doing a good job of stealing our technology.
What I'm saying is, don't be so sure that Chinese leadership is as dumb as Clancy makes it look.
But so what? It's a good yarn, a solid and entertaining guy book (some women like Clancy, most don't, starting with my wife). It's fun, it's a page-turner, and the good guys rock. It starts slow, it's predictable, but stick with it. I got bang out of it, except for the last throwaway line. This is Clancy's best book since "Without Remorse". Enjoy.
Here is a complete listing of my Jack Ryan reviews:
Hunt for Red October http://www.epinions.com/book-review-51B7-30EDF5A-38D06C74-prod2
Red Storm Rising http://www.epinions.com/book-review-619A-3512A1B-38D11628-prod2
Patriot Games http://www.epinions.com/book-review-2516-3F4A31C-38D4FE41-prod5
Sum of All Fears http://www.epinions.com/book-review-717D-9C34527-392C3044-prod1
Without Remorse http://www.epinions.com/book-review-58C-CD7C622-3925AFDB-prod3
Debt of Honor http://www.epinions.com/book-review-3035-382EFAF-3933EE45-prod5
Rainbow Six http://www.epinions.com/book-review-4322-AA86195-39462CBE-prod3
Executive Orders http://www.epinions.com/book-review-934-41FBD56-39357FAD-prod5
The Bear and The Dragon http://www.epinions.com/book-review-53DB-49CA28D-39B17EC7-prod1
Recommended:
Yes
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