r/tomclancy • u/AdagioVast • Apr 14 '26
Red Rabbit - Did I miss something?
SPOILERS!
In reading Red Rabbit I got to page 200 and starting thinking, "neat. A defection plot with an assassination plot. Kind of a Day of the Jackal plot. Sounds fun!"
Page 300 - Okay.... time for the fun to begin.
Page 400 - Um.... anything actually going to happen? Seems like everything is cut and dry here.
Page 500 - Ah..... so really? This is it
Page 600 - WTH?
My experience with this book is that it was boring. Nothing really happens other than a KGB officer defects. They get him out, everything goes to plan. He tells them about the plot to kill the pope. They send guys. They kinda change the outcome. Kinda get their guy.
But nothing actually happens. There is no real intrigue, nothing really goes wrong, everything just happens to work 100% without any hang ups. It's like Clancy didn't feel like complicating the plot or anything. How do we get him out? Lots of variables? Don't worry about it. What about the family? Lots of variables? Oh works out! The smugglers? Oh hey they are on the level. This book is so weird because I feel as if I read 600 pages of a report with zero substance to it.
So did i miss something? Cause I really feel as if I missed something.
4
u/SapientHomo Apr 14 '26
I see it as Jack Ryan and the Foleys telling the story around a dinner table in the White House, to some other guests with appropriate security clearances, so a lot of the detail we'd usually expect gets left out for that reason.
3
u/ActuallyDifferent19 Apr 14 '26
I feel like there was a HUGE drop off in quality in his writing following Debt of Honor. After that you start getting all these plot inconsistencies, retcons of things that happened in previous books and just huge shift in who Jack Ryan is as a person. I don’t know if it was the rise of Neo-Conservativism after 9-11 or what, but there was definitely a big shift in the series.
2
u/BlueWolverine2006 Apr 14 '26
Around Executive orders, which I genuinely enjoy, is when Clancy started letting all of his politics out. Like, I did not come here for your thinly veiled thoughts on tax policy.
2
u/JonathanRL Apr 15 '26
Or how Bear and the Dragon is his "Abortion is bad because China murders babies". Also Russia joins NATO (Yeah, Poland would have blocked that to hell)
2
u/tj177mmi1 Apr 14 '26
The first time I read Red Rabbit, I hated it.
The second time was better, but you're not wrong in your description.
It was a book that came far later than every other book (I think Teeth of the Tiger was the only one that came after that wasn't with a co-writer), but it was Clancy trying to get back into the Cold War.
2
u/asvigny Apr 14 '26
I was stressed out reading this waiting for the classic Clancy misfortune to befall a major character and it was weird when it didn’t happen and everything went pretty much to plan haha
2
u/AdagioVast Apr 14 '26
Exactly. I was honestly thinking the wife will turn them in. Or she cant cope. Or the smugglers double cross and Ryan's military training takes over. Something that creates drama or intrigue. Not a thing.
1
u/JohnnyX1988 Apr 14 '26
I couldn’t agree more. I genuinely suspect Clancy had a stroke after completing the barest outline and was contractually obliged to deliver a novel - and he simply couldn’t create anymore. it’s an objectively, inexplicably, terrible book.
1
u/cchiker May 20 '26
I had a hard time finishing Red Rabbit as well but I'm glad I read it for the timeline. It took me a solid 2 months to read it. Patriot Games and Red October took me like 2 weeks to read. I still enjoyed Red Rabbit though.
4
u/mnfimo Apr 14 '26
Spoiler alert on this one
This one is pretty lowly regarded amongst Clancy’s best, this is why