As popular as "Rainbow Six" was, to me it is this book, and not "The Bear and the Dragon," in which Clancy went bad. There, I said it.
Tom Clancy is an author I have always appreciated for his complex and realistic portrayal of war, the intelligence business and
…more international affairs in general. He uses realistic and human characters on both sides of the fence, explores complex and very relevant moral issues and drops them into a thrilling plot that will entertain the reader while still informing and causing him to think. It's what made his success in "Red October" and "Red Storm" and kept him going through every book until "Executive Orders" (his best work, by the way).
"Rainbow Six" disappoints because it exhibits none of these qualities. Clark and Chavez are cardboard, Captain America characters with none of the darker tones and human qualities that they had in previous novels. The plot is predictable and recycled; the virus plot was already in the last book, the "terrorists threaten loved ones" scene has been done to death, and one interrogation scene was lifted right out of "Patriot Games." Complex themes and moral issues are replaced by a gung-ho, Curtis LeMay militarism of the very sort that Clancy sought to exorcise when he first started writing.
Even worst from my point of view, Clancy's books are no longer even remotely relevant in the world of IR. While the last two books had Ryan dealing with new threats in a new world order, this book brings back the threat of Marxist terrorism (why not islamists, or something more relevant?) and ties it into U.S. politics with a ridiculous cheap shot at an environmental movement with a hidden Nazi/SPECTRE agenda (and yes, both comparisons are explicitly used). Clancy takes us back to the Cold War in a giant time loop that persists through the next two books, with his last one being a failed attempt to reconnect with the real world.
So, the demise of one of my favorite authors. He goes from being a first-rate author to a cheap ideological hack in only one book, a free-fall that continues and worsens in the next three books. RIP Tom Clancy. (less)