Rainbow Six (Hardcover)

by Tom Clancy (Author) "THE VC-208 FLIGHT WAS SOMEWHAT LACKING IN amenities-the food consisted of sandwiches and an undistinguished wine-but the seats were comfortable and the ride smooth enough..." (more)
Key Phrases: chlorine canister, fogging system, park engineer, New York, John Clark, Dmitriy Arkadeyevich (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
For many readers, Jack Ryan embodies the essence of the modern American hero. Morally centered, disciplined, humble yet powerful, Ryan (and his onscreen incarnations in Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford) has made Tom Clancy one of the most popular writers in the world. But as Clancy has constructed the Ryan mythology, he has quietly established Ryan's shadow double, John Clark. Appearing in The Cardinal of the Kremlin, Clear and Present Danger, and Without Remorse, Clark has many of Jack Ryan's most appealing traits, but he is also a darker figure embodying the more paranoid sensibilities of the late '90s. As is made clear from the opening pages of Rainbow Six, ex-Navy SEAL Clark and his colleagues believe violent, deadly force to be the best deterrent for terrorism.

Clark (a.k.a. Rainbow Six) has left the CIA to create an England-based organization code-named "Rainbow." Its mission: deploy an elite squad of American operatives combined with handpicked British, French, and German agents to stop terrorism in its tracks. Rainbow's emergence could not be more timely: in quick succession, the force diffuses three attempted terrorist actions. But Clark becomes suspicious when Russian agents suddenly show interest in Rainbow's work.

Rainbow Six appeals on all the levels that Clancy fans could hope for. The Rainbow operatives, from Navy SEALs to German mountain-leader school graduates, are rendered to inspire with their physical and mental prowess. The book is infatuated with the latest gadgets for scrambling, transmitting, and decoding secrets. And, in a carefully woven narrative that simultaneously traces the Rainbow team, a former KGB agent named Popov, the Australian Olympic security team, and a sinister group of American scientists, Clancy artfully reveals the mystery of "Shiva" at the center of the novel. How does Clark measure up against Jack Ryan? He may be the perfect hero for a world with hidden villains. --Patrick O'Kelley

From Publishers Weekly
Two years ago, Executive Orders, which thrust Jack Ryan into the Oval Office, raised the bar for its immensely popular author. This first Clancy hardcover since then, though a ripping read, matches its predecessor neither in complexity nor intensity nor even, at 752 pages, length, despite a strong premise and some world-class action sequences. Instead of everyman Ryan, its lead is the more shadowed John Clark, the ex-Navy SEAL vigilante of Without Remorse who has appeared in several Ryan adventures. Clark now heads Rainbow Six, an international special-ops anti-terrorist strike force?and, despite the novelty of the conceit, that's a problem, as the profusion of protagonists, though sharply drawn (including, most notably, "Ding" Chavez, Clark's longtime protege), deprives the book of the sort of strong central character that has given Clancy's previous novels such heart. The story opens vigorously if arbitrarily, with an attempted airline hijacking foiled by Clark and Chavez, who happen to be on the plane. After that action sequence, the duo and others train at Rainbow Headquarters outside London, then leap into the fray against terrorists who have seized a bank in Bern, Switzerland. And so the pattern of the narrative is set: action sequence, interlude, action sequence, interlude, etc., giving it the structure and pace of a computer game. A major subplot involving bioterrorism that evolves into an overarching plotline syncopates that pattern, though Clancy's choice of environmentalists as his prime villains will strike some readers as odd. All of Clancy's fans, however, will revel in the writer's continued mastery at action writing; Rainbow's engagements, which occupy the bulk of the novel, are immensely suspenseful, breathtaking combos of expertly detailed combat and primal emotion. While not Clancy's best, then, his 10th hardcover will catapult to the top of bestseller lists?and for good reason. Two million first printing; $1 million ad/promo; simultaneous Random Audio and Red Storm Entertainment computer game; author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 752 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; 1st ed/1st printing edition (August 3, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399143904
• ISBN-13: 978-0399143908
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1,437 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #276,000 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rainbow Six is a chilling, thrilling action novel...., October 5, 2003

By	Alex Diaz-Granados "fardreaming writer" (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rainbow Six (Paperback)

Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy's 10th novel and ninth in the Jack Ryan/John Clark series, once more focuses on the ex-CIA paramilitary field officer known in the Agency as Mr. Clark. This time, the focus once again turns to the challenges of fighting global terrorists and the menace from extremists determined not only to reshape society, but the entire planet's environment.

Clark is close to retiring as a paramilitary officer in the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Operations when Agency executive directors Ed and Mary Pat Foley, with the tacit approval of the recently elected President John Patrick Ryan, ask him to run an elite team of antiterrorist Special Ops fighters from several NATO countries. Their mission: to act as an international 911 team in hostage and other terror-related situations deemed too high-risk for local law-enforcement agencies. Based in England, this so-called Rainbow Team will be deployed mainly in Europe, but with support from U.S. and other allied nations, can operate anywhere in the world. Clark, who was an enlisted member of a SEAL team in Vietnam, is given a rank equivalent to a full colonel and the call sign Rainbow Six. (In military parlance, the designator "six" after a unit's call sign is assigned to a commanding officer.)

Rainbow Six opens with a tense incident high above the Atlantic as a small group of Basque terrorists attempts to hijack the plane carrying Clark, his wife, his protege and new son-in-law Domingo "Ding" Chavez, and Alistair Stanley, his British second in command, to London. Using their wits and finely honed skills, the three Rainbow members overwhelm the hijackers and save the crew and their fellow passengers.

With this introduction to the job, Clark then turns his attention to training the various members of the several Rainbow teams, not knowing that the airliner incident was simply one of many terrorist incidents being bankrolled by a mysterious and wealthy individual with a darker, more terrifying agenda. With the assistance of a former KGB officer and inspired by one of the most horrible aspects of the Iranian plot against the U.S. (as chronicled in Executive Orders), a group of environmental extremists is plotting to reverse centuries of man-made damage to the Earth's biosphere by committing the most horrible act of mass murder in history.

Clancy's novel paints a troubling picture of what happens when a noble idea (such as promoting global conservation) is twisted and perverted by charismatic and cold-blooded individuals, and its action-oriented plot inspired an ongoing series of computer games.

40 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read, just one or two flaws, March 10, 2000

By	John (London, England) - See all my reviews

Let's face it. Shakespeares' pants, a load of plays copied straight from older storylines. But anyway, Tom Clancy is probably the best author in the world for this sort of book. However, he has fallen once again on his two main flaws to receive a perfect 5/5. These flaws are simple ones: 1. Americans are the best, superheros who are better than everyone, even the SAS, which I doubt. 2. Storylines leading to nowhere - very frustrating However, he still accumulates all the key elements for a brilliant read. In some of his books, particularly Executive Orders, I found myself sat reading for days before I read that a tiny US task force obliterated a steamroller style Iran/Iraq army defending its own ground. However, in Rainbow Six, the action comes at appropriate times so that my interest did not attenuate as I went along. Also, the action is simply fantastic, with suspense, careful planning and perfect takedowns that you would expect from such men in real life. The weapons used are awesome in power, particularly the sniper's rifles, and I was fascinated to read how such men trained. It's been made into an excellent computer game. Might we be getting a film just as good? I think we should.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, October 24, 2004

By	java joe "Java Joe" (Mid--West , USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rainbow Six (Paperback)

As a longtime fan of Clancy's earlier work (Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Sum of all Fears, etc.) I found myself
greatly disappointed by this novel. An earlier reviewer noted that with the fall of the Soviet Union Clancy has been searching for a true villain. While the action throughout this book was fun and exciting...I had a hard time swallowing the plot. To think that extreme left-wing doctors and biochemists would plot the demise of the human race is absurd. With all that is going on in the world today, surely he could have found a more realistic terrorist plot to write about.

Normally, Clancy is meticulous in his research. However I found his descriptions of the terrorist tree-huggers to be far from my experiences with people concerned about the environment. Come on...environmentalists don't drive hummers and vegans don't eat eggs! I never thought I would ask Tom Clancy to "Do more research!"

The finally at the end was the last straw...I found myself reading it only because I had read the previous 850 pages. Not only were the antagonists' actions unbelievable, but they were simply out of character. To have a former FBI employee (Hendrikson) tell the group of untrained tree-huggers to make a stand against an elite fighting force that had proven its expertise, was simply ridiculous. And the final ending, the ultimate punishment for the terrorists, was like a scene from a bad hollywood movie.

Sorry for the rip on this normally great author...but I really expect more from a Clancy novel.