Rainbow Six (Tom Clancy)

Title: Rainbow Six

Author: Tom Clancy

Date Published: 1998

Genre: Thriller

Rainbow Six marks my foray into the works of Tom Clancy. As I had heard much of this prolific author and done some research about his stories, I had moderate hopes about this book. I was not disappointed.

The ninth book (by publication date) in the Jack Ryan (Ryanverse) series, Rainbow Six is very interesting. It details the attempt of a radical environmentalist group's endeavors to save the world by killing most of the earth's population. They engineer a modified strand of the Ebola virus (nicknamed Shiva) which they plan to release at the Sydney summer Olympics. To accomplish their grand plans, the group hires a former KGB officer to organize several hostage situations to raise the global awareness of terrorism. Jack Ryan (under the code name John Clark and Rainbow Six) must save the world once again with his covert team of elite forces.

Overall, this book was a fun summer read. It did not overtax my mental facilities, but it had enough techno argot that I felt like I was not completely wasting my time. The accounts of the hostage situations were intense and one was even a little sickening. I did like Clancy's humorous, although brief, accounts of Jack's "midlife crisis," when he struggles to comprehend where his youth has gone. Also, Clancy has obviously done his research in regards to pathology and psychopathology. His detailed analyses of a terrorist's thought processes are only outmatched by his meticulous account of how the environmental group engineered the Ebola.

This last description contributes to only real downfall of the book - the anticlimactic end. Clancy spends most of the book describing the effects of Shiva and how the radical group's maniacal plot will transpire. By the end of the book, I almost (sadistically) hoped that the virus might be released and cause widespread pandemonium. Instead, the book ended typically with a shootout and virtually all the "good guys" living to see another day. With the plethora of gore, violence, and (mostly gratuitous) language, this novel is nothing more than a flashy, explosive, R-rated blockbuster fata morgana - fun while it lasted but easily forgotten.

So here's my rating:

Plot: 6 (out of 10)

Style: 6 (out of 10)

Difficulty: 4 (out of 10)

Overall: 5 (out of 10)