The Bear and the Dragon »

Known for originating the techno-thriller genre, Tom Clancy writes complex novels dense with hardware and international intrigue. Perhaps the strongest indication of his power as a writer is the fact that he is often treated by the media like a character in one of his books, asked for opinions about military readiness and the subject of rumors about being debriefed by the Pentagon. Not bad for a former salesman who was rejected for service because of bad eyesight.

Four Cassettes, 6 hours

Time and again, Tom Clancy's novels have been praised not only for their big-scale drama and propulsive narrative drive, but for their cutting-edge prescience in predicting future events.  In The Bear and The Dragon, the future is very near at hand indeed.

Newly elected in his own right, Jack Ryan has found that being President has gotten no easier.  Domestic pitfalls await him at every turn, there's a revolution in Liberia, the Asian economy is going down the tubes, and now, in Moscow, someone may have tried to take out the chairman of the SVR - the former KGB - with a rocket-propelled grenade.  Things are unstable enough in Russia without high-level assassination, but even more disturbing may be the identities of the assassins.  Were they political enemies, the Russian Mafia, disaffected former KGB?  Or, Ryan wonders, is something far more dangerous at work here.

Ryan is right.   For even while he dispatches his most trusted eyes and ears, including black ops specialist John Clark, to find out the truth of the matter, forces in China are moving ahead with a plan of truly audacious proportions.  If they succeed, the world as we know it will never look the same.  If they fail—the consequences will be unspeakable.

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Newly elected President Jack Ryan faces a number of unstable and hostile political enemies, including China and Russia, in this forecast of future events by best-selling author Clancy.