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Title: The Teeth of the Tiger
ISBN: 039915079X
Author:
Tom Clancy
Publicate Date: 2003-08-11
Publish: 2003-08-11
List Price: $27.95
Average Customer Rating: 2.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $0.01
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Amazon Merchant Price: $27.95
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1: No better argument for the need for a zero star rating than this book
Many reviewers have lambasted Clancy for the shallow portrayal of the protagonists, and justifiably so. But what I have not seen is a parallel cri de coeur regarding the book's antagonists. So terrorists shoot up four malls in various mid-sized, red-state cities. Why? Clancy's gives them a rationale of shattering Americans' illusion of security. To what purpose? Post-9/11 America was very sharp for about two years regarding security issues. An operation like that described in the book would have a similar effect, making further operations incredibly difficult. If they had something bigger planned, what is it?
Who is Mohammed? I mean, aside from the most generic bad guy ever portrayed in a Clancy novel. We have no idea why he's gadding about Europe from city to city meeting with people. If it was merely information, his trusted encryption system would have been a much better way to convey this. If it was planning and recon for operations, why is he meeting people in restaurants to have meaningless conversations that could have taken place by email?
What happened to the Cartel? Once used as a plot device, they were discarded except for some fluff text that advanced no plot or sub-plot.
For that matter, where were all the sub-plots? You have the Caruso brothers storyline, and you have the Jack Jr. storyline. They moved along rapidly, yet without seeming to move somehow except in fits and starts. The merging of these two plotlines was as hackneyed and predictable as it was nonsensical. But more importantly, where were all the minor character subplots that are the true joy of the writer's earlier works? Most of the bit players get a page or so of background material, then they do nothing more than have repetitive conversations with each other. None of them has their own storyline. They are window dressing.
I found the most laughable part about the whole situation to be that Jack Ryan, pere, does nearly as much in this novel as Jack Ryan, fils, while never appearing onstage. In almost 500 pages, Little Jack manages to read some reports, tell other people about his brilliant flashes of insight (that anyone with an IQ in the average range would see), fly to Europe, and stab a guy with a weapon that would make Ian Fleming cringe--staying in four star hotels and flying first class in true James Bond fashion. What made the earlier Ryanverse novels so appealing is that the characters are expressly trying *not* to be James Bond. Yet here are their direct successors--people who literally grew up surrounded by adults who knew the trade--zipping about in a Porsche, wearing three thousand dollar suits, not only using credit cards but flashing status-symbol versions, engaging in such poor tradecraft that they could not possibly be related to the main characters of the Jack Ryan/John Clark generation.
I have read precisely one of the Op Center novels published under Clancy's name, and "Teeth of the Tiger" feels like it belongs in that series. It is similarly poorly written, devoid of characterization, and about one hundred and fifty pages longer than its thin plotting can support. One has to wonder if it was similarly ghostwritten. Perhaps a better title for this booh (with apologies to Monty Python) would have been "Contractual Obligation Novel."
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2: The Teeth of Boredom
I received this book as a gift and was looking forward to a good read only to discover that this is certainly the worst Tom Clancy book I have read. The dialogue is amateurish and unrealistic. Very little happens for more than half the book. The ending is slapdash and unsatisfying. The door is open for another book to continue and resolve the plot line, but there is no chance I will bother reading the next installment. Don't waste your time with this one.
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3: Worthless
I'd read most of Clancy's others, but by the time Jack Ryan became president of the U.S., this whole series ground to a halt for me. And that (Debt of Honor) was the last Clancy novel I read--until I picked up Teeth of the Tiger in an airport bookstore so I'd have something to distract me on a 3-hour flight.
The first thing a novelist has to do is get the reader to "suspend disblief." Jack Ryan becoming president was bad enough but now, with Jack Ryan, Jr. going to work as a low-level analyst for a black ops outfit, and his two cousins (twins, no less) working for the same group, this is beyond plausible. The plot is thin, the characters weak and predictable, and, guess what?! Jack Ryan, Jr. is suddenly catapulted into the spy game in a big way during the last 3 pages of the book. I lost count of the number of times Clancy used the term "bro'" and "lit up his computer." Hackneyed and trite.
Lame. Lame. Lame. Let's put a stake through the heart of Jack Ryan and let him go in peace. My last Tom Clancy novel.
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4: Disappointing
Haven't read a Clancy book for several years and am sorely disappointed at the poor quality of this effort. The most glaring problem with this book is the dialogue. Guys in their twenties making references to Grace Kelly and Maureen O'Hara? Simply awful. Too bad this author didn't hang it up while he was on top or at least collaborate with someone who is more in touch with the real world.
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5: 4.5 stars
I used to read all of Tom Clancy's books until I got annoyed by the Op-Center series, and bored by Into The Storm: A Study in Command and Every Man a Tiger (Tom Clancy's Commanders Series) (which were interesting, but dry as dust) and quit reading them altogether. Then I found this in the bargain bin, and remembered why I liked his books so much.
And wow. I checked Amazon reviews to refresh my memory (it's been 3 weeks since I read this), and there are 800 reviews with an average of 2 stars. I always gets very curious when I have such a complete difference of opinion, so I read through a few pages of the reviews. The negative ones seem to focus on two things: 1) it's not like real life, and 2) the series has moved on to the next generation. News flash: Tom Clancy books have never been overly realistic. Except probably for the nonfiction. You can pick apart dozens of things from even The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan Novels) that would never happen in real life--that's why it's fun to read. And I applaud long-running series that move on to the next generation. Otherwise, you end up with a hero that never ages, or increasingly improbable scenarios that even I won't swallow.
So, now that I'm satisfied that I didn't miss anything, on with the review.
The Teeth of the Tiger is about an ultra-clandestine government agency set up by then-president Jack Ryan. It's such a new agency that so far, all it's done is make money (it's self-funding, mostly by quasi-legal insider trading) and collect intelligence hacked from the alphabet-soup agencies. And now they're training their first operatives: twin brothers Dominic and Brian Caruso, respectively an FBI agent and a Marine officer.... and Jack Ryan's nephews.
They get a slightly accelerated course when a routine training exercise crosses paths with an actual terrorist operation in a suburban mall.
Meanwhile, Jack Ryan, Jr., a few years younger than his cousins, has used his brains and figured out the existence of the agency, and basically applies for a job.
Interspersed with the training thread and the Jack Jr. thread is the terrorists' plot.
Maybe it's because I've just been in an action mood lately, but while I did notice a few drawbacks: the twins call each other Aldo and Enzo for no good reason, except perhaps as something to trip up readers; Brian dithers for far too long about whether or not he can kill terrorists in cold blood; and there's quite a bit of repetition; they didn't bug me all that much because I loved the story otherwise.
I found the idea of a combination of stock market traders and assassin/spies irresistible. And I loved watching the development of the agency, even--or perhaps especially--the doubts and missteps. It was new, they weren't sure how it would work, but they were willing and eager to try, and that excitement was passed on to this reader, at least.
I also found the three cousins to be fairly reasonably characterized. Even Brian's crisis of conscience made sense with his character, and my irritation with him was mitigated by the fact that his brother was also irritated with him. The twins were youngish and excitement-seeking, which explains some of their less logical decisions, like renting a Porsche instead of taking an anonymous train on their mission in Europe. Jack, Jr. had grown up privileged in the shadow of his larger-than-life father, who he admires, so it's understandable that he has that sense of duty, and yet he wants to make his own mark, and to prove himself.
And, oh, yes, I did have to ignore a bit of political b.s. with which I'd have taken exception if I hadn't expected it. I find Clancy a little naive, politically (no shades of gray), but that works pretty well in an action novel. I think I'll have to see which of his books I've missed in the interim and check them out.
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