Red Rabbit

Infobox Book |
name = Red Rabbit
title_orig =
translator =


author = Tom Clancy
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Ryanverse
genre = Thriller novel
publisher = G.P. Putnam's Sons
release_date = 2002 (1st edition)
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 618 pp (hardback edition)
isbn = ISBN 0-399-14870-1 (hardback edition)
preceded_by = The Bear and the Dragon
followed_by = The Teeth of the Tiger

"Red Rabbit" (2002) is a New York Times bestselling novel by Tom Clancy.

Plot summary

Jack Ryan, CIA, helps with transporting a Russian defector and his family to the United States with the help of the British SIS. He confirms the KGB plan to kill Pope John Paul II (who, at the time the novel takes place, had just been elected). As in many stories in the Jack Ryan universe (often described as the Ryanverse), the story incorporates several historical events, including the 1978 assassination of Georgi Markov and the World War II era Operation Mincemeat. While Clancy doesn't rewrite the public version of events surrounding the nearly-successful assassination of the Pope, he does involve Ryan and his team in a typically clandestine manner.

Critical reception

Upon its release the novel received somewhat poor reviews. Critics praised Clancy's believable account of the plot, but disdained the lack of suspense. Reviewers for CNN and "The New York Times" considered the development of the main plot slow and tedious and noted that sub-plots remained underdeveloped and unresolved. [cite web | url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/books/09/24/review.clancy/ | title=Review: Clancy's 'Red Rabbit' rotten | publisher=CNN | author=Meagher, L.D. | date=September 24 2002 | accessdate=2006-10-23] [cite news | title=Books of the Times:Swipes About Hollywood And Other Media Types | author=Maslin, Janet | publisher=The New York Times | date=August 15 2002] In addition, the book is considered to be hampered by poor editing, with frequent use of the same sentences.Fact|date=February 2007 Reviewers for "Publishers Weekly" and "Esquire" believed the involvement of Clancy's main character Ryan in the main plot to be highly marginal. [cite web | url=http://www.powells.com/review/2002_09_11.html | title=Clancy Time | publisher=Esquire | author=Miller, Adrienne | date=September 11 2002 | accessdate=2006-10-23] [cite web | url=http://reviews.publishersweekly.com/bd.aspx?isbn=0399148701&pub=pw | title=Red Rabbit | publisher=Publishers Weekly | date=July 29 2002 | accessdate=2006-10-23]

Anachronisms

If the novel is set in 1981 (when the real-life assassination attempt was made), then several historical references made in the novel would be anachronistic.
* A plane landing at London Heathrow Terminal 4, while Brezhnev is still head of the USSR. Terminal 4 did not open until 1986, after his death.
* A brief mention of Ronald Reagan firing striking air traffic controllers. The attempt to kill John Paul II happened on May 13, 1981. Reagan didn't fire the controllers until August 5, and the strike didn't even begin until August 3.
* A preschool-age character is a fan of The Transformers animated series, which didn't debut until 1984.
* There is much discussion of the baseball season by the characters:
** The New York Yankees are mentioned as having an awful season when in fact they appeared in the World Series that year.
** The characters expect the Series to be between the Baltimore Orioles and the Philadelphia Phillies. This was the World Series match up for 1983, not 1981. The Yankees in 1983 finished 91-71, in 3rd place in the American League East. The bad season mentioned in the book may have been 1982, when they went 79-83 and came in 5th.
** Some of the characters mention Cal Ripken, Jr. as a rookie at the major league level. While Ripken did make his major league debut in 1981, it wasn't until August 10.
* The Baltimore Colts are mentioned as having moved to Indianapolis when in fact they moved in 1984.
* References to the Falklands War, which took place in 1982, after the attempt to assassinate the Pope.
* References to Mikhail Suslov's ill health and death; Suslov didn't die until January 25, 1982, eight months after the attempt to kill John Paul II.
* References to a pint of English beer being 16 fluid ounces in the story are incorrect. While the US pint may be 16 ounces, the Imperial Pint used in the UK is actually 20 Imperial ounces (19.2 U.S. fluid ounces).
* References to York being the biggest city in the North of England are incorrect. Manchester is the biggest metropolitan area in the North of England and conurbations such as Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle are also substantially more populous than York.

However, "Red Rabbit" is set after "Patriot Games", which itself is set after the birth of Prince William on 21 June 1982. This would put the events of Red Rabbit in 1983 or 1984 resolving most of the above issues, but moving the date of the assassination attempt a couple of years.

References