The bear and the dragon - Tom Clancy

President Jack Ryan faces a world crisis unlike any he has ever known, in Tom Clancy's extraordinary new novel.

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 hasn't got any easier: domestic pitfalls await him at every turn; 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 potential 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 to wonder. For even while Russian investigators pursue the case, and some of his most trusted eyes and ears, including antiterrorism specialist John Clark, head to Moscow, forces in China are moving ahead with a plan of truly audacious proportions. Tired of what they view as the presumption of the West, eager to fulfil their destiny, they are taking matters into their own hands. If they succeed, the world as we know it will never look the same. If they fail...the consequences may be unspeakable.

Blending the exceptional realism and authenticity that are his hallmarks with intricate plotting, razor-sharp suspense and a remarkable cast of characters, this is Clancy at his best - and there is none better.