..... The only improvements from "The Bear and the Dragon" (THAT one really was THE PITS!!!) are the lack of the lurid details and about 500 less pages. "One-star" is already too much, the contents of this book are not even worth the cost of the paper it's printed on. This is the end of my buying books by this writer: sorry, Mr Clancy, it was nice while it lasted (I guess from "Red October", original version, to "Cardinal of the Kremlin"), before those fat payments on account/commission made you forget how to write and how to deal with the characters of your books. Never a good writer, but at least you could provide the reader with some interest with curious technological stuff.