Rainbow Six (novel)

Rainbow Six is a techno-thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on August 3, 1998. It is the second book to primarily focus on John Clark, one of the recurring characters in the Jack Ryan universe, after Without Remorse (1993). Rainbow Six also features his son-in-law Domingo "Ding" Chavez, and explores the adventures of a multinational counter-terrorism unit that they formed, codenamed as Rainbow. The title refers to Clark's title as commander of Rainbow. The book debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list,[1] and has since been adapted into a series of video games.

For the Rainbow Six franchise, see Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.
Rainbow Six
First edition cover
AuthorTom Clancy
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SeriesJohn Clark
Genre
PublisherG.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date
August 3, 1998
Media typePrint (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages740
ISBN0399143904
Preceded byExecutive Orders 
Followed byThe Bear and the Dragon 

Plot summary

CIA operative John Clark forms a secret multi-national counter-terrorist unit known as Rainbow. Based in Hereford, United Kingdom, the unit consists of two operational squads composed of elite soldiers from NATO countries, and is supplemented by intelligence and technological experts from MI6, Mossad, and FBI. Clark is the commanding officer, son-in-law Domingo Chavez leads one of the two squads, and the second in command is Special Air Service (SAS) officer Alistair Stanley.

The first deployment of Rainbow involves Chavez's squad in the rescue of hostages during a botched bank robbery in Bern, Switzerland. Several weeks later, they are deployed to Austria, where a group of left-wing German terrorists have taken over the schloss of a wealthy Austrian businessman in order to obtain imaginary "special access codes" to the international trading markets. Their third deployment involves a hostage situation in an amusement park in Spain, where a group of French terrorists take a group of children hostage and demand that various prisoners, including Carlos the Jackal, be released.

Clark and his colleagues become suspicious about the sudden spate of terrorist attacks. Unbeknownst to them, the first two attacks are part of a master plan to wipe out nearly all of the human race, called "the Project". Dr. John Brightling, a staunch environmentalist who heads a biotechnology firm called the Horizon Corporation, ordered the attacks through ex-KGB officer Dimitri Popov in order to raise awareness of terrorism, which then helps former FBI agent and co-conspirator Bill Henriksen's security firm land a key contract during the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. From within the Olympics security apparatus, Henriksen plans to launch a sophisticated bioweapon attack using nanocapsules containing the Shiva virus, a strengthened form of the Ebola virus that had been used by Iran in its biological attack on the U.S. (in Executive Orders). Since people from virtually every country in the world are present at the Olympics, as either athletes or spectators, infecting them would ensure the swift worldwide spread of the virus. The resulting epidemic would kill millions, but then Brightling's company would distribute a "vaccine" that actually contains a slow-acting version of the virus itself, which would kill or overwhelm nearly all of the rest of the world's population. The "chosen few", having been provided with the real vaccine, would then inherit the emptied world, justifying to themselves mass murder as "saving the world" from humanity.

Popov, unaware of the Project, discovers the existence of Rainbow through review of the responses to his terrorist attacks, and brings it to Brightling's attention. He is later tasked by Brightling and Henriksen with orchestrating an attack on Rainbow itself in order to prevent them from being deployed to the Sydney Olympics. He persuades breakaway members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army to take over a hospital near Rainbow's base and take Clark and Chavez's wives (who work there) hostage. While two Rainbow troopers are killed and several others wounded in an ambush, Rainbow teams manage to retake the building without civilian casualties and capture some of the terrorists. Interrogation reveals Popov's involvement, causing Brightling to bring the Russian to Horizon's secret main base in Kansas. Upon learning about the Project, an appalled Popov escapes and tells all he knows to Clark. Meanwhile, Chavez and some of his men, who were deployed at the Olympics to oversee venue security, thwart the attack.

Their plans in shambles, Brightling and key co-conspirators escape to another, smaller Horizon base deep in the Brazilian rain forest. Clark leads Rainbow there. They defeat the eco-terrorists' defences and destroy their facility and supplies. Knowing that there is not enough evidence to convict them, Clark has the survivors stripped naked and left to fend for themselves in the jungle, taunting them to "reconnect with nature." Chavez remarks that even he would not be able to survive there very long.

Executive and support branches
  • John Clark: Commander of Rainbow (known as Rainbow Six)
  • Alistair Stanley: Deputy commander (Rainbow Five)
  • Bill Tawney: Head of the intelligence section and former MI6 intelligence analyst
  • Dr. Paul Bellow: In-house psychologist specializing in criminal psychology
  • Tim Noonan: Resident tactical electronics and surveillance specialist, also working as special agent for Federal Bureau of Investigation
  • Daniel "Bear" Malloy: Lieutenant colonel for the U.S. Marines and pilot of the MH-60K Night Hawk helicopter used for Rainbow missions, beginning with the hostage situation in the Spanish amusement park

Team 1
  • Major Peter Covington: Commander and member of the SAS
  • Miguel "Mike" Chin: Former U.S. Navy SEAL as Master Chief Machinist's Mate
  • Mortimer "Sam" Houston: Sniper-observer
  • Fred 'Freddy' Franklin: Rifle 1-2, Sergeant 1st Class, Former Instructor Army's Marksmanship - Fort Benning

Team 2
  • Domingo "Ding" Chavez: Commander, leader of team, CIA, Special Activities Division, and Clark's son-in-law
  • Julio "Oso" Vega: Machine gunner and former Delta Force member
  • Eddie Price: Senior member and former SAS sergeant major
  • Louis Loiselle: Former French paratrooper who had been detailed to DGSE
  • Dieter Weber: Sniper, former German GSG 9 Feldwebel, a factual error, the German Bundesgrenzschutz didn't use military ranks after 1975)
  • Homer Johnston: Sniper, former Special Forces and Delta Force member

Horizon Corporation
  • John Brightling: Chairman of Horizon Corporation and mastermind of "the Project"
  • Bill Henriksen: Consultant and head of Global Security, former FBI agent with the Hostage Rescue Team
  • Carol Brightling: Science Advisor to the President and former wife of John Brightling. Their divorce is a ruse used to safeguard her position, which enables her to pass secrets to Horizon.
  • John Killgore: Senior research scientist in the testing project of the Shiva virus
  • Kirk Maclean: Tasked with kidnapping alcoholic homeless men in New York City to be used as test subjects for Shiva testing

Other characters
  • Dimitri Arkadyevich Popov (aka Iosef Serov aka Joseph Andrews): Former KGB operations officer working for Brightling
  • Sandra "Sandy" Clark: John Clark's wife
  • Patricia "Patsy" Clark-Chavez: John Clark's daughter and Domingo Chavez's pregnant wife
  • Ernst Model: Former Red Army Faction member who leads the botched bank robbery in Bern, Switzerland
  • Hans Fürchtner: Recruited by Popov to take over the schloss of a wealthy Austrian businessman
  • Petra Dortmund: Fürchtner's longtime partner
  • Erwin Ostermann: Austrian financier taken hostage by Fürchtner and Dortmund in his home
  • Andre Herr: Former Action Directe member in charge of the hostage situation at Worldpark, an amusement park in Spain
  • Sean Grady: Provisional Irish Republican Army cell commander who leads the attack on the Hereford hospital
  • Tom Sullivan: FBI agent based in New York investigating Bannister's disappearance
  • Frank Chatham: FBI agent and Sullivan's partner
  • Ed Foley: Director of Central Intelligence
  • Mary Bannister: One of the test subjects in the Shiva transmission study run by Dr. Killgore

Themes

Rainbow Six explores the issue of radical environmentalism. According to Marc Cerasini's essay on the novel, the philosophy of the antagonists are considered as an extreme form of naturalism, based on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's view that society's functions corrupt mankind and that "a natural or primitive state is actually morally superior to civilization". The novel shares elements found in James Bond movies: a biological weapon being used to end or rather cull the human race, mad scientists plotting world domination, and high-tech secret bases hidden from civilization. However, Clancy makes the plot relevant and morally ambiguous by incorporating motivations similar to those of real-life radical ecocentric environmentalists and deep ecologists, such as Pentti Linkola, rather than blanket hunger for power and brash misanthropic resentment.[2][3] In several regards, critics have noted similarities in this regard to the later-released Kingsman: The Secret Service and Dan Brown's Inferno.[4]

Reception

The book received mixed reviews. Entertainment Weekly praised the novel's "sprawling, Bondesque plot" as well as its action scenes that are "vivid and cinematic—and notably lacking in the clichés and B-movie tone of his dialogue". Publishers Weekly also hailed the scenes as "immensely suspenseful, breathtaking combos of expertly detailed combat and primal emotion".[5]

On the other hand, criticism was focused on flat characters and the implausibility of the plot. A review from Orlando Sentinel pointed out: "Clancy may have crossed the line into the realm of the unbelievable...I suspect even some of his most rabid fans will shake their heads at parts of this novel."[6] Entertainment Weekly also noted that "some of [Clancy's] secondary characters have a flat, dime-novel feel".[7] Canadian environmentalist Paul Watson condemned the book as "a vicious defamation of the Environmentalist Movement, embodying, amplifying and packaging all the worst stereotypes and prejudices."[8]

Adaptations

Video game

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six was first released on August 21, 1998, about two weeks after the release of the novel. However, the plot of the game does not completely match with the book, since the game was completed first. Video game developer Red Storm Entertainment, which was co-founded by Clancy two years before, based the game's concept on the FBI Hostage Rescue Team in an international setting.[9] The game became a commercial success for Red Storm and has spawned a number of sequels. It has since revolutionized the first-person shooter genre by forcing the player to think tactically and realistically in every mission, unlike the arcade games of the time.[10][11]

Film

In July 2017, Paramount Pictures announced plans to make a film adaptation of the novel with Akiva Goldsman as producer.[12] Ryan Reynolds was reported to be in early talks to play Clark.[13] In September 2018, Michael B. Jordan was announced to be playing the main character in a two-part film series, with Rainbow Six as the intended sequel to a film adaptation of another Clancy novel featuring Clark, Without Remorse.[14]

Release details
  • 1998, U.S., G. P. Putnam's Sons ISBN 0-399-14390-4, Pub date 3 August 1998, hardcover
  • 1998, U.K., Michael Joseph Ltd ISBN 0-7181-4336-1, Pub date 27 August 1998, hardback
  • 1998, U.S., Putnam Publishing Group ISBN 0-399-14413-7, Pub date August 1998, hardcover (Limited Edition)
  • 1998, U.S., Demco Media ISBN 0-606-17207-6, Pub date September 1998, unbound
  • 1998, U.S., Random House ISBN 0-375-70324-1, Pub date August 1998, paperback (Large Type Edition)
  • 1999, U.S., Berkley Publishing Group ISBN 0-425-17005-5, Pub date September 1999, paperback
  • 1999, U.S., Berkley Publishing Group ISBN 0-425-17034-9, Pub date September 1999, mass market paperback

References
  1. "The New York Times bestseller list for August 23, 1998" (PDF). Retrieved 22 September 2018.
  2. Greenberg, Martin H. The Tom Clancy Companion (Revised ed.). pp. 36–38.
  3. https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11293151
  4. https://monkeysfightingrobots.co/review-inferno-another-preposterous-dan-brown-yawn
  5. "Fiction Book Review: Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  6. Skoneki, Mark. "TOM CLANCY GOES BEYOND FANTASTIC INTO FANTASY". The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  7. Kennedy, Dana. "Book Review: 'Rainbow Six'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  8. Paul G. Watson, "Propaganda, Lies and Vicious Lies", in The Rainbow Quarterly, Autumn 2001
  9. "Postmortem: Redstorm's Rainbow Six". Gamasutra. January 21, 2000. Archived from the original on 4 August 2001. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  10. "The History of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six". Xbox Wire. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  11. Packwood, Lewis. "The bizarre tale of how Tom Clancy sold his name to videogames". PCGamesN. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  12. Fleming Jr., Mike. "Akiva Goldsman Moves To Paramount; 'Rainbow Six,' 'Ologies' & 'Avengelyne' On Menu". Deadline. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  13. Gurwin, Gabe. "'Rainbow Six' Film In Development, Could Star Ryan Reynolds". Digital Trends. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  14. Kroll, Justin. "Michael B. Jordan to Play Tom Clancy Character John Clark". Variety. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
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