“Rainbow Six” is Tom Clancy at full length: a techno-thriller of nearly nine hundred pages about a secret international counterterrorist unit. Its appeal lies in the tactical detail of the operations and in a conspiracy some readers find uncomfortably believable. Attacks that look unconnected turn out to belong to one apocalyptic design. A book for readers who like their thrillers long and technical.

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About the book

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 Ryanverse, after Without Remorse (1993); it also features his son-in-law, Domingo "Ding" Chavez. Rainbow Six follows "Rainbow", a secret international counterterrorist organization headed by Clark, and the complex apocalyptic conspiracy they unravel after handling multiple seemingly random terrorist attacks.

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Where the score comes from

The sources average 7.8 across 230 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 61% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Thriller average of 7.6. That is how 7.7 comes out.