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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Better than I expected, and if not better than the movies than at least easier to follow. Despite being an "action" book there's a lot of plotting plays out far better in the novel, whereas in the movie actions just seemed arbitrary. I thought that the novel also had a much stronger sense of morality than the rather zero-sum world of the movies. Solid thriller. Don't be too thrown by the atrocious first paragraph: the writing gets a lot better.
3.5 Stars, rounding up because that's what I do for Robert Ludlum. Or, at least it's what I do for Bourne.
The Bourne Identity marked the beginning of an entire era of my reading habits. After reading it early in highschool (freshman or sophomore year) on the recommendation of a friend, I think I ended up reading almost every book Ludlum had ever written. Of course, if pressed to describe these books today, I'm forced to admit they tended to blur together.
Except Bourne.
The Bourne Trilogy has been on my guilt shelf of "I'll reread these someday" since I read them the first time around, and "Someday" turns out to mean "2018."
If it's not quite as well written as I remember, it's still not bad. The first part is the hardest reading, and that mostly due to the contrivances surrounding the 'total amnesiac' trope. The writing rapidly improved once some basic facts were established.
Ludlum excells at bureaucratic intrigue, stepping away from our protagonist's limited view to draw back the curtain for the reader, drip-feeding information until the pieces fall together in the last act.
Our overt antagonist is Carlos (Ludlum's fictionalized interpretation of the real-world Ilich Ramirez Sanchez), a world-class assassin with a fearsome network. Pitted against him, but not knowing why, is the titutular Bourne. Also against Bourne are his unknown (to him) employers. His only ally is a woman he abducts in the early part of the book.
If I had to pick one thing that made Bourne stick with me so long, it's the realism. No, not the tired amnesia trope, but things like the way our protagonist's leg cramps at an awkward moment while he's trying to get Intel. Things like that, coupled with the larger framework the reader is permitted to see, stand out in a genre dominated by seemingly-ageless superspy action heroes.
But it's not perfect, and some of what I think is forgiveable, others might not.
Things I did not like:
First, the character Marie is 100% plot device. She functions as hostage, advocate, and love interest for our amnesiac hero, and displays a frankly ridiculous level of confirmation bias when it comes to her opinions. That said, most characters in this book have problems with confirmation bias, so I suppose there can be forgiveness for the last bit. (Ludlum also lampshades the improbability of Marie's assistance through another character, so at least he was aware of it.)
Second, Amnesia doesn't work like this, but we're all used to the trope at this point, so I guess I have to swallow it. It was much easier when I was 14-15 than it is today.
Am I rounding up on nostalgia? Unashamedly yes. That said, this is still an excellent installment in its genre, and I'm happy to recommend it for that audience.
The Bourne Identity marked the beginning of an entire era of my reading habits. After reading it early in highschool (freshman or sophomore year) on the recommendation of a friend, I think I ended up reading almost every book Ludlum had ever written. Of course, if pressed to describe these books today, I'm forced to admit they tended to blur together.
Except Bourne.
The Bourne Trilogy has been on my guilt shelf of "I'll reread these someday" since I read them the first time around, and "Someday" turns out to mean "2018."
If it's not quite as well written as I remember, it's still not bad. The first part is the hardest reading, and that mostly due to the contrivances surrounding the 'total amnesiac' trope. The writing rapidly improved once some basic facts were established.
Ludlum excells at bureaucratic intrigue, stepping away from our protagonist's limited view to draw back the curtain for the reader, drip-feeding information until the pieces fall together in the last act.
Our overt antagonist is Carlos (Ludlum's fictionalized interpretation of the real-world Ilich Ramirez Sanchez), a world-class assassin with a fearsome network. Pitted against him, but not knowing why, is the titutular Bourne. Also against Bourne are his unknown (to him) employers. His only ally is a woman he abducts in the early part of the book.
If I had to pick one thing that made Bourne stick with me so long, it's the realism. No, not the tired amnesia trope, but things like the way our protagonist's leg cramps at an awkward moment while he's trying to get Intel. Things like that, coupled with the larger framework the reader is permitted to see, stand out in a genre dominated by seemingly-ageless superspy action heroes.
But it's not perfect, and some of what I think is forgiveable, others might not.
Things I did not like:
First, the character Marie is 100% plot device. She functions as hostage, advocate, and love interest for our amnesiac hero, and displays a frankly ridiculous level of confirmation bias when it comes to her opinions. That said, most characters in this book have problems with confirmation bias, so I suppose there can be forgiveness for the last bit. (Ludlum also lampshades the improbability of Marie's assistance through another character, so at least he was aware of it.)
Second, Amnesia doesn't work like this, but we're all used to the trope at this point, so I guess I have to swallow it. It was much easier when I was 14-15 than it is today.
Am I rounding up on nostalgia? Unashamedly yes. That said, this is still an excellent installment in its genre, and I'm happy to recommend it for that audience.
The Matt Damon movie was decent and made me want to read the book. But I couldn't help thinking through the entire book that I wanted to see a movie made of the actual book, not the way it was adapted and changed so that Matt Damon instead of Harrison Ford could play Bourne.
Ah, the ol' amnesia trick; a tried and true method for engaging the readers as the protagonists' journey runs parallel to their own. Add to that some espionage, international destinations and some truly thrilling, lengthy passages about banking procedures and you have a riveting read, right? Well, almost...
I'm laying the blame for my rather mediocre appraisal at Ludlum's style. His ideas are interesting enough but his prose is just annoying. His bizarre quasi-stream-of-consciousness style gets more than a little jarring very quickly. Exclamations! Sentence fragments. Phrases. Irritating. Then there's our hero; the chamelon, the amnesiac, the petulant idiot. His preferred method for getting pretty much anything done is to simply shout at people until it's over or alternatively, just get shot, turning him from a tortured hero into a blithering belligerent.
I'm laying the blame for my rather mediocre appraisal at Ludlum's style. His ideas are interesting enough but his prose is just annoying. His bizarre quasi-stream-of-consciousness style gets more than a little jarring very quickly. Exclamations! Sentence fragments. Phrases. Irritating. Then there's our hero; the chamelon, the amnesiac, the petulant idiot. His preferred method for getting pretty much anything done is to simply shout at people until it's over or alternatively, just get shot, turning him from a tortured hero into a blithering belligerent.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
A lot of action. I really mean a lot of action. Robert Ludlum isn't the best of writers and the dialogue is borderline embarrassingly bad at times but damn he can tell a good story. Not at all like the movie and I missed that Jason Bourne but still a fun Goodread. Highly recommended for lovers of action packed thrillers with lots of car chases and lots of bullets.