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itsfreelancer's review against another edition
3.0
Picked up a Bourne book after about 5-6 years and yep he's still the same.
I'm having a tough time trying to figure out why he doesn't age or why he just doesn't die at all. The first three books are on a pedestal of its own and no subsequent book can reach those heights but Lustbader's Bourne version still manages to do okayish.
There isn't plots within plots within plots made complicated by amnesia and cover names that made the trilogy an instant hit but there is still amnesia and maybe puzzles that is good enough to carry the tale forward.
I reaaaally really want to go back to the trilogy again but apparently that has to wait. There are a few more books left in this series before I restart.
Onward to the next one, thank God it's already released. Saves me the trouble of remembering names, just like David Webb.
I'm having a tough time trying to figure out why he doesn't age or why he just doesn't die at all. The first three books are on a pedestal of its own and no subsequent book can reach those heights but Lustbader's Bourne version still manages to do okayish.
There isn't plots within plots within plots made complicated by amnesia and cover names that made the trilogy an instant hit but there is still amnesia and maybe puzzles that is good enough to carry the tale forward.
I reaaaally really want to go back to the trilogy again but apparently that has to wait. There are a few more books left in this series before I restart.
Onward to the next one, thank God it's already released. Saves me the trouble of remembering names, just like David Webb.
ccoelophysis's review against another edition
Read in audiobook format. Better than previous book.
carmelreads19's review against another edition
3.0
I actually liked this more than I thought with the backstory of his losing his first family.
dhilderbrand's review against another edition
2.0
I have loved the previous bourne stories, but I missed the previous book and I feel like I missed something huge. It felt like I was reading a book but missed the first key chapters. So... my bad rating may be more about that than the story. I liked it overall though. I would love to see it in film
speesh's review against another edition
3.0
You know what you're getting when you get into a Robert Ludlum book.
Fast paced, exciting action, taking place in exotic, globe-trotting locations - a real page-turner, as long as you don't think too much about the intricacies of the plot. And probably a couple of sleepless nights as you read "ok, just one more chapter then..."
You know what you're getting, you know what you're getting into and you know it's going to deliver.
If that's not for you, don't start one. Don't start one looking for deep meaning, and then pretend to be disappointed. Don't pretend you were expecting high prose and then feign disappointment when you don't find it. Robert Ludlum books don't have pretention; the readers sometimes do. Don't criticise, just accept them as what they are, or accept that they're maybe not for you.
With an Eric von Lustbader 'Robert Ludlum' book, it's perhaps a little less certain. He writes in the style of Robert Ludlum, but 'it's not quite there', as my old boss used to say.
Most people will have come to the Jason Bourne books after the success of the three films. I did. Though I had previously read several of the non-Bourne Ludlum books. And thoroughly enjoyed them. This one, seems to be No.8 in the Bourne series, so as I haven't read 6 or 7, I maybe shouldn't have got to this one just yet. Though I figured they would probably be pretty much stand-alone, with the links being the US Intelligence services, Treadstone, and Bourne's memory loss. That's correct here. Bourne starts in Bali, I think, then has to travel here and there unravelling this and that, all the while dodging bullets and in the process, gradually finding more clues to his own, forgotten, past.
More, you don't need to know. There are twists and turns, double-crossing (possibly triple-crossing) and general, to quote my old Grandma; "dirty-dickery" at every page turn.
The main thing that grated with me here, was a very little thing. He often, mid in the hectic action of a fight or shoot-out, mentions the type of gun being used. The villain doesn't just grab a gun and shoot at Bourne, he grabs (for instance) a Walther PK67 (I've made that up) and fires. As if that is supposed to impress me and tell me soooo much about the villains dastardly character. He is a discerning villain who only uses the very highest quality of gun, by a manufacturer we've never heard of, so must presume that it signifies an intelligence a couple of notches above our own. But because we've never heard of the gun make, it is meaningless. Just a word, a sound in our heads. He may as well have written 'Sowlsmexvofmdl'. To his credit, he doesn't do like others i could mention, and use the characters' choice of shirt-, sock-, cigar-, or fountain pen-manufacturer, to 'reveal' the dastardly villains character. As if paying over the odds for something we plebs thing nothing of picking up for a couple of coins in the local supermarket, indictes a level of sophistication that a villain absolutely shouldn't have. When James Bond asks for a Martini to be shaken, not stirred, he is admirable in his level of taste. When a Russian mobster insists on the same (and that the bartender be flown in from an exclusive Paris hotel to do it), it is supposed to indicate that he (or she, I guess), is even more ruthless and heartlessly despicable than was previously indicated by their wiping out of an innocent victim's whole family.
Oh, and; where does Bourne keep his money? It's not like he can nip to the local bank, yet he's never short, no matter what country he's in, or how much he needs. Can't figure that one out.
That'll do.
Good, but not great. A Lustbender, not a Ludlum. But I'll still read the others.
Fast paced, exciting action, taking place in exotic, globe-trotting locations - a real page-turner, as long as you don't think too much about the intricacies of the plot. And probably a couple of sleepless nights as you read "ok, just one more chapter then..."
You know what you're getting, you know what you're getting into and you know it's going to deliver.
If that's not for you, don't start one. Don't start one looking for deep meaning, and then pretend to be disappointed. Don't pretend you were expecting high prose and then feign disappointment when you don't find it. Robert Ludlum books don't have pretention; the readers sometimes do. Don't criticise, just accept them as what they are, or accept that they're maybe not for you.
With an Eric von Lustbader 'Robert Ludlum' book, it's perhaps a little less certain. He writes in the style of Robert Ludlum, but 'it's not quite there', as my old boss used to say.
Most people will have come to the Jason Bourne books after the success of the three films. I did. Though I had previously read several of the non-Bourne Ludlum books. And thoroughly enjoyed them. This one, seems to be No.8 in the Bourne series, so as I haven't read 6 or 7, I maybe shouldn't have got to this one just yet. Though I figured they would probably be pretty much stand-alone, with the links being the US Intelligence services, Treadstone, and Bourne's memory loss. That's correct here. Bourne starts in Bali, I think, then has to travel here and there unravelling this and that, all the while dodging bullets and in the process, gradually finding more clues to his own, forgotten, past.
More, you don't need to know. There are twists and turns, double-crossing (possibly triple-crossing) and general, to quote my old Grandma; "dirty-dickery" at every page turn.
The main thing that grated with me here, was a very little thing. He often, mid in the hectic action of a fight or shoot-out, mentions the type of gun being used. The villain doesn't just grab a gun and shoot at Bourne, he grabs (for instance) a Walther PK67 (I've made that up) and fires. As if that is supposed to impress me and tell me soooo much about the villains dastardly character. He is a discerning villain who only uses the very highest quality of gun, by a manufacturer we've never heard of, so must presume that it signifies an intelligence a couple of notches above our own. But because we've never heard of the gun make, it is meaningless. Just a word, a sound in our heads. He may as well have written 'Sowlsmexvofmdl'. To his credit, he doesn't do like others i could mention, and use the characters' choice of shirt-, sock-, cigar-, or fountain pen-manufacturer, to 'reveal' the dastardly villains character. As if paying over the odds for something we plebs thing nothing of picking up for a couple of coins in the local supermarket, indictes a level of sophistication that a villain absolutely shouldn't have. When James Bond asks for a Martini to be shaken, not stirred, he is admirable in his level of taste. When a Russian mobster insists on the same (and that the bartender be flown in from an exclusive Paris hotel to do it), it is supposed to indicate that he (or she, I guess), is even more ruthless and heartlessly despicable than was previously indicated by their wiping out of an innocent victim's whole family.
Oh, and; where does Bourne keep his money? It's not like he can nip to the local bank, yet he's never short, no matter what country he's in, or how much he needs. Can't figure that one out.
That'll do.
Good, but not great. A Lustbender, not a Ludlum. But I'll still read the others.
wallymountz's review against another edition
4.0
Very good book with an excellent ending. Toward the end of the book, they speak of the MagPul machine gun. The description is insufficient. See this video so you have a much better idea what the author is speaking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enzlTEysYVU
canada_matt's review against another edition
2.0
With another Bourne novel, comes a new walk through literary molasses with a tepid beer as the prize. Lustbader has, again, insulted the Ludlum estate by ruining the wonderful JASON BOURNE character with his ongoing super human abilities that completely Hollywood-ise the famous spy’s ongoing life and treks across the world. As I mentioned in an earlier review, Jason Bourne must have James Bond DNA, as neither ages or loses their ability to fight and race around saving the damsel in distress. The series, commencing with Book 5, could and should have been an individual series and one with no association to the Bourne series. It is truly a ruinous effort to continue the great things that Robert Ludlum created.
While there are now many storylines that each book addresses, including the power struggle within CI and the personal lives of some of the more major characters, the books still plummet in their interest. The reader could surely substitute names of the characters and would likely still not enjoy what is going on. It is just not all that exciting and surely pales in its ability to match up to the original series and the threads of storylines left for the reader after Book 3.
One may ask why I would keep reading if the books sour me so. Perhaps some might even quote from the book of Proverbs (‘a fool who does a stupid thing twice is like a dog returning to its vomit’ [26:11]), and I would not hold a grudge. That said, my incessant need to get through this series that is supposed to be so great and so worth one’s time. Alas, all Lustbader has done is ruined a good espionage series and made it entirely a movie adaptable book… complete with fight scenes, explosions, sex of all kinds, and cheesy one liners.
Can it be? The end is nigh… a light at the end of this painful reading tunnel? Two more (and counting?) to go!
While there are now many storylines that each book addresses, including the power struggle within CI and the personal lives of some of the more major characters, the books still plummet in their interest. The reader could surely substitute names of the characters and would likely still not enjoy what is going on. It is just not all that exciting and surely pales in its ability to match up to the original series and the threads of storylines left for the reader after Book 3.
One may ask why I would keep reading if the books sour me so. Perhaps some might even quote from the book of Proverbs (‘a fool who does a stupid thing twice is like a dog returning to its vomit’ [26:11]), and I would not hold a grudge. That said, my incessant need to get through this series that is supposed to be so great and so worth one’s time. Alas, all Lustbader has done is ruined a good espionage series and made it entirely a movie adaptable book… complete with fight scenes, explosions, sex of all kinds, and cheesy one liners.
Can it be? The end is nigh… a light at the end of this painful reading tunnel? Two more (and counting?) to go!