Customer Reviews

The Apocalypse Watch

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

It seems to me that Robert Ludlum who, during the 70's and 80's could do absolutely NO wrong when it came to writing the best spy novels EVER, is still living IN the 70's...as far as writing goes. Let's face it, NONE of Ludlum's novels are gonna win any awards based on the dialogue of his characters...b-u-u-u-t if you are searching for the guy who could propel a novel based upon sheer narrative talent alone, Ludlum would win hands down.

As I read 'The Apocalypse Watch' I kept getting the distinct impression--at first--that this was a direct sequel to the wonderful 'Holcroft Covenant'...but that isn't quite the case. Then after reading a bit further, I felt that this was a quasi-re-write of 'Covenant' instead...but again, that isn't quite the case, either. As far as plot goes, it wasn't exactly Ludlum's most original, but I have to say, it certainly moved with the usual pace of his average thrillers. As I read this book, I felt somewhat saddened that truly one of the great Adventure/Thriller authors of all-time had begun to reach that point where his edge, his ability to be fresh has started to come to an end. What seems to have started with 'The Scorpio Illusion' has now continued with 'The Apocalypse Watch' and although I have high hopes for his future novels, it DOES appear that the 'absolute master of the superthriller' has seen the decline of his ability to dominate the audience he himself helped to create. But even so, I still enjoyed this book more than a LOT of other novels released in the past 5 years or so that were hailed as genius literary works of art. In my opinion, Ludlum just cannot escape his earlier novels, and his faithful reading audience has a very difficult time indeed reading his books without comparing them to his other tremendously entertaining novels. If we could do that, his novels (including his more recent ones) would stand up rather well.

Ludlum is back. Once again, an evil group of former military and industrialists is planning to reshape the world - now who is the protagonist THIS time? Hmmm. Anyway, this is a cracking thriller in the usual Ludlum mould. You'll either love this or hate this, judging by the other review I've read. I loved it, in spite of a few inaccuracies in some of the German grammar(it's Ihrer MAnn and not Ihr Mann, to pick but a few) and military procedures. But then again there's poetic license. In this book, Harry Latham, a Consular Operations agent, has infiltrated a neo-Nazi base and stumbled upon a plan of diabolical proportions. He undergoes neurosurgery and becomes one of them, then returns to Paris where neo-NAzis are infiltrating the FRench government. When he is murdered, his brother Drew is ordered to assume HArry's identity and seek revenge on his death. Along the way there's plenty of plot twists and sticky situations for Drew and his love interest KArin de Vries to get out of. And is her husband really dead? What secret is being held from the world by the Fourth Reich? What exactly is OPeration Water Lightening? Read and find out, you won't regret it. Mainly exciting and page-turning, but sometimes predictacle reading that requires no thought. On the whole, if you're new to Ludlum, try THE MATARESE CIRCLE and THE BOURNE IDENTITY first and then read this one.

In the past, I have enjoyed Ludlum's novels. So it was with great anticipation that I opened the pages of this one. What a diappointment! After 150 pages I was still waiting for the book to improve, but alas, it was not to be. The main character/ "hero" Drew Latham is so wretched conceived that if stupidity were an Olympic event, he would rate a perfect score of 10 from every judge. He simply isn't believable and neither were any of the other characters. Pass this one by, and reread The Holcroft Covenant or The Matarese Circle.

I used to buy and read every Ludlum book, but Apocalyspse Watch has to be the bottom of the barrel. His attention to detail and plots have deteriorated to the point I think someone is ghost writing after Mr. Ludlum develops the plot. An example is the scene in the Rhine River - no thought whatever to the constant barge traffic which would have interfered with most of what is happening. I've bought my last Ludlum book.

OK so I am against the popular vote, but give me a grabber with a new plot that doesnt twist predictably and I'll 5 star it. Go read for a quick sleeping pill. BH

I had never read Ludlum before so I picked this one to sample him. If this is representative of his writing, I am totally at a loss as to why he was so popular. The writing in this book appeared to be unedited and much of the language was unintentionally funny. The character development was haphazard and uninteresting. All the characters were cliched and the action sequences contained no effective build-up and were extremely unexciting. I resolved to finish the book although it was an excruciating 700 plus pages. All I can say is this book made Tom Clancy's writing seem like Shakespeare. Thank God for LeCarre.

I thought the "Apocalypse Watch" was a pretty good book. It was exciting,interesting and clever. At over 700 pages, it took a long time to read, but it was worth it.

After reading this book I decided to avoid any other Ludlum books to protect my time and money. This is my second dissapointment, the first one was with The Parsifal Mosaic. In my opinion, as an experienced reader, this author lacks the skills to create action packed suspense no matter what other people and critics say.

I may be the one guy out there that does not like his books. What makes me mad is that I have gone through about three of them because he gets some much good press. I find the writing wooden and he just does not hold my attention. I also did not like the location descriptions. It may have been different when the book came out, but I find the plot tired - so many times has it been done well that I did not need this version. To be honest I only got about 175 pages into the book. I just thought there should have been something, anything, to keep my attention. The story just kept going on and on with not real light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe I just have a mental block with him and the movies will be better.

This was a very enjoyable suspense/spy thriller. Written with a lot of detail, yet never losing the reader by getting to far off the story. Suspenseful in many ways, keeping the reader always questioning who to trust in the story. Exciting to the end.