The Bourne Supremacy [Paperback]

Robert Ludlum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1989

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Super-diplomat Raymond Havilland sets up the kidnapping of Jason Bourne's wife, in order to draw Bourne out of retirement and into a Taiwanese plot to seize Hong Kong and incite China against the West.

--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ludlum has never come up with a more head-spinning, spine-jolting, intricately mystifying, Armageddonish, in short Ludlumesque, thriller than this. A Peking leader of seemingly irreproachable reputation, secretly a Kuomintang fanatic, has masterminded a plot to take over Hong Kong via political assassination, the result of which would be civil war in China and possibly global disaster. His principal agent is an assassin-for-hire masquerading as the legendary "Jason Bourne," a one-time secret U.S. agent now, under his real name David Webb, struggling with the aid of a psychiatrist and his loving wife Marie to recover from amnesia. Only one man can destroy the conspiracy: Webb, who must be persuaded to re-assume his Bourne identity, track down the impostor and through him lay a trap for the vile Shengthe "persuasion" to be by way of his abducted wife. The action jolts from the back alleys of Hong Kong and Kowloon to a secret government complex in the Colorado mountains to the seats of power in Peking and even the interior of Mao's tomb. Every chapter ends with a cliff-hanger; the story brims with assassination, torture, hand-to-hand combat, sudden surprise and intrigue within intrigue. It's a sure-fire bestseller. 650,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; BOMC selection; Franklin Library limited edition.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this sequel to The Bourne Identity , David Webb, still suffering flashbacks to his Jason Bourne persona, is forced to undertake a final, possibly fatal mission after his wife is kidnapped. He must find and capture an assassin who is posing as Bourne in Hong Kong. By so doing he'll foil a plot that could plunge the Far East and then the world into war. Ludlum's latest has a best seller quality that many imitate but few master. You can quibble about this being too long, too talky, too preposterously implausible, but you can't quit reading. As often happens with sequels, this is not quite up to the standards of the original, but legions of Ludlum fans will send it soaring up the best seller list. BOMC main selection. Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam Books (January 1989)
• ISBN-10: 9993746975
• ISBN-13: 978-9993746973
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (112 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,268,708 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After a successful career in the theatre, Robert Ludlum launched his career as a best-selling writer with THE SCARLATTI INHERITANCE in 1971, the first of twenty-two consecutive international bestsellers. Robert sadly passed away in March 2001.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the best Ludlum there is, February 10, 2001

By 

P. Elkin "phil4000" (Frisco, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bourne Supremacy (Bourne Trilogy, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

If you've read more than a couple of Ludlum's books, you're probably thinking the same thing I am. After the 3rd or 4th one, you start to lose track of which betrayed and desperate agent is running from which evil and corrupted government agency. They sorta run together, don't they? It's Ludlum's formula and it has obviously served him very well.

"The Bourne Supremacy" is a different kettle of fish, though. There's no mistaking this one with anything else Ludlum, or anyone else, has written. This book kicks some serious posterior.

There were times in the middle of it that my head was spinning. What the heck was going on? If the action wasn't so insanely great, I might have bailed. But the action, my God, the action... Andy McNab is the only other writer that I'm aware of who can write action as well, but even his pales in comparison.

The plot eventually makes itself clear, and it's pretty cool when it does. And have I mentioned the action? There are so many absolutely great scenes that I'm not even going to bother listing them. Trust me, it's good stuff.

OK, so the scene on the grounds of the Embassy house is drawn out a bit too long, and some of the dialog in that same scene is a little silly, but that's nitpicky. This is BY FAR the best Ludlum has ever done, and it's in my Top 5 of all time. READ THIS BOOK!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as "The Bourne Identity", September 3, 2003

By 

Photopro "Mike" (purcellville, va United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bourne Supremacy (Bourne Trilogy, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

Ludlum had a heck of a lot to live up to when he decided to bring Jason Bourne back into action. I mean, it is pretty hard to top a book as thrilling and fun as "The Bourne Identity". Unfortunatly, I have to say that I feel he fell short of living up to all he created.
This book was good. I will say that much. I would not pass it by if you have read the first in the series, but Ludlum seemed to drag on way to much making a lot of the book a little dull. The beginning grabs you, and wont let go for a good 200 pages, but then things get slow, and I actually found myself wanting to stop reading. That is not like me at all. It is also the reason this book took me almost 3 months to read, between giving it a break for faster paced novels and me rather sleeping than staying up to read it.
After struggling through the middle 200 pages, I got hooked again, and ended up reading the rest of the book in a matter of days. I could not put it down.
So, I guess I can say that it is not a total flop, and I am still planning on reading the third in the Bourne series, but I only gave it three stars because of the slow middle.
You should at least pick this book up and read it for the awesome beginning and ending 200 pages.

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good, but not as good as the first one, April 29, 2002

By 

Tina Morris "schultheiss" (Rockville, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Bourne Supremacy (Bourne Trilogy, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the second book of Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne trilogy, and it tears David Webb out of his new-found peaceful life with his wife in a quiet little town in Maine. Again the government needs his help as Jason Bourne or Delta, the man from Medusa and Threadstone 71. Knowing that he will not volunteer his help after all that CIA and State Department have done to him, a story is rigged and his wife is kidnapped. Webb snaps and in the desired effect is on his way to Asia to track a Bourne-impostor who is killing highly-placed officials in Kowloon and Hong Kong. Things run off the wire when Bourne's wife escapes her custody and finds help at the Canadian consulate from an old friend.
While the whole story is as action-packed and twisted as the first installment of the Bourne trilogy, it is a little bit harder to get into at the beginning and seems overall a bit more constured. Ludlum is a master of complicated scenarios and he moves about his many locations and characters with ease and skill. He storylines are well-drawn and compelling, but in direct comparison the book is no match to its pre-decessor.