Customer Reviews

Robert Ludlum's the Bourne Deception

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(33)

 

 

Jason Bourne is in title only.

It is with agonizing sadness that I must tell others NOT to buy this book.
See, I LOVE the Bourne character; I love the idea of Bourne. I am the type of person who would count the days for a new Bourne (or Reacher) Novel.
I am also extremely forgiving in terms of plot, characters, reality and all the facts that get in the way.
I don't let a fact get in my way of enjoying a good yarn.

Robert Ludlum did an amazing job; Lustbader has slowly destroyed this fine series.

Where to begin? Since I am about the same quality writer as Lustbader, I will spare you my dribble and just list the issues.

1. Jason Bourne is in title only.

True.. Unbelievable as it might sound, Jason Bourne is hardly in the book and worse yet, he is not the focus of the plot, he is not tied to the plot, he is not the driving character, he is not the savior, he is not the lover, the fighter or anything in between. Jason Bourne is filler.

FILLER! Can you believe that? Lustbader can NOT be forgiven for this.

I feel like Lustbader took advantage of the license he has and wrote an overly emotional, intellectually drippy, poorly connected war for oil short story and then threw Jason in because he had a contract.

2. The story is crap. Really.

The plot holes and connections are almost unforgivable, as it is after all (supposed to be) a Bourne book, I can handle ridiculous coincidences, unrealistic converging of vague plot points, and seemingly super genius all powerful villains, but what is not forgivable is the 60% emotional filler. Not only does Lustbader feel the urge to minutely describe just about every A, B and C characters inner demons and haunting childhood (at inappropriate times mind you) , but he does so on a seemingly endless ramble. In some cases we go from one characters inner demons directly to another with not so much as a "hey, how are ya?" between characters.

I believe this was a book about Leonid Arkadin and the title should have been "Leonid Arkadin, a guy cooler than the emotionally crippled and stunted Jason Bourne"

3. The introduction of the supernatural is slap worthy.

When I started in on the supernatural bit, I wanted to look up Lustbaders next book signing and book a flight just to slap him in the face... What is Jason Bourne doing talking, discussing, believing in the supernatural? Suparwita? Really? Suparwita?

UGGH! This was STUPID. I challenge anyone to find someone who read this book to say they enjoyed this adddition.

4. The pansification of Bourne has continued...
Let's face it, in the last two novels, we have seen Jason turn into a wussie, a pansy, a putz. Emotionally Confused and dazed all the time, he can't tell a friend from foe, Monday from Tuesday or what leg to put in his pants first. Bourne has the sense of a 13 year old who's lost his mother in a supermarket. The woe is me, I feel so confused bit is tiring.

Jason Bourne is a mess, but not in a good way....

5. Bourne can't fight anymore.
This is probably the worst sin. Jason Bourne is a trainer killer, master of all hand to hand and weapons. Based on this book, you'd think he was a 14 year old mop boy at a taco Fiesta. He just can't seem to win a fight unless he gets some outside help or super luck.

What gives?

I have to end my review here because my heart just isn't in it anymore.
I will never buy a Lustbader book ever again. I think I actually hate the guy now.

This was a tragedy on all levels and trust me when I say... I am a forgiving fan.. I really am, I would normally forgive a lot for a "hero", but this book is just too much for me. I wish I could give it negative stars...

I think I'll go to my first book burning tomorrow.

What can be worse than saying "Sorry I Bought It"? It is, "Wasted My Time Reading It". Not a good Jason Bourne Book and, in short, a lousy read. Too much jumping around with characters, too much time spent on history of some characters, very light plot, and way not true to the Jason Bourne as written by the original author. The introduction of "mystic forces" drives the plot towards SciFi writing. Doubt if I will pickup the next, and hopefully last, Bourne novel unless I can get it at a garage sale. Can not recommend this book to anyone.

Very very dissapointing. I never write reviews since I don't consider myself an expert, however I felt it was my moral obligation to warn of this book.
The pace is extremely slow and boring, too many nostalgic moments and slow narrative that took away from the pace. Bourne himself was transformed into this dull character in this novel (never thought I'd see it happen). It seemed at times that the author was simply stuck and put a ton of fillers. A slow read, don't expect much. I am truly sorry for anyone who purchased this one.

Having read several of Van Lustbader's other works I was excited with the prospect of him bringing new life to a series that has not had a really good book since The Bourne Identity. This book did not live up to my expectations and I might add it was not as good as any of the two follow-ups that Ludlum had penned to the original novel.

A high ranking US Government official makes a deal with a Russian military type to have Jason Bourne assasinated if the Russian will do the same to a suspected terrorist leader. The Russian agrees and unbeknownst to the American, the Russian is really Bourne's arch-enemy Arkadin who Bourne thought he killed in the last book.

Meanwhile Bourne is in hiding in Bali with his latest girlfriend (Moira) and Arkadin learns his whereabouts and comes to assasinate him. Thinking the deed is accomplished, Arkadin heads on to other business. Meanwhile Bourne cheats death in an implausible way.

Then a US airlines is shot down over Egypt by what appears to be an Iranian fanatic group and the US may be headed for war in Iran. Bourne will eventually be drawn into all of this and we also have an appearance in the book of Conklin's (the man who trained by Bourne and Arkadin) successor.

The book drags throughout and most of the characters are one-dimensional. Bourne is nowhere near the person who tackled his identity problem in the first book and grappled between his David Webb and Bourne personnas. Instead we have a very shallow, boring Bourne and it really kills any semblance of magic the book may have.

I hope that this series can be gracefully put to bed but it seems that we will be subjected to at least one more sequel.

After fifty pages, I realized I didn't give a rat's rear end about any of the characters, including the protagonist -- and character-development, at that point, was probably its strong point. Rarely do I just toss a book aside after getting a hundred pages into it, but that's what I did with this one. Life's too short. Read something else.

This book is simply terrible. I have never before encountered such a poorly written book. It is just full of cliches and buzz words. The dialogue is wooden and often just laughable. The book is completely plot driven. The characters are caricatures. The only reason for the existence of the book that I can think of is that it is intended as the basis for a screenplay. It certainly is not worth reading.

Ludlum's heirs and fans must be livid at what Van Lustbader's done to the character of Jason Bourne. Don't bother reading this book. It's unbearable. The fight scenes are pathetic. What counts for dialog is as cliche ridden as you can get. Go back and read a real Ludlum book. Please stop buying these books and maybe Van Lustbader will stop trying to write them!

Bought this quickly in an airport..reading only briefly the cover as I picked it up (this is my excuse)

It's really very clever by Mr Van Lustbader, to actually have the last laugh on us.. that the book is in fact the "bourne deception" itself, rather than just the several thousand random words which you will find printed on the inside pages. Even the reviews on the back of the cover are not ones from this book, but from the bourne series.

I didn't expect this to be a classic.. but you would hope some actual work was done to make a book carrying a franchise name, perhaps just somebody reading it before publishing would have helped.

I can't imagine trusting either this author or publisher again.

Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Deception

Lustbader should stop writing Bourne novels since he clearly had not read The Bourne Identity in which Robert Ludlum had mentioned that Jason Bourne was born in 1935; no matter how good an operative was in his past, 74 is not a good age to achieve the tactics Lustbader asked him to do.

Twice Lustbader had brought up that the US Mint printing money, does he know that the Mint has never printed a single bill. The bills are printed by BEP, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Having read most of Ludlum's books and all of the Bourne books, I was extremely disappointed in this, the newest Jason Bourne saga. The deception was that Jason Bourne was a minor character when one would think it was actually about him. It should have been titled the Trevor Deception. Moira Trevor was the lead character and saw the most action in this tedious book. Slow, boring and hard to finish. Buy it if you love to watch paint dry.