Robert Ludlum's the Lazarus Vendetta [Paperback]

Robert Ludlum (Author), Keith Farrell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 2005

In the increasingly turbulent atmosphere of international politics, the once grassroots anti-globalisation movement has been slowly taken over by the underground radical anti-technology group fronted by a mysterious figure known only as Lazarus. All attempts to infiltrate the group have failed and the intelligence agents involved have all disappeared without a trace. Now Lazarus is preparing to make his boldest move yet. Lt. Col. Jon Smith is activated by Covert-One to bring his skills to bear in uncovering the truth behind the terrorists. For, unbeknownst to the world at large, the Lazarus Movement is on the brink of setting in motion a deadly scheme that will risk the lives of billions and forever change the nature of the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Larkin (The Tribune) picks up the reins for the fifth entry in the Ludlum-spawned Covert-One biotech series (The Altman Code; etc.), bringing to the task a solid intelligence, some really scary nanotechnology and a writing style that sometimes lapses into cliché but always gets the job done. FBI Deputy Assistant Director Kit Pierson and her CIA counterpart, Hal Burke, are secretly working on an operation to destroy the Lazarus Movement, an environmental group run amok. Once a legitimate organization, the Lazarus Movement has been taken over by an evil scientist whose goal is—you guessed it—world domination. Thrust into the middle of this deadly struggle is series hero Lt. Col. Jon Smith, M.D., a scientist and operative for Covert-One, a super top-secret intelligence unit. When the Lazarus Movement's attack on a biotech lab releases a deadly brew of nanophages, microscopic killer devices that turn those unlucky enough to inhale them into piles of "reddish liquid sludge," some start to think that the movement's diabolical leader envisions a vastly depopulated world that he can redesign into an environmental paradise. The action careens from continent to continent, with the bad guys always a few steps ahead of the heroes. Eventually, everyone ends up on an island in the Azores, where, after a deadly firefight and some last-minute reversals, the inevitable conclusion arrives. Hand-to-hand action, intriguing science and plot speed will keep most techno-thriller readers nailed to their seats.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Since his death in 2001, Ludlum has joined the ever-expanding ranks of such authors as V. C Andrews, Lawrence Sanders, and William Coughlin who are writing from beyond the grave. His latest Covert-One novel (written with the able "assistance" of Patrick Larkin) proves that even being entombed six feet under has not hampered his ability to write intricately plotted, action-packed spy yarns. Bioterrorists have gotten hold of some nasty nanophages (submolecular organic machines) that cause humans to dissolve into a pool of bloody slime (described quite graphically) and have no qualms about releasing them on the unsuspecting public. As the body count racks up into the thousands, the evidence seems to point to a militant environmental group, the Lazarus Movement, as the culprit. Unfortunately for the bad guys, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Smith (last seen in The Altman Code, 2003), not only a medical doctor and an expert in molecular biology but also an operative for the president's personal, supersecret intelligence agency Covert-One, has been assigned to investigate. Assisted by CIA agent Randi Russell and Peter Howell of British MI-6, Smith rappels (literally) from one perilous situation to the next. A bit over the top but a fast read and sure to delight fans of both espionage and the technothriller. Michael Gannon
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Orion (An Imprint of the Orion Publ (August 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752864122
• ISBN-13: 978-0752864129
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,995,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (4 1/2) A Nanotechnolgy Thriller with Nonstop Action, November 13, 2004

By 

Tucker Andersen (Wall Street) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Robert Ludlum's The Lazarus Vendetta: A Covert-One Novel (Paperback)

Patrick Larkin has written an excellent and exciting addition to the Covert-One series created by Robert Ludlum shortly before his death. The central protagonist is Army Lt. Colonel Jon Smith M.D., who was first introduced to readers in THE HADES FACTOR, the very fast paced initial book in the series. The other characters familiar to readers of previous books in the series include CIA agent Randi Russell and the British ex-MI6 operative Peter Howells, who team with Smith as he attempts to penetrate the secrecy surrounding the goals and leadership of an environmental group known as The Lazarus Movement. Fred Klein remains Smith's boss as the head of the ultra clandestine Covert-One operation that reports directly to President Sam Castilla; its very existence continues to be kept secret from not only Randi and Peter but even from the CIA and FBI as well as Congress.

This book follows the classic Ludlum style, a thriller combining fast paced action, a convoluted plot and a few individuals fighting seemingly far more powerful shadowy forces; all these elements linked by a conspiracy that apparently involves high level government operatives. In brief, the original focus of The Lazarus Movement on peaceful reform of environmental policies on a worldwide basis has gradually been replaced by an increasingly strident emphasis on anti-technology protests and an activist agenda of protests and demonstrations in support of its demands for the adoption of its radical eco-conscious agenda. Despite the intense efforts of governmental intelligence agencies around the world, they have been unable to discover either the location of the organization's headquarters or the identity of its leader, a shadowy figure known only as Lazarus. Suddenly, violence strikes a remote Lazarus agriculture experiment in rural Africa; this event seems to legitimize the organization's claims of persecution at the hands of the governments who oppose its anti-development agenda and further energizes the activists who increasingly dominate the Movement.

A major demonstration is planned to protest the scientific research being conducted at the Teller Institute for Advanced Technology in Sante Fe, New Mexico. This research involves some of the most highly classified and leading edge projects in the field of nanotechnology, the intersection of biology, chemistry and physics; projects whose potential to create machines so small that they could penetrate human cells and so powerful that they could be programmed to change structures at the subatomic level had allowed conspiracy theorists to sow fear with regard to both their misuse and their ability to eventually escape the control of the scientists who had created them. As the protesters assemble, apparently well orchestrated violence ensues which results in the deaths of many of the protesters, supposedly as the result of the inadvertent release of fatal nanophages under development at the Institute.

This story is an action filled thriller which uses nanotechnology as the key element of its story line, rather than a scientific thrller per se in the mold of Michael Crichton's PREY, which was a story utilized by Crichton to both inform the reader in detail about the technology and also aggressively promote his viewpoint concerning the need for scientific safeguards to be established with regard to such research. (See my review of PREY dated 12/2/2002 for a discussion of this issue.) This novel in contrast contains only peripheral discussion of the complex issues raised by the rise of cloning, genetic manipulation, and nanontechnology, such as when one character wonders "whether the speed of these advances...offers imperfect men too much power over themselves and over nature". However, these regerences only serve to further the plot, there is neither a deep examination of the technology nor an extensive and explicit philosophophical examination of the moral and ethical dilemmas the developers of such technology might encounter or the government's role in such development.

I highly recommend this book for readers who like action thrillers where the plot is revealed through the adventures of the protagonists rather than through extensive background provided by the author. (There is sufficient background information woven into the narrative for readers unfamiliar with the Covert-One series to thoroughly enjoy this book on a read alone basis, although the nuances of the character developments in those books will obviously be lost.) I was swept along by the compressed time frame of the story. Wih the exception of the prologue and epilogue all of the action takes place within a six day period. I have only two reservations - which are the reasons that I did not rate it five stars although I was very tempted to do so given how much I enjoyed it. First, and most importantly, even for a book of this genre there is an incredible amount of violence, some of it very graphic. While it is not sensationalist in nature and is in fact essential to the storyline, I nevertheless found the detailed description of the effect of the nanophage attacks on their victims sufficiently gruesome and sickening (despite their brevity) to downgrade the rating slightly. In addition, some of the exploits of Smith and his asociates bordered on the "superhero" variety rather than the merely heroic. In summary, this book ison a par with the best action thrillers that I have read recently, especially in that it avoids the overly detailed background information increasingly provided by authors in an attempt to promote a feeling of realism but which concomitantlyslows down the pace and therefore unavoidably detracts from my enjoyment of so many recent stories of this genre.

Tucker Andersen

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Ludlum Franchise Marches On, March 20, 2005

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Cardinal47 (Ottawa, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Robert Ludlum's The Lazarus Vendetta: A Covert-One Novel (Paperback)

Amazing that the Ludlum name can still instantly put novels on the the top 10 list ! This novel, another in the Covert-One series, is about nannotechnology being perverted to kill off a big chunk of the human race and achieve world domination. A little bit like Michael Crichton's State of Fear, this novel has an environmental movement gone bad, being used by evil figures for diabolical ends.It is reasonably well-written, fast-paced and keeps you turning the pages for the next event. The Bourne Identity, it is not.But it hooked me enough that I'll pick up the next in the series.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun ride even though the villain is hokey, July 14, 2006

By 

David Marsh "davidm617" (Honolulu) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Robert Ludlum's The Lazarus Vendetta: A Covert-One Novel (Paperback)

The lead villain in the Lazarus Vendetta is a mad scientist aptly named Lazarus leading a small army of equally mad mercenaries and equally mad subordinate scientists on a path to world domination and mass international genocide. On the other side of the fence, attempting to thwart this dastardly plan, is an American specials ops doctor named Jon Smith and a sly old British secret service agent named Peter Howell who soon discover that rogue FBI and CIA teams are also up to no good. Smith and Howell dash from one side of the globe to the other, battling wave after wave of enemy forces and all sorts of nasty weapons including bioengineered invisible nanobots which turn humans into gobs of slime, as they race against the clock to save the world. If the star roles were switched in this story and the American Jon Smith became British MI6 Peter Howell this could easily be a 007 novel. Yes the villains are that hokey. Still, the Lazarus Vendetta is a fast-paced ride, descriptive, topical, and author Patrick Larkin has definitely proved himself gifted with the pen.