The Bourne Legacy

Rating:
Summary: Eric Van Lustbader Missed The Boat
Review: Eric Van Lustbader completely missed the boat in his attempt to create a fourth Jason Bourne book. There are two stars to Ludlum's own books, David Web and Marie St. Jacques. The keys to those books are that Marie is as smart and decisive as David and that he is nothing without her. Instead, Van Lustbader not only cuts her out of the novel (and incidentally kills off two of the other major characters of the first three books so that he doesn't have to deal with them), but writes a sexist novel that bears no relationship whatever to anything that Ludlum ever wrote.

It's a sad thing that the editors either didn't catch these things or didn't care!


Rating:
Summary: wish you could see my disappointed face
Review: Got it together with 'the coil' as lynds was advertised as mrs ludlum, hoping the ludlum legacy lives on somewhere but it was a disappointment!! of the two novels this one is worse, neither has anything to do with ludlum and i sincerely hope the estate will sue the publisher for false advertising. dear author: change the names of characters, remove references to jason's past and try sell it as a stand alone story, maybe you won't get so many desippointed readers.

Rating:
Summary: A New Jason Bourne Is Born
Review: If you expect a classic Robert Ludlum Jason Bourne book or a classic Eric Van Lustbader ninja delight, you will be very disappointed with this book. The Bourne Legacy doesn't fit well into either camp.

If you are willing to forget that you have ever read about Jason Bourne or anything else by Eric Van Lustbader, you will probably find this to be a relatively pleasing page-turner of an action novel.

The book shifts in a number of ways from the prior ones. First, this Jason Bourne is always reacting . . . and a little too late. Second, he's vulnerable both physically and emotionally. Third, he unrealistically recovers form serious injury time and time again to take even more abuse. He's sort of like a silly putty man in that sense. You toss him away and he bounces back quickly. Fourth, his long-time co-characters all but disappear. Fifth, an important new character is introduced, Khan, whom you will probably either like a lot of hate a lot. I leave it to you to decide.

Clearly, this book looks like it is intended to launch a whole series of novels based on the events in it. If you think you might like to see an action hero develop in a different way, give the book a try. If you want more of what you've had in the past, avoid this book.

Good hunting!

Rating:
Summary: Not sure what happened.
Review: If you have read the first 3 books then you know that their are differences in those plots compared to the movie. This book by no means measures up to the first 3. To me it seems that it keeps the same story line of the original books but the writing seems more action oriented than the drama that Ludlum wrote.

Rating:
Summary: Why an author's estate should never sell rights to a series
Review: If you want a hero maimed ten times more than necessary, or if you want a troubled past reflected until you can quote the next reiteration go ahead and try and finish the book. The book was very bad.

Rating:
Summary: Good Author Bad Novel
Review: Ive been a fan of Lustbader since i read the Ninja series a long time ago, and ive been a fan of Ludlum longer so i thought this amalgamation had serious potential.

Unfortunately its flawed from the outset, it appears that Lustbader hasnt read the original novels properly. From day one the Bourne novels have been about 2 people - David/Jason and Marie, from book 2 Panov and Conklin were given a major part of the storyline so to ignore marie and kill panov and conklin was a major disapointment to me.

The story itslef is also deeply flawed, bits from previous novels are ignored, and some parts are ridiculous. David Webb buying and registering a gun in his own name ?????? In the other books its made clear he has a stash of weapons available to him at home, and that he knows how to get a "clean" weapon etc.

I for one was so looking forward to this book, and i felt the series had potential to continue, however i suggest that should the Ludlum family decide to allow another book they DONT use Lustbader and they ignore the happenings in this poor book and allow the interesting characters developed by RL to shine.


In case you havent already guessed i would not reccommend this novel to any true Bourne fan.

Rating:
Summary: An incomplete, but well written Bourne romp
Review: One thing I couldn't get over while reading The Bourne Legacy was its refreshing, to the point of distracting, absence of italics. Ludlum seemed to need italics to express every last change of emphasis or tone. It was maddening, or at least it was to this reader. Here is an illustrative paragraph from The Bourne Supremacy:

"My beef? My goddammed life, soldier. Something's going on and I want to know what it is! That son of a bitch broke into my apartment and threatened to kill me. He made some pretty wild accusations naming men like on your payroll like Henry Babcock and Samuel Teasdale and Williams Lanier. We checked; they're in your covert division and still practicing. What the hell did they do? One made it plain you'd send out an execution team after him! What kind of language is that? Another told him to go back to a hospital--he's been in two hospitals and our combined, very privated clinic in Virginia--we all put him there--and he's got a clean bill!"

Once you notice it, it gets almost exhausting to read.

Eric Van Lustbader's prose is refreshingly free of such devices. He goes pages and pages without an italicized word, leaving the reader to infer emphasis from context.

There are some downsides. Without being a spoiler, he writes out or leaves out characters who played central roles in prior Bourne novels. This is what I meant by "incomplete" in the review title. Marie, for example, takes the kids and runs off to hide at the beginning of the book and doesn't reappear as a character of any importance (although this too has it writing style advantages; how many times does a real person say "Jason, my darling" in a single converstation without choking on the words?).

But where the author subtracts, he also adds by bringing a new character into the Bourne milieu, someone who could play a role in future novels.

Overall, I liked the book very much. The plot was complex without getting confusing, the writing was crisp, and, while the author didn't juggle the multitude of characters Ludlum did in prior Bourne novels, Bourne himself read and "felt" familiar, an achievment in itself.

Rating:
Summary: This is a screenplay, not a novel.
Review: Reading the book, I had the feeling that Lustbader is already dreaming about the money he'll make from selling the movie rights.

As many tired old Hollywood clichés that were packed into this book, there can be only one choice to play the role of Jason Bourne: Nicolas Cage.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely No Ludlum
Review: The only similarity with Ludlum is the use of the Bourne name. An otherwise good storyteller, Eric Van Lustbader lacks the most basic knowledge of weapons. This was always one of Ludlum's strong points. Bourne was an expert and Ludlum never jeopardized the integrity of the character with references to things he knew nothing about or hadn't researched. In the Eric Van Lustbader story, Bourne is carrying a switchblade that seems to be a cross between a Swiss Army knife and a crowbar. You must endure this magic switchblade throughout the entire book. Another annoyance for me was an obvious mental lapse by the author. In one chapter he snatches a carved stone Buddha from his attacker's neck (Bourne's lost son) and a few chapters later, it's miraculously back on that same attacker's neck. The author must have taken a vacation and forgot where he left off. I'm surprised the publisher's readers didn't catch this. I guess they realized that the power of the good Ludlum name would sell a few books either way.

Rating:
Summary: The Bourne Legacy Review
Review: This is my first time ever reading a book by Eric Van Lustbader. I have to say that i am really enjoying reading this book because it has to do with the government and it is full of action. I have to say I have seen the movies The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy so I thought I would give the next one in line a reading instead of waiting for the movie to come out, if they make one. I like reading the book because Eric Van Lustbader has a great way of describing everything that is going on in the book and I create great images in my head! I haven't been able to pick up a book that i have wanted to not stop reading in a long time and this book does that for me. After i read one chapter I have to keep going because the last one stops and the perfect moment! I recommend this book for anyone and everyone!