Action

There has been at least one Bourne movie released, or possible more, so most people already understand what to expect from this series of books. This release is a not-too unfamiliar plot of Islamic terrorists attempting to punish the Americans by detonating a nuclear explosion in the Nation's Capitol. If you can suspend your mind's reality checker, you should be able to enjoy this book if terrorist thrillers are your thing.
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Under Deputy Director Martin Lindros, Central Intelligence has been reforming itself to become more effective in combating terrorists. But not everyone is happy about that progress, including the terrorists. Based on a lead that suggests a risk of nuclear terror, Lindros returns to the field. Meanwhile everyone else wants to play politics to advance their own self interests. Jason Bourne is naturally concerned because Lindros is his only friendly ally.

Once again, Bourne must fight his own agency as well as these resourceful would-be terrorists. With more than enough action and the kind of breathless writing that makes the pages fly, this would be another winner, except that Van Lustbader too often strains credibility. It becomes hard to believe that Bourne, a man known for his "animal instincts honed on stone and steel," could make as many life-threatening blunders as he makes here. ( )

Am I ok in saying this is an excellent read? A thoroughly tip-top thriller? One of the very best?

Credibility...Meet window?

I hope not. I don't think so. In fact, I'm sure not. Because this one did exactly what it says on the tin and thrilled the whatsits off me. Why on earth do we read books, if not for pleasure? And reading this one is as pleasurable an experience as they come.

But first, a word of warning: Don't read the summary on the back. In my view, it gives away way too much of much too many important plot turns for my liking. I didn't read it myself, until I was coincidentally 3/4 of the way in and all the points mentioned had passed. I didn't read it myself as I bought this book, knowing full well what I was getting into (as surely do most people with anything Bourne-related?). So I was able to enjoy the swallowing of red herrings and denouements, hook, line and sinker (yeah, that works).

Really, this is as close to a 5 Star review as one of these things is ever going to get. I'm not going to try and tie myself up win knots trying to convey the plot. And you know what you're getting, writing-style-wise. There were only a couple of places where I had to partially suspend belief, with a whispered, as the Welsh say; 'there's lucky', under my breath.

Eric Van Lustbader is not Robert Ludlum (but then, who is?). He's certainly in the style of, and doing an admirable job in picking the baton up, keeping the flame alight, etc etc. No one can match Ludlum for economy and clout, but Eric comes very close. That's high praise, in my book. Though in trying to analyse the differences between the two, I became more convinced that the further the series has gone on, the more Eric's own style has come through. Almost to the point where I think they should drop the 'Robert Ludlum's...' on the cover. Obviously, the marketing department aren't going to do that, but there is no doubt here, that this is Eric Van Lustbader's Jason Bourne now. Bourne, born again.

Earlier in the series - and the films, which are more or less the first three books - the questions Jason Bourne was asking could pretty much be boiled down to "who am I?" I think he was really asking, or at least the questions should really be interpreted as "what is my name?" Nowadays, in these later books he's more struggling to find his personality. His question is now "what kind of person am I?" Or, "what kind of person was I?", as he's now Jason Bourne. Not who he was originally. Before he was Bourne. If you can say that.

And with all this 'Prism' and listening to phone calls, reading of emails and generally keeping an eye on all of us; the Bourne books and films are beginning to look like more like documentaries! ( )

Second reading / review: Now that the trilogy has found a place more in the back of my head and I do not put links to that Bourne -this Bourne all the time, this story is actually quite readable. In fact, for me the Bourne in this book looks more like the original than the character pictured in the Testament book.
I'll stick to my original rating though.

A very dazzling book. It got me thinking in the wrong direction many times.
Somehow I keep remembering that David Webb was in his 50's already in the last part of the Bourne-trilogy. For me that 'fact' makes it all the harder to beleive that Bourne / Webb is still able to function as an agent.
But maybe I am to picky, and should I just read it as a seperate novel, not a part of the Bourne sequence. In that case it is a good espionage thriller, because of the unexpected changes, the transformation of people into other people. A bit much to swallow for one book, I really had to keep track of things, had to go back in the book to see what was written earlier. ( )