Robert Ludlum's Bourne series may be my all-time favorite suspense novels. I would have rated every one of those books an 8+ on a five point scale. Five stars for sure.

Enter Eric Von Lustbader. And enter complete amazement on my part. How he has managed to stay so true to the character of Bourne is a wonder indeed. While there is just a touch of Ludlum's finesse and deft touch lacking, I would still give Von Lustbader four stars for each of the subsequent Bourne books he's written. All are worthy reads for anyone who has enjoyed Jason Bourne as a character.

If we can't have Ludlum, thank heavens we have Von Lustbader. ( )

I had trouble sticking with this book. There seemed to be too many plots to follow, and difficult names and places. I made it to the end, but then I wish I hadn't. ( )

I remember van Lustbader as a swashbuckling and erotically charged authory, but that is the memory of a 20 year old. 25 years on his prose his tedious, his plotting improbable, and the books suffer in comparison with the movies, esp. the first one. ( )

Eric Van Lusterbader's third foray into the Bourne saga provides a good read, but does not have as exciting a plot as The Bourne Betrayal, his last Bourne novel. I enjoyed the twists and turns, but overall, we don't learn much more about Jason Bourne/David Webb, and if the ending of The Bourne Betrayal felt anti-climatic, it is an absolute thriller compared to the end of The Bourne Sanction. The target of a terrorist attack this time just seems to fit in too well with the new characters, and lacks in detail that Van Lusterbader has provided in his previous two Bourne stories.

The best piece of this novel, which gets hidden in too many mundance details, is the notion of a killer working for the enemy who is Jason Bourne's equal in strength, cunning and clandestine skills. A meeting between these two is obvious early on (so I'm not giving away anything), but once they finally do, the result is somewhat muted and leaves you wanting more too early on.

The alternate history back story about the "Black Legion" is well thought out, and Van Lusterbader pays special attention to the details he creates for this plot line. The double crosses and twists are also well planned, but I was somewhat dissapointed with how many unanswered questions, or maybe questions that can have no answer, he leaves us with after the dust settles.

In all, I enjoyed The Bourne Sanction, though I enjoyed it a little less than the previous novels. Eric Van Lusterbader does a great job in continuing the legacy of Robert Ludlum's work, the style, and continues to develop characters created by Ludlum that have become icons in literature, and now film. ( )

This was a very difficult read - typos, grammatical errors, etc.

I found the story line to be okay (at best) and was at least mildly entertained...but towards the end I was in disbelief at the number of resolutions to plots that came about by coincidental meetings, events, and even a child in Munich (with a British Accent) saying, "...right as rain" - Literally this saved the day! Lame...After the first couple coincidences that resolved tension or a dangerous situation I began to be skeptical that the book would end in any kind of dynamic way...I was right!

Lustbader seemingly tried to put too many plot twists and "interesting" side stories into a book that he was not prepared to write out to any good conclusion...it felt like he was writing and all of a sudden realized that he needed to wrap things up so he had Bourne pull out his lucky rabbits foot to tie all of the loose ends up in a hurry...

Don't waste your time on this book! Very, Very, Very disappointing ( )