The Bourne Supremacy

The story sucked me in and would not let go. Ludlum's characters are realistic. They suffer mental and physical trauma that effects their performance unlike other thrillers. He understands the limitations we all have.

Having taken a much-needed break from my heavier hitters after teaching my memoir class, I decided to pick up volume 2 of the Bournes, the first of which I'd found surprisingly enjoyable. The Supremacy, which bears no resemblance to the movie, is pretty bad. I stuck with it for all 600 pages, but it just got more and more unbelievable. The plotline itself is far-fetched--more far-fetched than the plotline of the first Bourne. However, it did yield this hilariously Shatner-ian piece of dialogue:

"Sunshine is illuminating. You're not. Get to the point."

From an editor's point of view, it could have easily been halved. There was too much extraneous plotting, too many "heart-pounding scenes" that ultimately added nothing to the central show more narrative, and it was awash in cliches. The first Bourne was as well, but it was much worse this time around. I found, in particular, the scene in which the main antagonist goes ape-shit in a bird sanctuary strained my credulity to the point of breakage. This all being said, I will probably try the third Bourne in the series at some point in the near future, just because I liked the first one so much. show less

These books are so different from the movies. The storyline isn't the same. Also, the timeline is like 60's & 70's instead of current-ish. It kind of makes me think of how superhero comics have alternate reality universes for the same characters. Regardless of the small details, the overall is the same, lots of government and unknowns. He has to figure out who is doing what to him. He starts from nothing, not knowing who is against him or if anyone is on his side. Everyone is shady and a possible threat. Also, because of so much undercover, he has his own mind to compete with when trying to discern what's real. In this story he gets pulled into a battle between two opposing forces in China that could destroy other governments. Also, show more there is another Bourne, again. All of the scenarios would be dangerous of the best agent without having to sort out their own identity during the process. show less

I enjoyed it, but it was definitely not what I would call a "page-turner". Ludlum's got nothing on John Grisham or Vince Flynn in that regard. The story seemed to be a little slow to start with, but it did pick up about halfway through. In a nutshell - the novel has absolutely nothing in common with the film other than the character of David Webb (Or Jason Bourne, depending on what name you wish to call him by). Marie is killed in the opening scene of the film, but she is a major character in the novel. Conklin is alive in the book, while he is very much dead in the film. Go figure. At any rate, I hesitantly recommend the novel, as it is an enjoyable read, even if the pacing is a little off at times. I now move on to The Bourne show more Ultimatum, hoping that I will not be cursing myself (& Ludlum) in short order. On Amazon.com the general consensus is that the third book is a piece of crap. The anal-retentive completionist in me says I must see for myself :) show less

Fairly gripping book that was very deep into pre-Chinese take-over of Hong Kong from Great Britain politics and the ramifications if evil forces tried to disrupt attempts at an orderly handover. Of course, much of that was way over my head and the various factions and players and those ramifications were not at all clear, but since they seemed to really matter to the Government guys and ultimately to Jason Bourne and those in his camp, I tried to let go of that 'need to understand' of mine and tried to enjoy the ride....which i did. Reconnects obviously to the previous Bourne book, which i read quite a long time ago, but most of it came back to me. Amazing calculations, observations, language knowledge, survival skills great moral show more character and tons and tons of good luck make Jason Bourne/David Webb a very likable character that you have to root for with all your might! Very long book that took me a while to get through (more my life's fault - not the book), but well worth it. show less

Suspenseful until the end!
I'm liking this series. There is just enough political intrigue to keep me coming back. This time it was a more personal aspect for the character and with that added another dimension to the story that worked out quite well. I was a huge fan of Clancy novels and now I can say that I'm a Ludlum fan as well.

This book was a good follow-up to the first one, The Bourne Identity. In this book, David Webb aka Jason Bourne aka Cain aka Delta returns to the Far East when Marie is kidnapped, and he is drawn in to a Chinese plot with world-shaking consequences. The book starts with David and Marie living happily in Maine. They're visited by a government official, then Marie disappears. David seeks out his old boss, Conklin, from the Treadstone 71 days, and elicits his help in tracking Marie to Hong Kong and a Taipan who isn't what he appears to be.

There is quite a lot of romanized Mandarin, and some Cantonese. If you're familiar with the Chinese language (like me) you'll get a little bit more out of this book, but don't worry if you don't--the most show more important bits are translated for you. Ludlum certainly had decent resources to handle such a language, there weren't many errors in it.

This book is nothing whatsoever like the movie of the same name. In fact, the title is probably the only thing they have in common. It was a terrible movie, filmed by an epileptic cameraman with Parkinson's disease. show less