The Bourne Ultimatum

I am a stubborn, anal-retentive completionist when it comes to books. If I start it, I finish it. That being said - this is the first novel I have ever started & then given-up on. It really is that bad. I read [b:The Bourne Identity|7812194|The Bourne Identity (Jason Bourne, #1)|Robert Ludlum|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267668677s/7812194.jpg|859111] & its sequel, [b:The Bourne Supremacy|763597|The Bourne Supremacy (Jason Bourne, #2)|Robert Ludlum|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1281832085s/763597.jpg|2508588] & while neither was spectacular, I still enjoyed them. I figured I'd finish the trilogy with Ultimatum. I had noticed the abysmal reviews on Amazon.com, but decided I had to see for myself. I just couldn't bring myself to show more not read the final volume of [a:Robert Ludlum|5293|Robert Ludlum|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1208465267p2/5293.jpg]'s Bourne trilogy.

Stubbornly, I slogged my way through one-third of the paperback, while also reading [a:Vince Flynn|14989|Vince Flynn|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1237150817p2/14989.jpg]'s [b:Extreme Measures|3313418|Extreme Measures (Mitch Rapp, #9)|Vince Flynn|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1299166292s/3313418.jpg|3351033] on my Nook. That's what finally did it for me. I absolutely love reading anything Flynn writes. The man really knows how to write a page-turner of a thriller. While being so absorbed in one of his novels, I couldn't bear the thought of picking up where I left off in The Bourne Ultimatum. I became painfully aware of the lack of fun in reading it.

Many of the common criticisms of this novel I found to be true. I'm normally not one to be critical, but the dialogue is at times atrocious. I understand that when reading a work of fiction it is sometimes necessary to employ a suspension of disbelief, but considering how Ludlum seeks to write fairly realistic fiction, he failed miserably with Ultimatum. Carlos seemed a fairly believable opponent in Identity, however, I felt that in Ultimatum he was a caricature. Ludlum seems to be incapable of referring to Carlos without the word "Jackal" being in the same paragraph. Funny, I hardly recall the moniker of "The Jackal" being used in Identity. Also, how many times must the reader be reminded that David Webb, aka Jason Bourne, aka "Delta" is over-the-hill in this book. Only 5 years have passed since the events of Supremacy, yet the reader is led to believe that the protagonist who was on top of his game as a 45 year old in Hong Kong & China during the events of the preceding novel is now almost lacking in competence at 50. Identity introduced the concept of Carlos utilizing old men on the streets of Paris as his eyes and ears (in a very believable fashion), yet now 13 years later he seemingly has an endless supply of old men who have nothing better to do with their miserable lives than to throw them away by pursuing Bourne around the world (beyond ridiculous). If Bourne is so inept & Carlos is still "the man" then why does Carlos need so many helpers in his quest to assassinate Bourne? I could go on with a laundry list of complaints, but I really don't feel like spending any more of my time even thinking about this rag.

Bottom line - this book should never have been written. Just read The Bourne Identity, and then The Bourne Supremacy, and assume that David & Marie lived happily ever after following the events of Supremacy. show less

Tenants Harbor - 2022 #1 - This was a dreadfully long slog for me. I started this on my July 4th camping trip, and have finally finished it 6+months later. This does not sound like the encouraging intro to a positive review.....and it is not meant to be. I do usually love Ludlum, albeit they sometimes tend to be a bit convoluted. But this one convoluted into near destruction. My life was such that every time i picked the book up, I could not figure out or recall what the hell was going on.....a steady cacophony of names, from not only this book, but the previous books (which i read eons ago!), kept me in a near-permanent state of fog. Not to mention we have 2 enemies in this tale, 1 so complicated it was hard to follow. If i went back show more and re-read 3 or 4 pages, i could typically recover and move forward......but by then, often, my limited reading time had passed......WARNING!!!!! - this is not a 5-10 page at a time book (unless you want it to take 1/2 a year!)
So the premise of David Webb vs. Jason Bourne had it heyday in the first and second book.....but the number of times there was a heart-tugging lament of the pain and struggle with his wife Marie, or within his own psyche between these 2 alter egos was positively embarrassing. I GET IT!!! HE IS 2 PEOPLE.....ITS HARD.....BUT FOR GODS SAKE, LET HIM DO WHAT HE NEEDS TO DO AND STOP WHINING ABOUT IT!!!! The touchy-feely quotient here almost led me to do what i have never done.....give up on a book before finishing it! But then i would be unauthorized to write an honest review.....thus, i slogged on.
Is there excitement? Most definitely......here............oh, and there.............ooooo, i found some here, too........but scattered helter skelter. And each bit of it seemed like this might finally be what we have been waiting for......Bourne vs. the Jackal final closure......but the 2" plus of book still unread meant it was not yet to be.......over and over and over we are lead to the brink.......only to be disappointed. Eventually, you are just anxious to plow through quickly, because you know it is not what you are hoping for.....& thus i was less interested in the specifics.....because i knew there were likely 3 or 4 more yet to come......just frustrating.
And Marie.....come on......she knows he has to do what he needs to do for them to have a safe existence.....and she does not want him to be in jeopardy......but he has to be. Marie consistently balled up the works and made his job even more difficult over and over.....continuing to add to the emotional struggle roller-coaster of David/Jason/David/Jason...........oh please......not the book's best quality in my humble opinion. Had she not flown to Europe when she was not supposed to, i might have finished this in maybe 3 months. Enough said.....sorry for the rambling.....I'll stop. I will watch the movie just because......and i will read more of my Ludlum......but it won't be soon..... show less

The last of this series. It started out better than #2 but lost steam towards the end. The wrap up was really bad: Insane villain, cover up and a somewhat psychologically damaged (and aging) hero, the latter is at least a plausible outcome.
I hated how minor people helping had to be killed off to save the precious hero, but I guess it is the nature of the this thriller genre.
I liked it, but the formula is getting a bit too predictable for me. I do not have Ludlum on my priority reading list anymore.

I should have stopped with the first Bourne book, which was good. I really should have stopped with the second, which wasn't. But no, I read the third...

This is not the best of the series, which is slightly sad considering it is the end of the trilogy, but I don't think it's a completely inappropriate send off. I didn't finish this one as quickly as I did the other two, and that was sadly largely due to a few failings. This book was just not nearly as exciting for me. Saying that though, I really thought David/Jason came across really well...even in all his slip ups. He's struggling to be two different people at the same time without killing one in order to make use of the skills of the other. And he's not young anymore. He's 50, with a family, and is more than a touch mentally unhinged. A lot of people found fault with Jason's inability to take down Carlos when he should have, I'm not show more disagreeing completely but I still felt it as oddly in character. However....I do find it an incredible let down to not end it with one killing the other. It just feels wrong in some way. In the same way that those helping him constantly died to save him. Which just leads back to my theory. By the end...I think David was just acting off of Jason's remembered skill than actually acting as Jason...which I feel explains his lack of well complete skill. And it was just slowly driving him mad, which if anything is completely clear in the epilogue. The Bourne series did come full circle in the fact that in the manner David had to be broken down to become Jason...Jason had to be dismantled completely in order to return David. So again, not the best of the series but I did enjoy it on various levels....and I felt comfortable with the characters and I liked coming back to them. And a small part of me still wishes the movies...love them as I do...had stuck a bit closer to the books in some ways. If only so I could keep Marie around. show less

I am done with Jason Bourne and with Robert Ludlum. Ultimatum was only slightly less convoluted than its predecessors and had the payoff of finally killing off Carlos the Jackal, supposedly the ultimate goal of Jason Bourne in all three books. How Ludlum and his estate expect to keep David Webb/Jason Bourne going for another several books is beyond me. Several times, quite pointedly, Bourne says he is almost 51. Equally pointedly are the times his aches and pains are commented on, as if to reinforce the fact that Bourne is aging. I’m getting off this merry-go-round here, I have better written and more interesting things to read.

This book - this whole series, in fact - is one of the very few instances where I can say the movie is better (by far) than the books. There is almost nothing in common with the movies, rarely even settings or plot. This isn't that uncommon these days, but be forewarned.

My wife had them laying around and I was in a spy mode for a while, gobbling up some of the spy books we've collected. It's odd that Matt Damon can portray a cold killer better than a writer, but I found the books' Jason Bourne to be overwrought and melodramatic. This third book I found the most tedious of the lot.

On the positive side, the advice on a bloody nose that Bourne's psychologist friend received from the trucker outside Virginia (?) somewhere is 100% spot on!! show more I can't remember which book it's in; probably the second one. show less