Robert Ludlum's The Cassandra Compact: A Covert-One Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

In short, I was pleasantly surprised. The tale, although lighter and clearly not nearly as complex as the typical Ludlum, kept me turning the pages. This book, which grabs the reader early and does not let go, contains much of the suspense and plot twists that Ludlum aficionados have come to love in the conspiracy-thriller genre. Upon final evaluation, the Cassandra Compact made my four-hour plane ride easy duty. My first experience with the series will make me go back to the beginning to try some of the others.

The plot is being perpetrated by the head of a major pharmaceutical company who is providing the scientific know-how and is working with several members of the US military who are providing cover, location, and muscle to get the job done. Apparently the Cassandra Compact was dreamed up by all involved in order to give the US a super powerful biological weapon and once again place it at the top of the world's superpowers. But the Compact didn't count on two things - Jon Smith and his ability to uncannily show up in the right place at the right time (lots of coincidences). As a result, Jon Smith slowly foils the Compact and in so doing saves most of the good guys.

My Comments:
I have to admit that the book kept my attention up until it entered outer space. At that point there were two problems. First, the CD started skipping so I missed some of what happened and second I began to think this story was never going to end. Well, the CD skipping isn't the authors fault, but the incredibly unwieldy and rambling story is. Like any good spy novel, this one jumps from continent to continent as though they were rocks in a pond resulting in so many locations that you eventually just give up on keeping them straight. I always find it funny that money for travel is never an issue and Jon Smith, like so many other uber-spies, doesn't seem to ever need to sleep or go to the bathroom. Also, there are so many characters involved with the plot that it takes almost 1/3 of the book just to be able to keep them straight.

Though the resolution of the plot is for the most part satisfactory, there are some problems. For instance, two of the major bad guys, a US military general and one of the leaders of the NSA die in a car crash, literally. Sure, they were trying to escape being caught, but they are so preoccupied that they forget how to drive. It's pretty silly actually. Also, there are so many things that have gone on behind the story (like the building of the top secret hangar for destroying the space shuttle) that have to have happened in order for this story to take place that the story has a remarkably contrived feeling. Of course, as an international spy thriller it's okay to be at least somewhat contrived, but this one really pushes the limits.

My last problem with the novel was the main character. Though there were some attempts to develop Jon Smith as a character, by the time the novel ended I really had no idea who he was, just that he was super good at figuring things out, shooting people, and that he had lost his wife/girlfriend to a virus in a previous novel. There is almost no effort at backstory (though this could be because the version I listened to was abridged). The only person I really ended up liking was Smith's friend, Peter Howell, who actually seemed to be a well-trained spy and was witty to boot. Smith came across as more of a bumbling Mr. Magoo who slowly puts the pieces together but never actually seems to be a step ahead of the bad guys until the very end, and that is only by luck.

Overall, though the story kind of starts to grab your attention at the beginning, with such a non-developed character as Jon Smith on the loose, you quickly begin to lose interest. Also, with the book ranging around the world and with so many other characters to try to remember, the scope of the novel is more what you would expect from a 1,000 page James Clavell treatise rather than a relatively short Ludlum novel. Because it's so short, it just doesn't work. Perhaps the actual novel is better, but the abridged CD version just didn't cut it for me. I don't recommend this book.