Customer Reviews

Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Objective

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I'm always hesitant to read another authors take on a famous character. This book is exactly why. Van Lustbader is a decent thriller writer but he's opened himself up to comparison by continuing with Ludlum's Jason Bourne.

This book starts with Bourne having once again lost his memory. I suppose it worked in The Bourne Identity why not try it again. Bourne is tossed into a scenero where people are trying to kill him and he doesn't know why. Sound familiar?

Despite the lack of creativity Van Lustbader gave himself an opportunity for a good story. The were a lot of different bad guys. All with their own mysterious motivations and there was some good action. Unfortunately everything is predictable and happens way to easily. He attempted to weave a complex Ludlum style plot but everything he writes is simplistic and predictable. One of Ludlum's great skills was that he could pack as much information, suspense and drama into a chapter as any three chapters from most authors. Van Lustbader is not up to Ludlum's standard.

Do yourself a favour and pick up a Ludlum novel, one he wrote himself. He was one of the first great thriller writers. I've listed a few of my favorites below.

The Bourne Trilogy
The Aquitane Progression
The Matarese Circle - NOT the Matarese Countdown it's aweful.

"And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the LORD." -- 2 Chronicles 12:14 (NKJV)

Jason Bourne (aka David Webb) still can't remember very much as the book opens, but flashbacks help direct his steps anyway. More evil characters than you can shake a stick at are aiming at using or stopping Bourne to accomplish some power- or wealth-enhancing ploy. The more interesting parts of the character development show contrasts between highly trained operatives Bourne and Arkady as the two circle one another. How will the potential for violence between them be resolved?

The book connects deeply into earlier plots. I would discourage anyone from starting their reading of the post-Ludlum Bourne books with this one.

I thought that the book's ending was one of the more satisfying ones in the New Bournes.

The best parts of the book for me were the action sequences. Mr. Lustbader does those well. I could easily imagine them occurring in front of me, and the fine action descriptions helped bring the book to life for me.

The book's biggest weakness is that many of the villains don't seem to be real. They feel more like paper targets in a target range waiting for someone to score bulls-eyes on them. Arkady is the exception. His history and menace come across quite effectively.

The Bourne Objective comes off as a just average thriller. The story is rather disjointed and contains little of the supposed main charactor, Jason Bourne. Not one of the better efforts.

I have not read any of Robert Ludlums, Jason Bourne novels and I know the movies arent true to his novels. I was very happy to seeanother writer has taken over and I have read all of EVLs Bourne novels. Objective is by far the worst, I found in this one EVL turned Jason Bourne into more of Indiana Jones with the story of the ring. Hope he doesnt continue to go down this road with the Jason Bourne character in his next novels.

This completes my Bourne Collection, can't wait for Eric to introduce the new book, The Bourne Imperative, in the near future