Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Good Book
Review: I thought the "Apocalypse Watch" was a pretty good book. It was exciting,interesting and clever. At over 700 pages, it took a long time to read, but it was worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Mr. Ludlum's work continues to decline in quality
Review: I used to buy and read every Ludlum book, but Apocalyspse Watch has to be the bottom of the barrel. His attention to detail and plots have deteriorated to the point I think someone is ghost writing after Mr. Ludlum develops the plot. An example is the scene in the Rhine River - no thought whatever to the constant barge traffic which would have interfered with most of what is happening. I've bought my last Ludlum book.
Rating:
Summary: Life's too short for books like that.
Review: I've read most of Ludlum's former - really thrilling - novels. But this book was so dispappointing that I will never again touch one of his works. If an author concocts a story about Germans - good or bad - than he should try to give the impression that he has looked into the subject. Mr Ludlum is not even sure about the German language. His characters use words which are either antiquated, misspelled or simply imcomprehensible. Which makes it a funny book but not a good one. The story is naive and the book is absolutely "putdownable". I didn't do that because I've never before put a book down. Well, it was a hard time
Rating:
Summary: Not one of Ludlum's best
Review: In the past, I have enjoyed Ludlum's novels. So it was with great anticipation that I opened the pages of this one. What a diappointment! After 150 pages I was still waiting for the book to improve, but alas, it was not to be. The main character/ "hero" Drew Latham is so wretched conceived that if stupidity were an Olympic event, he would rate a perfect score of 10 from every judge. He simply isn't believable and neither were any of the other characters. Pass this one by, and reread The Holcroft Covenant or The Matarese Circle.
Rating:
Summary: ludlum at his worst
Review: inane doesn't begin to describe this hopelessly tired retelling of a theme best laid to rest. disappointing on its best day it is truly sad to see how far a once spectacular writer has sunk. ludlum's recent health problems seemed to have drained him of any ability to produce a complex plot line. his characters are not believeable, the dialogue worse than one would find in a romance novel. if this is what we can expect from him in his "declining" years, i say please stop him before he writes agai
Rating:
Summary: Sappy dialogue aside, it could be better, but still okay...
Review: It seems to me that Robert Ludlum who, during the 70's and 80's could do absolutely NO wrong when it came to writing the best spy novels EVER, is still living IN the 70's...as far as writing goes. Let's face it, NONE of Ludlum's novels are gonna win any awards based on the dialogue of his characters...b-u-u-u-t if you are searching for the guy who could propel a novel based upon sheer narrative talent alone, Ludlum would win hands down.As I read 'The Apocalypse Watch' I kept getting the distinct impression--at first--that this was a direct sequel to the wonderful 'Holcroft Covenant'...but that isn't quite the case. Then after reading a bit further, I felt that this was a quasi-re-write of 'Covenant' instead...but again, that isn't quite the case, either. As far as plot goes, it wasn't exactly Ludlum's most original, but I have to say, it certainly moved with the usual pace of his average thrillers. As I read this book, I felt somewhat saddened that truly one of the great Adventure/Thriller authors of all-time had begun to reach that point where his edge, his ability to be fresh has started to come to an end. What seems to have started with 'The Scorpio Illusion' has now continued with 'The Apocalypse Watch' and although I have high hopes for his future novels, it DOES appear that the 'absolute master of the superthriller' has seen the decline of his ability to dominate the audience he himself helped to create. But even so, I still enjoyed this book more than a LOT of other novels released in the past 5 years or so that were hailed as genius literary works of art. In my opinion, Ludlum just cannot escape his earlier novels, and his faithful reading audience has a very difficult time indeed reading his books without comparing them to his other tremendously entertaining novels. If we could do that, his novels (including his more recent ones) would stand up rather well.
Rating:
Summary: Unreadably bad!
Review: Literally. I couldn't force my way past page 50. I can put up with a lot of garbage reading--I read Robin Cook, and have even grown fond of Tom Clancy--but this is terrible! I found the beginning completely unengaging with stolid dialogue and one cliche after another. Once I got to the point where the brilliant Nazis in the secret mountain enclave were implanting a microchip in the brain of a secret agent (thereby being able to completely control him--"brainwashing is a thing of the past") I had to give up. STUPID! Save your money and time.
Rating:
Summary: worth the sad dialogue
Review: Ludlum has put together a very good plot. Problem is, the dialogue is just ridiculous for the first hundred or so pages. Don't give up on it. The story unfolds at a good clip, with only a couple parts that make you wonder about the characters' intelligence. As with all of Ludlum's heroes, Drew Latham is practically superhuman in ability, but that is acceptable because the story is really outstanding. If you really like Ludlum, it is worth reading this book. There is some vintage Ludlum action and twists, not quite enough, but it is there. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting espionage adventure on a well-used subject!
Review: Ludlum is back. Once again, an evil group of former military and industrialists is planning to reshape the world - now who is the protagonist THIS time? Hmmm. Anyway, this is a cracking thriller in the usual Ludlum mould. You'll either love this or hate this, judging by the other review I've read. I loved it, in spite of a few inaccuracies in some of the German grammar(it's Ihrer MAnn and not Ihr Mann, to pick but a few) and military procedures. But then again there's poetic license. In this book, Harry Latham, a Consular Operations agent, has infiltrated a neo-Nazi base and stumbled upon a plan of diabolical proportions. He undergoes neurosurgery and becomes one of them, then returns to Paris where neo-NAzis are infiltrating the FRench government. When he is murdered, his brother Drew is ordered to assume HArry's identity and seek revenge on his death. Along the way there's plenty of plot twists and sticky situations for Drew and his love interest KArin de Vries to get out of. And is her husband really dead? What secret is being held from the world by the Fourth Reich? What exactly is OPeration Water Lightening? Read and find out, you won't regret it. Mainly exciting and page-turning, but sometimes predictacle reading that requires no thought. On the whole, if you're new to Ludlum, try THE MATARESE CIRCLE and THE BOURNE IDENTITY first and then read this one.
Rating:
Summary: Stop Ludlum before he kills again
Review: Ludlum's style is always predictable (the good guy in the first 100 pages invariably is the worst of the bad guys by the last hundred pages) but in Apocalypse Watch he has no sense of timing, plot, character, dialogue, anything. Neonazis (neos to Bob) are everywhere, no one can be trusted, there's the second coming of Hitler, a plot to poison the water supplies of Paris, Washington, and London and dozens of innocent people caught in the crossfire. I hadn't read a Ludlum book for a number of years; those earlier ones couldn't have been this bad, could they
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