Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: Eric Van Lustbader Missed The Boat Review: Eric Van Lustbader completely missed the boat in his attempt to create a fourth Jason Bourne book. There are two stars to Ludlum's own books, David Web and Marie St. Jacques. The keys to those books are that Marie is as smart and decisive as David and that he is nothing without her. Instead, Van Lustbader not only cuts her out of the novel (and incidentally kills off two of the other major characters of the first three books so that he doesn't have to deal with them), but writes a sexist novel that bears no relationship whatever to anything that Ludlum ever wrote.
It's a sad thing that the editors either didn't catch these things or didn't care!
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Very Good Book! Review: Eric Van Lustbader has done a very good job of writing about Jason Bourne.This is an excellent continuation of the Bourne series. In the newest Bourne book a sniper tries to assassinate Jason Bourne on the college campus where he is a professor.He manages to escape alive.Bourne goes to his mentor's house(Alex Conklin) and discovers that Conklin and Mo Panov have been murdered.Bourne has been declared a rogue agent and placed on a termination order.He is having to run for his life.Bourne has been set up by other forces.He begins a search for the truth worldwide and continues to have attempts made on his life by the assassin named Khan. Khan's real identity will shock you. The real villain in this story is a man who heads up Humanistis. He has a plot to pull off a deadly terrorist act at the Terrorist summit that is going to be held in Iceland.It becomes a race against time to stop Stephan Spalko.A fast packed action book.
Rating: ![2 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-2-0.gif) Summary: wish you could see my disappointed face Review: Got it together with 'the coil' as lynds was advertised as mrs ludlum, hoping the ludlum legacy lives on somewhere but it was a disappointment!! of the two novels this one is worse, neither has anything to do with ludlum and i sincerely hope the estate will sue the publisher for false advertising. dear author: change the names of characters, remove references to jason's past and try sell it as a stand alone story, maybe you won't get so many desippointed readers.
Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: A New Jason Bourne Is Born Review: If you expect a classic Robert Ludlum Jason Bourne book or a classic Eric Van Lustbader ninja delight, you will be very disappointed with this book. The Bourne Legacy doesn't fit well into either camp.
If you are willing to forget that you have ever read about Jason Bourne or anything else by Eric Van Lustbader, you will probably find this to be a relatively pleasing page-turner of an action novel.
The book shifts in a number of ways from the prior ones. First, this Jason Bourne is always reacting . . . and a little too late. Second, he's vulnerable both physically and emotionally. Third, he unrealistically recovers form serious injury time and time again to take even more abuse. He's sort of like a silly putty man in that sense. You toss him away and he bounces back quickly. Fourth, his long-time co-characters all but disappear. Fifth, an important new character is introduced, Khan, whom you will probably either like a lot of hate a lot. I leave it to you to decide.
Clearly, this book looks like it is intended to launch a whole series of novels based on the events in it. If you think you might like to see an action hero develop in a different way, give the book a try. If you want more of what you've had in the past, avoid this book.
Good hunting!
Rating: ![2 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-2-0.gif) Summary: Not sure what happened. Review: If you have read the first 3 books then you know that their are differences in those plots compared to the movie. This book by no means measures up to the first 3. To me it seems that it keeps the same story line of the original books but the writing seems more action oriented than the drama that Ludlum wrote.
Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: Why an author's estate should never sell rights to a series Review: If you want a hero maimed ten times more than necessary, or if you want a troubled past reflected until you can quote the next reiteration go ahead and try and finish the book. The book was very bad.
Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: Good Author Bad Novel Review: Ive been a fan of Lustbader since i read the Ninja series a long time ago, and ive been a fan of Ludlum longer so i thought this amalgamation had serious potential.
Unfortunately its flawed from the outset, it appears that Lustbader hasnt read the original novels properly. From day one the Bourne novels have been about 2 people - David/Jason and Marie, from book 2 Panov and Conklin were given a major part of the storyline so to ignore marie and kill panov and conklin was a major disapointment to me.
The story itslef is also deeply flawed, bits from previous novels are ignored, and some parts are ridiculous. David Webb buying and registering a gun in his own name ?????? In the other books its made clear he has a stash of weapons available to him at home, and that he knows how to get a "clean" weapon etc.
I for one was so looking forward to this book, and i felt the series had potential to continue, however i suggest that should the Ludlum family decide to allow another book they DONT use Lustbader and they ignore the happenings in this poor book and allow the interesting characters developed by RL to shine.
In case you havent already guessed i would not reccommend this novel to any true Bourne fan.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: An incomplete, but well written Bourne romp Review: One thing I couldn't get over while reading The Bourne Legacy was its refreshing, to the point of distracting, absence of italics. Ludlum seemed to need italics to express every last change of emphasis or tone. It was maddening, or at least it was to this reader. Here is an illustrative paragraph from The Bourne Supremacy:
"My beef? My goddammed life, soldier. Something's going on and I want to know what it is! That son of a bitch broke into my apartment and threatened to kill me. He made some pretty wild accusations naming men like on your payroll like Henry Babcock and Samuel Teasdale and Williams Lanier. We checked; they're in your covert division and still practicing. What the hell did they do? One made it plain you'd send out an execution team after him! What kind of language is that? Another told him to go back to a hospital--he's been in two hospitals and our combined, very privated clinic in Virginia--we all put him there--and he's got a clean bill!"
Once you notice it, it gets almost exhausting to read.
Eric Van Lustbader's prose is refreshingly free of such devices. He goes pages and pages without an italicized word, leaving the reader to infer emphasis from context.
There are some downsides. Without being a spoiler, he writes out or leaves out characters who played central roles in prior Bourne novels. This is what I meant by "incomplete" in the review title. Marie, for example, takes the kids and runs off to hide at the beginning of the book and doesn't reappear as a character of any importance (although this too has it writing style advantages; how many times does a real person say "Jason, my darling" in a single converstation without choking on the words?).
But where the author subtracts, he also adds by bringing a new character into the Bourne milieu, someone who could play a role in future novels.
Overall, I liked the book very much. The plot was complex without getting confusing, the writing was crisp, and, while the author didn't juggle the multitude of characters Ludlum did in prior Bourne novels, Bourne himself read and "felt" familiar, an achievment in itself.
Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: Not Worth Finishing Review: Originally excited to be reading a new Bourne novel, I was quickly disappointed in the way Mr. Van Lustbader handled this character created by Robert Ludlum. In fact, I only managed to get half-way through the book before having to put it away. I got increasinlgy tired of the bland characterization of the main people, and the stereotypes of the supporting characters (such as the chauvanistic Director of the CIA). And, sadly, the true identity of Bourne's assassin was very easy to determine. There were too many instances in which, as a reader, I had to suspend my disbelief. I fully enjoy this genre of fiction, and I know it may not always qualify as "good literature," but I expect a little more than this.Since I didn't finish the entire novel, I don't know how it ends, but as I wasn't enjoying the story, I'm not that upset. I'll just go back and read the original Ludlum Bourne novels, where I actually cared about the characters.
Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: This is a screenplay, not a novel. Review: Reading the book, I had the feeling that Lustbader is already dreaming about the money he'll make from selling the movie rights.
As many tired old Hollywood clichés that were packed into this book, there can be only one choice to play the role of Jason Bourne: Nicolas Cage.
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