Robert Ludlum's The Hades Factor : A Covert-One Novel

Rating:
Summary: Ludlum scores another winner!
Review: A rather obvious and predictable but very fast-paced and thrilling tale of a deadly virus and an even more sinister conspiracy afoot. When Lt. Col. Jonathan Smith loses his fiancee Sophia Russell to a new Ebola-style bug(how many times has this one been trodden out), he begins his own investigation. Warned by an old school friend(who happens to be in with the bad guys, ominous music burst cue) and tipped off that Siphia was murdered, he vows to tack down her killers. With the help of ex-SAS colonel Peter Howell and Asperger's-syndrome-afflicted Marty Zellenbach who is an ace computer hacker and elctronics genius, his trail leads to Iraq and a secret experiment from Desert Storm involving human guinea pigs and a dormant virus. And how does Victor Tremont, muscling in to control multinational Blanchard Pharmaceuticals, fit in to the conspiracy? It seems that everywhere Jon Smith turns, he is a wanted man - by the FBI, the military and corrupt politicians. Who can he trust? As you read, you will surely guess the ending . . . maybe. The basic character of Smith is obviously plagarised from Joel Converse in Ludlum's earlier classic THE AQUITAINE PROGRESION, and the subject of a doomsday virus may not exactly be original(re:EXECUTIVE ORDERS, PANDORA'S CLOCK and THE COBRA EVENT) but this somehow is such a well-plotted, easy to read book that you cannot help but be intrigued, and does manage to keep the reader hooked in abig way. A great airplane read!

Rating:
Summary: Pale version of Clancy
Review: I have read this and it is earily similar to other tales of deliberately introduced viral plagues such as that of Tom Clancy and Robin Cook. However, the excruciatingly plodding and predictable plot and straining of credibility to the breaking point render it painful to read. Examples: Erasing all the data on one topic in all the computers in research centers around the world in 2 hours. Has not the author heard of tape or disk backup? Cutting out a page in a lab notebook to surrepticiously remove data without detection. Hello, all the lab notebooks that I am familiar with have prenumbered pages.

Rating:
Summary: Derivative, but with potential
Review: When THE MATARESE COUNTDOWN appeared, I wrote a scathing (and well-deserved) review of the worst book Robert Ludlum had ever written. In that review, I suggested that Ludlum either retire or rediscover the passion and inventiveness that marked his early work. With the help of Gayle Lynds, he seems to be making a comeback.

THE HADES FACTOR will be familiar to long-time Ludlum readers. The protagonist, Lt. Colonel Jonathan Smith, M.D., faces a conspiracy of monumental proportions aided by only a few long-time acquaintances and a beautiful sidekick. Yet the Ludlum-Lynds tandem breathes new life into this somewhat stale framework. The result is a story that moves along fairly well (although too hastily at times) with much better character development than his most recent work (although one would like to see a little bit more of Smith's background, it will likely be covered later in the series). In particular, I very much enjoyed Martin Zellerbach, the computer genius with Asperger's Syndrome who I sincerely hope will make appearances in other Covert-One novels.

Unfortunately, the plot remains problematic. Indeed, THE HADES FACTOR's storyline is almost a mirror image of the most recent Tom Clancy offering, RAINBOW SIX. Without giving too much away, you have a killer virus sprung on the world with ulterior motives (profit this time, not ecological purity as in Clancy's novel). The derivative plot is not the only problem here, but the others are minor in comparison--for instance, the Zellerbach character is drawn a bit too cartoonish despite Ludlum and Lynds's best intentions, but again, this could be touched up in later books.

The book is obviously intended to be a jumping off point for a new series of books (all collaborations between Ludlum and other authors one suspects) a la Tom Clancy's OP CENTER. There is definite potential here for sequels, but let's hope that Ludlum and his future partners become more imaginative with their plotlines.