Rating: 
Summary: Authentic Ludlum, maybe a bit hackneyed though.
Review: Start with the good news: Ludlum is back! With "The Prometheus Deception", Ludlum has laid to rest the ghost of the awful Matarese Countdown which one can now forget as an unfortunate aberration. Prometheus is back to the classic Ludlum: fast paced action, complex plot, protagonist facing overwhelming odds, gripping deceptions. The story itself is quite ingenious and contemporary. As always Ludlum's protagonist (here Nick Bryson) is up against a global conspiracy that has managed to subvert conventional lines of authority and is so well buried that nobody realizes that what they see is only the tip of the iceberg. And as always, the conspiracy is on the cusp of taking over and our hero has just a few days to save the world. Ludlum's threat is quite clever; he has built on the acknowledged erosion of privacy that the Internet has resulted in. The big kahuna of the bad guys is a software genius who owns a gigantic Seattle based software corporation that dominates the business and owns a billion dollar "smart" lakeside mansion (now who does that remind me of........). Ludlum verges onto sci-fi territory however with his extrapolations of surveillance capabilities (imagine copter based equipment, let alone a satellite, able to identify not just a car license plate but the facial features of the driver and passenger in it - pretty fancy tech that). From any other author, this book would be top notch; for Ludlum though, it falls in comparison to his own high standards. The plot, for all its contemporary flavor, has been re-hashed once too often. Nick Bryson, unlike earlier Ludlum heroes, is literally invincible and can execute Houdini like escapes from any trap, leaving you with a feeling of disbelief. Ultimately, disbelief is what does you in; unlike earlier Ludlums where you were never quite sure if it was fact or fiction, Prometheus never quite convinces you it is more than a yarn. The old buzzwords of "mergers and acquisitions" that worked in the 80s seem out of place here and one gets the feeling that Ludlum is not exactly sure of his ground. The finale too is unconvincing and it stretches credulity that the billion dollar mansion has no fallbacks in security and damage control (I am being vague to avoid giving away the ending). All in all a good book, miles better than the execrable Matarese Countdown, but way below the Bourne Series. Worth a read. Incidentally, Ludlum's protagonists are always male; the token female interest is mostly ornamental and nurturing with occasional flashes of intellectual input. Not quite a new Millennium after all!
Rating:
Summary: Not up to his usual standard
Review: Having read all Mr Ludlum's books and thoroughly enjoyed all of them except the two ludicrous 'Road to', I must confess to a deep sense of disappointment in this one. When I start one of his novels I find it difficult to put it down, but this one I found difficult to pick up and finish. How our hero managed to survive the severe beatings and travel the world in a very short space of time defies me to understand. Sorry, Mr Ludlum, a very tired book from I suspect an author who does not have to be too concerned now as his books will sell whether good or bad.
Rating:
Summary: Too much Spy vs. Spy for me, but still a good read...
Review: I would have to agree that The Prometheus Deception is one of Ludlum's better works, certainly in the last decade. His knowledge of technology and his masterful incorporation of it in this novel are not only fantastic, but also frighteningly realistic. Unfortunately the "Big Brother" idea is carried too far and it almost feels as if Ludlum was writing about the Virginia-based company MicroStrategy and Michael Saylor (with an evil side.) I don't know, discount that because I happen to be from Northern Virginia. The hero, Nicholas Bryson is a quasi secret agent (a la a hybrid of the KGB and CIA) and he is for all intents and purposes a superman who has come out of retirement to save the world. While the fantastic abilities Bryson possess' take away from the character (to the extent that he is unrealistic), Ludlum is able to put him through enough circumstances that the reader accepts Bryson as being just extraordinary and not superhuman. A James Bond who can get out of anything. Unfortunately the lack of realism led me to downgrade the book from a 4 star to a 3 star. I found the twists and turns of the plot to be great and until the final twist (where "Ted Waller" turns out to be playing both sides against each other) the story was becoming a classic spy novel. Unfortunately that final twist was too much, one reader pointed out that this double dealing was too much too bear and added nothing but confusion and perhaps a chance to write a sequel down the road. The return of Elena too was just a bit too much for me, but I can see why other readers might like that romantic twist. If you, like me, enjoyed the Holcroft Covenant and some of Ludlum's prior work, I would give this book a try. Just remember that you are going to be reading about a "James Bond" character with a couple of twists...
Rating: 
Summary: The Prometheus Turkey
Review: Robert Lardlum has foisted another overstuffed turkey on us for the holidays. OK, the Lardmeister can tell a decent story, but isn't he getting just a little preposterous in his dotage? The author is good at describing specific situations and locations, but he creates far too many of them to maintain a reasonable pace in his book. Lardlum must sell these books to his publisher by the pound, or maybe by the word. He also must have gotten an injunction against his editor. I know this is heresy to Lardlum fans, but aren't you all getting tired of these overblown effects, annoying plot diversions, underdeveloped characters and ridiculous endings? Does Prometheus Buster Nick Bryson really need to speak 13 languages? I'd have been impressed with two languages, maybe three. Lardlum can't seem to express himself in ONE language. And what's with these one word paragraphs the Lardball uses to emphasize his overblown prose? "Madness!" It all sounds like Batman and Robin to me. You know, when the TV screen flashes those one word descriptors ("Ka-BOOM!" and "Crash!") as the Masked Marvel and Boy Wonder fight the bad guys. Bryson is really just a modern day Batman as they both try to save the world anonymously. Lardlum should reduce his stories to a comic book format and save paper. At least the Lardslinger italicizes his little paragraphs, lest we forget the importance of these single words that follow his endless drivel. "Insanity!" Now come on. Does it take twenty pages to describe how Bryson and Layla escaped from that spiffy weapons ship? Did they really have to blow the ship up with a Scud Missile? Saddam Hussein can't hit Israel with a Scud, but Bryson nails this ship from afar as he lurches away in a speedboat in choppy seas in the dark. Couldn't they just have killed a few more people and left the ship afloat? Why take a whole chapter to describe how Bryson breaks into the Big Guy's house in Seattle in the waning pages of the book? Hey, Bryson crashes the party of Mr. Prometheus, blows up the house, kills lots of people and saves the world. There, it takes 20 words, not 20 pages. And so forth and so on. Are there verbs other than "spit" and "cough" to describe the sound of a bullet being fired from a gun with a silencer? Not in the Lardball Dictionary. And for a guy who probably can't turn on his own pacemaker, Lardlum sures likes to impress us with his technical expertise of weapons, security systems and a woman's cleavage. He probably subscribes to "Soldier of Fortune" and "Penthouse" magazines and was a security guard in a previous life. The plot to this turkey is really quite simple: an international rouge organization of greedy world leaders seeks to control the world through hi-tech gadgetry. But we're tortured with page after page of repetitious shenanigans that are tangential (or irrelevant) to the plot. The major arrest in the book is of character development. For example, that frosty confrontation between Nick's girlfriend (Layla) and his wife (Elena)? Are we going to see a cat fight and get some insight into the characters of these two conniving foreign operatives? Of course not! No, it's handled in typical Lardlum fashion. When Elena reappears after a five year hibernation, the Lardsmith just blows Layla up. "Ka-BOOM!" Then, the happy Bryson couple is unencumbered as they move on to finish up this pesky little mystery. Very convenient. Lardball should take a lesson from the slim and elegant James Bond thrillers of Ian Fleming. Economy and efficiency of word, action and plot are powerful weapons. But the Prometheus Turkey orchestrates lots of activity, sideshows and other plot diversions that all go nowhere. The author's grand conclusion is so anemic that I suspect his publisher finally told Lardy to cut his losses and get this turkey into the bookstores before Christmas. After all, the holidays are the time for clogged arteries. Yes, I know, the Lardster and his books all need to go on a diet... At least Lardlum waited until the Holiday Season to unload his latest Butterball on us. That way, you don't have to read it. You can just give it as a present. But this is no stocking stuffer. It wouldn't FIT into a stocking. No, this is a door stopper. And YOU should stop before ingesting this turkey. "Gobble Gobble!"
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I'm a long-standing Ludlum fan who took a break several years ago, disappointed by the Road to Gandolfo. I decided to sample his work again. It's a quick read, but quite disappointing. The central figure is a pale imitation of Jason Bourne who, in this work, tangles with the evil incarnation of a powerful executive of a far-reaching corporation based in the Pacific Northwest (get the picture, Bill?). Think I'll take a break for a few more years.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing Is As It Seems
Review: The Prometheus Deception follows a long-used formula of people and situations always being something other than they appear to be. The hero, this time, is Nicholas Bryson who thinks for fifteen years that he is an operative for the Directorate a group so deeply hidden that only his boss Ted Waller knows about his assignments. He's good. In fact he is the best of the covert operatives surving all the usual hardships along with a death defying physical wound that occurs in the opening of the story when he is exposed as a "traitor" in an operation that he has set up. Following his recovery Ted retires him giving him a new identity and he goes off to teach in a small college for five years. He spends the five years quietly enjoying his classes but mourning the loss of a much loved wife, Elana, who had left him and totally disappeared during his final assignment. So far the book made sense, but there was a lot of reading left to go. At this point The CIA recruits Bryson to investigate the Directorate telling him that instead of being patriots the members of that group were actually Russian spies. Leaving the college, he travels through several countries in search of the truth, excapes death a few times and unravels a complex set of deceptions. The only person true to Bryson was Elana who reappears and helps him find his way through the maze of characters that Mr. Ludlum has fleshed out. As a long time fan of Ludlum books, I thought many of the earlier books were better, because the plots were more believable. If this is your first book, go back and read the The Scorpio Illusion. THEN you will want to read more of Ludlum's many books.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Ludlum book in years!
Review: The suspense, action, and intrigue are non stop in The Prometheus Deception. Plenty of interesting characters and locales kept me glued to the book. The story is well written and really flows well. Lots of nice twists and turns for the main character to deal with as well. The only slight negative to the book is the James Bond type of impossible escapes the hero must make many times in the story. However, this was only a slight hinderance to an otherwise great book.
Rating:
Summary: He called it in....
Review: This is undoubtedly the worst Ludlum ever! What starts with a fairly unique story idea, soon disintegrates and drowns in a torrent of completely improbable, not to say impossible, situations. Pure comic book material. He should have hired a good illustrator. The prose is gone!
Rating:
Summary: Needlessly confusing
Review: Over all I liked this book, but found it needlessly confusing and with way too many far-fetched last-minute escapes. Everybody seemed to be a bad guy. I must have missed something at the end because I didn't catch why the bad guys would send the protagonist to try to catch themselves. I enjoyed many of the action scenes, but some of the escapes from danger seemed too implausible to be enjoyable. They reminded me of James Bond escapes, and I look at those as being purposely over the top. All in all, better than "Hammer of Eden", which I still haven't been able to get through, but not in the league of some of his earlier work.
Rating: 
Summary: Top-notch Ludlum - he's back!
Review: I'd almost given up on Ludlum after the last couple of losers, but now I think he's back at the top of his game with Prometheus Deception. A fantastic opening draws us in, then a premise that's totally intriguing serves as the undertow: what if your whole life has been orchestrated? What if your whole life is a lie? What if you thought you'd been fighting for your country, only to find out you've really been aiding the enemy? Although I wouldn't quite put this up there with Bourne Identity and Matarese Circle, it's really vintage. This novel has the dense texture of the middle period Ludlums, the twists and turns, the feeling that every time you think you've got it all figured out, you're whiplashed back, you realize you were all wrong. The old master hasn't lost his touch. He's back, and now so am I!
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