Rating: 
Summary: Awesome!!!
Review: Outstanding thriller and one of Ludlum's best! Action, drama, suspense, lost love, double crosses...all the trademarks of this master of international espionage.
Rating: 
Summary: Action packed with all the bells and buzzers
Review: "Prometheus Deception" is a very good thiller by Robert Ludlum. I'm a relatively new reader of Ludlum novels and am pleased to find this book consistent in quality with some of his others. I've read "The Road to Omaha" and the Bourne series. This one is very much akin to the Bourne series in that the main character is double crossed by those he trusts most. Deception is a very apt title qualifier because that's basically what happens throughout the novel in this multi-twisted plots. This books' plot would be a screenwriter's nightmare, yet the twists are done tastefully, creatively and with credibility. Our leading character and spy runs around so many places it almost makes the reader tired trying to catch up with him. I loved Ludlum's knowledge of the high-tech arms that his character's use to fight and defend. This lends to the authenticity of the novel. Most of the characters are fleshed out adaquately. The villians are contemptuous and without mercy. Ludlum describes his violent scenes with much bloodshed which adds to the excitement of the moment. If his book was a movie, it would definately be rate NR-18. It's not for the faint-hearted. I've found that Ludlum typically winds up the climax quickly ending the novels with the hero on some sandy beach in the Bahama's, but the pleasure of a Ludlum read, "Prothemeus Deception," not withstanding, is in the journey to the end. This book is a fast read with action on every page turn. You'll like it if you like political intrigue and action. Solo.
Rating: 
Summary: How to make your commute seem even longer
Review: I commute. About 3 hours a day. For entertainment, my carpool buddies and I often listen to recorded books. Although it seems unlikely, the most recent one has actually made the commute worse. This horror is titled "The Prometheus Deception," by Robert Ludlum, and read by someone named Michael Paul.Features of the Prometheus Deception Experience (TM): 1) Ludlum needs an editor. Or maybe a better editor. Or maybe 100 chimps typing. There are obvious continuity errors. At one point we are told a pair of assasain twins are from northwestern Italy. A paragraph later, they are suddenly from northeastern Italy. There are many, many more examples, but I've blocked them out as a subconscious coping mechanism. Remembering even this example is kinda painful. 2) The protagonist is an idiot. We are supposed to believe that this Bryson guy is a highly trained secret agent, and yet when we're introduced to him during a chase scene at the beginning of the book, he reaches a stairwell and mulls, "Should I go up? Should I go down?" And then proceeds to ponder, in excruciating detail, all of the advantages and disadvantages of each choice. Meanwhile, the assailants are conveniently not catching up to him and shooting him. Which is a pity, because if they'd been more on the ball, we wouldn't have needed to sit through the rest of the 16 CDs. At another point, much later, he spends time yakking with his estranged wifey before jumping out of a window into the Thames while the House of Parliament crawls with bad guys wielding submachine guns, looking for them. Maybe he and she should have just moved in; they certainly didn't seem in any rush to actually, like, ESCAPE... 3) The VOICES. A blind friend once remarked to me that she really hates it when readers feel the need to "do the voices" on those books-on-tape. I used to think I knew what she meant, when George Guidall would launch into yet another high-pitched female voice in the CAT WHO series. I was wrong. I had no idea how bad it can be when a reader does The Voices. It can be bad. Very bad. The book is read by someone named Michael Paul. Or maybe it's Paul Michael. I don't think the advertisers know either, because I've seen it written in both directions. However his name works, this Michael Paul guy loves accents. Not REAL accents, mind you, but sloppy collections of phonemes which can be applied at random during speech to approximate the effect of an accent. The CDs are full of these painful things: A female Lebanese spy who sometimes slides into Hindi. A senator from Maine who sounds like he just walked off the set of Dukes of Hazzard. The director of the CIA who has a "normal" Amurikan drawl until 3/4 of the way through the story when it is mentioned that he has a New Jersey accent, and he suddenly and inexplicably develops a heavy Brooklyn sound. I could go on, but I won't. Actually I probably couldn't go on. That same defense mechanism against psychological trauma I mentioned earlier kicks in and stops me. I am very grateful that we have somehow finally arrived at the end of the 16th CD, which is the nicest thing I can possibly say about this book. It would make a great present for anyone you want to annoy, but in a subtle, devious way. Hmm. Come to think of it, maybe my carpool buddies are trying to tell me something?
Rating: 
Summary: Liver Pate ala Ludlum is delicous
Review: Robert Ludlum, The Prometheus Deception
Prometheus was the Titan who stole fire from the Gods, brought fire down from heaven to benefit mankind; in punishment, Zeus chains Prometheus to a rock where a vulture aka Hannibal Lector dines on his liver each and every day.
In this pre 9-11 novel, Ludlum entertains with the concept that a Bill Gates and a Clark Gifford form an unholy alliance to Matrix the world, with the Green Room assistance of a Russian born Richard Helms to establish a New World Order, ala George Orwell.
But this autistic plot works, and for summer reading one will not be Deceptified if one devotes a lazy-daisy day to following the Web of Mirrors which is acceptably woven by this master story teller.
Many of the arguments raised by the story against privacy, seem to have been incorporated en blanc in the Homeland Security Edifice Complexity, but there is no recognizable Ashcroft.
Oh yes, Ludlum, does tip his hat to Ian Fleming, and there are two kick-... heroines to populate the numerous brouhahas and save Jaime boy from frightful exterminations. For the techno inclined, there is an abundance of super neat weaponry and cryptographic erudition exposed.
And best of all, Ludlum, does know how to entertain. Hence this book is a less than guilty pleasure, for those times when I remember the Manhunt mags of yester-yore.
Rating:
Summary: A pretty good Ludlum book...
Review: This book was not bad, I finished it pretty fast for my standards and I really enjoyed it. There is some good action and enough surprises to make me say "Ah!" aloud whilst I read the book. The Prometheus Deception is perhaps not the best Ludlum book but I would still recommend it for a nice read.
Rating: 
Summary: A tragic end
Review: Having just finished "The Prometheus Deception", it was hard for me to dispel the feeling I had been reading a thriller written by formula. Ludlum specialises in right wing or capitalist conspiracies and this particular work follows suit, with the obligatory superman finally nailing the bad guys. I will not go too deeply into the storyline - it is all the book has, after all. The writing is reminiscent of a screen play; the imagery is highly visual, as always with Ludlum, and one can only wonder why so comparatively few of his books have made it into film.
That said, this is one of his worst efforts, and as the last book written by this author it is a sad testament. The ending is deeply illogical, even more so than the rest of the book which has holes in the plot you could drive a truck through.
Mind you, as pulp fiction for a long flight or the like this is still not the worst kind of fare - easy to read, not that easy to put down, and only objectionable if you actually make the effort to think about what you are reading, hence the second star.
Rating:
Summary: Even an All Star Makes An Out Sometimes
Review: For starters I am a great fan of Mr Ludlum's work. I am also a writer. And, I have had some personal exposure to the real world of which he writes. That said, this is a good story, though the premise and some of the action seems to be a tad too Bondian. But, then, so is the hero and many of the other characters. This is almost like reading a James Bond
film in print. Also, I wonder if there was more than one author, or if someone other than Mr Ludlum did rewrite here? It seems as if there was more than one style and voice telling this story. There is sloppy editing one does not expect from a commercial pubisher, for example,in at least two places the wrong character was mentioned by name. And, there were far too many "bellows" and "roars" from characters, especially during the Bruce Lee sequences. Opps, there goes that film comparison again. I sure do like Mr Ludlum's stories and will miss not having new ones. And, yes, I did enjoy this book as an airplane companion, which it was, but, overall, I had a sense of watching the team's best hitter ground out weakly in his last at bat. J David Truby
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Storycraft
Review: I must say it was a relief to have an intelligent hero. I get very sick of what seems to be standard operating procedure among authors; 'the lead character must be *believable* so we must dumb him down' notion. It drives me batty when the heroes make stupid mistakes, especially when you know they are supposed to be smarter in this area than you, the reader. It's no fun to read a book where the hero constantly makes you want to knock sense into his head, and Bryson doesn't. The mark of a good author is a plot that is strong enough to hold a reader's interest without tacky plot devices like a bludering hero to add tension and action. And it was a strong plot indeed. It was subtle and ambiguous, and went in so many directions that I could empathize with Bryson when he feels confused and dazed. What is fact and what is fiction? Who really are the bad guys? Ludlum gives us just enough information for the reader to feel smug that they're figuring it out, but keeps the clues subtle enough that you don't feel you're being spoon fed. It drives me nuts when an author makes it impossible to solve the mystery because they hold back all the clues, and then they spring the entire plot in the last few pages. Or they present the clues in such a blunt fashion you can feel no satisfaction at having caught them. I will admit one theme in this book has been worked to death by other authors, which I won't mention, because it isn't revealed until about half way through, but I don't feel it detracts at all from such a wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing is as it seems
Review: Jason Balnchart was a respected member of one of those covert government organizations that is not supposed to exist. In his outfit Code named THE DIRECTORIT he has stopped everything from political assassinations to arms deals. He is forced into early retirement and begins a quite life as a college professor. Then one day old friends from the intelligence community confront him and tell him a lot of crazy stuff. Just for starters that he actually working for a communist government all along and his actions were undermining America, not helping it. He sets out to find the truth This information leads him to an ever deeper conspiracy with the unknown name of Promesous to identify it. My impression-Liked this one a heck of a lot better then I did The Cassandra Compact. Good action good suspense this is the type of book that you want to be your last publication when you die. The only thing I really didn't like was the need of Mr. Ludlum to spend pages building up characters and whenever action finally gets started Kill them off! What is the point of the constant reunions in this book when you know that the charects you have just been reintroduced too will be dead in a short time?
Rating:
Summary: Utter Junk
Review: This was my first Ludlum book, and perhaps my last. Couldn't have been more disappointed. 500 painful pages of ... lead you to a sorely disappointing end, an ending that would probably leave you feeling sick. I wonder if this is the style Ludlum uses in all his books. Initially I found myself fascinated by the book but with the passage of time it became clear that the biggest 'deception' was in reading the book itself. I saw neither logic, nor a story line in the entire plot. All that the author had was exotic descriptions of foreign locations. Expect no twists and turns in the story, it is all too predictable and of course, illogical.
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