Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre and predictable
Review: This book is a never-ending stream of action clichés that have you shouting "get to the point already... we figured it out 300 pages ago!"A few of the tired devices employed over and over and OVER again: professional killers emptying countless magazines of ammo at our two heroes without hitting either of them; throw-away characters who further the plot with a rambling monologue or two but are assassinated before they give too much away (although the heroes escape scot-free); left-for-dead villains who somehow recover from their injuries (like multiple gunshot wounds to the chest!) and become threats again -- and of course a bottomless supply of experts, just a phone call away when the undiscoverable needs to be discovered. And throughout it all you have our heroine -- supposedly a cream-of-the-crop government agent -- acting like a rank amateur: repeatedly making highly-sensitive phone calls ON HER HOTEL ROOM PHONE, and even discussing top secret material on her cell phone -- while in her seat on a commercial airliner still at the gate! The worst part, though, was the novel's predictability. Every new revelation is obvious to the reader long before it's obvious to the heroes, although that doesn't dissuade Ludlum from his heavy-handedly attempts to inject suspense into every discovery scene. It's excruciating to be saying "yeah, yeah, I figured that out ages ago" while Ludlum is basically screaming: "Wow, isn't this discovery earth-shattering? Isn't this just too incredible to fathom? Haven't you just been on the edge of your seat, waiting for this particular part of the mystery to be revealed?" Pass on this one.
Rating: 
Summary: First Ludlum book- DEFINITELY NOT THE LAST!!!
Review: I found out Mr. Ludlum passed away in the last year. I thought- why not read one of his books? I sort of wanted to at best. What I got into COMPLETELY took me by surprise.
THIS MAY BE THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ!!!!! Imagine Ben Hartman seeing one of his old high school buddies who he hasn't seen in the past 15 years in Europe. Now imagine your "buddy" pulling a gun out to try to kill you. Ben luckily survives and then the "turn-your-world-upside-down-trying-to-figure-out-what-in-the-world-is-going-on" world tour is on. You see, all Ben thought he understood about his life has been mostly a big lie. Friends are now your enemies. And total strangers hold your life in their hands. Everybody you speak to seems to be gunned down by some secret shadow group simply called- SIGMA. Axis, Allies, Nazis, megacorporations, money, good guys, and bad guys all on the same side? This isn't possible- is it??? What Ludlum eloquently gives the reader is COMPLETELY mind-numbing. This can't be happening? Can it? Yet he intricately weaves his tale to be not only possible, but entirely plausible!! Don't take my word for it. Read this COMPLETELY ABSORBING book. I certainly know this will not be my last Ludlum book. 23 more books to go? I can't wait.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating! Couldn't stop reading!
Review: This is the first Ludlum book I have read, and I must say I hugely enjoyed it. Since a large part of the book's background is in Switzerland (my native country) and Zurich (where I know my way round), I was intrigued by the accurate descriptions of the city's layout and even exact shopping locations and store names he used, not to mention the astounding, breathtaking and also scary story. It makes you think ... what if ... absolutely worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Makes Michael Crichton look like Shakespeare
Review: I enjoy Michael Crichton's novels, but I know just what I'll get; a great, original plot with 2 dimensional characters designed to push the story along. Fine, it will still be an original story and that is enough. Ludlum, in the Sigma Protocol, has characters of single dimension push along a one-dimensional plot. Worse, you've read it before in every single Ludlum novel you've ever read. I was about 150 pages into this book when I remembered why I stopped reading Ludlum years ago; every book is the same, every book has the same flaws. This is the best-selling worst writer out there. I am always surprised by the depths of the bad writing. It is definitely not to a professional level, and if he were just starting out now, no one would publish him. I would like to see how much the final draft was fixed up in the editing process. Here are a few examples that come to mind: If the characters overhear a newscast or see a newspaper, it will be pertinent to the plot, and in the next few pages. Nothing happens simply to give you a feel for the characters or to flesh out the atmosphere. This is irritating in a thriller novel because if it's there you know it will be used. There are no false clues or even slight attempts to throw you off the trail.
The dialog is interchangeable; there is no difference in style, tone or however it is that real writers do it so you know that a particular comment is from the female good-guy, or the male bad-guy. Any of them can say anyone's lines and that story won't change. I think Ludlum would change who was speaking simply because a certain numbers of lines had passed, to make it appear as a conversation were taking place. Instead, he writes what could be monologues and attributes them to random characters.
Ben and Anna, (the good guys) never take a false step, never get into a corner, never are without a highly skilled expert to call, never call and find that expert not able to pick up the phone. They are on the run and never have a problem paying for hotels, international airline tickets, food, and clothes. This plot only would work if Ben were super rich, expertly trained and a superb physical specimen. What??!?! He is?? Then let's write this ...!!! I was a quarter of the way invested into the book when I realized that Ludlum was still as bad as he ever was, but I figured I'd see it through to the end. It is bad to the point it becomes funny. If you read it, count how many people Ben and Anna meet to get crucial plot advancing info, only to have them die violent assassinations mere moments after they leave. You'd think that after 2, 3 or at least 5 times they'd say, hey, someone may be following us, let's at least check to be sure the next guy we visit has his life insurance paid up before we lead the assassins to them. I finished the story wondering why Ludlum wrote this. Did he need the money that badly? A contractual obligation? Maybe this was a test to see how gullible the reading public can be. I sure was.
Rating:
Summary: A Saturday Matinee Serial
Review: After reading Arturo Perez-Reverte, I found this book Boring. It was like the old Saturday afternoon serial episodes that used to be shown in the theaters. Each one would end with the hero (and/or heroine) in some seemingly inescapable, life threatning situation from which they managed to escape the next week. I went to sleep after the first dozen of these situations in the book. The reader quickly figures out that almost none of the characters in the story are really who they are supposed to be. Ludlum borrows from James Bond for his Spectre like, world power, super "bad guy". As the reader gets further and further into the the book, it actually gets more boring, and more predictable right down to the "Bond like" finale with the villian's lair and the remaining bad guys neatly blown up - what else? The hero and his beautiful heroine pull off one final spectacular helicopter escape complete with one last impossible in-flight duel with (what else?) a stowaway bad guy who was originally a good guy. I can only describe this novel as "corny".
Rating: 
Summary: A Final Bow...
Review: Ludlum hooked me with "The Gemini Contenders" and "The Bourne Identity." Then, for quite a while, it seemed he ran out of ideas. Based on the reviews here, I decided to give this one a shot. (A few months ago, I tried "The Matarese Countdown" and gave up.) Yes, this is everything you expect from Ludlum, good and bad: the bold, beyond belief plot; the nonstop action; the twists and turns and surprises...the predictable super-conspiracy story; the events that stretch belief; the heroes that can fly helicopters when in trouble because of some obscure training years and years ago. "The Sigma Protocol" is vintage Ludlum. We follow the story of wealthy Ben Hartman as he attempts to unravel the mysteries of his brother's death, his father's identity, and the attacks on his own life. We also watch Anna Navarro, a government agent, as she studies the string of deaths of old men related to the Sigma Corporation and tries to connect them. That's only the surface of all that appears here and, as usual, Ludlum plays a few cards to his chest, but for the most part, pulls out all the stops and goes for the money. If you aim to be educated or enlightened by your fiction, this isn't the book for you. If you're ready for a satisfying escape that also pokes at the globalization issues we now face, then jump right in. Ludlum ends his incredible and lively tale with a benediction from Ben Hartman's lips to his father. I couldn't help but wonder if these were words Ludlum hoped to hear as he approached his own mortality. "I judge him mortal. I judge him imperfect...And I judge him a hero...And because he was hard to love, I loved him all the harder..." Yes, it's melodramatic, over-the-top...just as our dear Robert Ludlum. I'll miss his books. And I'll always "judge him a hero."
Rating:
Summary: The first and one of the worst...
Review: This is the first novel I have read by Robert Ludlum. The cover synopsis sounded intriguing and a recent review in my local newspaper praised it as one of Ludlum's best ... . What a waste. One-hundred pages into the book I not only had the plot reasonably deciphered, but was also pretty irritated at Ludlum's seeming preoccupation with the clothes his characters wear. He spends time describing designer suits, dresses and coats that I could care less about. It's too bad he didn't cut back on the materialistic descriptions and worry more about character development, which is about as good as the work of a first year college student in a creative fiction writing class. His characters are almost beyond shallow and do not come across as "real" people. To add injury to insult, the supposed "shocking" revelation at the end of the work is the obvious result of inept scientific knowledge. I will not spoil it for you readers out there who want to go ahead and purchase the book anyway, but suffice it to say that the theory proposed is such a joke that it is quite obvious the author failed to do his homework and research the topic. My recommendation to those who badly want to get their little hot hands on this piece of work: wait for it to come out in paperback.
Rating:
Summary: I became a little bored
Review: When i first started reading it I was captivated. The plot is interesting and intriguing. The characters are fairly well developed. However, as I read on into the novel, I felt that it started to drag on and I lost most of my initial interest. It was a blessing to just be able to finish it. All in all, it is a very good idea, but it is simply too long.
Rating:
Summary: Reminds me of the old days
Review: The Sigma Protocol reminds me of the old days of Ludlum. A fan ever since the Bourne trilogy, it was good to read a Ludlum book that was as good as his older works. Fast and enjoyable. Read it as a tribute to one of the best!
Rating:
Summary: The Master's Coda
Review: The late Mr. Ludlum suffered a great deal of criticsm because all of his books seemed to feature the constant theme of a secret organization conspiring to take over the globe. What this reader finds tremendously frustrating is that few critics ever admitted that no matter what the oranization was called (Medusa, the Matarese, Aquitaine, Inver Brass, the Scorpios, or most recently SIGMA) Ludlum ALWAYS succeeded in producing an enjoyable, action-packed story!
Even though I purchased The Sigma Protocol the day it was released I put off reading it for a while fearing that once I was finished I would never again be able to feel that same sense of anticipation and excitement that comes with reading a Ludlum novel for the first time. Well, last week I finally set about reading it and I must say that I was not disappointed in the least. The Master was on top of his game as the action picked up from the first page and continued right on through the next 500+. The Sigma Protocol is perhaps his finest work since The Bourne Ultimatum.
If Sigma indeed represents the end of the road then I must say its been one hell of a journey! I can remeber being sucked in by the first Ludlum novel I read (Matarese Circle) and how reading Ludlum novels my trips to England and Russia that much more eventful and enjoyable. In fact, my copy of The Osterman Weekend was purchased in a London bookstore and one of my most treasured pieces of memorabilia is a copy of The Bourne Identitiy written in Russian that was given to me by the host family I stayed with in Moscow. I would like to take this opportunity to posthumosly thank Mr. Ludlum for providing me with so many memories.
Just a final note to all of those afforementioned critics: Knock it off! Ludlum was the best at what he did. If you want to find someone to criticize go tell John Grisham to write an original novel, or at least a decent one, God knows he hasn't done either since The Pelican Brief! The fact of the matter remains that if Ludlum had attempted to write a courtroom thriller he would have been blasted the same way Grisham would if ever he tries to infiltrate Mr. Ludlum's genre.
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