I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as I enjoyed the previous. A large part of what ruined my enjoyment was the premise, I didn't buy it. Apparently Jason Bourne was the only one able to replace the other Jason Bourne and kill Sheng. Why? Do they not have other agents available? Why would you send an agent into the field with amnesia, who is known to have debilitating flashbacks? He didn't do anything that another competent agent couldn't have done.  I will say despite the flimsy excuse to bring Jason Bourne back into the field, I did enjoy the bits where he walks someone through a scenario. As the fake Jason Bourne put it, he's a technician. I don't think I'll enjoy the following books as much as I did the first, something tells me there will be the same flimsy excuse to bring Jason Bourne back, but I'll still read them for those brief sections that I do enjoy.

Und nun ist einer der seltenen Fälle eingetreten: Ich finde eine Buchverfilmung besser als das dazugehörige Buch. Dabei kann man bei den Bourne-Verfilmungen nicht von einer richtigen Buchverfilmung sprechen, da die Unterschiede zwischen Buch und Film zu groß sind. Gemeinsam haben beide, dass Jason Bourne ohne Gedächtnis aus dem Mittelmeer gefischt wird und seine Wege sich mit dem Treadstone-Projekt der CIA kreuzen, die im Falle des Buches aber nicht die wirklich Bösen sind. Vielmehr wird der Terrorist Carlos als der wahre Bösewicht eingeführt, der um jeden Preis Jason Bourne Tod sehen möchte. So enstpannt sich dann im Laufe der Handlung ein Katz und Maus-Spiel zwischen Bourne, Carlos und der CIA.

 

Und für dieses Katz und Maus-Spiel fällt mir nur ein Wort ein: Nervig! Die Handlung schlägt permanent irgendwelche Haken und andauernd wird man als Leser mit neuen Informationen konfrontiert. Würde sich diese Erzählweise auf knapp 400 Seiten beschränken, wäre dies auch vollkommen in Ordnung. Wird so eine Handlung über 600 Seiten plattgewalzt, ist dies ab einem gewissen Zeitpunkt einfach nur noch ermüdend und ärgerlich.Und mitten in dieser Story befindet sich Jason Bourne, der sein Gedächtnis verloren hat und somit ziemlich orientierungslos durch die ganze Geschichte wankt. Zum Glück muß er in sich seinem unorganisierten Zustand nicht alleine gegen die Feinde stellen. Er hat Marie an seiner Seite, eine Beziehung, die mit einer Entführung beginnt und in einer ganz großen Liebesgeschichte mündet. Leider kann ich nicht behaupten, dass mir die beiden Hauptprotagonisten sonderlich sympatisch sind und die Liebesgeschichte ist ziemlich emotionslos erzählt, wodurch mir das Schicksal dieser beiden Menschen beim Lesen ziemlich egal gewesen ist. Zudem quittiere ich Maries ewiges "Liebling und Darling"-Gequatschte auch mit dem gleichen Wort wie am Anfang: Einfach nur nervig!

Obwohl Robert Ludlum echt spannend schreiben kann, werde ich aus dem Bourne-Universum kein weiteres Buch mehr lesen. Da bin ich definitiv mit den Filmen besser bedient, die mag ich nämlich sehr gerne sehen.

If someone held me down and told me to describe this book in only one word, that word would be "interminable!" Thankfully, no one is making me describe this book with only one word. This thing was so long, and so meandering, that at several points I lost track of who was who, and what was what. This book was full of twist upon twist, and very little was what it seemed to be. I think that it would normally be a negative point to say that a book was meandering and confusing, but this story was about a man who couldn't remember anything about himself, and to make matters worse, multiple people were trying to kill him for reasons that he could not fathom. In the case of this story, "meandering" and "confusing" served to put the reader solidly into Jason Bourne's shoes. In this book, those qualities worked.

There were some things about this book that I didn't like, however. First of all, this book was just too long for my taste. I don't know if it could have or should have been shortened, though, because it was a fully developed story, and to cut the length would have served to stunt Jason's charater development, which was being built as the story progressed. This was not a case in which the character was fully realized at the start--his develpment was gradual and the details were necessary in order to piece this man's identity together.

Secondly, I could not stand the way that the character of Marie was written! I could not accept that she would have fallen in love with a man who abducted her, threatened her life, physically hurt her, shouted at her, and ordered her around. In her eyes, the sun rose and set on Jason, but why? Because he killed her rapist and that meant he was a good person after all? Well, she'd have not even been in that situation if it hadn't been for Jason, so, I don't know, it seemed a little extreme to me that she'd completely lose herself to him.

There was more that I could quibble about; the romantic dialog was awful, no woman in the story was written in anything like a complementary way, and I got so sick of hearing "Cain is for Charlie, Delta is for Cain," that I thought I was going to scream! That phrase will probably parade through my dreams tonight. But, in the end, this is a book that I can appreciate the intracacies of. It's a complex story, and the twists are plentiful and good. Still, I'm relieved that I finally got to the end of this book, because I was really starting to wonder if it even had one.

The Bourne Identity (Jason Bourne, #1) -... At first I was like....



then, afterwards...



I missed reading from this genre.
I absolutely loved it.
Thrilling.

Hahay. Excuse me while I...



What a page turner!
I really wanted to finish this one as soon as possible.
I was so tempted to read the ending first before continuing with the whole book (spoiler).

Jason Bourne?
Or should I call him... David Webb?!

Honestly, I have this secret dream to be an assassin.
I just thought it was cool.
So I kinda admired Bourne (I'd call him that) for his skills. I want skills like that.

I must admit though that I have not understood the whole premise of the book. It may be that I don't have any idea about the war in Vietnam. Or how things work in the military, but I guess I picked up enough along the way to understand the important stuffs.

And Oh boy, I would gladly read the next book. I. SIMPLY. MUST.

The fourth Bourne novel, but the first without [a:Robert Ludlum|5293|Robert Ludlum|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1208465267p2/5293.jpg] at the helm. Sadly it shows, and [a:Eric Van Lustbader|39467|Eric Van Lustbader|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1262658121p2/39467.jpg]'s inexperience shines through. Inexperience, or possibly pressure from the publishers to get the book out there. Lustbader seems to feel nervous in the early parts of the novel and falls back on some overly purple-prose and alliterative-adjectives to cover up the lack of action. Instead these become a huge distraction themselves. Once the story kicks in the 'style' becomes much less obvious and Lustbader seems to find a pace he feels more comfortable with.

For no apparent reason Jason Bourne, as David Webb, is targeted for assassination by Khan (an uber-assassin who also believes he is Bourne's long-dead son). However both Khan and Bourne are being played against each other by a shadowy, power-hungry, figure – Spalko – who is pulling their (and other people's) strings for his own, unknown, purposes. They are led a merry chase from the US to France, to Hungary and then on to Iceland for the well-telegraphed anti-terrorism summit.

While the story is exciting, and you're always rooting for Bourne (and at some points for Khan too), the story between Bourne and Khan is almost totally unconnected to the story with Spalko and the Icelandic summit. Spalko triggers the Bourne/Khan sub-plot, but it serves no purpose toward his main objective. He would almost certainly have stood more chance of success if he'd not tried to get Bourne involved at all. Bourne would have stayed at home mourning the deaths of his friends, but that would have been it.

After four novels of the series, we're all pretty aware that Bourne is a super-spy. His training from Conklin in Vietnam made him the best in the world. Yet, repeatedly, Khan is able to follow him without Bourne noticing. Khan is able to 'guess' the direction Bourne has taken. And all to often, Khan manages to get to where Bourne is going before Bourne does. Pretty impressive when you're following someone. Even more impressive when you're following someone who isn't too sure where he's going himself.

Finally, further proof to me that this book was a rushed job, with the Ludlum estate pressuring Lustbader to get something out there quickly to capitalise on the success of the Bourne Identity film, was that the book having been split into three sections, had them labelled: parts one and two, but followed by book three? The book reeked of rushed cashing in – the only saving grace being the somewhat exciting pace of the story.