Characters are bland and undeveloped, if at all. Action sequences don't make sense. Overuse of gee-wiz technology that doesn't exist. Events happen (a good guy gets tied up and beaten) which weren't covered in the prior paragraphs.If you can get past the helicopters shooting down MiG-29s and Bourne in a commercial jet dogfighting with Iranian fighters (I'm not making this stuff up), you still have to deal with the incredible metamorphosis that has happened to Bourne himself between the Bourne Legacy (which I absolutely loved) and this latest offering. The loving husband and father, part-time professor David Webb, has now been totally consumed by the Bourne identity.Lindros asks before he dies that his ashes be buried at the Cloisters in New York City. The Cloisters is the name of a museum built by the Metropolitan Museum and has never had a cemetery. He repeatedly talks about the "Washington National Airport" when that airport was renamed in 1999 to the Ronald Reagan Washington Nation Airport (usually just called the Reagan National Airport now.Omar, the humble and innocent Pakistani waiter is sitting bound to a chair in a bathroom of the Washington hotel where he works, knowing he's about to be executed by terrorists. Does this terrified man beg for mercy? Does he hurl abuse at his captors? Not a bit of it. He lectures them calmly and collectedly on the merits of the Israeli nation: "Israelis themselves are Nobel laureates in physics, economics, chemistry, literature; prize-winners in quantum computing, black-hole thermodynamics, string theory. Israelis were founders of Packard Bell, Oracle SanDisk, Akami, Mercury Interactive, Check Point, Amdocs, ICQ." Clearly satisfied on all these counts and that this would be the normal reaction of anyone about to die gruesomely at the hands of Islamic fanatics, Mr Van Lustbader then lets Omar get into his stride, expounding his beliefs on how Israel should be the model for them to follow. Perhaps understandably, the terrorist leader slices Omar's throat, telling him: "This is gibberish." Mr Van Lustbader go that bit right. What a perfect epitaph, not only to this ludicrous scenario, but to the whole book.I almost stopped reading when the main terrorist character "became" Bourne's good friend Martin Lindross, fooling Bourne and everyone else whi knows Lindross into believing it was really him. Please.Several components are just simply poorly reasearched. I.e. Marine Rangers in East Africa. Rangers are from the Army. The dialogue sounds like actual people and the plot while ludicruous is mostly resolved logically ... but at no point do you actually believe any of it - from the second sentence, you realize you are reading a book and if you have a 4-hour flight delay - this will kill it without you becoming too annoyed since it's so professionally done but like airliner food serves to put food in your stomach and not much more - this book serves to fill up hundreds of pages but as soon as you put it down, I defy you to remember anyone beyond the Bourne character's name.The cliches continue to abound in this new addition to the Bourne series, with the pick of the crop the "turning" of the CI head's assistant by one of the key terrorists who want revenge for an earlier attack by Bourne on their father. Add to this the ease at which CI is infiltrated by nearly every bad guy on the planet, including moles from the Pentagon and another mole who owes his allegiance to the evil Secretary of Defense.Lustbader is absolutely terrible at setting scenes - his descriptions of just where things are in relation to other things, is incomprehensible. It's impossible to get a visual of almost any three dimensional place the author describes, most often because he forgets his left from his right.
Below is a review I wrote and posted on Barnes & Noble where I purchased this book for my Nook. It still stands as my review.Despite misgivings and numerous attempts at reading Lustbader in the past, I decided to read his Bourne books solely because of the subject - Jason Bourne. I hoped Lustbader had improved his craft in the last few years and that this series would be good. I was greatly dismayed from the start when I realized he had completely set aside the original and true character of David Webb/Jason Bourne, and his family as they were created by Ludlum. For anyone who has read and loved the original Bourne books by Robert Ludlum, you realize the movies had very little in common with the books. And I loved the movies - Matt Damon was a terrific Jason Bourne. However, the movies and books had bare bones only in common. Lustbader’s Bourne character comes across as if he was a 30something covert ops hero and crashes forward through something like 10 or maybe 11 books/adventures to date. I really wanted to read the 'new' Jason Bourne adventures, although knowing that it would be as if reading about a new character rather than a continuation of a much loved and well-known character. That would have been fine - if Lustbader could really write. He does fine up to a point, but some of his plotting action is so incredibly stupid you wonder if a 10-year-old could have done better. One review I read mentioned Bourne heard his phone while revving a motorcycle with a helicopter flying immediately overhead – and I have to agree that is so far-fetched, I would say impossible. I nearly stopped reading at a point just moments before the ring of his cell phone when he jumped a Harley off the back of a moving rig and pulled a sharp U-turn in front of oncoming cars, ratcheting up through the gears in a chase scene. This whole scenario, from how they got on the street in a chase scene to begin with to the way it ended, is so badly contrived I could barely make it through. Not wanting to spoil anything further for those who might actually want to read this stuff, let me just say that the prelude to the chase scene was a real stumble-bumble scenario - nothing that David Webb/Jason Bourne of the first three books or the Jason Bourne of the movies would have done. Stupid is as stupid does for Lustbader. I waded through more pages until yet another incredibly stupid scenario and I quit. I can only stand to read poorly written, contrived plots for so long and then I just throw the book away or put it in a recycle bag. Unfortunately, this one is on my Nook. Oh yeah. Delete! Delete! Delete! For those who might actually enjoy somewhat poorly constructed action stuff and can ignore the tripe of Lustbader's writing, enjoy. But, please, be aware that all you are reading is Lustbader's bid for his own James Bond type series and it would have been far better if he had simply created his own character and not usurped the wonderful character that Robert Ludlum created. I had to give it a star rating to post the review and couldn't do just a tiny point of a star so let it be known that the star I had to give for this book was for the name - Jason Bourne - and nothing else.
What do You think about The Bourne Betrayal (2007)?
SUMMARY:Already devastated by loss, Bourne is shattered by a report that his last friend in the world, Martin Lindros, has gone missing. A CI deputy director, Lindros was in Ethiopia tracking suspicious shipments of yellowcake uranium and atomic bomb weaponry. His last lifeline to humanity, Bourne will not let Lindros go. Despite his hatred for CI, Bourne sets out to rescue his friend and finish the job: dismantling a terrorist network determined to build nuclear armaments by cutting off their source of money. But Bourne doesn't realize that these men, Islamic supremacists, are leaders of an incredibly dangerous, technologically savvy group with ties from Africa, across the Middle East, and into Eastern Europe and Russia. They have predicted Bourne's every move, and are counting on his unwitting help in their plans to destroy America.
—Jeff Cothern
Definitely not of the Ludlum caliber, but not too shabby. A little bit less contrived than the previous Van Lustbader Bourne effort. Unfortunately, the last one was one of the most obvious and contrived stories I've ever read, so a little bit less is still pretty contrived.The problem that anyone trying to follow in Ludlum's footstep was going to face is that Ludlum's stories always had the feeling of reality to them. A feeling that this could, even if a little far-fetched, actually happen. He tended to do this better than just about anyone else. This book does not seem feasible in the slightest. Each new little plot twist seems even more removed from reality than the last. All this being said, it was an entertaining little read and so long as you're not expecting Ludlum quality, you should enjoy yourself. It's like a television show that you've watched since the beginning, but has started to go downhill. You are compelled to keep watching, despite the dip in quality, just to see how the characters get on.
—Josh
The Bourne Trilogy ( Robert Ludlum's greatest work) was one of the best clandestine-thriller series I've ever had the privilege of reading. Normally the idea of a book series chronicling the adventures of a schizophrenic/amnesiac assassin would be absurd, but Ludlum made it work. He made readers connect, not only with Jason Bourne and his alter-ego, but every other character that was a part of Bourne's Life. He made you want to follow Bourne on his journey through confusion, paranoia, frustration & the accompanying violence. That was the whole essence of "The Bourne Identity"- you, the reader, were not only able to buy into his idea of a schizophrenic amnesiac assassin, but you also were part of the journey of remembering. You wanted to find out about Bourne's past life just as much the character himself did, and that's why you kept reading. Jason Bourne was just a damm compelling character- "The Bourne Identity", not the book itself but the essence of the protagonist Jason Bourne & other key characters in his life, was simply addictive to the reader.Ludlum's ability to weave this crucial aspect seamlessly into every wild thrill-ride of a mystery/action-adventure Jason Bourne is forced into is what MADE the Bourne Trilogy so great. Eric Van Lustbader's inability to do this is what makes the rest of the Bourne Series (Bourne Betrayal & Onwards) so terribly and painfully Awful. I had put off reading the rest of the Bourne Series (post-Ludlum's trilogy) due to the belief that the new Author in the series (Lustbader) couldn't live up to the standard Ludlum had set for the original trilogy. I should have just followed my gut.The most annoying thing is that when I did eventually decide to read the rest of the series, Lustbader completely Blew me away with his first installment in the continuation "The Bourne Legacy" , which was absolutely brilliant and actually surpassed "The Bourne Supremacy" as my favorite Bourne book overall. He HAD the essence of the Original Bourne Trilogy in "The Bourne Legacy", but he decided to completely forgo ALL OF IT in his later books. The plots are all weak and confusing; the supporting characters are always changing and remain underdeveloped before they are "killed off" from book to book. Even the main character is devoid of depth- it's like there's a new Jason Bourne in each succession that's completely different & sometimes contradictory to the Jason Bourne in the previous novel. The author completely abandoned the schizophrenic aspect of the protagonist and stripped Jason Bourne to just another caricatured "Secret Agent Man" in the mold of James Bond. The sheer lack of any semblance of continuity is absolutely gut-wrenching to a fan of the original Trilogy- without it every book is just another typical mass-produced Action Thriller novel with an over the top badass main character and a shoddily put-together plot. And WHY THE HECK would anyone in their right mind devote their precious time to reading a crappy 10+ hr Action-Thriller Novel when Hollywood can give you an Action-Thriller Screenplay with 10x the plot, 10x the character depth, 10x the plausibility, and easily 10x the entertainment in just 1/4 the time!!!.....It's just a damm shame such a well developed & compelling character & series had to go to waste- my faith in fiction novels is shot.
—Timi Ogunbekun
