A Novel by Eric Van Lustbader and Robert Ludlum
I am huge fan of Robert Ludlum. I love all novels and this includes those that are written by Eric Van Lustbader. There is a difference between Ludlum’s novel and Lustbader’s once but there is nothing bad to complain on, It is different because each writer poses style of their own. Robert ignited the bourne series and wrote famous trilogy starting from The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum and Lustbader has extended the series and added much more fun to it. To me both of these writers have taken taken fiction to the next level. When I say fiction, here it means commercial fiction. Should not be compared with classic fiction written by Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ernest Hemingway so on and so forth.
In the last summer on my way back to Hyderabad from my hometown, I explored WH Smith store in the airport, and ended up buying “The Bourne Betryal” (paperback). Finished 10 to 20 pages in the waiting lounge itself. Within few minutes , It was clear to me that it is going to hook me in for next couple of hours, such was the start and I felt accelerated. I got completely consumed by the book for the whole duration of the journey in flight. Jason Bourn who is the protagonist in this series is a best friend of Martin Lindros, who is considered as an alter ego for Bourne, comes back to field operations. When Martin Lindros decided to come back in the field operations with the aim to destroy equally talented (in almost all the attributes) evil like “Fadi” , he goes out the track, Jason is the only help possible in the situation. Jason carefully traces the route and somehow makes to the place where Martin is kept in high security. Readers will definitely find Jason tricks to explore synergies with local people, particularly in different country interesting. Story then takes you through various struggle, pretense of mind of Jason to bring Martin back home.
There are however few places in this book where lies the scope of improvements. Thrillers of these kinds where plot involves intelligence agencies and secret agents demands accuracy and details enough to connect the dots. An ordinary Pakistani waiter with extra ordinary information was presented without much background of this character. There are also other places where plot is established and then it drags for sometime. Too many side characters without logical connection to core makes it little eccentric. Nonetheless protagonist Jason bourn has lived up to the reputation. Lustbader has manged to compensate the shortcomings at the end by racing through sharp edges and difficult turns. I enjoyed it and I am sure you will also have great fun perusing this.
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