Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Deception

Jason Bourne #7

by Eric Van Lustbader, Robert Ludlum

Jason Bourne's nemesis Arkadin is still hot on his trail and the two continue their struggle, reversing roles of hunter and hunted.

When Bourne is ambushed and badly wounded, he fakes his death and goes into hiding. In safety, he takes on a new identity, and begins a mission to find out who tried to assassinate him. Jason begins to question who he really is, how much of him is tied up in the Bourne identity, and what he would become if that was suddenly taken away from him.

Meanwhile, an American passenger airliner is shot down over Egypt by what seems to be an Iranian missile. A massive global investigative team is assembled to get at the truth of the situation before it can escalate into an international scandal. Jason Bourne's search for the man who shot him intersects with the search for the people that brought down the airliner, leading Bourne into one of the most deadly and challenging situations he has ever encountered.

With the threat of a new world war brewing, Bourne finds himself in a race against time to uncover the truth and find the person behind his assault, all the while being stalked by his unknown nemesis.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Action, Espionage, Suspense, Adventure

432 pages, Paperback

First published June 9, 2009

About the author

Eric Van Lustbader was born and raised in Greenwich Village. He is the author of more than twenty-five best-selling novels, including The Ninja, in which he introduced Nicholas Linnear, one of modern fiction's most beloved and enduring heroes. The Ninja was sold to 20th CenturyFox, to be made into a major motion picture. His novels have been translated into over twenty languages.

Mr. Lustbader is a graduate of Columbia College, with a degree in Sociology. Before turning to writing full time, he enjoyed highly successful careers in the New York City public school system, where he holds licenses in both elementary and early childhood education, and in the music business, where he worked for Elektra Records and CBS Records, among other companies.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/ericva...

Reviews

[Norm · Rating 1 out of 5]

SUCKED, SUCKED, SUCKED, SUCKED!!!

Van Lustbader RUINED the whole Bourne concept. His writing is lackluster and filled with crap that should have been edited out.

I bailed 60 pages in, and that was 60 pages too many. I'll never get that part of my life back.

(Harsh, Norm)

Yes, I know, but it had to be said ... er, written.

Anyway, I've slogged my way through Van Lustbader's other Bourne books, but I'm all done now. He goes into the 'authors I will never read again' file, joining Clive Cussler and James Patterson.

The original Ludlum/Bourne books are awesome. Same with Cussler and Patterson's early books. But the later stuff overwhelmed me with tripe and I just can't gag my through any more.

Norm

[Jerome Otte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absurd. The deception was that Jason Bourne was a minor character when one would think it was actually about him. It should have been titled the Trevor Deception. Moira Trevor was the lead character and saw the most action in this tedious book. Slow, boring and hard to finish. Buy it if you love to watch paint dry.

Among the problems:
1) Very little Jason Bourne. He is a small portion of the book, in fact. Most of it involves other characters who are not even in his time zone.
2) Very little research. The author clearly wrote this entire book in a weekend and the only research he did do was, to punish us as readers, of an incredibly boring nature, specifically Bali mysticism or some such tripe. I found the entire Bali soul-finding part of the book thoroughly uninteresting and pointless. And don't expect to learn more about Bourne, he's still stuck with the "Not sure what I remember and what is real and isn't." Pathetic, actually.
3) Although a problem, this one is also a marvelous success! Lustbader has created THE MOST unbelievable interactions ever, more unrealistic than a 7 year old writing a story about a princess who marries a dragon. The dialog between the president and his close staff is offensively ridiculous. For example it takes them about three pages to go from an attack from an unknown source with unknown motivatinos to being ready to declare war on a country. It really does, it was clear as day to me that Lustbader started that interaction at the beginning of his first beer and had set himself a personal goal to finish it before he grabbed another, so 8 minutes later it was done.
4) Stupendous coincidences. Some of the people Bourne ends up interacting with were placed as if the population of the earth must not exceed 30. Totally unbelievable.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have finally cracked the Jason Bourne code! Who is this man, who says that he may be David Webb, professor of things Asian, or Jason Bourne, mercenary trained by the CIA? His agelessness that Lustbader presents in book after books appears to baffle many, though he refers to his life in the past and the memories that occurred, including children, two dead wives, and flashbacks. This man, this Bourne is a blood relative to James Bond... or at least he must be, as they are the only two characters who seem unable to die, age, or cease getting into violent trouble. Lustbader is no Fleming, though he may fashion himself to be, as he continues to create this completely unrealistic character that bears no resemblance to the Ludlum masterpiece.

I could sit here and echo my Lustbaderian complaints, but I am sure many have read the past reviews. Bourne is fighting like some 20 year old, though he has to be in his late 60s by now; he seems to be a Sean Connery-like lover, though he has children who are at least 45 years old now; his family is written off in a single sentence, “the children live with their grandparents now, in Canada”; and the list goes on.

The book itself was too splintered for me, dealing with too many storylines that I am trying to piece together, without holding my attention. Even if the character names had been replaced, the book does not hold much interest for me. Alas, the bloody series continues and my self-made promise to keep reading it all has me cringing at the next one.

Like a lamb to the slaughter, I await more agony!

[Wally Mountz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The action sequences in these books are always good, however, the plots are more like Mission Impossible. Just too many and too complicated. Add that to the fact there must have been 30 characters in this book-it is simply too much. So much so that I nearly abandoned this book at the 2/3s mark because I was getting bored. I persevered and the ending was good.

[Darin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jason Bourne and mysticism?! What crap. Lame. Filled with profanity to boot. I'm done with this author. Too many good books out there to waste time on this hack.

[Cym Lowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine an Iranian missile (a Kowsar 3) bringing down a passenger jet over Egypt with many Americans on board, in the current context of a world anxious about the intentions of Iran. Add to that an American Secretary of Defense who is pounding the table for an attack on Iran, and a clandestine mercenary group working for all sides named Black River. As spice, Jason Bourne is in Bali with a new sweetheart only to be shot through the heart by an old colleague, and some former lovers wind their way through the novel.

For the meat entrée, there is a clever computer program that can manage military and intelligence activities on a real time basis, though it may have flaws in terms of inputs (one of which could be the survival of Boure).

This is the essence of The Bourne Deception, a thriller of the first order. One need not remember all the details of the prior Bourne books, though there is plenty here for even those who have all the details in mind. Our man Bourne does not yet fully find his past, after all this is a series of sequels and the mystery is a critical element of the suspense.

There are at least six stories lines and about thirty characters, which makes a thriller reader’s heart purr. A story within the story traces the history of Russian nemisis Leonid Arkadin in the squalor of Nizhy Tagil, as a the god of destruction, Shiva, opens and closes the story in paradise.

This is another thrilling ride. In the end, there are soliliqueys by one of the bad guys that contain strains of genuine emotional anxiety shared by many of us, which gives character to this fellow on his way. There are also endings of some of the villains, as several of the story lines remain open to be picked up in the next sequel. I am anxious to see whether Moira can survive as a Bourne girl, and whether Soraya and Amun have a future, as they all chase after Mr. Arkadin, now possessed of arms merchant information for the world.

The Bourne Deception is a marvelous book, a joyful read, with plenty of emotion, romance, and thought provoking internal questioning of the selves of the characters. A high five and hearty thank you is well deserved by Mr. Lustbader.

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt that this book was rushed, even though the story was alright it's quickly forgetable. I'm not hard to please when it comes to Jason Bourne but this novel didn't do it for me. It's projected that David Webb no longer exists and Jason Bourne is in full control--always. I don't like how soft Bourne has become even though he has some stern quoteables through the novel, his stature has diminished severely and in almost every sentence when Lustbader describes Bourne he is ailing from a wound and not on the top of his game. I enjoyed the injection of his own characters in this novel, "Shiva" etc but I was throughly disappointed with this story. Also, Arkadin become a flaccid character in this story and he didn't show the interesting clips of depth that was excercised in THE BOURNE LEGACY. In closing, I wasn't enthusiastic about finishing the final chapter of this book because the story climaxed pre-maturely and the book fell off very quickly. I hope that the next story is charged and breathes new life into the series.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following straight on from The Bourne Sanction this book made a lot more sense to me. More evenly paced and follows the same characters from the previous novel it was much easier to follow. I'd obviously enjoyed the previous book as another airport visit led me to pick this up and read it straight through.

[Vicki Scalera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book but was disappointed in the ending. WHile all the books connect to each other, they can basically stand alone. This ending had no closure.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Over the top audiobook

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably won't continue to read Jason Bourne books. I think I may have 1 more. I like the fighting but too much Russian in them.

[Villager · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read a Bourne book since the passing of Robert Ludlum. Like everyone I've seen the Bourne trilogy that have been made into movies. As such, I missed a few of the books in the series. That said, I enjoyed the heck out of this book. Great villians. Remarkable twist plots. And I have to admit that I like the way that there are strong female characters in this book.

I recommend it for anyone that loves a good action-thriller with political overtones!

[Matt Egan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wait, did I really just read this?

[Dave · Rating 1 out of 5]

A textbook example of total implausibility.

[Kym Gamble · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into this book. It was very slow and I trudged along through as much as I could before DNF it. It is a Jason Bourne book so I expected it to be good and fast paced. I was wrong.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

fast action thriller

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

#Binge Reviewing my previous Reads #Spy Thriller

By the time I reached The Bourne Deception, Eric Van Lustbader’s continuation of Ludlum’s iconic saga was already deep into a rhythm, mixing the Jason Bourne archetype with his own penchant for sprawling conspiracies and morally ambiguous villains.

If Ludlum’s original trilogy had the tautness of a tightly wound spring, Lustbader’s take is more like a labyrinthine sprawl where plotlines twist and interweave until you’re caught in a web of espionage, double agents, and shadow wars. This installment, in particular, felt like the most ambitious attempt yet to give Bourne a kind of “second act” beyond Ludlum’s original narrative closure.

The story kicks off with Bourne still wrestling with his fractured identity and his place in a world that refuses to let him go. Lustbader introduces a string of complex adversaries—none of whom are straightforward, moustache-twirling villains but rather players in the shadow theatre of geopolitics.

Here, conspiracies are not just between governments and intelligence agencies, but stretch into corporates, war profiteers, and global manipulation. What struck me while bingeing through all twenty-five was how Lustbader often veered into Tom Clancy territory—dense plotting, international intrigue, and layers of covert operations—while still clinging to Ludlum’s psychological core: Bourne as the man who cannot stop running from himself.

Comparatively, The Bourne Deception felt more like a bridge novel than a stand-alone climax. In the earlier Identity–Supremacy–Ultimatum arc, each book had a sense of finality, even as it teased the next. Here, Lustbader builds an open-ended chain, almost serial-like, which mirrors the James Bond tradition more than Ludlum’s finite storytelling. Where Fleming gave Bond endless villains and reinventions, Lustbader positions Bourne as the perpetual fugitive-warrior, hunted by shadowy cabals that morph with the times. The tension, though, lies in whether the reader prefers Ludlum’s finite precision or Lustbader’s serialised expansion.

When placed side by side with other spy thrillers—say, Frederick Forsyth’s The Odessa File or even Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt novels—The Bourne Deception thrives on sheer velocity. Forsyth may win on research and plausibility, but Lustbader matches him in pacing, layering chase upon chase until the pages blur. Compared to Bond flicks like Skyfall or Spectre, however, Bourne remains the more haunted, tragic figure—his violence is less glamorous, more desperate, as though survival itself were a moral question. That desperation, more than the intricate subplots, is what hooked me while binge-reading.

Another aspect I appreciated here was the expansion of Bourne’s moral compass. Lustbader keeps testing his loyalties, making him choose between the personal and the geopolitical.

This is not the Jason Bourne of the early 2000s Matt Damon movies, sleek and cinematic, but a more conflicted figure—closer to John le Carré’s burnt-out spies than Fleming’s suave agents. Bourne’s enemies are harder to pin down, and often his allies are even less trustworthy. That moral ambiguity is both the strength and the occasional frustration of The Bourne Deception: you’re constantly second-guessing motives, but sometimes at the expense of emotional payoff.

As part of the binge, it delivered exactly what I craved—adrenaline, conspiracies, betrayals, and a protagonist whose humanity keeps bleeding through the cracks of his assassin training. It’s not as tight as Ludlum’s originals, but it doesn’t need to be. It keeps Bourne alive, moving, and adapting. And in the world of spy thrillers, sometimes that’s all that matters—because the chase, not the destination, is the true thrill.

[Dipanjan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jason Bourne (in the hands of Mr. Lustbader) has evolved from a master assassin to a player in the world of clandestine wet-jobs. In Bourne Deception, he spends too much time out of the narrative to make his presence felt. It feels that he is more of a prop to give structure to the various things happening in-and-around his name. This book is full of the author’s trademark clichés. The entire web of intricacy through events may seem to be overwhelming sometimes. There are just too many things going on with way too many players playing way too many angles. The action sequences and the inevitable betrayals are way too predictable as well. The prose is clumsy as well.

In the hands of Mr. Ludlum, Jason Bourne was superb in every way. His thinking, his combat abilities, his investigative techniques, his journey was full of intrigue. Unfortunately in this rendition in Mr. Lustbader’s hands, Jason Bourne seems way too stupid for his reputation at times and then suddenly develops superhuman powers. The most interesting thing about Jason Bourne is his vulnerability and therefore his survival skills. This aspect is completely missing in the Jason Bourne as depicted by Mr. Lustbader in “The Bourne Deception”.

Some interesting things in the book could be listed as: the reviving of Treadstone by Willard, the ascensions of corrupt, power hungry, anti-bourne folks in the Central Intelligence, the manipulations and exposure of a private wet-jobs firm called Black River. However, this book does initiate a setup to further progression into recovery of Bourne’s lost memory through Tracy Atherton and Holly.

Overall, a very average read meant only for the hardcore Jason Bourne fans to trudge through it.

[Roger Scherping · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so excited to learn that there was a new author to write more Jason Bourne books. Just as the death of Vince Flynn didn't mean the end of Mitch Rapp, I couldn't wait to read more Bourne.

Unfortunately, this is not Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne. This Bourne is weak, confused, love-struck, and indecisive, a shadow of Ludlum's confident, strong and focused Bourne. The new Bourne is as disappointing to a faithful reader of the Trilogy as the selection of Tom Cruise to play Jack Reacher was to one of Lee Child's readers.

Bourne isn't even a significant part of this book! Most of the book is about Russians and art dealers and American and Egyptian intelligence officers. Bourne has only a minor role!

On top of all that, the book is just very poorly written. It is overly violent, overly wordy, and drifts off constantly to characters' dreamy recollections of growing up. It has too many irrelevant characters, too many confusing story lines, and endless stretches of unnecessary descriptions. All of the sections about the Russian mafia added nothing to the book.

I'll stick instead to reading the new Mitch Rapp novels and reread the Bourne Trilogy.

[Neville Vaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anybody reading about a Jason Bourne exploit for the first time may be forgiven for wondering why a character who appears to command only in a minor role in the plot ends up as the book’s title character. Plots & sub-plots abound here around various locations involving a clutch of high ranking officials bent on an agenda that can help them achieve their ambitious goals. A Ms Trevor and a Ms Soraya are conjured up doing their best to dilute the essence that the character Bourne essentially represents to his die-hard fans. Which of them were instrumental in helping prevent a world war from erupting? The gravity that the latter scenario should command in a novel that carries a high-profile fictional character who rivals, and arguably outdoes, Ethan Hunt, for plausibility, was singularly absent here. Or was this ‘decorated spymaster' just being deliberately put to pasture by Eric Van Lustbader (read as a written impersonation of Robert Ludlum), so that a suitable replacement may be fashioned to take over that coveted, by this shadow author? Can’t wait to not know

[Graziano Fruzzetti · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am being very generous giving this book a 1. There so many characters it was necessary to keep a list to keep up with them. To the next prospective reader, please check to see whether you are actually reading a novel by Ludlum or by Eric van Lustbader using Ludlum's trademark. Very unsatisfactory ending, leaving the reader wondering what the hell happened to all the main characters. Did Van Lustbader forget to finish it or did he leave the reader hanging thinking he would want to read the next book in the series? Well, it didn't work for me because I will never pick up another Eric Van Lustbader novel.

[Ginny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Van Lusthader takes this opportunity to give a more of the backstory of Leonoid Arkadin. A couple of installments ago, I thought we were going to see much more of Bourne's son, but instead Arkadin has taken the main role as Bourne's counterpart and enemy. Both men should not be alive, the amount of physical abuse they had taken and still keep going is amazing, not to mention the psychological issues they both have to deal with. Lots of secondary relationships developing here and I was sorry to see one, who I thought was going to be a main player, get killed off. As usual, we are left with a new story line waiting for the next installment.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had some entertaining action and suspense, but overall it was disappointing. Jason Bourne is in a supporting role for most of it. Where he does appear, he is weak and faltering, but even so, he is repeatedly wounded and yet soldiers on, apparently because of supernatural assistance. Really, a strange entry in this famous series. I'd read other Eric Van Lustbader Bourne books, and I felt like he'd done a decent job carrying on Ludlum's character, but this one wasn't even up to those, let alone Ludlum's work.

[Alex Peck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ask yourselves a few questions prior to cracking open this Bourne novel:

1. Do I want to be confused about character motivation?
2. Am I ok with the notion that this 60 (maybe 65?) year old man will be used as a ninja for the entire book?
3. Do I want to ignore the good parts of geopolitics?

Once again, Van Lustbader leaves the good parts of the original Bourne trilogy at the door and continues to throw characters down the drain.

I only wonder why I am still reading these books.

[Monzenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm constantly awed by Lustbader's cinematic writing. Bourne's main nemesis returns, and heck we don't even see his death by the end of this book, so sure let's have him return. I don't mind though: Lustbader has set the nemesis well enough, with the nemesis flashbacks happening concurrent with concurring events (a la Bourne in the earlier books) that I can believe the nemesis will return. No matter, Treadstone has returned, all the major enemies and allies are still alive.

[DL · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lustbader is no Ludlum. While the Legacy and Betrayal books were okay, Deception is a lesson in how NOT to write a book. Too many characters with too many story lines, poor punctuation, too many words no human ever uses except to boast of their vocabulary, all of which result in a terrible read. It makes me wonder whether I even want to continue the series. I seldom quit a book, but I did this one two-thirds of the way through it.

[Freethings Forme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bourne learned some more stuff about his past. Bourne also solved another mystery and stopped the plans of some people that thought they knew what was best for the United States. Of course they were wrong and denounced when caught red handed. Bourne still remains persona non grata even though he has helped national security countless times.
I recommend this book.

[Jonathan Noble · Rating 3 out of 5]

So very many characters and no way to know who might be important later or who is an incidental bit of background. Oh, and Jason Bourne shows up on occasion.

Utterly laughable suggestion of a massive surprise why any dodgy Americans would want to get involved in the Middle East (clue: it isn't the sand)!

[Randa Mcnair · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many people die! It's almost like George Martin wrote this story. As I get further into this series, it's getting harder to keep up with all the characters being introduced as so many are being killed off.

[Rodolfo Baez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel the biggest problem this book has is going way off-course from Jason Bourne. The side stories can be interesting but their main purpose is to make Jason Bourne part of them at the last pages of the book.