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(Hardcover)
Jason Bourne returns to Georgetown University and the mild world of his alter ego, David Webb, hoping for normalcy. But after so many adrenaline-soaked years of risking his life, Bourne finds himself chafing under the quiet life of a linguistics professor.
Aware of his frustrations, his academic mentor, Professor Specter, asks for help investigating the murder of a former student by a previously unknown Muslim extremist sect. The young man died carrying information about the group's terrorist activities, including an immediate plan to attack the United States.
The organization, the Black Legion, and its lethal plot have also popped up on the radar of Central Intelligence, where new director Veronica Hart is struggling to assert her authority. Sensing an opportunity to take control of CI by showing Hart's incompetence, National Security Agency operatives plan to accomplish what CI never could-hunt down and kill Bourne.
In Europe, Bourne's investigation into the Black Legion turns into one of the deadliest and most tangled operations of his double life-the pursuit of the leader of a murderous terrorist group with roots in the darkest days of World War II-all while an assassin as brilliant and damaged as himself is getting closer by the minute . . .
ROBERT LUDLUM was the author of twenty-one novels, each one a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 210 million of his books in print, and they have been translated into thirty-two languages. He is the author of The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Chancellor Manuscript, and the Jason Bourne series--The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum--among others. Mr. Ludlum passed away in March, 2001.
ERIC VAN LUSTBADER is most widely known as the New York Times bestselling author of twenty international bestselling thrillers including The Ninja and Black Heart. He is also the author of two successful and highly regarded series of fantasy novels, The Sunset Warrior Cycle and The Pearl Saga. His novels have been translated into over twenty languages. Lustbader was born and raised in Greenwich Village. He and his wife, Victoria, have been residents of the South Fork of Long Island for more than fifteen years.
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November 09, 2008:
On the whole, "The Bourne Sanction" is a well-paced action-packed thriller. Lustbader doeesn't write like Robert Ludlum, who created the Jason Bourne character, and doesn't intend to, as far as I can make out. Shot through with a hysterical paranoia that triggers the pile-driving action, Ludlum's Bourne novels run rings around Lustbader's. In fact, Lustbader seems to spend more time on describing the villain of the piece Arkadin than on describing Bourne.
In the plot department, again Lustbader can't keep stride with Ludlum, who was forever tossing inconceivable twist on inconceivable twist in his byzantine plots, ramping up the suspense as his books roared to their conclusions. The convoluted plot revolving around a plethora of Russian characters in "The Bourne Sanction" is all but impenetrable. Since I couldn't follow all of it, I wasn't surprised by many of its revelations. Still, there was enough action to keep me turning the pages.
I have reservations about any writer using another writer's character as his hero. It seems like a form of plagiarism, even if the original writer's estate permits it and is compensated for it.
If you skim the frequent flashback longueurs, this is a competent, enjoyable thriller for most of its tomelike length.
--Bryan Cassiday, author of "Fete of Death"
I Also Recommend: Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Betrayal, The Bourne Identity, Fete of Death.
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October 28, 2008: Eric Van Lustbader is not Robert Ludlum, and though he tries to maintain the Ludlum style in the latest Bourne thriller, it doesn't quite match up. It is a good book with a typically complicated Bourne plot, but it starts slow and takes quite some time to grab your attention. And while it finally takes off and develops into a solid story, the resolution is rather abrupt. While I did enjoy it, and would recommend it to any fan of the Bourne series, I think Van Lustbader can do better.