The Bourne Deception By Eric Van Lustbader Smoothie Review
Okay, the reason why I am reading this book is not as random as usual. Yes. I did get it used from a odd source, but my reasoning for grabbing it went well beyond “Hey, why not?” The book is The Bourne Deception, a Bourne novel written by Eric Van Lustbader who bought the rights to the series shortly after Robert Ludlum died. (RIP Mr. Ludlum. I adored your work.) And I read his first Bourne novel (where he continued off of the original series) a while back called the Bourne Legacy. I had low expectations at first with this, “How dare they!” attitude of taking the work of my favorite espionage writer, taking it as his own, and was pleasantly surprised by how much I love it. So I decided to try another.
So to start off with, before I go into detail about the review, I want to get something clear. Lustbader Bourne is not the Ludlum Bourne. Ludlum Bourne was serious, was written with deep knowledge of the CIA woven in, and was set in the sixties and seventies. The last one he wrote, the Bourne Ultimatum was in the seventies focusing on how Bourne is getting too old to do thins anymore. The Lustbader Bourne is magically young again set in modern day as well as the fact the characters from Ludlum’s books with the exception of his wife and kids are dead. It’s more fun dumb action scenes in exotic locations. They are nothing like the earlier novels so you can’t expect the same thing from the two.
So as I started reading I realized that there apparently a book of two between the last one I read and this one. (a very annoying thing I hate about book series. I try to read stand along more often a than not because of this.) Jason Bourne is on the tropical island Bali with his new girlfriend Moira. His wife Maurie is not mentioned other than the fact he mourns her, so I could only assume she is dead and there’s no mention of his children at all. And while there Arkadan, Bourne’s arch enemy from Treadstone (Introduced in the previous books I assume), sends a man to kill him. Bourne’s shot right in the chest and among the chaos it assumed (except for Moira who knows the truth) that Bourne is dead. But of course Bourne is not dead. A doctor and old friend from Treadstone got him in a hospital where he went through multiple surgeries to get the bullet out of his chest that graze his heart.
Meanwhile Moria goes back home. She hears from a friend that there is something she needs to know only to see him shot but not before getting a thumb drive from him. From there on out, she is on mission to find out what is happening as men from Noah Pearl’s government agency Black try to kill her every step of the way. Meanwhile Soraya another government figure heads to Egypt with a team, to arrive at a suspected terrorist attack on a plane. But as she investigates, she find that it might not be Iranians as they first thought, but Americans behind it falling into a web of conspiracy. Arkaden meanwhile is viciously training a army for a secret mission with the help of some their crooked Russians allies. And for the first half of the book Bourne is in Bali recovering on a spiritual journey annoyingly pondering questions about his identity (which were all answered in the Ludlum novels) until someone sends a man to kill him again making him seek revenge finally to track down his killer. All of this does oddly tie up into one web of conspiracy thankfully.
So the good and bad. First, I think I will start with the bad. It is sticking in my mind so much better than the good right now. The first thing I must mention is that this is a Bourne novel with very little Bourne at all. It is much more about Soraya and Moira. Bourne’s spiritual journey and reacting to the fact that his fate is the same as that of Shiva, the god of death and resurrection, did not fit. And once the ball gets rolled on the action, Bourne is in only two fight scenes. Also I wonder if Lustabador read Ludlum’s books at all, because if he did, he would realize that all of Bourne’s questions of identity were answered. Believe it or not he did get his memory back in Supremacy. So playing the confused tortured soul in book seven or in this case four of Lustabador series seemed silly to me. The pacing was disjointed making it boring and there was huge problem with this book, was the lack of realism. I know I’m not expecting this author to live up to Ludlum but there’s a difference between dumb fun and insulting stupidity. For being a spy as clever as Bourne, he makes some of the dumbest decisions and the people around him were just as stupid. Not to mention some of the things done in this book was absolutely ridiculous. Like there is scene where Moira’s locked in a closet. They tape it off leaving a crack. Then crank the vacuum to suck the air out. But excuse me, what kind of house vacuum does that? Even if it was a secret government weapon of some sort, it would have to have a fitting that is air tight in relation to the opening. Highly unlikely . And the key hole anyone? And then as the book builds up the tension in this scene. Guess what? There’s air vent like in every room in a house has. So there is name chance of suffocation. Just one example of a stupid area showing this author’s mistakes, not just with the spy themes, but just physics to general. Also the climax is disappointing.
So now I’m moving onto the good. Even after I just butchered the book, you’re probably asking what could be good? Well there are a couple redeeming qualities and that comes in from of a couple side stories later in the book. The first is Arkadan tries to help a abused wife and child after he fails to stop the killing of her son. Though it has nothing to do with the main story, its nice to see another side of the bad guy. I always love it when the author is bold enough to blur the lines between good and evil. It Reminds us all, that not all bad guys are pure evil and are human in some sense. It was interesting. Another side story is a girl Bourne meets. She’s delivering a painting, and is oddly suspicious, is lying to Bourne, just as Bourne is lying to her.
……………………………..Spoiler alert……………………..
It turn out she is a spy as well, living a double life just as Bourne is never being herself. She double crosses Bourne leading to her death. As she dies she talks to Bourne. “Why is it people feel they have to lie with each other?” she begins the scene with. It is such a moving sub story. At her death, I thought I might have been reading a different book. It was done so well another compared to the rest, which only frustrates me. Why couldn’t this be the central story of the novel? A story where Bourne ran into a femme fatale double agent maybe. It just had so much more substance. Collectively this is above thirty pages out of six hundred though.
……………………………..End of spoiler…………………………………
The only other interesting element is Bourne trying to limit what he can do. But this is not used to potential it had. It is only mentioned off and on here and there.
Overall, the book biggest crime is, as it tries to be smart, the dumber it becomes. Simple fun like his first novel the worked perfectly, but the entire book here was ultimately horrible and the exception of the two tiny subplots. I have another Lustabader Bourne novel somewhere and now I’m afraid to read it. That’s how bad it was. And if for some crazy reason, you have it laying around, I say rip out those tiny substories and read those only. Other than that I recommend you to avoid this novel. I read reviews of this on Goodreads after finishing and a reader said, “Ludlum would be rolling over in his grave if he knew what became of his work,” and sadly I must agree.
Overall Rating: A Disappointing and brainless Bourne Novel.
1 Smoothie out of four.
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