Lustbader continues to aid in the destruction of the Bourne series with another installment of drivel and helps to further alienate what Ludlum set down as his legacy. I remain baffled how Ludlum’s estate could permit these novels to keep churning out with the great author of espionage’s name affixed to the title. This book pushes things further and further away from the Jason Bourne we’ve come to love. Bourne walks around without mention of his family, without ties to anyone in his past. Even his slaughtered family in Asia is long forgotten. Lustbader tries to forge a new Bourne, a James Bond-like character (who also holds the British spy’s DNA for never aging and always fighting, well into his 70s), with no past and superhuman strength and romantic endurance. I am having a hard time remembering the great Bourne from books 1-3 (and even Lustbader’s first kick at the can, book 4) and am left with this new character that seems to have no connection to his traditional roots.

Call me old fashioned if you like, but I do expect that an author who picks things up after the death of the original to do so with the building blocks laid out ahead of time. While the struggle within CI and other groups has been an interesting sub-plot, I find that some of these adventures spit in the eye of the original intent of Ludlum. If you see some of my earlier reviews, you will see some of the great mentions of pre-Internet espionage and how the book, though somewhat dense, focuses on our main character and his mission, one that is highly interesting and worth reading. Now it is a shallow adventure, filled with sex and fighting. Alas, Lustbader has created a Matt Damon ‘Bourne’ that lives on the silver screen.

These books keep falling and my interest descends with it. Thank God there is an end in sight, one more book, and I will be pleasantly euthanized from this substandard work!