Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Retribution (Jason Bourne Book 11)

First of all, I have to say that I have read and enjoyed all of Robert Ludlum's books, often more than once. Of them all, The Bourne Identity has to be (in my opinion) one of the best books ever written. Because I like his books so much, when the "started but only partially written, so finished off by carefully selected co-authors" books started to appear after Robert Ludlum's death, I pounced on them, expecting and hoping for more excellent entertainment.The first two or three were OK - not just the continuing Bourne series, but also the Covert One series. You could still see the influence of the late master in the plots and storylines.But that has to be where the compliments stop, especially for Mr Van Lustbader. He has taken what was a good story that maybe had a little bit more mileage left in it, and completely and utterly destroyed it. The basic premise for Jason Bourne's existence has been at best ignored, and at worst completely re-written (and not in a good way); the characters that Robert Ludlum created are dispensed with, often with no hint of a reference to them; new characters are arbitrarily made up to fit passages of the books, then just as arbitrarily removed; the plots are so insanely convoluted as to be completely unbelievable, never mind virtually incomprehensible; the timelines and references to the original "Bourne Identity" make no sense; and in a seemingly desperate attempt to "keep the action moving", Van Lustbader's Jason Bourne finds himself in an almost perpetual cycle of increasingly perilous situations, each one resulting in the most unlikely of near death experiences followed by a miraculous escape.This presumably is mostly driven by a desire to keep the titles coming for future Jason Bourne movies (don't get me started on how bad I think they are), and if I had never read any of Robert Ludlum's work prior to these, maybe I would enjoy them and the films as a bit of escapist nonsense, but I didn't, so the recommendation has to be this - read "The Bourne Identity". If you enjoy that, then read the next two in the series, you know, the ones actually written by Robert Ludlum, and then stop, because if you don't then, like me, you'll just keep buying the next one in the hope that Eric Van Lustbader learns how to write a coherent, compelling and enjoyable novel, and really, he doesn't.

Another tale of using Bourne unwittingly, well written, following on well in the series, but maybe I'm just getting too old for this, so should Jason Bourne, he was older than I was when the series started so brilliantly by Robert Ludlum.It was good for someone to continue the series, but now I'm getting bored, but it still deserves the 4 stars for being well written and in keeping with the characters, although without wishing to spoil anyone"s read, the resurrection at the end of a previous character is a bit hard to swallow.Maybe time for Jason Bourne to retire?

Fast paced, every page a winner. couldn't put it down.

good book enjoyable reading but you need to read the other books first

Seems like the last books set the scene for this book. Full of action and didn’t want to put the book away for a single minute. You really need to read previous book before.

As usual the Bourne books are a compelling read with fast moving story lines as the seemingly immortal Jason Bourne continues to surpass everyone. While I have read them all and enjoy I still feel slightly annoyed by the fact that he never ages despite getting quite old in the original books. Still I suppose the publisher had seen a good thing and kept churning them out

Good read

Great read

The book followed the great reputation of all of the Bourne series. it is a book that is hard to put down and keeps you tied in right to the very last chapter. I would highly recommend this book.

The author weaves a tale of intrigue that kept me up at night reading. It is a interesting read and worth following along if you are a Bourne fan.

Fat moving book with three stories occurring at the same time at different parts of the World( Israel, China and Mexico) not too believable and it is amazing that Bourne is able to recover from so much abuse to his body. Recommended for Bourne lovers.

I enjoy the Bourne series books

perfect