The One with The Bourne Ultimatum

189. Title & Author: The Bourne Ultimatum by Robert Ludlum (662 pages)

Genre: Fiction—Thriller

Completed: 14 July 2011

Summary & Review:

After more than a decade of calm, Jason Bourne’s arch enemy, the assassin known as Carlos the Jackal, announces his return by targeting two of Bourne’s closest friends. With a wife and two small children to protect, Bourne realizes the only way his family will ever have peace and safety is if he kills the Jackal. His hunt takes him through the Caribbean then on to Paris and finally to Moscow. Not only does he finally face the Jackal, he also uncovers a secret cabal within the United States government known as Medusa.

I didn’t think this novel, the third in the Bourne Trilogy, was nearly as strong as The Bourne Identity (Review #9). Where Identity was focused, Ultimatum was jumbled. There was quite a bit of the story devoted to this Medusa cadre but nothing ever came of it; there was no resolution to satisfy the reader. Actually, that entire storyline was wholly unnecessary. The book would have been greatly strengthened if Ludlum had devoted all of the pages to the final saga of Bourne vs. The Jackal.

Also, the 662 page length was a little long, especially because Bourne had the Jackal in his sights only to lose him a dozen times which served not to heighten the tension, but to annoy the reader. When Bourne finally (finally!) gets the Jackal, my response was more one of thinking, “It’s about time!,” than any sort of excitement about the outcome. But, Ludlum is a different class of thriller writer than many out there today, so my complaints about Ludlum need to be taken with a grain of salt. He is still, even on his off novel, much better than average.

Rating: 7.0