The Bourne Legacy by Eric Van Lustbader

The Bourne Legacy By Eric Van Lustbader, based on character created by Robert Ludlum

Synopsis

Once, Jason Bourne was notorious in the cladestine world of cover-ops as one of the CIA's most expert international killers for hire. Out of the ashes of his violent past he's emerged today as a Georgetown professor, living a quiet life, retired from danger - until he narrowly escapes the bullet of a faceless assasin. And when two of Bourne's closest associates are murdered, Bourne knows that his legacy has followed him - and set him up as the prime suspect for the brutal crimes.

The quicksand of lies and betrayals is deeper than Bourne ever imagined. Hunted by CIA as a dangerous rogue agent, he has only one option to stay alive - and one last chance to stay ahead of an unseen assailant whose vengeance is personal. Pursued across the globe, Bourne's on the run, and on the edge of disovering the truth - that he's become the expendable pawn in an international terrorist plot. One that's taking every living witness with it and plunging Bourne deeper into the world-shattering consequences of...

I say...

Open your dictionary and map please, otherwise you would find words and/or places that you have never heard before :-) Second to that...like my suggestion on previous Bourne's series, jot down the names and position...it will help you in better understanding the story (unless you have a photographic memory he he he).

My bad...but since I didn't read the series properly, now I had a confusion (all Bourne' info and problems were jumbled mumbled in my little head). Apparently, there was a crazy killer named Jason Bourne who was killed by David Webb long time ago @Cambodia. And on his secret-ops, David Webb, after losing his family, used this Jason Bourne's identity as a cover up. However, the Bourne's personal was too much ingrained into not only David Webb's responsive body but into the mind as well. At the end, it looked like David was having a split personalities.

And troubles came at David one after another...made him barely escaped in a long shot, either his death designed by the hired assasin or the cops (CIA, Interpol, you name it). Continuously, David stumbled into critical situation which only due to his capability and pure luck, he was managed to get by it. Not to mention that the hired assasin to kill David turned out to be Bourne's abandoned child @Cambodia (thought he was killed but he was survived the war). What a mess

Again, Eric proved his mastery skill here, when I always find surprising turn of events. I don't really know who is who, friends or foes. Eric played with the plot expertly, that made it hard to guess what would happen next. It's about trust, betrayal, about the ugliness of life and the beauty in the ugliness itself.

The Bourne Dominion by Eric Van Lustbader

The Bourne Dominion by Eric Van Lustbader
Based on Robert Ludlum's character

Synopsis
Jason Bourne is searching for an elusive cadre of terrorists planning to destroy America's most strategic natural resources - and needs the help of his longtime friend, General Boris Karpov. Karpov, the newly appointed head of Russia's most feared spy agency, FSB-2, is one of the most determined, honorable, and justice-hungry men that Bourne knows. But Karpov has made a deal with the devil. In order to remain the head of FSB-2, he must hunt down and kill Bourne.

Now, these two trusted ƒяιєη∂ are on a deadly collision course. From the Columbian highlands to Munich, Cadiz, and Damascus, the clock is counting down to a disaster that will cripple America's economic and military future. Only Bourne and Karpov have a chance to avert the catastrophe - but if they destroy each other first, that chance will be gone forever.

I say...
I Ŀ♡√Ɛ Bourne, either by Robert or Eric, cos they don't play with words. They hit us directly with fast pace action right from the first few pages. And afterward, you would not want to put down the book. The pace was so fast that if you blink...you will miss several things 【ツ】ƗƗє²² ƗƗє²² ƗƗє²²【ツ】

But I hates the names ugghhh...I've never been good with names and faces ‎​(>_<、) pheω...‎​(・ω・`メ)(-ω-｀メ) and the book has a long list of it. I hated the way Eric mixed the dream with reality without clear border too.
The plot is so twisting, you would hardly guess what will happen next...who is the bad guy...who is not. Friend becomes foe and vice versa, which Bourne worked hand in hand with his old-time-enemy.

The least that I expected was the death of Amun, he was the perfect partner for Soraya...too bad. But Aaron was nice too 【ツ】ƗƗє²² ƗƗє²² ƗƗє²²【ツ】 Ok, basically too many good people died in this book. Is it the last sequel of Jason, for the author to 'kill' lots of important figures in this Jason Bourne series. Eric played with the plots so beautifully that you wouldn't notice that the bright ones had changed its side.

It was the great ending of the book when all curtains were lifted, all disguises were uncovered. But even then, it wasn't mean that all truth were being unfold.

See ya on another Bourne series (I'm reading The Bourne Legacy right now which is totaly different with the movie)

The Bourne Legacy

Last night, I have my monthly-movie-date with my dear husband, watching The Bourne Legacy that I had been anxious to watch for over a month. It was release almost a month ago, however it was only put up for play since last week, and only @IMAX phewww. However, I’m glad to catch it last night (yes, it has been playing at cinemas since last Wednesday).

I took this pic from www.21cineplex.com   :-)

Anyway, I was quite confused during the first 30mins of the movie. Mind you, I didn’t read the synopsis of the movie beforehand…my bad. Beside, I haven’t read the book as well (yes, there is a book by Eric Van Lustbander, which was quite hard to find here) and the movie trailer that I watched few months ago doesn’t give much clue anyway so I thought, it was another sequel of Jason Bourne movie, with different actor. I thought this Jeremy Renner was replacing Matt Damon as Jason Bourne LOL. I kept thinking that Jeremy Renner wasn’t suitable to play as Jason he he he. So don’t mix this movie with the previous trilogy of Bourne movies since this one has little connection with the trilogy. They only display few footage taken from the ending part of The Bourne Ultimatum movie.

My husband was confused too…I could see that he was so restless during the first hour of the movie (well, either that or maybe because of the mosquitoes…geez I felt it too but lucky…no bite at all   *grinning*). Anyway, he was not Bourne’ fan like me…so it was a good chance that he didn’t understand at all…what was going on, on the movie. I don’t blame him though, since the first hour of the movie was moving so fast from one scene in Alaska to another in America then moved to some scene in London…and even Korea. Not to mention the switching between the present scenes with some memories (yes…I hate those as well).

However, I should give thumb up for Jeremy Renner (remember the agent in MI: The Ghost Protocol and Hawkeye from The Avengers) as Aaron Cross. He was Kenneth James, an army soldier who was pronounced death in Iraqi war. Aaron Cross was an agent in Outcome program, which emphasis on improvement of mental and physical abilities through medication (pills). Apparently, since the Bourne case with Threadstone, American’ gov created other similar programs as well, such as Blackbriar (2^nd generation of Threadstone), Outcome, LARK 3 (which emphasis on creating a killing machine, an agent who cast his/her empathy), and others which were not mentioned on the movie.

Due to public disclosure of the highly confidential information of Threadstone and Blackbriar, Outcome program was terminated. All of the agents were terminated as well (read: killed), including the scientist team who had been working on the research and pill for Outcome. Aaron, as the sole survival agent who managed to slip out of death, was helping Dr Shearing (also the sole survival from the scientist team) from being killed. And in return, Aaron asked Dr Shearing to help him terminating his dependency on the pills. This led them to Manila, where the virus (pills' factory) was made. Of course, the American’ gov wouldn’t wait…the chase continued to Manila, by sending one of Bangkok’s LARK agent and the movie get more interesting from here on.

The second last hour was packed with action…love it. I love the bike chasing in the congested alleys of Manila (ehm sure looks like my neighborhood LOL). I love how Dr Shearing trying hard to stay alive and to help Aaron get rid of the LARK agent (mind you...she does have a loud voice he he he). And who would expect that the outstanding agent was killed, simply by a haste kick of a girl he he he. At the end, you could find Aaron and Dr Shearing in the middle of the sea…definitely somewhere on the globe.

The Bourne Deception by Eric Van Lustbader

The Bourne Deception by Eric Van Lustbader (based on character created by Robert Ludlum)

Synopsis
After Jason Bourne is ambushed and nearly killed during a retreat on the island of Bali, he fakes his own death and takes on a new identity and mission - to find his assassin.

Across the globe, an American passenger airliner is shot down over Egypt by an Iranian missile, leaving the world to wonder if it was an accident or an act of aggression. As global outrage builds over the event, a joint-international tean led by Soraya Moore, a director at Central Intelligence, is assembled to investigate the attack before the situation can escalate into more violence. When Bourne's hunt for revenge intersects with Soraya's search for the perpetrators of the airplane disaster, Bourne is thrust into a race to prevent a new world war. But it may already be too late...


I say...
This is the first work that I read of Eric. Beside this, i think he wrote another 3 books under Bourne's series, however I'm not aware of the sequence. (imho) Eric can be considered successfully continuing the story of Bourne with the 'almost similar' plot and style of Robert Ludlum. 


The main idea about Iranian, oil and terrorist is a bit difficult for me to understand, since I'm not into current political issues round the world. However, I did enjoy the action. The plot moves so fast that sometime I had to re-read certain part to get a good grab of it (especially the fighting part). It would be great if this book can be made into a movie since it got so many actions that I wanted to see (reading it only gives you hints of the real action). I can imagine Matt Damon is shooting while running or giving his apologetic smile to some lady (like all those Bourne's movies).

I don't understand how Bourne (even after killing some thug...bleeding and all) could get the best help from an unknown lady...Bourne sure was lucky. Are all lady out there not afraid of blood and cleverly know what needed and what to do to fix an open scar? I envy those ladies...what school that they went anyway? Would like to enroll my girls "̮ wk°wk (′▽`) wk°wk "̮

I like how the author entwined the romance (not the steamy one but something more sweet) into the story, with the right timing and proportion as well. However, there were so many names there that I had to make a list of it (saved me since I didn't need to go back to search who was who). Anyway, I Ŀ♡√Ɛ the setting...Eric clearly spent quite sometime at Bali. The way he wrote, reminded me of years that I spent there too. I miss Bali *promising myself to search for a LCC*


At the end...Not all bad guys were down...not all good guys were safe and sound (yeah...i know...it's cliche). Bourne's forgotten identity remained as a mystery (surely another reason for Eric to write the sequel and another reason for me to patiently wait for the book). Overall, the story was interesting, since you would never guessed it. I would give 4 out of 5 for this and am looking forward for another work of Eric.