The Bourne Ultimatum -- Robert Ludlum

The finale of the Jason Bourne trilogy was just as good as the first two. I was satisfied with they way he chose to end the series, especially the plot of this one. After the second book, even though I knew there was a third, I could not imagine what would get Jason back in to action. Obviously, Carlos would need to have something to do with this, but I just did not foresee how he chose to do this.

Once again this novel required a lot of disbelief suspension, but it wouldn't really be a good action story if it was any other way. At times I felt like he made certain characters take actions that I just did not think they would have given what I have learned about these characters from the previous two books. For example, Marie does some really stupid things in this book, I was surprised Jason didn't just tie her to a chair and leave her. Additionally, I thought the very end was almost too corny. I mean, let's have every sit down and have a summing up conversation about life that basically saves the author time by making everything very brief and explicit. I am not really complaining, it just felt very rushed. So be it.

I highly recommend this book, but I even more so recommend starting with the first and just powering through these. It was very entertaining and I am sad they are finished. I suppose I can watch the movies now even though they have very little to do with the books.

The Bourne Supremacy -- Robert Ludlum

The second book in this series kept up the excitement right where the first one let off. I enjoyed the setting of the first book, primarily France, because I am somewhat familiar with this area. However, the setting of the second book, primarily China during the 1980s, was quite interesting. Not being an expert on the region, it was a welcome change of scenery and language. The customs were different and the whole scope of the novel was much different. Jason knows a lot about who he is and is now using this knowledge, whereas in the first book it was more of a personal scavenger hunt.

The action was very well paced and again it was a very quick and easy read. I had trouble putting it down at times when I had to get back to other work. The character development seemed better and the action sequences were described in a manner that allowed them to be visualized more easily. I often felt as if I was watching a movie while reading because the descriptions are quite good.

Negative aspects of this book were few but they were still there. I am not sure actually if it is a negative or just my fault. Having read the first one so close to the second, it felt so often that he was repeating himself or dwelling on explanations of past events that I already knew about from just reading the first book. I suppose this cannot be avoided in a sequel, but it was still rather annoying at times. Other than this, we had to once again suspend disbelief to the brink at points, but it was done in a way that didn't really hurt the overall story. All in all, I definitely recommend this novel, after reading the first of course. I read on Amazon that a lot of people thought this was the better of the first two, I would say that I agree for the most part. But they are somewhat hard to compare in my mind so I leave it to you.

The Bourne Identity -- Robert Ludlum

I finally read this book. I had been meaning to after seeing the first movie years ago. I still never managed to see the second or third movies. Not because I did not like the first, but rather I just never seemed to get around to it. I thought this was somewhat of a good thing, because then when I read the three books I would not have known the entire story yet. After reading this book though, I do not think it would have been a problem. This book is so much different from the movie that I remember that I believe the second two movies are probably also very loosely based. I thoroughly enjoyed this book however. The fact that Carlos was actually in this book, albeit that most of the character in the book was false, it still lent a bit of realism to the story.

It has been a very long time since I read what I would actually call a page-turner. I could not put this thing down. Near the end of every chapter there is some new twist that nearly forces me to read on and find out what happens next. I have been reading mostly biographies lately and, before that, nothing I would call action for quite some time. Hence, this book may seem much better to me because I am not engrossed in this genre. But, it was very well executed. Obviously there were times were some disbelief needed to be suspended. Further, I did not fully buy certain characters motivations and feelings throughout. But, I don't always understand why people do certain things in real life either. Thus, with limited skepticism, I believe this is one of the better action-packed novels I have ever read. I fully recommend this book to anyone. It is a very quick read. I am certainly looking forward to the next two.