Many people have seen the Jason Bourne movies starring Matt Damon that have dominated Hollywood yet have overlooked the books that have inspired the movies. That’s right, we will be reviewing the first book The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum.
A shooting scene on a boat is how the book opens up. A man is shot and falls into the water and the boat explodes. When the man regains consciousness, he has no memory of who he is. But there are clues that can lead him to answers that he desperately craves.
Jason Bourne tries to reach out to the people that he believes are supposed to help him. However, things take a turn when Bourne is pursued by assassins and organizations he knows nothing about. Bourne must use the skills he has to survive and get to the mastermind of the plot before they get him.
The ideas Ludlum plays with in the novel are what makes the Bourne books fun. Amnesia sucks and yet Ludlum turned it into a bestseller. The idea to use amnesia like Ludlum does came from a real-life experience. After having temporary amnesia, Ludlum used that and his love for spy novels and turned in into this book.
The spy novels Ludlum wrote won the hearts of millions. Now, the Bourne novels are on the top of the spy novel lists and I can see why. The sporadic action and how swiftly Ludlum writes it make it a wonderful adventure.
If you are a fan of spy novels or great writing, then you should read this book. The great thing about trilogies is that you can read one book and find out that there are more books about the same world. Or you can read the first book and decide that this trilogy isn’t for you. I will be reading the rest of the book and may cover the series because we normally write about fantasy novels and not spy novels.