Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Retribution

By: Eric Van Lustbader

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Jason Bourne has been pursued by powerful governments - and escaped, hunted by the most skilled assassins in the world - and outsmarted them, and targeted by terrorists - and defeated their plans for global chaos, but now, Bourne wants only one thing: Retribution.

Bourne's friend Eli Yadin, head of Mossad, learns that Ouyang Jidan, a senior member of China's Politburo, and a major Mexican drug lord may have been trafficking in something far more deadly than drugs. Yadin needs Bourne to investigate. Bourne agrees, but only because he has a personal agenda: Ouyang Jidan is the man who ordered Rebeka - one of the only people Bourne has ever truly cared about - murdered. Bourne is determined to avenge her death, but in the process he becomes enmeshed in a monstrous world-wide scheme involving the Chinese, Mexicans, and Russians.

Bourne's increasingly desperate search for Ouyang takes him from Tel Aviv to Shanghai, Mexico City, and, ultimately, a village on China's coast where a clever trap has been laid for him. Bourne finds himself pursued on all sides and unsure whom he can trust. As he moves closer to Ouyang, closer to avenging the woman he loved, he also moves ever closer to his own death...

©2013 Eric Van Lustbader (P)2013 Hachette Audio

Great story, terrible choice for a narrator.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Have always loved Ludlum novels, especially the Bourne series. However, a great story was ruined by changing to a new narrator that, frankly, sounds like a young college kid. Had to bail out on the audio book and read it myself.

Eric is not Robert Ludlum and never will be.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone who enjoys sexual descriptions.

What could Eric Van Lustbader have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Leave out all of the XXX rated material.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The voices for the different Chinese characters all sounded alike.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No, but then I only read the first couple of chapters.

Any additional comments?

I have enjoy many of Robert Lundlum's previous books.

Just a fan from the first book

It’s just an overall great series. But you need to start from the beginning. That will help things make since in my opinion.

Unlistenable for these old ears

I did persevere - while not my favorite Von Lustbader story, the story is OK. However, the narrator's attempts to portray gender and accent, in addition to being distractingly cartoonish, had me chasing volume up and down as I attempted to mitigate the diminishing volume and sound quality as the narrator attempted his unnecessary portrayal of gender and ethnicity.

Yes, I was using my best hearing aid and all of the sound conditioning my Galaxy could muster - unnecessarily unlistenable.

Poor plot

Plot was poor and disjointed. Seemed like a struggle to connect the different characters. The Chinese politicians, Mexican drug cartels and Bourne had a really weak connection. Each scene was also too short always getting caught abruptly. Perhaps the objective was to increase the suspense. All it caused was make it more disjointed. Poor story and plot overall.

Great book in the series

This had a great storyline and was very well read. Nicely done all the way around!

The worst Bourne story

So disconnected, the plot line is an abomination to the legacy of Bourne novels.
Disappointing at best.

Very entertaining! A good storyline & performance

I enjoyed a good tale with many twists and turns of a good Jason Bourne yarn.

Narrator has 2 accents: Marlon Brando & American

What did you like best about Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Retribution? What did you like least?

The story seems pretty good. There is action and some suspense. There are some odd plot choices such as when the protagonist claims being low profile is paramount, and immediately thereafter intentionally initiates a massive city wide car chase in a stolen car leaving many causalities in his wake. Not sure how that is low profile.

As others have mentioned, the narration is terrible. The narrator has two accents at his disposal American and Marlon Brando's godfather. All non-Americans sound like the GodFather (including the women). It so bad that it can be difficult to understand which character is speaking since they all sound like an out-of-breath Godfather.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narration is great so long as you like the idea of all the non-English speaking characters sounding like Marlon Brando's Godfather. This includes women. Its hard not cringe when you hear a female character speaking with what sounds like Marlon Brando doing a Chinese accent. Other than that the narration is spot-on.

Finally Bourne with a good storyline.

Except for a bit of confusion with Chinese names this is a much better novel than the last two. I waited to read this one pursuant to the last two disappointments . I'm looking forward to the next Bourne installment. This plot was typically Lustbader. He simplifies the plot, twists turns chases and hand to hand combat we expect. Mixing Israel, China, Mexico and Russia was quite the refreshing quartet to balance. Without giving the plot away this is the best Bourne since "Legacy". I'm cautiously excited the next book coming out on June 10th.

The narrator hit all the accents but crashed and burned on Bourne. He made him sound plain and uninteresting. He has to work to make Bourne tougher!