Sunday, July 3, 2011

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Dominion-Eric Van Lustbader

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne DominionEric Van Lustbader
Grand Central, Jul 19 2011, $27/99
ISBN: 9780446564441

In Russia, Viktor Cherkesov informs General Boris Karpov he is the country’s chief of FSB-2 secret police if he completes the loyalty test; his assignment is to kill his long time friend and field operative ally Jason Bourne. He begins the hunt at the same time that Bourne seeks out his Russian comrade to help him with a threat to the world equilibrium involving rare earth metals used in modern technology including weapon systems.

Whereas the Chinese has been way ahead of the rest of the globe in procuring the rare earth metals, the Severus Domna anti-American organization, has deployed plans to obtain the rest, which will cause a Greater Depression than that of the Bush era. Bourne knows the only way to prevent the destruction of the American economy and subsequently that of the world is teaming up with the Russian bear who has recently tried to kill him in Columbia.

Eric Van Lustbader's latest Bourne entry is his best to date (see The Bourne Deception and The Bourne Objective)as he captures the essence of the amnesiac especially in the cold environs that he works in where values like loyalty are sold on a sort of commodity exchange. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Karpov tortures and kills several FSB-2 operatives and never slows down as the reader wonders whether Karpov will assist or assassinate his former ally.

Harriet Klausner

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