All in all, these are many hours I regret to never get back. I really don't get all of the high praise this story has gotten and I am very impressed with the movies' script writers, that they were able to write those stories based on such a bland original. I'm already yawning again just writing this review. The main plot line revolves around a fashion house being the front of a terrorist organisation, so Bourne has to do some shopping and find out who are the actual terrorist liaisons by scaring some fashion store employees. The rest of the book is way too long: it has people talking-talking-talking in very uninteresting meetings, there aren't a lot of action scenes, many (many!) phrases are repeated over and over and over (C is for Charlie.) and the love story isn't romantic at all but more of an absurdly ridiculous case of Stockholm syndrome.

Only the introductory chapter has merit and promises everything the movie delivered. This was a very tedious listen and an extremely boring story. So I skipped to the end and listened to the epilogue just to finally know what actually happened, and then was done with it. In the end, I couldn't even bring myself to finish it even though there were 'only' about 4-5 hours left. But then I found myself taking longer and longer breaks in between listens, with a growing resistance to the idea of picking it up again.

It took me a while to realize it was in fact worse, far worse, than the movie - mostly because I automatically pictured Matt Damon, the movie score and its fast pacing while listening to this book, which for a while hid its actual lack of all of those things. I really love all of the Bourne movies so I thought I'd treat myself to the original, assuming that the book, as is usually the case, 'would be better'. ĭisappointingly boring, movie far superior And why on earth did the reader feel the need to do this? I'll be watching out for books read by Scott Brick in future - to make sure I avoid them. I just couldn't stand any more! I'll never listen to The Bourne Identity now, sadly - what a total waste of an excellent book. I was driving the car down a country lane while I listened to the start of the book and I had to pull off the road after about 20 minutes and stop the performance. Every noun and every verb was declaimed in a tone of almost complete hysteria. What a disappointment!!! The reader, Scott Brick, who is billed as an outstanding performer, gave an over-the-top histrionic performance which completely ruined this talking book for me! 'And he LOOKED over the BOAT'S RAILING and he SAW. It's a little old-fashioned nowadays, I guess, but I was really excited when I saw it was available from Audible and bought it straightaway. It's a great thriller - full of excitement, well-paced and well-constructed. I've read The Bourne Identity many times. Histrionic performance ruined this book for me!

Robert ludlum the bourne series