The Bourne Sanction by Eric Van Lustbader

Today I finished reading The Bourne Sanction by Eric Van Lustbader.

I read this book because I love the Jason Bourne character created by Robert Ludlum.  Ludlum wrote twenty-six novels and I have thoroughly enjoyed twenty-five of them.   The best of the lot were the Bourne trilogy.

After Ludlum died, his estate began having Eric Van Lustbader write stories using the Jason Bourne character.  This is the third novel in that extension series. 

I love Lustbader.  I discovered him years ago when he was writing ninja stories.  I have read nineteen of the twenty-two novels that he has written.  The others are out of print and I haven't found them or I would have read them too.

The first two Lustbader Bourne novels Legacy and Betrayal were really good.  This one not so much.  This one is dying for some character arc.  Something to change.  Something new to care about.  It's just too much of the same thing happening over and over again.

Then, on the last page some guy named Willard tells Bourne he's the ultimate warrior.  And that doesn't bode well for the future Bourne novels Lustbader has written that I haven't read.  I loved Bourne because I didn't know how good he was.  He seemed like 'everyman'.  Now he's going to be perfectly ultimate.  Borrrrring.

Are You Afraid?

The doctor examining his eyes backed away from the scope she had been looking through and asked, "Are you afraid?"  She was referring to the surgery he was undergoing in five days.


"No, not afraid." he replied.  "But it makes you think about your mortality."


Eleven years before he faced death and the possibility of a shortened lifespan.  He had gotten a fish bowl and filled it with marbles.  He put in a marble for every week he hoped to live.  One thousand and forty marbles.  The plan was to take a marble out of the bowl every week and throw it away.  It would be a reminder that if he got to thow all of the marbles away he had lived the full life he hoped for.


Throwing away marbles each week went the way of other "good" habits like eating smaller portions and drinking eight glasses of water a day.  While he stopped throwing the marbles away, he kept the bowl full of marbles.


He looked at the bowl holding the remaining marbles.  "How many more will I be able to throw away?"

One Shot by Lee Child

Today I finished reading One Shot by Lee Child.

I read this book as a part of my learn to write by reading program.