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annathepiperUp until this week the only things I'd ever read by Robert Ludlum were the first two Jason Bourne books, The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy, primarily on the recommendation of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mamishka. I remember thinking at the time that Ludlum had an annoying way of using way too many exclamation marks and way too much italics in his prose, but he was certainly capable of putting together a decently intriguing plot. Certainly not a stellar writer, but solid enough if what you're looking for is a diverting thriller.
I was in the mood, so I picked up The Ambler Warning. I started the book off thinking, "I liked this story better when it was called The Bourne Identity"--'cause certainly, the overall idea of "agent who's had his past wiped out is out to try to figure out what the hell happened to him and who's trying to kill him and oh yeah he has to stop the big evil mastermind while he's at it" was the same overall idea in the older book. However, as I got further into it I decided that reaction was unjust. There's that superficial similarity, yes, but the world Ambler's operating in is certainly a different one than Bourne's. It's over twenty years later, and modern politics certainly do give a different flavor in general to what's going on.
Plus, whatever ghost writer is working under the name of Robert Ludlum these days actually has a bit cleaner prose than the actual Ludlum. Way fewer exclamation marks, and I didn't spot any italics at all. ;) This prose is not without its flaws--more than once you get smacked upside the head with huge infodumps, and the main interesting line of action keeps getting interrupted with short side scenes involving the minor characters. But to the ghost writer's credit, I'll also note that I eventually found myself quite drawn into the plot and anxious to find out how it was going to resolve, so well done there!
And! I never ever noticed the Bourne books sending me to the dictionary, but this book did it three times with factotum, seriatim, and velleity. Half of me appreciated the use of words I didn't recognize, though it didn't quite work for me completely--I mean, let's face it, who actually uses words like factotum and seriatim and velleity in actual everyday usage? Still, though, given a choice between an overly pretentious vocabulary and badly spelled and badly edited crap, I'll take the pretentious vocabulary any day of the week. ;)
Here are some random reactions to events in the book, in no particular order.
I kept giggling that the hero's name was Harrison Ambler. Ambler seemed an awfully laid-back sort of name for the hero of a thriller novel, the sort of guy you expect to generally be running like hell and shooting things, not ambling around. Also, of course, the only prior mental connection I have for "Harrison" is Mr. Ford. My brain kept trying to imagine Ambler as played by him, even though the description of him wasn't quite a proper match.
I was slightly put out that we didn't get to see Ambler meet his love interest on camera--we're told about the meeting between him and Laurel in the hospital where he's being hold, not shown it. That vaguely irritated my writer brain, and vaguely disappointed me as a reader since I pegged her for the love interest pretty much out of the gate, and felt cheated that I didn't actually get to see the initial reactions between her and Ambler. Also, though, I must say that while I often found her relationship with Ambler a little too easy, a little too facile, it of course turns out that there's a reason for that--she's the assassin he has to stop. Which I have to admit I totally didn't expect and probably should have. Hee. Part of me kind of liked that she turned out to be the assassin, and part of me went "sniff" since it meant he'd gone and fallen in love with this chick and wound up having to take her down.
It rather amused me that the big conspiracy of this plot involved certain fanatical factions who were dead set on preventing China from becoming a more sociable and more democratic nation, on the theory that if this happened, China would become the preeminent superpower of the 21st century--so of course the bad guys have to arrange to assassinate the Chinese president. I was all, "yep, that's batshit", and waiting to see exactly how this was going to all play out.
I liked the CIA analyst who turned out to be Ambler's other main sidekick, even though the theme of his cold hard facts clashing with Ambler's instincts and intuition got hammered on a little too hard in the prose. Still, they actually managed to achieve a decent camaraderie, and I buy that Ambler winds up hanging out with the guy's family when he's recovering in the epilogue--which helps take the sting out of the poor guy having to take down the girl he'd fallen for.
All in all, a solid and entertaining read. I'd give it four stars, but the shaky bits in the writing make me pull it down to three and a half.
mamishka. I remember thinking at the time that Ludlum had an annoying way of using way too many exclamation marks and way too much italics in his prose, but he was certainly capable of putting together a decently intriguing plot. Certainly not a stellar writer, but solid enough if what you're looking for is a diverting thriller.I was in the mood, so I picked up The Ambler Warning. I started the book off thinking, "I liked this story better when it was called The Bourne Identity"--'cause certainly, the overall idea of "agent who's had his past wiped out is out to try to figure out what the hell happened to him and who's trying to kill him and oh yeah he has to stop the big evil mastermind while he's at it" was the same overall idea in the older book. However, as I got further into it I decided that reaction was unjust. There's that superficial similarity, yes, but the world Ambler's operating in is certainly a different one than Bourne's. It's over twenty years later, and modern politics certainly do give a different flavor in general to what's going on.
Plus, whatever ghost writer is working under the name of Robert Ludlum these days actually has a bit cleaner prose than the actual Ludlum. Way fewer exclamation marks, and I didn't spot any italics at all. ;) This prose is not without its flaws--more than once you get smacked upside the head with huge infodumps, and the main interesting line of action keeps getting interrupted with short side scenes involving the minor characters. But to the ghost writer's credit, I'll also note that I eventually found myself quite drawn into the plot and anxious to find out how it was going to resolve, so well done there!
And! I never ever noticed the Bourne books sending me to the dictionary, but this book did it three times with factotum, seriatim, and velleity. Half of me appreciated the use of words I didn't recognize, though it didn't quite work for me completely--I mean, let's face it, who actually uses words like factotum and seriatim and velleity in actual everyday usage? Still, though, given a choice between an overly pretentious vocabulary and badly spelled and badly edited crap, I'll take the pretentious vocabulary any day of the week. ;)
Here are some random reactions to events in the book, in no particular order.
I kept giggling that the hero's name was Harrison Ambler. Ambler seemed an awfully laid-back sort of name for the hero of a thriller novel, the sort of guy you expect to generally be running like hell and shooting things, not ambling around. Also, of course, the only prior mental connection I have for "Harrison" is Mr. Ford. My brain kept trying to imagine Ambler as played by him, even though the description of him wasn't quite a proper match.
I was slightly put out that we didn't get to see Ambler meet his love interest on camera--we're told about the meeting between him and Laurel in the hospital where he's being hold, not shown it. That vaguely irritated my writer brain, and vaguely disappointed me as a reader since I pegged her for the love interest pretty much out of the gate, and felt cheated that I didn't actually get to see the initial reactions between her and Ambler. Also, though, I must say that while I often found her relationship with Ambler a little too easy, a little too facile, it of course turns out that there's a reason for that--she's the assassin he has to stop. Which I have to admit I totally didn't expect and probably should have. Hee. Part of me kind of liked that she turned out to be the assassin, and part of me went "sniff" since it meant he'd gone and fallen in love with this chick and wound up having to take her down.
It rather amused me that the big conspiracy of this plot involved certain fanatical factions who were dead set on preventing China from becoming a more sociable and more democratic nation, on the theory that if this happened, China would become the preeminent superpower of the 21st century--so of course the bad guys have to arrange to assassinate the Chinese president. I was all, "yep, that's batshit", and waiting to see exactly how this was going to all play out.
I liked the CIA analyst who turned out to be Ambler's other main sidekick, even though the theme of his cold hard facts clashing with Ambler's instincts and intuition got hammered on a little too hard in the prose. Still, they actually managed to achieve a decent camaraderie, and I buy that Ambler winds up hanging out with the guy's family when he's recovering in the epilogue--which helps take the sting out of the poor guy having to take down the girl he'd fallen for.
All in all, a solid and entertaining read. I'd give it four stars, but the shaky bits in the writing make me pull it down to three and a half.