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    The Bourne Identity (Jason Bourne Book #1)
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    The Bourne Identity (Jason Bourne Book #1)
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    The Bourne Identity (Jason Bourne Book #1)
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    The Bourne Identity (Jason Bourne Book #1)

    Written by Robert Ludlum

    Narrated by Darren McGavin

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Jason Bourne.

    He has no past. And he may have no future. His memory is blank. He only knows that he was flushed out of the Mediterranean Sea, his body riddled with bullets.

    There are a few clues. A frame of microfilm surgically implanted beneath the flesh of his hip. Evidence that plastic surgery has altered his face. Strange things that he says in his delirium -- maybe code words. Initial: "J.B." And a number on the film negative that leads to a Swiss bank account, a fortune of four million dollars, and, at last, a name: Jason Bourne.

    But now he is marked for death, caught in a maddening puzzle, racing for survival through the deep layers of his buried past into a bizarre world of murderous conspirators -- led by Carlos, the world's most dangerous assassin. And no one can help Jason Bourne but the woman who once wanted to escape him.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 5, 2000
    ISBN9780553751390
    Unavailable
    The Bourne Identity (Jason Bourne Book #1)
    Author

    Robert Ludlum

    Robert Ludlum (1927-2001) was the author of 25 thriller novels, including The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum--the books on which the international hit movies were based--and The Sigma Protocol. He was also the creator of the Covert-One series. Born in New York City, Ludlum received a B.A. from Wesleyan University, and before becoming an author, he was a United States Marine, a theater actor and producer.

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    Reviews for The Bourne Identity (Jason Bourne Book #1)

    4/5

    2,565 ratings71 reviews

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    • 4/5
      One of Ludlum's top three or four.
    • 5/5
      I first read this in college and was blown away by how good it was! I plan to re-read it and finish the series now that I feel I could handle the intelligently written book even better!
    • 4/5
      5562. The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum (read 1 Jun 2018) This spy novel was published in 1980 but I have not rad anything by Ludlum till now. The story is action-filled and one never wonders when something will hppen--things are happening all the time. The central character, called Jason Bourne, has lost his memory but remembers all his fantastic skills and quickly encounters a wonan and in a couple of days falls in love with her and they promptly commence living together as Jason seeks to determine if he was a good guy or a murderer. He extracts money from a Swiss bank and goes to Paris and determines that Carlos is a deadly enemy. Jason seldom does anything unsuccessfully, and I figured he was indestructible. But at the end of this book both he and Carlos are alive--obviously setting the stage for a sequel It it exciting but I get the idea and will not expend more reading time on Ludlum, excitingly as he writes..
    • 5/5
      I find the idea of the scenario to the Bourne Identity books and movies intriguing. The idea of a person who has been cut off from their past, what would any of us do then? It strips a person down to their core, their soul. To act and react based on no past or even current external forces is something we all wish for from time to time. But humans are meant to be connected to each other, and the agony of that loss of connectedness is what drives our connection with Jason Bourne. The old movie is like a cops and robbers film. The new movies draw on this idea but still keep Bourne rather aloof from the audience. I listened to the audio book of The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum and am so impressed. Ludlum's genius is in using that loss of connectedness and twisting Bourne's perceived situation to pull the reader in, to make us connect with Bourne even more than any of the other protagonists. Then when you find out Webb, the brother, is killed. The wife and two kids, were killed. His handler he doesn't remember existed, was killed. To see the chasm of un-connectedness that he doesn't even know of deepen and widen is what draws in the reader, fascinates the reader, and ironically connects the reader to Bourne.
    • 3/5
      Certainly a bit dated now, since it's set in the 70's, but it is as good as the movies in its own way.
    • 2/5
      Found it hard to read! I also dislike books where lovers talk to each other with phrases like "my darling" and "my love, my only love". People just do not talk like that!
    • 5/5
      I've watched the movie half a dozen times and read the book twice. As an action thriller author, I have always loved what Ludlum did with Jason Bourne.
    • 5/5
      Robert Ludlum's "The Bourne Identity" is not only a breath-taking thriller, it is a novel which explores the deepest recesses of the human mind. Found off the Mediterranean coast, Jason Bourne's bullet-ridden body hides secrets to a world that has slipped away from him by amnesia. His features have been softened by facial surgery making him the perfect chameleon. Embedded in his right hip is film with a code to an a $5 million account at the GemeinschaftBank in Zurich. His features have been surgically softened features make him the perfect chameleon. The words, "Alpha, Bravo, Cain, Delta...Cain is for Charlie and Delta is for Cain" replays in his mind triggering searing memories of parachuting in the jungles of Cambodia. A mysteriously unlisted company called Treadstone Seventy out of New York wants him dead. In a race against time he searches for his identity and an world-reknown assassin named Carlos. With no superfluous words, this novel is an instruction manual for would-be writers on how to form a tight script where each word leads the reader into a spiral of recognition of the human spirit.
    • 4/5
      I read this long ago when I was in my Ludlum phase and it was first published. The movie made me think, "It wasn't like that..." but only after seeing the latest ("Jason Bourne") did I dig out this and reread it. Still engaging and fun.

      Best line: a psychologist says "I have too much respect for the human mind to deal you chicken soup psychology."

      Spot on and predated that fluff by 13 or so years.
    • 3/5
      well it was an ok book and i did like it but to be fair i think my watching the movie tainted me since the 2 were so completly differnt; not even sure how the movie was able to keep the name :)
    • 4/5
      Good characters; gripping story.
    • 5/5
      The films are great but the books are excellent! Ludlum was heavily influenced by Lustbader, hence the invitation from Ludlum's estate for Lustbader to continue the Bourne series. The series will only get better!
    • 3/5
      It's differrent from the movie. I like the movie more than the book.Some dialogue in this book make me confuse
    • 4/5
      very good story line but a bit too abridged. Overall a good series so far.
    • 5/5
      excellent narrator surprised he only did four books I would say better than the other one
      Scott Brick I think it is after looking it up
    • 5/5
      Totally different from the movies. And the book is always better
    • 2/5
      Not book 1! This edition is elsewhere entitled "The Robert Ludlum Value Collection" and contains heavily abridged versions of books 1-3. "How abridged?" you may ask. The full audio version narrated by Scott Brick clocks in just over 22 hours while book 1 in this edition is over in just over 2 hours!! Darren McGavin has a great voice but one cannot expect much when the editors only gave him 9% of the original material. Another novelty that may be off-putting is the incessant sound effect/sound track. I would ONLY recommend this edition to those already familiar with the books who only need a 9% reminder to recall the other 91%.
    • 4/5
      Firstly, let me just say, this book and the film of the same name have pretty much nothing to do with each other. Other than sharing a name, they don't have much in common!

      To be honest, this doesn't matter in the slightest, because even though I'd seen the film first and was basically expecting an amplified version of the film, this book absolutely stands alone with the story it tells.

      I found it to be excellently-written, brilliantly paced and genuinely exciting.

      Definitely recommended!
    • 3/5
      This book was okay. There were parts that were full of excitement, drama, and action that were totally enjoyable to read. Then you get to the parts where...I guess you would call it background information. It was scenes that explained the motivations of the different factions that were after Bourne. I found these chapters and sections to be extremely boring. It didn't help that Ludlum uses names like the Russians do. You would have one man that would be referred to in four different ways and I often found myself trying to figure out who everybody was and what part they were playing in the drama.

      If I were to rate it, I'd give it a three out of five because it wasn't horrible by any means but it also hasn't earned a "favorite" spot on my book shelf.
    • 2/5
      Got through a few chapters. There way too many books in the world to slug through this tripe, I mean trope. Boring, poorly written and characters that would go up in smoke at a spark struck in a different hemisphere. Maybe the movies ruined it. Wait, no, this book was just lame.
    • 5/5
      I came to this book after having seen the film and I enjoyed both though I have to say I enjoyed the book slightly more than the film. In modernizing the time of the story for the film, new technologies come into play making Bourne's flight through Europe almost impossible because he can be tracked via cell phone signals, satellite imagery, email and the internet. In the book's diegesis, the year is 1980 (there abouts) and there are none of these modern devices, allowing Bourne and his female companion more time to plan and to act. I also prefer Maria in the book because she actually has useful skills. In the film she is just there as a convenient ride away from the initial confrontation and later hangs onto Bourne out of Stockholm syndrome. It was refreshing to see her have useful skills and a more robust personality than she does in the film.
    • 3/5
      Holy mother of Twitch. This book, took me WAYYYYYYYYYYYY too long to read. Based on the fact that it was recommended to me in a "You'll read this in two days" kind of way, it took me over a MONTH. Which says a LOT, when it is the only book I'm working on.

      It's not that its a bad book, it's not. (Although I absolutely detested when he would write stuff in German or French...and gave no context clues for me to figure out what it meant--that was annoying.) While I was reading, I liked what I was reading. But I never wanted to drop everything and read.

      A MONTH!! One book!

      ahh!
    • 4/5
      It started off a little slow, and at times was a little too violent for my taste, but it picked up and I really enjoyed it. It's an intelligent, suspenful novel. I was a little surprised (in a good way) how completely different it was from the movie - at least from what I remember (it has been a long time).
    • 4/5
      *Spoiler Alert*

      The book totally indulges you in the top-notch spy/action thriller experience.

      It was unbelievably fascinating, the language was decent enough - not extremely polished and neither sickeningly bland. The dialogues were very effective and lurid, I was always awed by the infamous subconscious incantation from the book - "Cain is for Charlie and Delta is for Cain".

      The writing style was fast paced with reasonably meaningful and promising sentences/dialogues. The vivid imageries spawning out of the lines, with the ever-gripping plot and thrilling chapters, forced me to think from the character's point of view and live his life - in this case, Jason Bourne, the insomniac assassin who is mortally injured, mysteriously wakes up one ominous stormy night in a boat amidst the ocean!

      A brilliant story is incredibly compelling - a derailed protagonist, battles to find out his identity whilst desperately running from hitmen who want him dead for reasons unknown, implicates a stranger in his dangerous errands, only to unravel the deepest mysteries ever woven. This plot-line maybe formula oriented - character in trouble, character is to be praised for his perseverance, and in the end the character redeems by facing his nemesis; but the story definitely was unique and thank god not banal in any point.

      The author deftly describes the way the main character discovers little by little about his mysterious past; he uses flashbacks, short-lived action sequences and much more. The book being full of excellent fight sequences and ploys to deceive one's prey, allows Bourne to "realize" that he has impressive combat skills and acute sense for survival at every stage and hurdle. Moreoever, his muscle-memory and instincts always save him from any traps, all the more startling him about his background.

      Nearly everything about the story was perfect (except for Bourne's love-interest in my opinion). The plot was extremely interesting and the powerful, enigmatic characters kept playing in my mind thereby gradually building an atmosphere of intense suspense for which I just could't wait to flip the pages. As said before, reading this book felt like I was completely living in the author's imagination, racing from one city to another to plan my next move, uncovering the mysteries of my skills just to stay alive!
    • 2/5
      This book - this whole series, in fact - is one of the very few instances where I can say the movie is better (by far) than the books. There is almost nothing in common with the movies, rarely even settings or plot. This isn't that uncommon these days, but be forewarned. My wife had them laying around and I was in a spy mode for a while, gobbling up some of the spy books we've collected. It's odd that Matt Damon can portray a cold killer better than a writer, but I found the books' Jason Bourne to be overwrought and melodramatic. On the positive side, the advice on a bloody nose that Bourne's psychologist friend received from the trucker outside Virginia (?) somewhere is 100% spot on!! I can't remember which book it's in; probably the second one.
    • 5/5
      Absolute top spy novel. later made in to a film that starts to follow the book, but soon drifts away to a cheap Hollywood story.
      Ludlums plot is very good and as far as I found, everything falls consequently into the right place.
    • 3/5
      Gah. So many mixed feelings. Basically, if I'd hit CTRL-H and inserted Natasha Romanov/Natalia Romanova for every mention of Jason Bourne (and various epithets), I might have loved this. It would have changed all the horrible gender dynamics and created a fabulous statement about men in power hanging women out to dry.

      Marie's Stockholm Syndrome is so distasteful. As are every one of the many instances where crimes against women are dismissed, tolerated, or gotten away with (either by word or action).

      OTOH, it's a really well-drawn web of conspiracies, and I enjoyed Marie very much in the few scenes where she got to be a badass in her profession instead of relegated to love interest/sanity-check.

      Four stars for plot. One star for gender, glbt, and race politics. Three stars for very good use of setting. And zero stars for leaving me feeling dirty for having enjoyed parts of this in spite of hating other parts. How's that for ambivalence? :/

      Disability tag for a variety of characters with various ailments, missing limbs, PTSD, etc., and not all of them evil and/or dead. Actually, of all things in this book, I think I was happiest with the portrayal of people with disabilities as people who had survived some horrible shit, full stop. Whatever their moral compass, they all had their humanity.
    • 4/5
      Never seen the movie; figured I'd read the book instead. Never read anything by Ludlum at all, and since he's sold umpteen billion copies and spawned a posthumous industry, I thought I should see what it's all about.
      I was pleasantly surprised - I enjoyed the book very much. It's a thriller that keeps you guessing, with lots of twists and turns. I appreciated (especially after reading the execrable 'The Eight') that the female lead was an intelligent woman who actually seemed to KNOW about the field that we are told she is an expert in (economics, in this case.)
      Yes, there are a lot of Very Unlikely occurrences in this book, and elements that might not stand up to too much detailed analysis. The writing also had a tendency to get a bit much (too many exclamation points!!!) But as a fun, entertaining thriller, it worked very well.

      I may buy the sequel, next time I run across a copy in a bargain bin.
    • 5/5
      This was a great book. I saw the movie years ago so when I got my hands on this book I knew I had to read it...as so many of us say..."the book was sooo much better than the movie!" I was hooked from the beginning and had a hard time putting it down. I have access to the rest of the series and will have to start on them right away!
    • 5/5
      How can you not love these Robert Ludlum spy thrillers? (Can anyone explain the conch shell with the spike through it on my particular cover????? These things always mystify me...sort of make me feel stupid!) This one was very enjoyable.....lots of action, lots of surprises, and lots of characters that had to be kept track of ..along with their multiple names.....but the energy is great, and thus my reading pace picked up dramatically, and it was all easier to keep track of. And it keeps you thinking.....lots of strategy to try to figure out. It did not end the way i would have wished, somewhat inconclusive, but then again, that allows for the next 2 books in this series! Eagerly looking forward. If you like this genre, you'll like this very much!!!