Book Review

Title: The Bourne Sanction

Author: Eric Van Lustbader

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Date Published: July 2008

Number of Pages: 484

ISBN: 978-0-446-53986-9

Reviewed by: Tessa Perkins (Vancouver Correspondent - Canada)

After taking over writing the Bourne series from Robert Ludlum, Eric Van Lustbader has continued the legacy of this enigmatic character and stayed true to Ludlum’s bold, authentic style. This is his third novel of the series, and it seems he has become more and more comfortable with the characters of David Webb and Jason Bourne as he has now had a chance to explore many aspects of the character’s life and see him through difficult missions.

Bourne is a mystery, even to himself, and at the start of this novel we see him returning to his former identity of David Webb and the life he had with Marie before she died tragically. He finds a new mentor in Dominic Spector, a Linguistics professor at Georgetown, who offers his a position to teach there. Always torn between his two identities, Bourne (or Webb) attempts to figure out which one he is meant to be, which one is more his true identity. He thinks he is happy at the university, but realizes that he also misses the adrenaline rush of working in the field and being on a dangerous mission. This book also sees Bourne find love for the first time since Marie. Moira, a mutual friend of his and the deceased Martin Lindros, becomes much more than that and Bourne learns slowly to trust again. 

His return to work as Jason Bourne comes when professor Spector asks him to assist in stopping an unidentified terrorist attack on the United States. It seems that Spector is much more than a peaceful Linguistics professor. He travels to Germany to find the plans for the attack, and stop the Black Legion from killing thousands of innocent people. His mission eventually brings him face to face with Leonid Danilovich Arkadin, a feared assassin and killer of killers who no one has ever been able to beat. The two are mirrors of each other, both exceptional killers, and when in battle they are almost exact equals.

Although Bourne finds love and learns to trust again, he loses yet another mentor. His rival Arkadin also learns to let another person into his life and experiences love for a short time until Devra, like all the other good in his life, is taken from him. There are strong themes throughout the novel of avenging a friends death, revenge for one’s past, and conflicted loyalties, but one theme seems to stand out the most, and it is exemplified most effectively in this quote from the book: “reality can’t be controlled, it’s too random, too chaotic.” Certain characters in the novel attempt to control or alter reality, but in the end it does not work, and they come to their own bitter ends. Bourne’s reality is very chaotic indeed as he cannot even remember most of his past and has trouble deciding which of his two identities he is from one day to the next, but whether he is David Webb or Jason Bourne, he will always prevail in whatever mission he takes on.