The Bourne Identity (Bourne Trilogy, Book 1)

Awesome indeed; I love the first of the trilogy; the others were too stretchyyy.....if u know what I mean!

I love the Bourne movies and had never read the books, so I bought this one when I got tired of waiting for the new Bourne film to come out. It's really gripping and smart, and even though it's not "literature," it's written in a sort of standard educated English that is a pleasure to re-encounter. I didn't love the Washington scenes, but watching Bourne make his way through minefield after minefield, using instinct and knowledge he doesn't know why he possesses, was nothing short of thrilling. Another bonus is that the love interest is a highly intelligent woman, a top economist whose extremely fine mind, trained in putting together complex, disparate pieces of information, helps him survive almost as much as anything he knows or can do. I have some quibbles -- why, for instance, does the all-seeing, all-knowing killer never go after this woman, who at different points in the book is basically a sitting duck -- but Ludlum's sense of pacing is stellar and the complexities of the story so intelligent and absorbing that I was able to get past my complaints. I will probably read the next two -- not sure about all the new, post-Ludlum titles, though.

Beyond page 2 or so, this is NOTHING like the movie. I enjoyed the movie series a lot, but the books have so many more layers of complexity that I can't imagine going back to the movies now. A wild and fun read. For kicks, you might want to start a drinking game revolving around how many people die...or wait until book 2 when it gets even crazier.

The movie was great. The book was great. Sadly, the movie only shared the title and main character with the book. I would love to compare the movie with the book, but that just can't be done. They're distinctly unique stories. Much is made of Bourne's past, who he is, why he came to be, what he wants, etc. If you saw the movies first, read the books now. You will get some questions answered.

Great book. I read this after watching the movie (which I loved when I first saw it), bu this book is so much better. I highly recommend it.

This was a great read. I love Ludlum. If I remember correctly, this was the first book of his that I read. Great trilogy.

Action packed page turner.

Not for amatuers. Robert Ludlum was a human thesaurus. I had to read this with a dictionary handy. I found the Marie character to be just a token. Thank you screenwriters for killing her quickly in the movie series. If she would have been based more on Ludlums version, I don't know if the movie's would be as good as they were.

As other reviews, it's not the movie. If it weren't for the movie I would've put it down. I didn't like it as much. But I'll read the next one too. I don't know why.

So much better than the movie. And the movie was awesome. Really, the book and movie are so different that you'll forget that it was a movie.