Jason Bourne

You wake up, and find that you are in a doctor’s house. You don’t remember your name or anything related to your past. The doctor tells you that you were found floating in the sea by fishermen. Four bullets were removed from your body, and one of them slightly grazed through your brain, due to which, your memory is lost.

The doctor has made some interesting observations on you. He tells you that your body is well developed for a normal human being, which implies that you were in the armed forces or were a labourer. Your face has undergone surgery, and eyes shows signs of regular usage of contact lens, which means that you were not a labourer. So who are you?

You have excellent knowledge of firearms, and you can speak a number of languages. A few of them eastern.

The doctor slowly nurses you back to health, but still you do not have any clue about who you are or where you are supposed to be. That’s when the doctor adds another clue to the puzzle. He tells you that there was a microfilm surgically implanted on your back, which contained the address of a bank and also a bank account number. So now you have a destination.

On one of the many missions made by the doctor to heal you, he sends you with a set of fishermen to familiarize with people. On the boat, you are bullied by a few of them and later attacked by them. You skillfully defeat all four of them, seriously injuring them. You have an excellent command over fighting and protecting oneself.

Having fully healed, you leave for the address found on the microchip, and land up at a port near the city. Before leaving, the doctor tells you that you will start recollecting things of the past as and when you see, hear or smell something familiar. The doctor also tells you that you need not worry about your well being, since you will find your way out of trouble.

On reaching the destination, you find that there are people in the city who recognize you. There are people who are afraid of you, and you also get to know that you are related to violence. You reach the bank, open the account and find a lot of cash, passports and a gun in the locker.

The news of your appearance in the bank has reached many ears and now there are people out there in the city to kill you. There are numerous attempts on your life, some from the authorities and some from the members of a gangster.

Who are you? How did you land up in the ocean with bullets in your body? How did you have so much cash, passports and guns stored in the locker of a bank? Why are so many attempts made on your life? How come you are able to survive each and every attempt skillfully?

This is the brief outline of the story of my favourite novel – The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum. Its an extremely quick-paced action story, which I found impossible to put down.

The novel and the character was such a bit hit that, this book was followed by 3 sequels. Two by the same author and the third by Eric Van Lustbader.

Those who have not read any of the four, you can stop reading here. I would recommend this book to anyone, and I would ask people to read it in sequence. Read The Bourne Identity first, followed by The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum and finally The Bourne Legacy.

The Bourne Identity deals with the introduction of the character Jason Bourne. Towards the end of the novel, we get to know that his original name is David Webb, who was settled in Cambodia. A freak accident involving a fighter plane, kills his family. He goes mad with fury, and in his rage, joins an elite and clandestine commando outfit known as “Medusa”.

He is ruthless, and highly successful in carrying out combat and reconnaissance missions. During the war, one of his fellow soldiers, by the name Jason Bourne, betrays the position of the unit. Webb executes him immediately, and completes the mission successfully.

After Medusa, Webb is called once again called to the service. This time, to tackle a feared criminal Carlos. Webb renames himself Jason Bourne, after the person who betrayed him last, and positions himself as criminal for hire. He is positioned as a direct competitor to Carols, which was a well devised plan to lure Carols out and kill him.

His plans go haywire when Carlos gets to know his plans and Webb is shot, as he attempts to kill Carlos aboard a ship, and he falls into the sea.

Upon returning from the doctor, the authorities feel that he has turned rouge, and they set out to kill him. Carol’s men, who realized that they could not get their man in their first attempt, go in for the kill. Webb is helped by a woman, Marie St.Jacques, who he had kidnapped to escape from one of the many attempts on his life. He later rescues her from getting raped.

The woman decides to help him on his mission to trace the truth and together they convince the authorities that he has lost his memory. The there is a final showdown between Webb and Carlos.

The novel ends, with Carlos managing to flee from the clutches of Webb, and Webb slowly regaining his memory.

The sequel to The Bourne Identity appeared six years later. Titled The Bourne Supremacy, the novel is based on the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong.

In the beginning of the story, we get to know that Marie and Webb are married. Webb works as professor of Oriental Studies and their identities and location are protected by the US Government.

The US intelligence gets the news that a Chinese minister is plotting against all other nations with respect to the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong. The minister is using the name of Jason Bourne to instill fear on his opponents.

The US Government decides to get to the bottom of this, but they need the assistance of the real Jason Bourne. Webb is undergoing treatment to get back to his old self and forget the destructive alter ego. So get Webb out of his present penance, the US government kidnaps Marie and lures Webb out to China, where he gets to the bottom of the matter. He kills the Bourne imposter as well as the Chinese minister.

There is no mention of the character Carlos in this novel. So it was evident that a third book was on the way.

The third book, The Bourne Supremacy was out in 4 years time. This book showcases the final showdown between Carlos and Webb.

Two of Webb’s friends who know all his secrets have had an attempt on their life. Webb has a hunch that it is the work of Carols, who is ageing and is dying for the result of their enmity.

The book showcases several attempts by the ultimate killing machines, which ends with our hero Webb killing Carlos. In this process he also unearths a plot by a few companies to take over the world economy.

With the eternal enmity settled between the two enemies, I was not expecting a fourth novel to be introduced. I was surprised when a fourth novel was written by Eric Van Lustbader, in 2004. This goes to show the popularity of the character Bourne.

The book titled The Bourne Legacy, starts with an attempt on Webb’s life as he was continuing as a professor of Oriental Studies in a college. When he tries to contacts his two friends, he learns that they have been murdered and he is the prime suspect.

The person who attempted to kill him as skilled as Bourne and both of them have several showdown before learning that there is a bigger bond uniting them.

Bourne must keep himself alive and also find out who is behind the killing of his friends, as well as try to unravel the identity of the person stalking him.

People who have not read the novel, can stop here. I will be discussing the novel in detail below.

The story starts in Chechnya, where the leader of their upraise against the Russians is killed by a person who operates in the same style as Jason Bourne. His name is Khan. Khan’s next target is Jason Bourne.

Bourne escapes the first attempt and runs to his friends, Alex and Mo, only to find them murdered. The US officials are provided with enough proof by the enemy that Bourne is the murderer and they order a sanction against him.

Khan stalks Bourne, matching Bourne in every field and tries in vain to kill him.

As the story unfold, we learn that all this is a plan by one person, to use the Chechen rebels to spread terror in the world, by attacking the world anti-terrorist summit, which is to be attended by the US president, Russian President and the leaders of various Arab nations.

Khan is unable to kill Bourne, even thought he has a number of chances to kill him. This is because Khan knows that he is Bourne’s son – Joshua, from his first marriage. Bourne believed that his entire family had been killed by the stray fighter plane in Cambodia. It seems that Joshua’s body was not found, and the authorities had dropped search after an hour. Joshua had survived the harsh Cambodian jungles and developed skills equivalent to Bourne.

After they accept each other, they go in search for the villain, who has used both of them as pawns to distract world attention on them, while he plots to kill the world leaders.

Finally all’s well, that end’s well. The villain is killed and Joshua returns to Cambodia, since he cannot stay with Bourne, due to his violent past.

If a fifth book appears on Bourne, I’d be one of the first ones to get my hands on a copy of it.