The Hades Factor: A Covert-One Novel

I found this book excellent. The story and the narrative entralled me. I absolutely loved it. After the begining, I thought that the story would end on a depressing note, but it did not. In fact, it made me eager to hear the next book by this author. And I absolutely loved the narrator, something I've never before felt. His voice was mesmorizing.

I love Ludlum, and this does NOT flow like this late great author. It's ponderous, patronizing, and pathetic! Obviously Gayle Lynds does not have what it takes to pull this off. The plot is obvious and aggravating. There's nothing like listening to highly trained spies whine! Please, do yourself a favor and listen to earlier Ludlum and stay away from this bomb.

This is my first encounter with Ludlum. The story was exciting but the whole thing seemed to just go on and on. By the end of the novel, I thought I began to catch where each of the authors ended and the other started. There's a lot of description that struck me as being overblown.

The reading was well-done for the most part. The brit started to sound a lot like Cary Grant as it went along, though.

All in all I found the book OK but I'm not jumping into the rest of the series. I may try another Ludlum to see if this excess wordiness is unique to working with a co-author.

I think this novel must have been written by Gayle Lynds from an outline by Ludlum and then published to take advantage of Ludlum's huge fan base. Shame on you publisher!!

It is vaguely entertaining and the reader is good, but NOTHING like you'd expect from a real Ludlum novel. The facts are jumbled, the descriptions BLAND and often annoying, huge mistakes are frequent (i.e. according to this author they speak arabic in Iraq- as far as I know, and the CIA worldbook confirms this, they speak Persian or Turkish and only 1% speak arabic). This is just an example of the myriad distracting discrepancies. Moreover, where Ludlums "voice" is discerning and his characters express fairly complicated international opinions, Lynds is pretty jingoistic and simplistic.

The hardest thing for me though, as a Ludlum fan, are Lynds poor descriptions, the 2-D characters, the tendency to tell rather than "show" the action. If you're looking for lyrical prose, tight plotting, smart descriptions and truly memorable characters Ludlum's other novels are worth a purchase. Definitely try the Janson Directive read by Paul Michael. As far as the Hades Factor, I wish the publisher would let Ludlum rest in peace or find co-authors who are up to his level of storytelling. Sigh.

The prologue grabs your curiosity immediately and chapter one starts the action. You know it is fiction because some of the things Dr. Smith and his team get into and out of are just a little over the edge. But not so much that you want to turn it off.
I found myself sitting in my car unable to leave without putting on my headset so that I could continue listening on my walk from the parking lot to the office. Jason bourne was my first Ludlum character, but Dr. Smith and his team are fabulous. There is a lot of detail and description and the narrator's cammand of voices and accents makes it very interesting. I was so relieved to find two more from this series in the Audible library. As soon as I finished The Hades factor I went right on line to look for more in this series.

in any way shape or form
a shameless attempt at exploiting Ludlum's name on the heels of the Bourne Identity success at the box office..
Save your credits and pen a protest to the publisher.
bad book to besmirch the name of a master.
shameful

i loved this book! it's been a long time since i've read this author, so i decided to listen to one of his books. ludlum is a genious! if you like his style, you'll love this book. it's got a very unique plot and the reader is exceptional.

I listened to this on a friends recommendation, after reading the Ambler Alert.....this "book" is hard to put down once you get started! I've stayed up many a night trying to find a good stopping point so I can resume next day- that was difficult! Looking forward to listening to the rest in the series. Great "read"!

A typical Ludlum potboiler - always a good read/listen, and the narrator does it justice, with an excellent ear for accents and tones. As usual with this type of book, startling flaws are scattered about – as an example, a high-level autopsy fails to identify the fact that the victim was coshed just before death. Notwithstanding, the rollicking pace makes this a good one to listen to while cruising through the traffic.

The frequent preposterous plot devices left me saying, "Oh, come on!" However, the book is very well narrated; Paul Michael's accents and character voices are very enjoyable.