The Bourne Ultimatum

A Novel

By: Robert Ludlum

Narrated by: Darren McGavin

Length: 3 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Thirteen years have passed since David Webb was last forced to assume the alias of the assassin Jason Bourne. Thirteen blissfully peaceful years: time enough to raise a family with his wife Marie, time enough to begin to put the violence and betrayal of the past behind him. Now with one phone call Webb is thrust back into the madness. His greatest enemy, Carlos, the Jackal, is hunting again - determined to stalk and eliminate the one man whose reputation as an international assassin approaches his own, a determination that promises pain and death for David Webb and those who mean the world to him.

©1990 Robert Ludlum (P)1990 Bantam Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House Inc.

poor sound mixing and reading

The reader may be a famous actor but I thought the reading was not done well, and the music mixing made it hard to understand. Not Ludlum's greatest effort. I have enjoyed other books from Ludlum.

Horrible dramatic reading

The horrible dramatic reading destroys any value that the text itself might have.

Going to go get the Bourne Legacy now!

I'm training for the Komen 3 day walk so that means hours and hours of walking every week. I downloaded the Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum and listened to them both in one weekend. I loved the reader's gritty voice although sometimes it seemed like he was blending the voices and accents of some of the characters. Maybe it is just me, but I find these stories a little hard to follow, not being able to attach faces to characters. But I love them, and this one was especially good because it developed the 2d hand characters very well. I would have liked a little more background and development of Carlos the Jackal, but perhaps that was cut during the abridging process.

This is really bad!

This audio book is incomplete. There are skipped big parts. I just followed narattor with mine paper book, and scream like hell. I want my money back!

Seems it is the narrator who is being chased.

I agree, too abridged. Sometimes it gets too fast. Maybe it was because it is my first audiobook, but I kept track because I tried to picture Matt Damon doing all the movements.

Good book, but poorly read

I think this book had the potential to be very good, but the reader simply moves too quickly to process what he is telling you. His attempts at character voices are also distracting, as are the intermittent musical interludes and other noises that I suppose are intended to add to the book, but instead detract heavily.

NOT RECOMMENDED.

Big Dissappointment

I listened to a couple of the other "Bourne books" and liked them, so I thought I would try this one.
What a dissappointment! I dont know if it was the book or the narrator. But it was extremely hard to follow and boring.
I was very disappointed.

Dreadful

Darren McGavin is difficult to understand at best in this rendition of "The Bourne Ultimatim" which makes for a long and difficult listening experience. His ability to switch voices is limited and thus leads to considerable confusion for the listener. Combine this with a very poor recording and music mixing and it is just not worth the listeners time or investment. The abridgement is extreme and the story line suffered. I was not going to finish but held on hoping it would improve toward the end, it didn't. I will read the book to see just how much I missed.

If this had been done as well as the Bourne Legacy it would have been great.

The Bourne Ultimatum

The audio quality of this book is terrible. The music background totally detracts from the literary work. When I donwloaded it I thought that I had corrupt file. I can;t even address the novel itself because I could listen to it.

Why?

This is a ridiculous story line and the reader emphasized emotion in the places in which it was unnecessary and lacked emotion where it is absolutely necessary. This is a book, not a movie. We don't need to hear the gruff voice muffled by ridiculous suspenseful music to understand the intensity of the plot (or do we??). Perhaps the lack of ability of the writer to portray suspense was supplemented by a fitting voice and soundtrack. I do not recommend this book. A complete waste of time. I am sure Matt Damon will do a better job!