At school

Breaking into the computer school lab... Feels good!

The Bourne Objective

Uh I was sorta disappointed with Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne trilogy(Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum) simply because their time settings were out of date and it had a plot so different from the films. So I checked out the later books written by Eric Van Lustbader.

Like the critics say, Lustbader re-tuned the books to a timeline similar to the films and to please fans of the movie franchise who were displeased with Ludlum's books.

The Bourne Objective marks Lustbader's fifth Jason Bourne novel and signs show he's not slowing down any time soon.

The plot picks up from The Bourne Deception which I wasn't able to buy in which Jason Bourne continues his struggle with fellow Treadstone agent Leonid Arkadin who was mentioned in The Bourne Supremacy and appeared in The Bourne Supremacy film version as Kirill, the dude who kills Jason's girlfriend.

It turns out CIA wants to resurrect Treadstone and pitches their two agents Arkadin and Bourne against each other to see whose training program is more effective. It turned out Alexander Conklin, the Treadstone mastermind dissolved the original program after Arkadin went insane and subjected a more delicate module on David Webb who later became Jason Bourne.

Yet the story unfolds into more than a CIA plot and brings in Russsian mobsters on the hunt for Arkadin, CIA sending spies after Arkadin, Arabic clandestine movements and a terrorist organization known as Severus Domma who are hot on the trail of Solomon's gold.

Hold it! This is a book about Jason Bourne, not National Treasure or some adventure crap. Still this book will satisfy fans of The Bourne franchise. It has alll those awesome action, car chases, footchases and gunfights loyal to the films and of course Robert Ludlum's novels. Lustbader is also able to replicate Ludlum's brilliant ability to catch the reader when they least expect, resulting another subplot or gunfight etc. So this novel will also please hardcore thriller fans. But this trick backfires in this specific novel, it keeps us reading only to be disappointed at the very end. So it was no surprise I finished it in 5 days despite being considerably longer than regular novels.

Sadly, aside from Leonid Arkadin, his dead girlfriends and references to Alexander Conklin's involvement with the Arabs and Arkadin there is little character development for Bourne which is why they should've finished the story instead of continue milking the cow. Jason Bourne's character arc has gone full circle in The Bourne Ultimatum although Lustbader managed to pull it off in his first three novels Legacy, Betrayal and Sanction.

Although it's not a bad book, I hope it'll be the last we see of Jason Bourne because the character is in a decline.

Books, books and more books...

In chronological order,Hannibal is the last piece of the puzzle of everyone's favorite genius cannibalistic serial killer Dr Hannibal Lecter.

Stephen King rated it as the best in the series however I still consider Red Dragon to be far more superior although this one is still much better than Hannibal Rising which makes it a damn good novel.

In this piece, we get a piece of Dr Lecter's genius-nes. His intellect and knowledge of history enables him to secure a job as a museum curator after he killed and ate the original curator. What a genius, one of the youngest men ever admitted to medical school, his analysis on serial murder is among the pinnacles of criminal psychology, vast knowledge of wine, good cook, and very cunning at freeing himself from traps, running from authorities and concealing his identity. I wish I was like that.

It does live up to it's name to be part of a critically acclaimed thriller. Spawning Oscar winning movies etc. Like it's predecessors, Hannibal gets you in your seat. Obviously Harris has talent at scaring his readers.

Recommended...


I'm not a fan of British literature so Empire Sun gets the honour as the first British novel I've read.

Unlike the American literature of Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, Thomas Harris or Mario Puzo. British novelist have the tendency "just to tell the story" without any love scenes or grubby dialogues. Nevertheless, it's more boring than the American storytelling because British literature has it's roots in Shakespear's work.

I read this one because I was a big fan of the movie directed by Steven Spielberg starring a young Christian Bale as12 year old Jamie, the boy torn from his wealthy family during the height of the Sino-Japanese war in World War II. But wait there, the Japanese aren't the villains.It was Basie, a war torn American played nicely by veteran actor John Malkovich in the film. He used Jamie to test for landmines, tried to sell him to Chinese and used him in stealing Japanese goods.

Despite being the reason for his hardship, Jamie maintained a strong admiration and respect for the Japs even befriending a Japanese teenager aspiring to be a kamikaze pilot much to the dismay of the British prisoners in Lunghua prisoner camp. Slowly, with bad hygiene and hunger, the British and American prisoners dying but Jamie kept himself alive with the thought of seeing his parents again and his friendship with the Japanese seargent of the camp.

Nevertheless, he came to a point where he forgotten his real name "Jamie" after being called Jim by Basie and the British for years. He even forgotten the face of his parents.

A sad and morbid novel yet the worse it gets, the better you know it'll turn out in the end.


The last mobster novel by the author of The Godfather. Omerta refers to the Sicilian code of silence, the #1 rule of Cosa Nostra hierarchy. The novel portrays the criminal society in chaos after Don Raymonde Aprile, the LA Godfather was assassinated.

The story goes on when his adopted son Astorre Viola comes out with an ingenious and ultimately successful plan to capture all the perpetrators including a corrupt FBI official whom at the beginning I thought was the good guy. Somehow FBI are worse scumbags than mobsters. At least the mobsters show courtesy and respect. FBI scumbags only care about "justice" in the hands of equally corrupt bureaucrats.