The Bourne Supremacy: Chasing Your Shadow

The Bourne Supremacy: Chasing Your Shadow

Not all thriller novels are created equal. For a long time, there has been an over-saturation of media that relies on secret agents and government conspiracies in order to tell their stories. What makes different characters such as Jack Ryan, Jack Reacher, and Jane Hawk are that each notable character has their own spin on the thriller protagonist archetype. But one of the more outstanding characters in all of thriller literature is Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne. In the first entry to Ludlum’s Bourne trilogy, the titular character was fished out of the Mediterranean Sea with no memory of his past life, including his name. Eventually, Bourne discovered his connection to conspiracy-like US-based operations, a whole story that I won’t spoil the ending to here. However, I do wish to warn readers of this blog now: In order to discuss the events of The Bourne Supremacy, there will be spoilers for the first novel in the series, The Bourne Identity. Please be advised that the rest of this review will contain spoilers for that first book.

At the end of The Bourne Identity, Jason regained a majority of his memories, realizing himself to be David Webb, an assassin trained in Operation Medusa, a covert government operation training super-soliders for the Vietnam War. In The Bourne Supremacy, Webb and his wife, Marie—who assisted him during his time as an amnesiac—are able to live out a happy life in Maine after being vindicated by the US government in the first book. However, this peace does not last, as Webb is pulled back into the shadowy world of assassinations and conspiracies after a man claiming to be Jason Bourne carries out a string of assassinations in Hong Kong. After being roped into the situation by US officials, Webb’s wife is kidnapped by unknown entities. This sends David Webb back into the world of Jason Bourne, where he will stop at nothing in order to save his wife from the clutches of conspiracy.

The Bourne Supremacy acts as a fitting sequel to Identity, giving readers a closer look into the psyche of Jason Bourne/David Webb and everything that makes him tick. There is more buildup to the conflict of this book than the last one, with a good sixty pages or so being utilized to develop not only the new threat facing Bourne’s life, but also him as a character while he tries to return to a normalcy he still can’t fully recall. This helps to humanize him even more than in the first novel, reminding readers that he does what he does because of how little there is he cares for in the world. Reading this book gave me the sense that Jason Bourne is the kind of man to do what he does in order to survive and that family is part of that survival. Hence why his wife, Marie, is so important to him.

This book was also unique compared to Identity in a few regards as well. For one, the conspiratorial nature of this book’s scenario was a lot more straight-forward, leading to a more exciting—albeit basic—read. There weren’t as many twists and turns as in the first book, but that feels like it’s because we’ve already set ourselves in this universe for an entire novel. There’s not much else to explore aside from the conflict at hand, which while by no means simple, is more basic than the conspiracies within conspiracies attributed to the first novel. This is by no means a criticism, but it does make the book feel different and more fast-paced than the first entry. Another interesting notation about this book was that Bourne’s point of view was not the only one to be featured. Marie also had a good amount of the spotlight as she too attempted to uncover what was going on while in captivity. Her story in particular felt fresh and unique, giving her an enormity of character development that felt relatively absent in the first novel. She’s no longer the stock love interest, but almost acts like a second protagonist alongside Bourne. It makes for an interesting read to see both of them on opposite ends of a conflict trying to piece together everything that’s going on, giving readers a full picture before either of them knows everything. And while that may sound a little counterintuitive in a novel that relies on mystery elements, it actually does a good job at keeping the tension high while elevating the conflict at hand. Ludlum did this expertly, assisted by a constantly fast-paced, unique story that felt new compared to the first novel.

Despite these differences in plot and character focus, The Bourne Supremacy is still able to shine as a fitting sequel to The Bourne Identity. While the conspiratorial aspects were easier to figure out early on, this hefty read still managed to use interweaving narratives, fleshed-out characters, and an interesting game of cat and mouse in order to deliver a thrilling story spanning the world over. While the size of the book can be daunting for some—my copy, for instance, was just shy of seven hundred pages—everything that happens in the book feels necessary. The story’s length is well-deserved and the payoff after hundreds of pages of espionage is very well-written. Which is why I would highly recommend The Bourne Supremacy as well as its predecessor. The story here is very different from the Matt Damon-led trilogy on the big screen, so if you do decide to read the series, you’ll want to start at the beginning. But, as someone who is two-thirds of the way through, I can tell you that every captivating word is worth it.