Prometheus Reviewed

Loco!

I read my first Robert Ludlum book, The Icarus Agenda, when I was in college and looking for a way to avoid reading Medieval Yarn Making (which is a thriller in its own right). Icarus was my first suspense novel and it led me to several other Ludlum titles: The Matarese Circle, The Rhinemann Exchange, the Bourne trilogy, etc. In my suspense genre driven stupor, I devoured as much Ludlum that I could find, which led, inevitably, to burn out.

If you have read a couple of  Ludlum’s books, you’ve read ‘em all. The books are entertaining, but the plots are all the same, the characters all the same, everything’s the same, save the name given to the big multi-national cabal that is really pulling the strings to the universe.

The writing also started getting on my nerves. What I originally found outstanding now became grating. Ludlum heightens the intensity of a situation by projecting his characters’ thoughts and emotions as exclamations:

Madness!

Insanity!

Bodacious! (not really)

He does this a lot.

For a decade I shelved Roberto and his Madness! until I was looking for something that would divert me from reading Battle at Bull Run. I decided to pick up The Prometheus Deception off the shelf and give it a drive.

For the most part, it is (tada!) much of the same. But after ten years of Halcyon!, I found I was enjoying him. There are twists and turns and turns and twists. At some points he is didactic, rehashing the most recent apostasy or previous chapter’s double identity: doubtless he suspects people are morons. Craziness!

The book picked up in the second half and I did actually have a hard time putting it down. Then it became a little ridiculous and the ending was a let down. It had been set up for a sequel, but Robert Ludlum passed away in 2001.

If you are only going to read one Ludlum, don’t read this one. If you are looking for a pretty good thriller, go ahead and read this one. Tres stars! Madness!