Keen readers know of my recent meeting with Eric Lustbader, who is hands-down the biggest poster to this blog (grazie). Glory, glory. NY Times Book Review, tomorrow, July 15, 2007 does a nice call out to his Bourne Betrayal and gives Eric the space to explain how he's writing books about Robert Ludlum's characters. Interesting writing proposition, Eric, and what a great gift from Mr. Ludlum's family. Open to answering a coupla questions here? Now, I've put you on the spot.
Antiochian alert: Eric went to grammar school with Neelon (nee Pepper) Crawford, '69, married to Susan Hill, '70.
THE BOURNE RESURGENCY: Robert Ludlum died in 2001, but his books keep coming. The new one, “Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Betrayal,” written by Eric Van Lustbader, rises this week to No. 9 on the fiction list. Van Lustbader, who also publishes thrillers under his own (excellent) name, took over the Bourne franchise a few years ago. On his Web site, he notes that some people “still seem confused by my writing novels about a character created by Robert Ludlum.” For anyone who is still puzzled, here’s Van Lustbader’s stab at clearing everything up: “I was asked by the estate of the late Robert Ludlum to continue the series Bob started. He wrote three Bourne novels (‘The Bourne Identity,’ ‘The Bourne Supremacy,’ ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’). ... I have so far written ‘The Bourne Legacy’ and ‘The Bourne Betrayal.’ These books are written entirely by me from my own ideas, though some people persist in thinking that I wrote them with Bob. This would be rather difficult to do, since he’s dead. Also, he left no notes or unfinished manuscripts pertaining to Jason Bourne. Are we clear now? Good!”
