Spy Thrillers

Have you noticed that the spy genre seems to be back stronger than ever? So much so that there's an all out message board war going on between James Bond and Jason Bourne fans. The kerfuffle was triggered by a comment Matt Damon made in an interview promoting his upcoming movie, The Bourne Ultimatum.

"Bond is an imperialist and he's a misogynist. He kills people and laughs and sips martinis and wisecracks about it. Bourne is this paranoid guy. He's on the run. He's not the government. The government is after him. He's a serial monogamist who's in love with his dead girlfriend and can't stop thinking about her. He's the opposite of James Bond."

Uh, 'scuse me, Matt, but have you seen Casino Royale?

But lest I sound as if I have as much time on my hand as these fanboys, I'll get to the point. I'm loving spy thrillers again after pretty much ignoring the genre for the past fifteen years or so. 24 has a lot to do with it. So does the aforementioned Casino Royale.

Back in the late seventies, I read nothing but science fiction and fantasy...by the truckload. I'm not kidding, I went through at least one book a day and sometimes read around the clock in order to finish a particularly engrossing story (back in those days, I really did have a lot of time on my hands...too bad there wasn't an Internet).

Then came The Bourne Identity in 1980 and bam! Suddenly I was knee-deep into spy thrillers. I'd read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold back in high school and, of course, some Ian Fleming along the way. And I loved all those sixties spy movies. I even had dreams of growing up and joining the CIA.

But it was Robert Ludlum who really made me a diehard fan of the genre. Once I read Bourne, I started tearing through Ludlum's back catalog like a madwoman, and though I loved most of them, The Bourne Identity (along with the equally superb The Aquitaine Progression) remained the measure by which I judged all spy tales.

During the nineties, I became interested in psychological suspense and the spy genre fizzled for me. I completely missed out on the whole Tom Clancy thing, although I've seen all the Jack Ryan movies and enjoyed them. But I bet you Tom Clancy fans feel the same way I do about the Bourne movies...that is so not Jason Bourne up there on the big screen.

So now that I'm digging spy thrillers again, I want more. What have I missed out on? Got a book or movie you'd recommend? I'd love to hear about it.

Oh, and what is the deal with the initials J.B.? James Bond, Jason Bourne, Jack Baur. A coincidence? I think not.