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Let us know when you finish CB. I’d love to hear your opinions on it.
I hate that Eon has made the US wait for the past few films (truly sorry, Australia!). But I guess it makes sense because they need that time gap to get the main cast from London to NY/LA for promotional purposes.
Sorry, can't help there, as I don't do audio books. However as I understand it people who listened to the Toby Stephens' reading of Bond were quite enthousiastic.
download it here. https://archive.org/details/thunderball-audio
Here's my re-read rankings..
From Russia With Love
Moonraker
Live and Let Die
Casino Royale
Dr No
Goldfinger
Diamonds are Forever
Live and Let Die beats CR because I liked the voodoo stuff.
Some key paragraphs:
"Fleming wrote forcefully and succinctly, aiming for 60,000 words per novel. His style, sharpened by his work as both a journalist and military man, is marked by precise observation, judicious use of concrete detail, and clear, unaffected diction. He excelled at description. Though Fleming’s characters, especially the villains, are often remembered for their physical deformities—shortness, baldness, protruding teeth, missing earlobes, prosthetic steel claws, a supernumerary nipple—most often they evince his eye for the telling detail, the revealing throwaway gesture, the tic. He had a corresponding knack for narrating vivid and energetic action, and his explanations and descriptions of processes, of men purposefully undertaking complicated tasks, are clear, his pacing and suspense superb.
"He wrote not only skillfully but beautifully, something seen most clearly in his settings. His most vividly realized locations, those of the Caribbean, combine the tactile and the visual in a manner that also establishes tone. Thus, in the short story 'Octopussy,' the same reef can be a place of beauty, wonder, and comforting familiarity at the beginning and a place of inescapable horror at the end.
"Fleming’s talents extended to another crucial element of the thriller—plot structure. Fifty years of moviegoers have become familiar with the 'Bond formula,' a reliable but predictable and easily parodied form. Fleming’s novels are much more varied. He plays with structure to create tension and construct surprises, such as killing the villain two-thirds of the way through, as in Casino Royale; delaying the start of the action with a seemingly unrelated low-stakes adventure, as in Moonraker, Thunderball, or Goldfinger; or shifting between tones and genres—detective story, survival story, travelogue, horror—as in Dr. No or You Only Live Twice..."
They're radio dramas rather than straight audiobooks, but yes, Toby Stephens is quite good as Bond. A lot of other talent in those too: Ian McKellen as Goldfinger, Alfred Molina as Blofeld in OHMSS...
I fall asleep listening to them every night. They’re excellent the audiobooks from audible
I’m not such a fan of moonraker by Bill Nighy.
David tenant is excellent - OHMSS - as is octopussy
Highly recommended
It is considered the best by many fans, including me. The perfect 007 novel.
So far so good after Chapter 1. It's cool hearing more of the day-to-day of Bond's job.
I don't know why it took me so long to read them again.
I've listened to most of them. Some that I'd recommend off the top of my head:
MR - Bill Nighy
OP & TLD - Tom Hiddleston (best voice narrator of Bond I have ever heard)
For Your Eyes Only and Other Stories - Samuel West
Dr. NO - Hugh Quashie
That sounds awesome! I love the idea of writing, wish I did more of it. Share it here when you have something, if you want!
Thank you for the support! I do have a few ideas down. Most of all I would love to set in the modern day.
You made it further than I did. But I still enjoyed what I did read more than DEVIL MAY CARE, which I actually completed. The only Bond novel from that era that I can recommend (really the only one post Amis, aside from the two Wood adaptations) is SOLO.
Well, I’m glad I’m not alone : )
I think I will try Solo. @birdlesom where would you rate it from 1-10, and would you care to give me a little preview as to what it’s about? Thanks
Didn’t like the Horowitz novels?
I like the middle part where Bond is snooping around Athens, Amis' prose is closest to Fleming out of all the other authors, but it still falls short of novels like CR, MR, FRWL, imo.
What strikes me most when reading this is how silly the female character are written - "...oh, much better now that you are here, James..." X_X
They were more entertaining than most of the continuation novels, and worth a look (particularly for the unused Fleming), but his basic pros leave me somewhat cold. His action scenes read like someone trying to explain how cool something he's seeing is, rather than placing me there. And some of his character choices don't work for me either.
@sworddevil1 I don't really know how to rate it on a 1 to 10 scale, but I enjoy SOLO for it's terseness and descriptive passages. It feels like Bond to me. And it's a bare bones mission. Some find it boring. Not me.
Sounds good to me. That’s more my style. I will check it out. Thanks!
Makes sense, thanks for your notes. I'm going to have to revisit SOLO again soon!