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Which Bond novel are you currently reading?

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  • DB5DB5
    Posts: 408
    Five chapters into "You Only Live Twice." So far very good.
  • JWESTBROOKJWESTBROOK
    Posts: 5,745
    Finally made it to Moonraker.

    Enjoying the beginning very much.
  • Lancaster007Lancaster007 Shrublands Health Clinic, England
    Posts: 1,874
    Just finished Diamonds Are Forever, my opinion of it hasn't changed. Along with TSWLM the weakest of Fleming's Bonds. There are some good bits it it, but overall it just doesn't do it for me. Thankfully From Russia With Love is waiting to be picked up.
  • JWESTBROOKJWESTBROOK
    Posts: 5,745
    Pushing through Moonraker, I'd love to see Bond meet his villain through M in a film as he does in the book.

    I think that'd be extremely interesting, and could provide a nice little twist in the plot.

    M brings Bond to a cigar & poker club as he does in Moonraker, and there Bond is introduced to a wealthy private businessman. They play a testy game of poker at the club, share a hidden discomfort with each other, and then the story goes off in a new direction from there only to come full circle and the wealthy man Bond met in the club at the start of the story turns out to be the man he was looking for on his mission!

    The complex of trying to stop a villain who appears to be doing something, like a major project backed by the government and popular to the public, without disrupting this important project of his should be exploited as well.
  • DB5DB5
    Posts: 408
    Just finished YOLT. Definitely one of the best Bond novels. So now I'm down to the three worst, DAF, TSWLM and TMWTGG? Anyone have any suggestions? I'm also considering Benson's "High Time to Kill." Anyone read that one?
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    edited July 2012 Posts: 6,380
    DB5 wrote:
    Just finished YOLT. Definitely one of the best Bond novels. So now I'm down to the three worst, DAF, TSWLM and TMWTGG? Anyone have any suggestions? I'm also considering Benson's "High Time to Kill." Anyone read that one?

    The worst Fleming is better than the best non-Fleming.

    Go straight on to TMWTGG. The cliffhanger resolution from YOLT is worth it. Plus, it ties in one of the short stories.

  • DB5DB5
    Posts: 408
    echo wrote:
    DB5 wrote:
    Just finished YOLT. Definitely one of the best Bond novels. So now I'm down to the three worst, DAF, TSWLM and TMWTGG? Anyone have any suggestions? I'm also considering Benson's "High Time to Kill." Anyone read that one?

    The worst Fleming is better than the best non-Fleming.

    Go straight on to TMWTGG. The cliffhanger resolution from YOLT is worth it. Plus, it ties in one of the short stories.

    Thanks Echo. Yeah, I was leaning in that direction. The end of YOLT kind of leaves you hanging, the way "The Empire Strikes Back" does. And I like your statement about the worst Fleming being better than the best non-Fleming. Although Amis' "Colonel Sun" is quite good.

  • Baltimore_007Baltimore_007
    Posts: 5,634
    Someone mentioned that James Bond 007 is a hero - not so, he is a fictitious character Yes, we have our adulation, enthusiasm and idolization of the Fleming creation, but hasn't quite reached 'hero status' so to speak. He is a fictional character in that sense. You can save that for Police departments, paramedics, nurses and surgeons etc, real individuals that do what they can to save lives and keep us safe and often do a difficult job in sometimes difficult circumstances. They warrant more hero status than Bond is the fact of the matter (moved from another area)
  • QuantumOfSoLFCeQuantumOfSoLFCe
    Posts: 5
    Currently reading Licence Renewed. About 6 chapters in. Setting up nicely. However Q'ute???? Really............
  • DB5DB5
    Posts: 408
    I tried John Gardner's "Nobody Lives Forever." As 'Men on Books' from "In Living Color" would say, "Hated it!" Three chapters into "The Man with the Golden Gun." So far pretty good.
  • Lancaster007Lancaster007 Shrublands Health Clinic, England
    Posts: 1,874
    Just on Part 2 of FRWL. Still got to be my favourite book. It's great how much of the dialogue between Klebb and Romanova made it to the film, I can hear the actors voices as I read the lines. Looking forward to the rest of the book, with its great ending…
    Then it's on to Dr No my favourite when I first read the books as a teenager.
  • DB5DB5
    Posts: 408
    I think in the novel FRWL you get much more of a sense of just how evil Grant is. In reading the novel I kept picturing the characters in terms of the actors who played them in the film.
  • Lancaster007Lancaster007 Shrublands Health Clinic, England
    Posts: 1,874
    DB5 wrote:
    I think in the novel FRWL you get much more of a sense of just how evil Grant is. In reading the novel I kept picturing the characters in terms of the actors who played them in the film.

    Quite, and Klebb is just so odious.
  • emilbertilloemilbertillo
    Posts: 153
    I am now reading The Spy Who Loved Me, Part 3: Him.
    I used to hate the book, but now I understand it's point: Fleming wrote it in a woman's perspective because he wanted the readers to wonder if Bond survive at the end. I also found it amusing because when I first read it I was hoping for a spy story, but now I understand it is not. It's actually like Quantum of Solace (short story), wherein Fleming plays with the idea of a human James Bond.
    The only problem I still have with this book is the choice of Vivienne Mitchell as the narrator. Though it made sense that she narrated the events, Ian Fleming could have made her character a bit dumb or something. His inclusion of even the sharpest details made it evident that he wrote it. And he should have toned down the love scenes! What we have at the end is 10% James Bond novel, 90% FHM Ladies' Confessions. Anyway the good made up for the bad. I put this a bit higher than Diamonds Are Forever in my Bond novel ratings now.
  • thelivingroyalethelivingroyale
    Posts: 12,837
    Finished TB. My favourite one so far. Now I need to buy OHMSS, I want to read the entire Blofeld trilogy.
  • DB5DB5
    Posts: 408
    thelivingroyale wrote:
    Finished TB. My favourite one so far. Now I need to buy OHMSS, I want to read the entire Blofeld trilogy.

    You'll definitely enjoy OHMSS. The best Bond novel ever written, imho.

  • QuantumOfSoLFCeQuantumOfSoLFCe
    Posts: 5
    Finished Licence Renewed. Enjoyable.enough.

    Now reading Colonel Sun........
  • Commander_SkyfallCommander_Skyfall
    Posts: 371
    Just about halfway through Colonel Sun, enjoying it so far, not quite Fleming, but a pretty good stab at it none the less.
  • KronsteenKronsteen Stockholm
    Posts: 783
    100 pages into The Man From Barbarossa (for the second time). As good as I remembered it, even if I don't remember the details. Must've been 8-9 years ago I read it. I like the down-to-earth tone of it, so hopefully the final 2/3 is as good as the beginning.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,380
    I just finished rereading TB. I'd put this one in the overrated category as it seemed to go on forever (although maybe I simply have fatigue with this story). I did like the streamlined Shrublands sequence and the deeper back story for Domino. The ending still doesn't work.
  • OffspringFan88OffspringFan88
    Posts: 102
    I am planning on reading all the books in order before I start my Bond marathon in October ready for Skyfall.

    I'm going to read them whilst listening to the audiobooks as well which are released in September.
  • LotusEspritLotusEsprit
    Posts: 160
    Wanted to read through all the books (Haven't yet read them all) and started with Casino Royale, and finished it. I read CR already but I wanted to go through them in order, however before CR, I read YOLT for the first time and loved it. And now, as it seems that TMWTGG is inspiration for Skyfall, I started with that one (as long as memory of YOLT is still fresh). Pretty good so far. I think I'm at Chapter 4 at the moment. I like the idea of
    a brainwashed Bond returning after 1 year missing, believed dead. The meeting with M was a fascinating read.
    However, I think it is generally seen as one of Fleming's weaker books, isn't it?
  • Lancaster007Lancaster007 Shrublands Health Clinic, England
    edited August 2012 Posts: 1,874
    Finished From Russia With Love, still my favourite. Am taking a break from Fleming to read John Gardner's Licence To Kill novelisation. I read the first two Gardner's when they first came out in paperback but never got into them. I thought he was trying to satisfy both the film fans and the Fleming readers but failed. If you are doing a straight Bond then it needs to be a la Fleming. As this is a novelisation of the film maybe I'll like it a bit more. One of my favourite films with my favourite Bond actor, hope it is a good read.
    Stay tuned…
  • Lancaster007Lancaster007 Shrublands Health Clinic, England
    edited August 2012 Posts: 1,874
    …oh dear, just into the second chapter and already have serious doubts. For starters, Felix is Fleming's Felix, now fitted with an articulated leg, so is he going to go through another shark attack, a big plot point in the film, which this book is meant to follow. And if he is Fleming's Felix, this would mean that he and Bond would be in their mid-sixties at the time of writing this book. This is why Gardner's books just don't work for me. I'll stick with it, but I don't think I'll ever read any more of Gardner's novels. What I would like is to get hold of a copy of Colonel Sun to read.
  • DB5DB5
    Posts: 408
    Lancaster007 wrote:
    …oh dear, just into the second chapter and already have serious doubts. For starters, Felix is Fleming's Felix, now fitted with an articulated leg, so is he going to go through another shark attack, a big plot point in the film, which this book is meant to follow. And if he is Fleming's Felix, this would mean that he and Bond would be in their mid-sixties at the time of writing this book. This is why Gardner's books just don't work for me. I'll stick with it, but I don't think I'll ever read any more of Gardener's novels. What I would like is to get hold of a copy of Colonel Sun to read.

    I know what you meanLancaster, I didn't care for Gardner either. Definitely check out Amis' "Colonel Sun." It's very well written (better than some of the Fleming novels actually) and you definitely get the sense that it's the next Bond adventure after YOLT and TMWTGG (Amis actually references these). The pacing is first rate, the characters all memorable.

  • DB5DB5
    Posts: 408
    I just finished "Diamonds are Forever." In some ways it's very similat to LALD, the first two thirds drags a bit, but at the end it really picks up. Definitely much better than the film!
  • EllipsisEllipsis
    Posts: 20
    The Man From Barbarossa.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    edited August 2012 Posts: 6,380
    I just finished rereading TSWLM. This time I came away feeling that it is a bit underrated in the canon. To me it was more interesting than TB.

    Some of Fleming's attempt at a female voice is cringeworthy and sexist, but telling it from Viv's perspective did allow Fleming to comment on his main character in a new way. I liked the passages where she talks about how Bond is the type of man she could love, when she compares him St. George, and when she says that no woman could ever have him (ironic, considering the next book).

    The plotting is a bit unbelievable as Horror and Sluggsy (clearly physical inspirations for Jaws and Sandor) allow Bond and Viv to have long discussions with each other away from them. It might have worked better as a short story. It is fascinating that Bond refuses to kill Horror and Sluggsy in cold blood.

    The grace note I really liked was when Bond said he was a fan of JFK, returning the compliment.
  • 00130013
    Posts: 1,817
    When I started TSWLM, knowing it was very unorthodox, I try to read it ignoring it was a Bond novel. I have to admit that I enjoy it all very much, and not only the final chapters. It's definitly one that I would come back (just when I finish the more than 20 book I have waiting in my bookshelf).
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,380
    I'm starting OHMSS and thinking that it must have been a shock to readers back then, after five novels of upbeat endings, to have the ultimate downer ending for Bond.
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