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Someone stating OHMSS to be the WORST Bond novel???
:))
CR I really enjoyed. It had an almost quaintness and innocence that suddenly disappeared in LALD which is, out of the three, easily the worst so far. I guess it's important to remember that this was written in the '50s, long before equal rights became a political topic (much the same as the sexism in CR), but the actual plot has, so far, been thoroughly boring. Here's hoping it speeds up soon!
Everyone is entitled to an opinion. I won't comment until I've read it but I do feel the adoration for the movie on here is largely unjustified. For me, it's pedestrian at its best and throughly boring at its worst moments. One clever ending twist doesn't cover up the fact that the first two acts were utterly drab for me and the movie outstayed its welcome by over half an hour. Again, personal opinion, but we're all entitled to it.
Don't say that. I still have GF, TB, DN and FYEO to get through.....went a bit mad and bought up what WH Smith had on their shelves just before Christmas!
The plot and the characters were a bit weak and I never felt that Bond was in any real danger throughout.
Having said that I still remember the train chase as one of the better bits in all of the books. really exciting for me.
TSWLM is certinally very different to his other 007 works and as an experiment it's not entirely successful, but in many ways it's Fleming's most personal work despite being written through the eyes of a women. Many of her experiences such as the intimate fumbling in the Windsor cinema are taken directly from Fleming's own past, and his attempts to understand the female mind sheds much light on his own views and personality. As I've matured as a Bond fan I've found that the focus of my interest has moved more from James Bond and the films towards Fleming and his incredible life and this book holds many clues to the mindset of the great man.
As for the least enjoyable novel for me it would have to be YOLT, coming after the thrilling OHMSS this book just seems to plod slowly for the first two thirds of what is basically not much more than a extended travelogue, the story does eventually pick up but the deaths of Blofeld and Bunt are rather unsatisfactory. To be fair I have never found Japan or it's culture particularly interesting so undoubtedly this has affected my appreciation of the novel.
The more I think about it, the more it has to be DAF, mainly because of the Spangs, which are poorly developed. That said, it still has lots of good things and is far superior to the movie. Maybe the movie was cursed to fail? There is something else I like about DAF: there is still a lot of it which could be used in a Bond movie.
YOLT is my favorite Bond novel and one of my favorite books of all time. The way in which the story develops, the dynamics with Dikko and Tanaka, the surreal atmosphere, the revenge emotion, the ending... those are all great elements! A literary masterpiece in my opinion.
I wouldn't call any of the novels ''worst'' either, unless it is in a relative way, compared to the whole body of work. In that sense, DAF is the least enjoyable.
TSWLM seems to be the least liked so far. I can understand why. As a Bond novel, it is atypical and maybe falls short. But as crime fiction, I found it surprisingly good.
I don't know if it's his "worse" though.
Don't know about the audiobook, but I thought the novel was brilliant, although more a nightmarish adventure than spy fiction. Blofeld is downright mad in it, doing evil for the sake of it.
I can't say how pleased I am to agree with TheWizardOflce. To have the voice of reason brought to bear on the ridiculous comment pertaining to OHMSS is most welcome.
That said, when one looks at some of the drivel posted, it has to be questionable as to how many of the participants have actually read Fleming's novels?
I think that YOLT has the best travelogue elements of any Fleming, but as a book Fleming was really starting to show that he was running out of steam. I guess if I had to choose a word to describe it I'd use "clumsy". For example:
I think the end of YOLT picks up a little with Bond going into the "garden of death" and witnessing the suicide and murder. I also like the story about the bank manager and employee obediantly downing cyanide. However I felt the middle section dragged a bit and I agree with @thelordflasheart regarding "characters talking in exposition" - especially during Blofeld's madman speech to Ima.
One bit that did make me laugh (the quote isn't exact):
"When you get there...kill the wife too...she is too ugly to live"
There is something very out there about the plot of the novel, which explains partially why it was very loosely adapted. I wish they had done something closer to the original, but they would have had to change Blofeld's motivations extensively.
@Ludovico makes a very good point when he says that "YOLT seemed pretty well crafted, although very different ...."
I remember so looking forward to the release of YOLT and being quite disappointed on reading it. In fact YOLT along with DAF, TSWLM and TMWTGG are the only Bond books that I haven't read multiple times.That said, I couldn't provide a single reason why I would put it in the same league as the other three all of which I could critique sans arret!
On reflection, because OHMSS was so great, perhaps anything that came after was destined to disappoint - maybe I'll go back to YOLT and give it another go. God knows forty nine years have elapsed!
Me too. It's s tad lightweight but I do very much enjoy it. I feel like Scaramanga is a well rounded, very visceral character (but then Fleming was always so good at that IMO). Like you say, it's just the plot that's not quite up to scratch. Everything else is there for me. The intro is naturally one of my favourite moments in the literary canon.
Having said that though I still haven't read them all so I can't really fairly judge.
I think Fleming was getting physically tired and it shows: the novel is more about characters than story.