Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

9 reviews

fjordpingvin's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0


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drysers's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. There are moments of terrible misogyny but it’s interesting to view these as examples of the deep flaws and insecurities of our main protagonist (and possibly the author). 
It’s also interesting to observe how faithful the 2006 film version is and how much the dark elements that permeate the book helped to shape Daniel Craig’s Bond era. 

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simply_fran's review against another edition

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adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

Includes the phrase "the sweet tang of r*pe"...

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ru_th's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

[…] The hero kills two villains, but when the hero Le Chiffre starts to kill the villain Bond and the villain Bond knows he isn’t a villain at all, you see the other side of the medal. The villains and heroes get all mixed up. Of course, […] patriotism comes along and makes it seem fairly all right, but this country-right-or-wrong business is getting a little out-of-date. Today we are fighting Communism. Okay. If I’d been alive fifty years ago, the brand of Conservatism we have today would have been damn near called Communism and we should have been told to go and fight that. History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts. 

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marianneiriss's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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kate_lemer's review

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adventurous tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

A good book to relax with. Low on the violence (the James Bond in the books doesn't have the tendency to destroy public property at the speed a modern film audience requires nowadays, mostly, he just does damage to his car and his liver). Apart from a few misogynistic sentences (you can get over those), it's very well written. 

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paulrichard's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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meganpbennett's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Casino Royale was the first James Bond book, and it's interesting. It's very dated to its time, and so it feels frozen, like a dragonfly in amber. I felt like a dictionary would have been helpful, or an edition where some of the references and vocabulary were explained. A working knowledge of baccarat would have been helpful, as well, since much of the plot of the first half of the book involved Bond's attempt to bankrupt le Chiffre at the baccarat table. 

Parts of the book are very tense and page-turning, while others aren't anywhere near as fast-paced. The 2006 movie was a very good adaptation, in terms of how close it stuck to the novel, with the necessary updates and modifications (no one would carry a 40 million Euro check around, now would they? No. That's what wireless bank transfers are for). It does explain a lot about how Bond became Bond. 

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illuminatedspace's review against another edition

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challenging tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

A two instead of a 1 because they're is some semi interesting writing but it's very difficult to read. The femme fatale is helpless in ways that don't make any gd sense. Bond send to hate her but also want to sleep with her and marry her because??? I'll never read another Fleming novel or Bond book.

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