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3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A great spy novel about the greatest fictional spy (sorry Bourne). Fleming's James Bond is slightly different than the film version. The book allows you to get inside his head, showing him cold and professional at times, then overcame by emotions at others. The book is very violent and does not shy away from gory details. It was a fun adventure and at times it was "edge-of-your-seat" reading.
To those of you upset about the book's racial slurs and discrimination, understand that this was very much a product of its time. I will leave you with a blurb that I borrowed from the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs (of all things) that always comes to mind when I visit things from an earlier generation.
"The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in the U.S society. These depictions were wrong then and they are wrong today. While the following does not represent the Warner Bros. view of today's society, these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming that these prejudices never existed."
If you plan on reading this, I hope you enjoy Bond's adventure and continue with the other books. They are definitely a treat for fans of the movie or spy genre.
To those of you upset about the book's racial slurs and discrimination, understand that this was very much a product of its time. I will leave you with a blurb that I borrowed from the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs (of all things) that always comes to mind when I visit things from an earlier generation.
"The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in the U.S society. These depictions were wrong then and they are wrong today. While the following does not represent the Warner Bros. view of today's society, these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming that these prejudices never existed."
If you plan on reading this, I hope you enjoy Bond's adventure and continue with the other books. They are definitely a treat for fans of the movie or spy genre.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Character voices by narrator were distracting.
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Author uses the N-word liberally. And for no other reason than to use it.
adventurous
lighthearted
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
this is a holy underwhelming story. That is, unless you are looking for racist and misogynist text. I get the era it was written in is very different, but wow the use of language is crazy. It's also pretty fun, in the sense that being the second book bond is still figuring out when he's supposed to be doing, and he's not the season veteran that most of us are going to be expecting. There are a lot of Pratt falls and misdirections, with a good nature WTF moment here and there.
Second time around, and part of my project to re-read the Bond canon right through in ’22, I found the pace rather flagged by the end. (Enjoyably elaborate finish, though!)
Mr Big is a grand villain, Solitaire an adequate accomplice and the locations and set-up vivid and enticing - but this time I noticed more description and that distracted from the plot; Casino Royale whipped by in comparison.
In short, L&LD is perhaps more cinematic than its predecessor and, though 50 pages longer than it needs to be, it’s a decent thriller with notably unfortunate ‘of it’s time’ language.
Mr Big is a grand villain, Solitaire an adequate accomplice and the locations and set-up vivid and enticing - but this time I noticed more description and that distracted from the plot; Casino Royale whipped by in comparison.
In short, L&LD is perhaps more cinematic than its predecessor and, though 50 pages longer than it needs to be, it’s a decent thriller with notably unfortunate ‘of it’s time’ language.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Spoilers. Sort of.
So, this is an ugly book. Mostly.
It's racist, although how much of that is the character's and how much of that is the author's personal feelings I can't be sure. Chapter 5 in particular, from its title onwards, needs to take a long hard look at itself. Yes, it is of its time. After all, it was written in 1954, but that isn't an excuse.
It's less fun than the film version. The violence is more matter-of-fact brutal. If you've seen the films before you've read the books this one, in particular, would be odd. As two scenes from this book end up in different Bond films. One in Thunderball and the other in Licence To Kill. But, as I've said elsewhere, the Bond in the books isn't the Bond of the films. He's a thug. An intelligent thug, but a thug.
There's the usual Fleming food porn, although only twice does it feel like he's really trying to excite his post-rationing readers in Britain. There's a Bond girl, but no sex. The chapters in Jamaica are the best as you can feel that Fleming knows what he's talking about here but the scenes in Harlem feel less 'realistic'.
The Cold War pops its head up in the book, as Mr Big isn't just a criminal. He's a Russian agent. That isn't a spoiler by the way. It gets revealed in the first couple of chapters.
And you wonder how much Fleming actually likes James Bond. He gives his bollocks a good going over in Casino Royale, then gets him beaten up, chomped by a Barracuda and almost blown up in this one for good measure. It's almost as if Fleming is taken something out on Bond.
So, this is an ugly book. Mostly.
It's racist, although how much of that is the character's and how much of that is the author's personal feelings I can't be sure. Chapter 5 in particular, from its title onwards, needs to take a long hard look at itself. Yes, it is of its time. After all, it was written in 1954, but that isn't an excuse.
It's less fun than the film version. The violence is more matter-of-fact brutal. If you've seen the films before you've read the books this one, in particular, would be odd. As two scenes from this book end up in different Bond films. One in Thunderball and the other in Licence To Kill. But, as I've said elsewhere, the Bond in the books isn't the Bond of the films. He's a thug. An intelligent thug, but a thug.
There's the usual Fleming food porn, although only twice does it feel like he's really trying to excite his post-rationing readers in Britain. There's a Bond girl, but no sex. The chapters in Jamaica are the best as you can feel that Fleming knows what he's talking about here but the scenes in Harlem feel less 'realistic'.
The Cold War pops its head up in the book, as Mr Big isn't just a criminal. He's a Russian agent. That isn't a spoiler by the way. It gets revealed in the first couple of chapters.
And you wonder how much Fleming actually likes James Bond. He gives his bollocks a good going over in Casino Royale, then gets him beaten up, chomped by a Barracuda and almost blown up in this one for good measure. It's almost as if Fleming is taken something out on Bond.
Daniel Craig returns as James Bond in my head for this one, but I'm not upset about it. This book was a lot more entertaining than the first. Casino Royale is essentially just watching Bond gamble. There is some good action in Live and Let Die that is entertaining in the James Bond kind of way.
One thing I have noticed about these books so far is just how much they humanize James Bond. The movies make him out to be this cool headed badass that no one would be wise to mess with and would just as soon take a woman to bed than save her from a villain. So far the books really delve into his thought processes and some of the things that go through his mind when his plan isn't necessarily working out. They really put a different perspective for me on the character in general.
Again, this books is decades old, and it shows. The chauvinism of the first book has almost entirely been replaced by racism. Even with the incredibly stereotypical "negro" characters and their almost unintelligible speech, Live and Let Die was a classic Jame Bond adventure that was both fun and entertaining.
One thing I have noticed about these books so far is just how much they humanize James Bond. The movies make him out to be this cool headed badass that no one would be wise to mess with and would just as soon take a woman to bed than save her from a villain. So far the books really delve into his thought processes and some of the things that go through his mind when his plan isn't necessarily working out. They really put a different perspective for me on the character in general.
Again, this books is decades old, and it shows. The chauvinism of the first book has almost entirely been replaced by racism. Even with the incredibly stereotypical "negro" characters and their almost unintelligible speech, Live and Let Die was a classic Jame Bond adventure that was both fun and entertaining.