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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Quick Look
Plot = .75
Characters = .75
Promise = .75
Engagement = 1
Efficiency = 1
Plot = .75
Characters = .75
Promise = .75
Engagement = 1
Efficiency = 1
Ugh. What a disappointment.
I read "Goldfinger" a couple years ago and enjoyed it for the most part. All the technical details were a little to in depth for me so I decided to switch to an audiobook for the next one. However, listening to this particular one didn't help. This book was very heavy on description of all that technical crap. Like, too in depth. The author also goes way out of his way to insult women whenever he can. It's not just "oh this book was written in a different time" kinda stuff either. The story was poor, characters weak. I'm not the target audience, clearly. Definitely a male fantasy.
I read "Goldfinger" a couple years ago and enjoyed it for the most part. All the technical details were a little to in depth for me so I decided to switch to an audiobook for the next one. However, listening to this particular one didn't help. This book was very heavy on description of all that technical crap. Like, too in depth. The author also goes way out of his way to insult women whenever he can. It's not just "oh this book was written in a different time" kinda stuff either. The story was poor, characters weak. I'm not the target audience, clearly. Definitely a male fantasy.
James Bond has been abusing his body for a long time. The doctor is worried about him. Bond doesn’t care about all of these concerns. That is until M, who is on a health kick, decides to send him off to a health resort to get himself back in shape. While there Bond’s curious nature gets him in trouble with another patient. When the patient fails in an attempt to kill Bond, Bond feels bound to extract some revenge and the man ends up in the hospital. Bond is unaware of it, but he just changed the timetable in a series of events. A new organization called SPECTRE has stolen two nuclear bombs. The US and Britain have to pay up, or the bombs will be detonated. Bond finds himself in the Caribbean once again and teamed up with his old buddy Felix Leiter. Can they stop the mysterious Blofeld before he detonates a bomb? The fate of the free world depends on Bond. At least he is in better shape for this misson.
The Bond novels are great classic spy novels from the 50's and 60's. Unlike the films Bond is not constantly using gadgets. Instead he uses his skills and intuition. In this novel As always Bond stories are a lot of fun. The good guys win and the bad guys get their due.
The Bond novels are great classic spy novels from the 50's and 60's. Unlike the films Bond is not constantly using gadgets. Instead he uses his skills and intuition. In this novel As always Bond stories are a lot of fun. The good guys win and the bad guys get their due.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Excellent read!
I consider the movie based (?) on the book 'Thunderball' one of the best of the James Bond movies, and I think it's because the plot of the novel is so great! There was litigation over this one, so I am uncertain which was first - screenplay, book, movie - never mind. The movie copies the action in the novel with a few scene differences, but the characters and plot of the movie and book match in spirit if not in details.
EDIT: March 27, 2019 . I was distracted, but back to my review of ‘Thunderball’.
James Bond is called out by M because of his excessive drinking and smoking. Bond didn’t fail his latest physical, but he is definitely on a slide in regards to his fitness. So M suggests a two-week stay at a place called Shrublands for a nature cure, i.e., vegetable diet and exercise - no alcohol or smoking.
Bond very reluctantly signs up. Surprise! The resort regimen works. He returns to London feeling much better. However, there was an interesting murderous incident at the health resort - another patient, Count Lippe, attempted to kill Bond in a spine-stretching machine by turning up the machine’s pressure on the spine. Bond was rescued by an attendant. It was very strange. He had seen a weird tattoo on the wrist of the patient, and he had called it in to the Service’s Records department. Records told him it was a Red Lightning Tong sign. Count Lippe had overheard the phone call, and then made the attempt to kill Bond. Why? Bond lets it go after getting revenge on Lippe by locking him in a steam box and turning up the temperature of the steam.
Unbeknownst to Bond, he has thrown a small wrench into the works of a very important plan by terrible bad guys. Lippe was supposed to be a pilot for a very important hijacking, and now he will need to be replaced due to his burns. The replacement pilot, doomed Giuseppe Petacchi, will be an important link to a woman Bond meets later. Coincidences abound! Of course, gentle reader, the woman, Dominetta Vitali, née Petacchi, will fall in love with Bond. Don’t we all?
Back in London, Bond is assigned to the Bahamas to search for any sign of a hijacked British aircraft carrying two atomic weapons. The organization which captured the bomber also killed the five-man crew and an observer. The criminals call themselves The Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion (S.P.E.C.T.R.E.), who boldly announce themselves in a letter with their demand for a ransom of £100,000,000 in gold, to be delivered in seven days from the receipt of the letter. If the ransom is not paid, an undesignated major city somewhere in the world will be destroyed.
Bond is not convinced he will find anything in the Bahamas, but M has a hunch....
Ernst Stravro Blofeld, chairman of S.P.E.C.T.R.E., and the man he put in charge of the hijack operation who is hiding the bombs in the Bahamas (a shock, right?), Emilio Largo, are soon to learn their perfect plot can be knocked askew by one good-looking Englishman with a lot of moxie and one pissed-off prostitute who had a ne’er-do-well pilot brother! Domino and Bond are going to do their worst against Largo. Will the duo find the bombs? Maybe. Because Felix Leiter has come out of retirement, re-recruited by the CIA, and he joins Team Bond in the search with all of the weight of CIA’s technology behind him - a submarine and a team of scuba divers! Holy Spear Thrust! Water sports are about to make a big splash!
Each book in the Bond series is better than the previous one! Plus, they are just fun to read.
The book, [b:The Battle for Bond: The Genesis of Cinema's Greatest Hero|1384956|The Battle for Bond The Genesis of Cinema's Greatest Hero|Robert Sellers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1183156833l/1384956._SX50_.jpg|1374985], is about the legal free-for-all. Who knew!
I consider the movie based (?) on the book 'Thunderball' one of the best of the James Bond movies, and I think it's because the plot of the novel is so great! There was litigation over this one, so I am uncertain which was first - screenplay, book, movie - never mind. The movie copies the action in the novel with a few scene differences, but the characters and plot of the movie and book match in spirit if not in details.
EDIT: March 27, 2019 . I was distracted, but back to my review of ‘Thunderball’.
James Bond is called out by M because of his excessive drinking and smoking. Bond didn’t fail his latest physical, but he is definitely on a slide in regards to his fitness. So M suggests a two-week stay at a place called Shrublands for a nature cure, i.e., vegetable diet and exercise - no alcohol or smoking.
Bond very reluctantly signs up. Surprise! The resort regimen works. He returns to London feeling much better. However, there was an interesting murderous incident at the health resort - another patient, Count Lippe, attempted to kill Bond in a spine-stretching machine by turning up the machine’s pressure on the spine. Bond was rescued by an attendant. It was very strange. He had seen a weird tattoo on the wrist of the patient, and he had called it in to the Service’s Records department. Records told him it was a Red Lightning Tong sign. Count Lippe had overheard the phone call, and then made the attempt to kill Bond. Why? Bond lets it go after getting revenge on Lippe by locking him in a steam box and turning up the temperature of the steam.
Unbeknownst to Bond, he has thrown a small wrench into the works of a very important plan by terrible bad guys. Lippe was supposed to be a pilot for a very important hijacking, and now he will need to be replaced due to his burns. The replacement pilot, doomed Giuseppe Petacchi, will be an important link to a woman Bond meets later. Coincidences abound! Of course, gentle reader, the woman, Dominetta Vitali, née Petacchi, will fall in love with Bond. Don’t we all?
Back in London, Bond is assigned to the Bahamas to search for any sign of a hijacked British aircraft carrying two atomic weapons. The organization which captured the bomber also killed the five-man crew and an observer. The criminals call themselves The Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion (S.P.E.C.T.R.E.), who boldly announce themselves in a letter with their demand for a ransom of £100,000,000 in gold, to be delivered in seven days from the receipt of the letter. If the ransom is not paid, an undesignated major city somewhere in the world will be destroyed.
Bond is not convinced he will find anything in the Bahamas, but M has a hunch....
Ernst Stravro Blofeld, chairman of S.P.E.C.T.R.E., and the man he put in charge of the hijack operation who is hiding the bombs in the Bahamas (a shock, right?), Emilio Largo, are soon to learn their perfect plot can be knocked askew by one good-looking Englishman with a lot of moxie and one pissed-off prostitute who had a ne’er-do-well pilot brother! Domino and Bond are going to do their worst against Largo. Will the duo find the bombs? Maybe. Because Felix Leiter has come out of retirement, re-recruited by the CIA, and he joins Team Bond in the search with all of the weight of CIA’s technology behind him - a submarine and a team of scuba divers! Holy Spear Thrust! Water sports are about to make a big splash!
Each book in the Bond series is better than the previous one! Plus, they are just fun to read.
The book, [b:The Battle for Bond: The Genesis of Cinema's Greatest Hero|1384956|The Battle for Bond The Genesis of Cinema's Greatest Hero|Robert Sellers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1183156833l/1384956._SX50_.jpg|1374985], is about the legal free-for-all. Who knew!
Excellent. I’m really getting into Bond. Each book is more revealing of Bond and the world he moves in.
James Bond is endangered by many things including an octopus.
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Not the best of the Fleming novels I've read so far, but still enjoyable. CIA agent Felix Leiter has too large of a role for my taste, and I found the interplay between the two agents glib and unprofessional. For me, Bond works better on his own, both on film and in the novels. Fleming did manage to make the underwater scenes compelling, which is a major shortcoming of the film. As always, Fleming's wonderful attention to detail makes it worth reading, and his obvious fascination with the oceanic environment is believable.