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A review by andrew_j_r
Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming
3.0
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Well, the first thing to say is that, other than the title and some character names, this book bears no resemblance to the James Bond movie that was allegedly based upon it.
And it's a good read. Once again I could see Connery when I was reading the book (simply because of the historical setting - I found myself on Google to get pictures of the planes he flew on because I had never heard of them, for example the Boeing Monarch!) but this would also work in the more recent set of films.
The opening, which is about diamonds being smuggled out of Sierra Leone onto the black market, resembles the story movie goers will know but after that it's all about Bond infiltrating an American mob to find out where the diamonds are going, I especially enjoyed the segments around the race track - there is a jockey who deliberately throws a race, and you know that his fate will be pretty horrible.
And that's why this book works - there are real consequences for real people that get involved in all of this. Make this into a movie now, starring Daniel Craig, and people would moan that as a movie it was not as good as the original. Which is a shame, as it's actually a far better story.
27.3.23. ⭐️⭐️⭐️Don’t agree with my previous comments. Found the book slow and tedious until pretty much the last five or six chapters. It took forever for Bond to do nothing, the book only got going once he was ambushed in Vegas. From that point it was good but it took way too long to get there and then the final shutdown of the railroad was too quick.
And it's a good read. Once again I could see Connery when I was reading the book (simply because of the historical setting - I found myself on Google to get pictures of the planes he flew on because I had never heard of them, for example the Boeing Monarch!) but this would also work in the more recent set of films.
The opening, which is about diamonds being smuggled out of Sierra Leone onto the black market, resembles the story movie goers will know but after that it's all about Bond infiltrating an American mob to find out where the diamonds are going, I especially enjoyed the segments around the race track - there is a jockey who deliberately throws a race, and you know that his fate will be pretty horrible.
And that's why this book works - there are real consequences for real people that get involved in all of this. Make this into a movie now, starring Daniel Craig, and people would moan that as a movie it was not as good as the original. Which is a shame, as it's actually a far better story.
27.3.23. ⭐️⭐️⭐️Don’t agree with my previous comments. Found the book slow and tedious until pretty much the last five or six chapters. It took forever for Bond to do nothing, the book only got going once he was ambushed in Vegas. From that point it was good but it took way too long to get there and then the final shutdown of the railroad was too quick.