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Which Bond novel are you currently reading?

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  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    Posts: 4,474
    And so on to On Her Majesty's Secret Service

    Not one i've read as much as some of the others. But straight back into loving it again!

    Bond has more of a sense of humour in this, so perhaps Fleming was inspired by how Connery played his character..? Several times he fantasises about Kicking Irma Bunt up her enormous behind!

    I also like the fact that Bond doesn't much like his mission. First his irritability at going to the College of Arms and then his unease at having to go undercover as Sir Hilary Bray.

    I must say with regard to Irma Bunt, the filmmakers got her casting absolutely spot on with Ilse Steppat. It's like she was ripped from the pages of the book!

    Up to the bit where Bond is about to have his cover nearly blown when a fellow agent is caught trespassing at Piz Gloria.

    Wonderful stuff!
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,964
    Controversial opinion: Steppat is better than Lotte Lenya. I love how remorseless Steppat stays throughout.
  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    Posts: 4,474
    And continuing with On Her Majesty's Secret Service

    Bond's exhilarating escape from Piz Gloria is marvellous writing by Fleming! The chapter title is Bloody Snow! Bond is suffering from exhaustion when he reaches the village of Samaden. With SPECTRE agents closing in he is 'rescued' by Tracy. During their escape by road Bond switches a road sign, causing their pursuers to careen over the edge of a precipice.

    Back in England Bond is ruining everybody's Christmas day after his shenanigans and close escape from Piz Gloria. Mary Goodnight is happy to assist as she detests Turkey and Plum Pudding! (Anyone ever had Plum Pudding..?)

    Bond has Christmas dinner at M's place, where we learn M's hobby is painting watercolours and he thinks Christmas is 'sentimental rubbish' blasting Mrs Hammond for putting Christmas crackers on the dinner table! He also serves some 'very bad Algerian wine' according to Bond!

    Then we get the engrossing chapter when 501-head of scientific research section and the minister of agriculture turn up and the four men go over what they think Blofeld is up to. Chemical Warfare! Which Fleming goes into fascinating detail about.

    Next up Bond knows what Draco can give him for a wedding present!

  • RevelatorRevelator
    Posts: 2,986
    The prelude to the escape from Piz Gloria is one of the most suspensful scenes in all of Fleming. Even if one has already seen the film, the book version is just different enough to create suspense. Bond has to aquire all the supplies he needs before leaving Piz Gloria, or else he won't survive, but he knows his cover is nearly blown and Blofeld will send agents to capture him at any moment. This creates nervewracking tension.

    While I regard the film as superior to the book, and I like that it gives us a scene where Bond and Blofeld get to drop their covers and talk directly to each other, the film doesn't have a scene with as much suspense as the start of Bond's escape from Piz Gloria.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,964
    Revelator wrote: »
    The prelude to the escape from Piz Gloria is one of the most suspensful scenes in all of Fleming. Even if one has already seen the film, the book version is just different enough to create suspense. Bond has to aquire all the supplies he needs before leaving Piz Gloria, or else he won't survive, but he knows his cover is nearly blown and Blofeld will send agents to capture him at any moment. This creates nervewracking tension.

    While I regard the film as superior to the book, and I like that it gives us a scene where Bond and Blofeld get to drop their covers and talk directly to each other, the film doesn't have a scene with as much suspense as the start of Bond's escape from Piz Gloria.

    It is strange how little Bond and Blofeld interact before YOLT.
  • CrabKeyCrabKey
    Posts: 2,230
    Never Send Flowers -- Do send flowers. This novel is dead on arrival.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,910
    CrabKey wrote: »
    Never Send Flowers -- Do send flowers. This novel is dead on arrival.

    Do you offend the house of Dragonpol? It's (obviously) one of my favourites. :)

    Would like to hear more about why you don't like it though?
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    edited September 6 Posts: 7,805
    Reading YOLT atm, very intruiging first chapters. Dikko though, what a character :)) :)) Can't imagine someone saying that kind of stuff out loud today 😳
  • CrabKeyCrabKey
    Posts: 2,230
    @Dragonpol - My problem begins with the fact that Gardner has never impressed me. Amis felt far more authentic. A lot of conversation, especially between M and Bond, doesn't sound natural. Gardner makes too many references to contemporary culture. The name Flicka doesn't roll off the off the tongue and the reference to the book, film, or series strikes me as odd. The villain, his story, and his dastardly deeds don't work for me. The ending, who it involves and where, is fantasyland stuff. Yes, Bond stories are always preposterous, but this fairytale doesn't work for me on any level. And Captain Bond certainly doesn't work. Like Flicka, it's awkward.
  • Reflsin2bourbonsReflsin2bourbons
    Posts: 516
    I very much agree with respect to M and Bond in Gardner's work. M feels constantly at odds with Bond vs Fleming's M that sometimes had periods of warmth.

    Even when Fleming's M was at odds with Bond, I never got the opinion of M being crusty or grumpy for no reason as Gardner's M often seemed to be. Add on the fact he never seems particularly competent during Gardner's run and M is probably one of Gardner's biggest missteps.
  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    Posts: 4,474
    Just reading The Spy Who Loved Me for only the second time. It's flowing along nicely.

    Our heroine Vivienne Michel is a French/Canadian from Quebec. The society she was brought up in, refer to themselves as, 'Canadiennes' and they apparently refer to American immigrants as 'Les Americains' a term of contempt..!
  • RevelatorRevelator
    edited September 17 Posts: 2,986
    Fleming also notes how snobbish and self-involved Québécois high society was, which probably didn't earn him many fans there but sounds accurate. TSWLM is an endlessly fascinating book as far as I'm concerned, since its first-person narration allows Fleming to merge his personality with Vivienne's and engage in what an unfriendly critic called "literary transvestism." I would say that Fleming overall does a good job writing from a female perspective, aside from that notorious "all women love..." line, which is likely a failed generalization about common sex fantasies.
  • LeighBurneLeighBurne
    Posts: 102
    Just finished off Dr. No. This is the first Bond novel I don’t unreservedly love.

    I’ve always thought the first five Bond books are uniformly excellent, but later on Fleming got a bit more hit-and-miss; the good ones are excellent, but the others are definitely a bit weaker. The bulk of Dr. No is definitely up to Fleming’s usual standard, but for me it just gets a bit silly towards the end. I love the torture assault course but the giant squid is a bit too much. Still a good read but I don’t find it up to the same level as what came previously.
  • LucknFateLucknFate 007 In New York
    Posts: 2,174
    Oh the squid is so Bondian to me! You wouldn't have the snakes, crocs, sharks, or piranhas in the movies if Fleming hadn't put the squid in Dr. No! It's so Bond!
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,675
    I'm sort of in a constant state of reading Octopussy, the short story, and will continue to be once my Folio arrives :) I have a dream of filming a 1:1 adaption of the short story, so I love reading it and letting it continue to create cinema in my mind, until the day I'm able to translate it to celluloid.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,964
    OP is the best short story.
  • RevelatorRevelator
    edited September 19 Posts: 2,986
    NickTwentyTwo wrote: »
    I'm sort of in a constant state of reading Octopussy...I have a dream of filming a 1:1 adaption of the short story

    Have you read the Daily Express comic strip of OP? It's definitely not a straight adaptation but still incorporates a good deal of the original story into the action stuff, and does so pretty well. The same can be said for the Express version of TSWLM.

  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,675
    Happy to see the love for OP! @Revelator I will definitely check those out! Thanks for the information!
  • SomethingThatAteHimSomethingThatAteHim
    Posts: 617
    Got around to With a Mind to Kill. While it never reaches the highs of the first third or so of Forever and a Day, I think it’s probably the strongest overall of the three Horowitz novels. It’s the least Fleming-y one to me, but maybe that ended up being a strength that he tried less and less to do a pastiche as his triptych went along. Though not hugely satisfying, I respect the abrupt ambiguity of the ending here.

    Overall Horowitz’s novels were enjoyable reads, but probably not ones I revisit as I do the Fleming originals. Competently written, no doubt, but they lack spark.
  • DEKE_RIVERSDEKE_RIVERS
    Posts: 2,379
    Revelator wrote: »
    NickTwentyTwo wrote: »
    I'm sort of in a constant state of reading Octopussy...I have a dream of filming a 1:1 adaption of the short story

    Have you read the Daily Express comic strip of OP? It's definitely not a straight adaptation but still incorporates a good deal of the original story into the action stuff, and does so pretty well. The same can be said for the Express version of TSWLM.

    I love the adaptation of The Hildebrand Rarity. There's a movie there.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,675
    SomethingThatAteHim wrote: »
    Got around to With a Mind to Kill. While it never reaches the highs of the first third or so of Forever and a Day, I think it’s probably the strongest overall of the three Horowitz novels. It’s the least Fleming-y one to me, but maybe that ended up being a strength that he tried less and less to do a pastiche as his triptych went along. Though not hugely satisfying, I respect the abrupt ambiguity of the ending here.

    Overall Horowitz’s novels were enjoyable reads, but probably not ones I revisit as I do the Fleming originals. Competently written, no doubt, but they lack spark.

    I enjoyed With A Mind to Kill, and I loved the ending personally! Really cool, descriptive novel throughout.
  • DaltonforyouDaltonforyou The Daltonator
    Posts: 904
    LeighBurne wrote: »
    Just finished off Dr. No. This is the first Bond novel I don’t unreservedly love.

    I’ve always thought the first five Bond books are uniformly excellent, but later on Fleming got a bit more hit-and-miss; the good ones are excellent, but the others are definitely a bit weaker. The bulk of Dr. No is definitely up to Fleming’s usual standard, but for me it just gets a bit silly towards the end. I love the torture assault course but the giant squid is a bit too much. Still a good read but I don’t find it up to the same level as what came previously.

    Agreed, Fleming's first five are terrific, I don't enjoy the first half of FRWl as much as I do the second, but still a solid read. Dr. No is a bit too silly toward the end. I think like the Movies, the first halves of Bond novels are better than the second, more often than not.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,805
    Rereading the Fleming novels and I'm halfway. I just finished YOLT and I absolutely loved it. Great atmosphere and a touch of the macabre as well. Contrary to the movies, a proper Blofeld demise as well.

    Rankings so far:
    1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service 10/10
    2. From Russia with Love 10/10
    3. You Only Live Twice 9/10
    4. Casino Royale 8/10
    5. Moonraker 7/10
    6. The Man with the Golden Gun 6/10
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,675
    Interesting order! YOLT is my favourite!
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 15,369
    Reading CR. Some names pop out, such as 'DaSilva'; 'Fawcett'.
  • Reflsin2bourbonsReflsin2bourbons
    Posts: 516
    A lot of characters from Kim Sherwood's novels take their name from that long file bit in Casino Royale.

    CR also introduces the idea of a chap who heads the 00 section, but the idea is never brought up again. Perhaps slightly more realistic for him to exist on a day-to-day basis, but M I think simply had to be used for scale reasons
  • LeighBurneLeighBurne
    Posts: 102
    Onto Goldfinger, having briefly diverted with “From a View to a Kill”, which I’ve always thought slips nicely between that and Dr. No; I like to try and spread the short stories out when I’m going through the Fleming novels.

    Only about a third of the way through, but has any of the films improved on the novel as much as Goldfinger did when they modified Auric’s ultimate plot?
  • ColonelAdamskiColonelAdamski UK
    edited September 21 Posts: 1,186
    The first chapters of Goldfinger are amongst my very favourite Fleming reading. I think I read somewhere it was originally a short story, which ended where Bond foils Auric's card cheat plan.
  • LeighBurneLeighBurne
    Posts: 102
    ColonelAdamski wrote: »
    The first chapters of Goldfinger are amongst my very favourite Fleming reading. I think I read somewhere it was originally a short story, which ended where Bond foils Auric's card cheat plan.

    I think I recall hearing that too. Certainly works as a stand-alone story.
  • ColonelAdamskiColonelAdamski UK
    edited September 21 Posts: 1,186
    On my most recent re-read, I was left a little none-plussed by the second half of Goldfinger. Even though the start is so strong, I f\think I found it meanders a little, and I ended up putting it towards the bottom of my rankings. I did wonder if the Goldfinger book suffered a little from it having been a short story, extended into a full length novel.
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