Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/01/11/ian-flemings-james-bond-nove.html
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Several Bond Books, at least on Kindle Unlimited, include free Audible narration.
These are the “Ian Fleming Publications” editions, reversing some of the edits made over the years.
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I read all the Fleming Bond books as a teenager. I really enjoyed them.
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Me too. I’ve seen very few of the movies, but loved reading the books. Still have all the Ian Fleming books I collected at used books stores in my youth. Unfortunately, few, if any, of the post-Fleming Bond books come close to be as fun to read…
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These are really excellent pulp writing.
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Perfect way to describe these books.
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Many of the movies are ruined by Bond being too much of a smug smartass, playing for laughs. Flemings’ Bond was never like that. Daniel Craig’s more gritty portrayal comes closest to Flemings’ vision in my view. Connery is also good, of course - but too self confident. Moore was a disaster. Dalton and Brosnan somewhere in the middle. Lazenby? I don’t know what to say. Not the worst movie, though.
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Don’t expect an enlightened depiction of women.
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If you’ve seen the movies, but have not read the books, the books may surprise you: book Bond is quite different from movie Bond.
In Moonraker (the book), for example, we learn that Bond spends most of his time at his desk back at headquarters, writing tedious reports, worrying about whether he will have enough money when he retires (assuming he survives the field missions), and having “rather cold and passionless affairs with married women” (memory check on the exact quote).
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Having read some of the books I liked Dalton’s portrayal a lot at the time, I’d put him #3. He was a serious actor and I think he would have gone more Craig if they’d let him, but the franchise was so cheesy then that he could only pull so far in that direction, and he did.
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What? Those were novels, not military nonfiction??
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Or anyone who’s not a white Englishman.
I’d never even heard of the term “chigro” before reading Dr No…
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Excellent point. Dalton was definitely a step in the right direction.
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Thanks for the tip, I’ve been meaning to fill the holes in my set
Like many here, I read the books as a teenager, having seen at least a couple of the films first. I liked the book Bond, rougher and a lot dumber than the movie Bond. It was when I first realized that just because a book and a movie have the same name and characters, what comes out of a screenplay isn’t necessary what’s written on the page.
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Yeah. I’ve read all of the original novels, and mostly enjoyed them, but I’ve gotta say, the movies certainly have had their problems with non-white people and women, but it’s rather worse in the books.
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Except for founding the Taliban in The Living Daylights.
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Time get started on them, I guess. Kinda weird that the movies are such an established franchise in their own right, with the source often being overlooked.
FWIW, my favortite Bond is actually Moore, I like the campy and somewhat silly style. Also, he seems to be in the spy business only because he’d be bored otherwise. Dalton is a close second. Very different style, but I just adore him in general (go watch Penny Dreadful if you haven’t already). Brosnan suffered from a slew of weak movies, but he wasn’t terrible. Craig really grew into the role. I wasn’t too convinced at first, but he was great in Skyfall and Spectre. Connery is of course the original, but somehow I never connected to him very much. Lazenby? Stop making up words, no such thing.
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I find that his amused, flippant air makes the occasions when he suddenly reveals the dead-eyed killer beneath all the more effective: e.g., the bit in For Your Eyes Only where he coldly and deliberately kicks the car containing a Belgian assassin off the edge of a cliff. And possibly my favourite part in any Bond movie is his desperate attempt to get to and defuse a nuclear bomb in its final moments before detonation in Octopussy. (I was going to accuse Octopussy of nicking the plot of The Fourth Protocol, but a quick Wikipedia check revealed that Forsyth’s novel came out the year after the Bond film.)
Disappointed that no one has as yet given their judgement on the Bond-ranking of:
- David Niven
- Barry Nelson
- Bob Holness.
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