Best Bond books
stumac7
ScotlandPosts: 295MI6 Agent
I have only read a few bond books over the years - Moonraker, Goldfinger and No Deals Mr Bond.
I was wondering what everyones top 5 books would be as I would like to start reading some of the better books.
I was wondering what everyones top 5 books would be as I would like to start reading some of the better books.
Comments
- From Russia With Love - a great thriller, good plot, excellent detail and an all round great novel. Definitely my favourite Bond novel.
- Casino Royale - where it all began!! Another great novel. Short, quick read but great attention to detail and a really brutal torture scene, and not to forget the great baccarat game.
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service - the second book in the blofeld trilogy, and another great page turner. One of Fleming's best plots and the Bond love story with the most tragic, but brilliant ending of them all.
- Moonraker - a solid thriller. Another good card game and great description of the UK. Great villain as well.
- Thunderball - a Bond novel of the cinematic mould, very exciting and gripping. I love the scenes set at Shrublands health spa.
May I encourage you to read more Fleming novels. They really are terrific!!
Casino Royale: For the pure and simple fact that this was the worlds introduction to Bond....James Bond.
You Only Live Twice: This one is where Bond venges the death of his beloved wife, and damn near dies trying leaving him in a temperary handicap. Plus one of the other things I greatly enjoyed about this book was the history it presented of the Japanese people. Very intresting and a very good read.
Goldfinger: One of the greatest plots of any Bond Book/Movie IMHO. I loved the golfing sequence. How Bond gets involved with Goldfinger (from Mr. Du Pont who he sits next to during the Baccara game in CR).
On Her Majesty's Secret Service: For the pure and simple fact that Bond gets married. The book is just excellent. Great fun to read.
Thunderball/Moonraker: My fifth book is a split. I love Thunderball because of the plot, the rehibilitation center sequence and of course Domino. It a great read.
I love Moonraker for the plot and the card game, again, another great for Bond.
I also enjoyed The Man with the Golden Gun. The first few chapters when Bond tries to kill M after mysteriously reappearing after a year of bieng MIA and presumed KIA (TMWTGG follows YOLT). Unfortunatly while the book is well written, it is sort of a lack luster.
Then I would strongly recommend you read more of Ian Fleming's books. Among which I would rank Moonraker and Goldfinger as the best, followed very closely by From Russia With Love, Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service. But reading them all in order would be the way to go.
1. Moonraker -- The story is brilliant. The scene at Blades alone is worth reading the book for. Fleming really hit his creative stride in this one. This is the book where he truly developed his style.
2. Dr. No -- Rousing high adventure complete with giant squid!
3. From Russia With Love -- This book lacks the action of some of the others, but the character-driven story is brilliant. It's truly a thriller in the classic sense of the word.
4. You Only Live Twice -- It's a very strange tale, which is why I like it. The imagery -- Ernst Stavro Blofeld walking around his garden of killer plants in a suit of armor -- is pretty surreal!
5 Live and Let Die -- While the story is certainly rough in many spots, I nevertheless enjoyed it's tale of gangsters and hidden treasure.
I have just bought Dr No, FRWL and HMSS books, but quite fancy reading them in order, can anyone tell me what the order is? ( all I know is that it starts with Casino royale).
cheers
-Casino Royale
-Live And Let Die
-Moonraker
-Diamonds Are Forever
-From Russia With Love
-Dr. No
-Goldfinger
-For Your Eyes Only
-Thunderball
-The Spy Who Loved Me
-On Her Majesty's Secret Service
-You Only Live Twice
-The Man With The Golden Gun
-Octopussy and The Living Daylights
I spent 2006 reading them all in order, and I recommend this activity to anyone and everyone...but especially my good friend Mr. Dan Same
My favourite is OHMSS---which also was the first one I ever read. Fleming at his absolute best.
Rounding out my list of five favourites would be CR, MR, FRWL and DN...but I love them all...
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I seem to remember TMWTGG being the best when I read them before because of the atmosphere it built up.
I keep changing my favourites - DN and DAF have superb female characters, nearly all have got great villains, and the plots are all terrific.
Another strength is the consistency of Bond's character throughout the books.
I am going to read them in order and my next one will be 'diamonds are forever'.
can't wait to get to 'from russia with love' mind you.
I don't see what's so bad about Diamonds Are Forever, to be honest - I quite enjoyed reading that book.
The Spy Who Loved Me is possibly the weakest of the Fleming novels, but it is also possibly because of the radical differences in the way that it was written. It was a bore to begin with, but once they start getting the gangsters involved, it picks up its pace.
I wouldn't give it a miss. Just like any other series there are good books and bad books - take the good as well as the bad.
I enjoy them all, but for me...
Moonraker... Dinner At Blades is the most awesome chapter of ANY book ('cept any book of the Bible!)
OHMSS... Not only does Bond fine and lose love, it's a masterpiece!
From Russia With Love... suspenseful and Darko Kerim is a great ally
Tied: Live and Let Die / Diamonds Are Forever... Bond and Leiter's interactions with each other are priceless and Fleming's descriptions of locations are outstanding.
But read them all in order
I agree. Missing any Fleming, on purpose, would be a real shame, IMRO...
I enjoy the book of DAF more than perhaps most people here; there's still a wealth of unmined diamonds (
As for TSWLM: yes, it's undeniably the weakest of the novels, but when James Bond shows up---about halfway through---I think it becomes quite riveting and enjoyable.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
But none have equaled Fleming, in my own opinion...
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
For Special Services, Role of Honour, Nobody Lives For Ever, Never Send Flowers, By John Gardner
I won't yet submit a top 5 but I really enjoyed Live and Let Die. I could not put it down near the end of the book. I'm happy to see it didnt make it's way onto anyones top 5 lists. Why? Well, if I liked it that much and it's not a top 5 novel, it only means I'm going to absolutely love a bunch of the others.
PS Gardner's books were good but so far Fleming blows the doors off of his stuff. Gardner would now only be what I call a nice tribute to Fleming with a continuation of Bonds life.
Live and let die
you only live twice
casino royale
As noted elsewhere,Moonraker is also quite good, and it is with this book that he really establishes the singular style he'll use throughout the rest of his novels.
Goldfinger is definitely worth a reading--as is Dr.No,Fleming's ode to Sax Rohmer.
I heartily recommend Fleming's "Blofeld/SPECTRE Trilogy".It has to be read in this order:Thunderball,OHMSS and You Only Live Twice.
All of Fleming's novels are really worth reading, even those which feature what might be considered "indifferent" plots.For instance,Diamonds Are Forever was the offshot of the extensive research Fleming did for his nonfiction book The Diamond Smugglers(also recommended).
And Fleming was experimenting with his style when he wrote The Spy Who Loved Me.When he wrote The Man With the Golden Gun he was dying(and he didn't live long enough to revise the first draft of this book prior to publishing--this was done by other hands including,according to most reports, Kingsley Amis).
If at all possible,Ian Fleming's novels should be read in the order in which they were written.In this way we see James Bond gradually develop as a character,plus we'll more easily understand the occasional references made to some of 007's previous adventures.
Not all of Fleming's novels were adapted in recognizable fashions by Eon,so there are plenty of surprises awaiting the 007 fans who are largely familiar with James Bond via the movies.As Loeff points out,there's still plenty of material in Fleming's novels that has gone untouched by filmmakers.
Of the non-Ian Fleming Janes Bond novels,I give the highest marks to Kingsley Amis's Colonel Sun.Amis replicates his old friend's writing style in an almost eerie fashion.
Then there are Christopher Wood's two novelizations of his"The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker" screenplays.These are not bald plot outlines like many novelizations are-these are something else altogether, and in my opinion,these books are nothing short of superb.
Wood's books are titled:James Bond-The Spy Who Loved Me, and James Bond and Moonraker.Although each novel resembles the movie it is based on,Wood intentionally reduces their scale and puts Ian Fleming's literary version of James Bond into each storyline-- as opposed to writing Roger Moore's popular interpretation.
Moreover,the villains in each of these books are much more in line with Fleming's own creations.For example,the Hugo Drax of the Wood James Bond and Moonraker novelization ,looks exactly like the Drax of Fleming's original Moonraker novel.Additionally,Wood provides highly detailed origins for both Anya Amasova and Jaws in James Bond-The Spy Who Loved Me.And as Amis did with Colonel Sun,Wood tells these stories in a remarkably close impression of Ian Fleming's own distinctive voice.
In my opinion,Wood's stuff--like Amis's book-- should be read only after having become familiar with Fleming's novels in order for them to be fully appreciated.
My favourite five would have to be:
From Russia With Love
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Live and Let Die
Casino Royale
Thunderball
Other favs not by Fleming would have to be
Colonel Sun
Zero Minus Ten
Licence Renewed
For Special Services
Oh boy! EON missed a lot.. The books are much better than the films, perhaps with the exception of Casino Royale...Although that I would love that the movie script had a lot of the phrases that Bond says in the book...
I'm pleased to say that he's finished that and is now on DAF. Admittedly, his course has been initially the films then the Titan comic books and only now the novels but he's getting there!
Picture Butch the dog from Tom & Jerry:
"That's ma boy!" {[]
All the Fleming novels are worth a read. Some are better than others: for me Live and Let Die and Diamonds Are Forever are weaker entries. The 'best'—by which I mean my personal favourites—are From Russia with Love, Moonraker and above all You Only Live Twice.
You Only Live Twice is risky, bold and imaginative. The novel is the most important of the Bond series; moreso than even On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It represents the depth of the downward spiral that Bond goes through from the beginning, to the point that in the second chapter Bond is in the grip of abject depression. We see Bond at his most interesting, and Fleming seems to have thoroughly enjoyed putting his character through the grinder. We have a vulnerable Bond throughout; at first due to the loss of his wife as a result of his previous mission and then at being a gaijin in a society he does not understand. It is not a vulnerability in the traditionak sense but more an uncertainty about his life, his work and, indeed, his abilities.
The other characters are amongst Fleming's best drawn. Dikko Henderson, the brash Australian, has a good claim to be one of Bond's best allies. Tiger Tanaka, whom Fleming uses as an example of and statement on Japanese society, gives the piece some added depth. And Kissy Suzuki, who does not appear until around half way through the book, makes an indelible impression. As so often in You Only Live Twice, part of her strength is simply that she is so interesting and unconventional; and her actions at the end of the novel suggest that she is more than capable of getting what she wants.
Fleming drenches the entire piece in a sumptuous atmosphere, partcularly through the use of the Japanese locale. One really gets a sense that Fleming was enthused while writing You Only Live Twice, so richly and vividly does he infuse the novel with Japanese culture and character. It is almost as if Fleming was aware of the bizarre nature of what he was writing and really pushed the envelope. The Garden of Death. Toad sweat. The geyser in the Question Room. Yes, by the end events take a most wonderfully weird and warped turn that the novel could certainly be described as Fleming's most interesting and daring.
I wont spoil the end but so meticulous is the plotting and build-up that the reader is gripped from page one, while being absorbed by the atmosphere Fleming evokes and the prose that ensures You Only Live Twice is a classic in any sense of the term. His writing is truly magnificent, and what some other commentators have described as the 'Fleming sweep' is discernable throughout the passages. There are times when he is quite simply poetic with a use of words that elevates it above a lot of other thrillers: this is the portrait of a broken man's recovery.
As far as non-Fleming books go, the one I would recommend most highly is Colonel Sun. That novel is, for me, completely different from anything Fleming wrote and not Flemingesque in style or tone. It is, however, a very well-written Bond adventure which grips the reader until the very end. Kingsley Amis successfully drenches the novel with darkly rich atmosphere. Greece emerges almost as a character on its own so vividly does the author illustrate its scenery and the feeling of being there. The reader is never left with the illusion that it is a pleasant country, at best it is portrayed as a second-rate backward-looking nation of xenophobic proles. Instead, one gains the impression that this is a once great country that has fallen into its state by the fault of its own people. 'There is something to be said for the view that the Parthenon is best seen from a distance,' Amis writes, for the simple fact that the shoddy restoration work (in comparison, the author details, with the Germans or the Americans) is masked. But inside those magnificently tall columns exists a dead world, mcuh more than 'rows of antique marble'. The best thrillers embody a sense of place, which Colonel Sun undoubtedly does.
In Adriane Alexandrou the Bond series has one of its most interesting heroines. Here is a Bond girl who is fiercely independent, crafty and a fighter, but not to the point where she becomes an irritating 'equal'. She possesses different qualities and faults than Bond, and exhibits many feminine characteristics. Could she, though, be the first Bond girl to utter the word 'bitch'? Throughout it is clear why Bond falls for her, why he is captivated by her sense of loyalty and her bravery. Truthfully, she is not really heroic in any meaningful sense of the word, but she is a most memorable companion of 007. Colonel Sun Liang-tan is a fascinating foe, an outstanding character about whom the reader is left wanting to know more. A believer in pure torture, he inflicts upon Bond perhaps the most violent scene in any Bond novel (moreso, even, than in Casino Royale). The pain endured, we learn, is almost indescribable. However, as a mark of the Amis' literary erudition, Sun regrets his actions. He tortured Bond in order to feel like god but pleads for forgiveness, feeling sick and guilty and having realised the despicability of his behaviour. This is rather deep for the genre, but is a development that recommends Colonel Sun highly.
Again I don't want to ruin the ending but it is bitter-sweet. Succinctly we gain a deep insight into the lives these characters lead; their lack of freedom, their constrictions. We are left in no doubt that Bond and Ariadne's time together will be limited (her decision), nicely setting up the next 'Robert Markham' adventure which, sadly, was not to materialise.
Insightful YOLT thoughts, too, Lazenby880: I agree that it's Fleming's deepest novel but can I add that it's my feeling that his own situation (health problems, legal problems, leading to possible reactive depression) coloured his writing in this case?
It is indeed unfortunate that Amis did not continue after Colonel Sun as it is a dark and melancholy thriller which captures the Greek atmosphere. Again, different from Fleming but utterly brilliant in its own right.