Author: John Gardner
I love audiobooks. They’re especially good for thick classics that are too intimidating to read (like anything by Faulkner). I listen to them in my car and it’s amazing how they change the way you drive. Suddenly stoplights, instead of being an aggravation, are a delight, because they mean you get to hear more of the story! I normally make it a point to only buy unabridged audiobooks, but every now and then I’ll try a popular book, just for fun. This one was cheap, and it’s a James Bond thriller, and I love James Bond. The book, however, was forgetable. An airplane’s brought down by a bomb and Bond is sent to investigate — but it turns out that has nothing to do with the plot of the book! We’re vaguely told later who did the bombing, but it’s confusing and lame. There’s no real excitement to anything. Bond is rather feeble and human, unlike the Bond of the movies (whom I prefer) — he walks right into the lion’s den and gets attacked (and seems surprised). The worst aspect of the book for me was that this Bond is back to his old tricks, sleeping with every woman he meets, but the author, instead of just letting these one-night stands be one-night stands, describes the love scenes as though Bond is really falling in love each time. So we’re supposed to feel sympathy or something when the woman turns out to be a criminal, or gets killed by the bad guys. Lame, very lame. I’ve read some of the original Ian Fleming novels and liked them (though they are very different from the movies). This book has reminded me that no one does it better than Fleming. I shan’t bother with another non-Fleming Bond book.
