Bond, James Bond. I have probably watched every movie multiple times, and at this time of year, my husband and I enjoy watching the Daniel Craig films on Saturday nights. My husband is a huge fan of Craig as Bond but will watch the Pierce Brosnan and Roger Moore installments of the franchise. My dad, on the other hand, will only watch those original films starring Sean Connery as 007. As a teen, he ushered at a fancy movie house in downtown Chicago and got to watch the first few movies while at ...

An improvement, for the most part, on the predecessors, especially in how it handled the female lead as an actual person with a complex backstory and motivations and brought Bond back to the basics of using his wits and ingenuity to uncover the identities and operations of a ring of diamond smugglers stretching from Freetown to London to New York and all the way to trendy Las Vegas, Nevada and surrounds. No SMERSH, no national security angle, no cartoonish plots to get revenge on Britain for WWI...

Book four in the James Bond series. This is a funny series really, four books in and you think we'd be starting to know Bond a bit better by now however there's no character development here, Bond is as surface level as he was in book one.  It's been said a million times, these books are a product of their time, women and race are handled very badly. That aside there is something very readable about these books. I will continue to pick these books up as and when I want a lighter read. Three star...

Has Bond gone soft?That's what she said.The Bond girl, Tiffany Case, feels more like a real human woman and James treats her as such. Bond likes her, respects her, and because he has information about a trauma in her past actually treats her with kid gloves.He even takes the time to think about what it would mean to her if they slept together!WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH JAMES?!Don't get me wrong, I liked it.Mostly. We also get a more badass Bond.While the movies show him as a slick f...

This is my 90th book of the year thus completing my reading challenge. Unlike my 300th read of all time, this one wasn't a massive steaming pile. Oh Evelyn Hardcastle, how you keep appearing in my reviews I'll never know. When I started reading this novel I instantly thought "Why didn't they make a movie of this one?" Well they did and it's in the top 5 worst. Seeing as this is only my second dive into the world of Bond books I'm not much of a judge, but I did like it more than Casino Royale (ev...

The Ian Fleming James Bond books are just one of the series that I undertook to start and finish in this calendar year. Diamonds are Forever is the fourth of the series published in 1956. The year is relevant because it can not be judged (IMHO) with a modern eye nor a modern ear. These books must be judged in the context of their historical milieu. It is more than 65 years old. Are these books misogynistic and racially insensitive? To a modern reader, quite possibly, but bear in mind it was publ...

Having just finished reading Raymond Benson's excellent thriller The Hook and the Eye, which is set just before Ian Fleming's Diamonds are Forever, I thought this was the logical thing to read next!In the opening chapter of Diamonds Are Forever Ian Fleming describes how a scorpion kills a beetle & it's a wonderfully detailed piece of writing, typical of the marvellous prose that he writes so well.This time M sends James Bond undercover as a diamond smuggler & 007 is soon up against some ...

(A-) 81% | Very Good
Notes: James Bond fights evil American capitalists, escapes by road, air, rail and sea, and has his profanities bleeped in-text.

James Bond vs. the American Mafia. James Bond's beloved M gives him the assignment to destroy a diamond pipeline. In going after the diamond smugglers, Bond travels to America and is paired up with a woman working for the diamond smugglers - one Tiffany Case. He travels to New York City, Saratoga Springs, and then to Las Vegas....The book, as so many Bond books do, focuses heavily on gambling. We have copious amounts of, not only card playing, but horse racing in this novel. If this bores you, I...

If I were a woman, I might conduct a séance, and then throttle the spirit of Ian Fleming. He’s not a bad guy, mind you, but just once, I’d like to see a female character give James Bond a run for his money. So far I’m still waiting for a return on my initial investment. And I know this is one investment that probably won’t pan out, but I can still hold onto a faint glimmer of false hope.Vesper Lynd did come close, but she ultimately failed when paired next to Bond’s wit and charm. Tiffany Case, ...