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The Spy Who Loved Me (with Interview)
- Narrated by: Rosamund Pike
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
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The Spy Who Loved Me (with Interview)
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Summary
When 007 turns up at a sleepy American backwoods motel, it doesn’t take him long to realise that Vivienne Michel is in a tight spot, and that Sol Horror and Sluggsy Morant are hardened killers bent on destruction. Escaping from a past she doesn’t want to relive, Viv turns to James Bond to save her.
Includes an exclusive bonus interview with Rosamund Pike.
Ian Fleming was born in London in 1908. He was educated at Eton and worked as a journalist in Moscow and a banker and stockbroker in London before becoming personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence during the Second World War. He wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952 at Goldeneye, his home in Jamaica. Since then James Bond has gone on to become a global phenomenon.
Rosamund Pike is a contemporary and multifaceted actress who has earned international acclaim for both her stage and film roles. She is soon to take the lead as Amy Dunne in the highly anticipated big screen adaptation of Gone Girl, and will also star in the upcoming BBC comedy What We Did On Our Holiday. She recently starred in Hector and The Search For Happiness and Edgar Wright’s The World’s End. Past film credits include Jack Reacher, Wrath Of The Titans, Die Another Day, An Education and Made In Dagenham, among others. On television, Pike has been working on the upcoming re-invention of classic children’s series Thunderbirds Are Go! in which she will voice International Rescue agent Lady Penelope.
Critic reviews
"Ruthlessly, fashionably efficient in both love and war." ( The Times)
"Muscularly brilliant...not for prudes." ( Evening Standard)
"If there’s a better writer of pure thrillers than Fleming, the name escapes me" ( The Boston Globe)
"Mr. Fleming is splendid; he stops at nothing." ( New Statesman)
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What listeners say about The Spy Who Loved Me (with Interview)
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bookman
- 22-11-20
Best narration I have heard in a long time. Wow!
Fantastic performance!!! The writing was 10/10 and the story an 8/10.
One if my favourite books, written from the first person past tense perspective.
This book is written from the perspective of The Bond Girl. (Through her eyes, not Bond.)
I think this is (technically) Ian Flemings best work, and it is incredible that he was able to capture the spirit of the character in such a dramatic way.
I would definitely recommend this book!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. N. W. Boothman
- 20-05-20
Excellent - but make sure you know what to expect
This is not a James Bond adventure, but rather an adventure in which James Bond appears. He turns up in time to play a crucial role in the denouement but the rest of the book is just as interesting...if you're open-minded enough to try out Ian Fleming's idea of writing from a female viewpoint.
I read this book many years ago and liked it a lot more the second time, in audio form, than I did then - partly because I knew what to expect in terms of its structure and partly because of Rosamund Pike's performance. Perhaps she flatters Fleming's writing but he seems to pull off the sad and rather fraught experiences of a single girl in late 1950s / early '60s England pretty well. He certainly writes about America with his familiar mix of expert observation and waspishness.
If you can see past the cartoonish names of the bad guys, you have a couple of chilling villains, but it's the female view of Bond that's we're here for and it's satisfying enough. The pleasant surprise for me was Rosamund Pike's performance of Bond himself: she talks quickly in clipped, matter-of-fact tones that worked very well. She's excellent throughout though, keeping up Viv's Canadian accent consistently well and doing as much with hoodlums' voices as anyone could.
Give it a try for Fleming's writing, and not just the female POV, but his usual strong imagery - ill-feeling from the villains seeping across the room like poison gas - and also for Pike's reading of it. If only all of Audible's Bond books were done this well.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- adrian d peaty
- 13-02-21
Enjoyed it immensely
Loved listening to it. Miss Pike is a great narrator, hope she does more like this.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ryan Fenwick
- 20-04-19
Different but very good
Rosamund Pike as very good at bring the world of The Spy Who Loved Me alive.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Steph H
- 21-01-21
Really different
This is not like the other James Bond stories, it's told from the perspective of the female lead and Bond doesn't enter the story until quite a long way into it.
Having said that it is a really good listen, and makes for an interesting change from the others.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Ashengl
- 08-01-23
Fleming’s view of a female view of Bond
This seems to be Fleming’s attempt to see Bond through the distressed damsel’s point of view and is good fun if nothing like any other Bond book. I don’t know how successful it is but it’s good fun in a forerunner to Reacher sort of way. I’m always surprised how much better Fleming’s books treat their female characters than the movies, and this is no different, albeit with a few horribly dated passages. The only missteps for me, ironically, were the SPECTRE references which felt dull and irrelevant to the story.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- JAMES GODDARD
- 11-03-24
really enjoyed it
It’s nice to hear a James Bond book from the view of someone else. Love to hear about some familiar places in the book like Hotel de Paris in Bray which was converted into flats in 1964. Also a rare ‘mistake’ by reference to ‘Windsor Station’ in which there are two: Windsor and Eton Riverside or Windsor and Eton Central
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mr
- 19-10-13
Not your average Bond
I really like the shift in narrative viewpoint in this first person novel, it confounds your traditional 'Bond' expectations. Fleming was obviously trying to imbue the range with some literary weight and re-energise it. The female perspective is - mostly - very believable and it puts Bond into new territory as it’s a smaller scale adventure which is to its credit.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Stephen
- 05-06-17
not where you want to start
not where you would start if you want to begin reading the Bond books, but an interesting twist in the formula as it's written from the perspective of a woman involved in a Bond caper
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Mike
- 29-01-23
Different ….but worth a listen
Not the usual Bond, in fact Bond doesn’t appear to around half way. The story shows bond from a female perspective which is interesting. I’m glad I listened but there are better Bond books IMO.
Rosamund Pike does a great job of narrating.
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