Classic Flemming

Absolutely brilliant read. I'd swear it was written by the great man himself. Every credit to AH

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Good book - wrong reader

Where does Trigger Mortis rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Fairly low down as the reader could not hold my attention with his inability to pronounce certain words correctly, and his overly precious way of attempting to build up tension by reading louder and faster

What other book might you compare Trigger Mortis to, and why?

Thunderball

How could the performance have been better?

Simply the wrong person to be asked to read this book. This is a book written in English by an English author about a British hero. Why, therefore, is it read by as if by an American with no understanding of correct pronunciation of English words and certain foreign terms and cities?

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00h. My Word...It’s Not My Bond

Good. But too slow. And I don’t mean the plot. This story is way better than many other post Fleming attempts at Bond but not a patch on Horowitz’s second Bond novel, Forever and a Day. That was superb. That was helped in audio form by Matthew Goode’s classy reading.
David Oyelowo is a great film actor but often that’s not a guarantee of a good reader. He just fails to deliver. His performance is not helped by Audible, which I am certain downloaded this book at a too slow a rate. Run this recording st 1.25x and it sounds far better and more like Oyelowo. So, no spoilers here. I’ll just say it’s great but no Morlands Filter tip. Listen to Forever and a Day for true class and a much tighter, gripping story. Makes me think. Whilst Phoebe Waller Bridge is a good call to jazz up the script for the next Bond movie why isn’t Anthony Horowitz involved. I’m assuming the man whose written some of the best scripts over the past two decades was asked and said no.

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Very enjoyable.

A bit slow to start but picked up pace. Reminded me of Reacher at points (a good thing).

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Good mimic

Anthony Horowitz is an excellent mimic of other people's styles. I really enjoyed House of Silk which was his Sherlock Holmes follow on. He definitely captured Conan Doyle's way of writing.

I think therefore, that I don't like Bond, or perhaps Fleming. I didn't like this book as much. But there are some good action sequences which are exciting.

David Oyelowo narrates the fast paced action sequences amazingly, really gets you gripped, but you have to struggle through the first hour and a half of deep, growly, laconic laziness in his speech, which makes it sound like he is half drunk or asleep. I have watched a number of things with David in, and never heard him speak like that before. Perhaps he thought it suited the book?

Ok, but as we know, not a particular nod towards feminism!

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8 people found this helpful

Narrator not great

If the narrator doesn’t understand some of the words, why do they never ASK? Surely better to ask than to look an idiot by mispronouncing things. It happens too often in audiobooks. In this case: claret and detritus, among many others.

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1 person found this helpful

A Passable Story, a Poor Narrator

The story itself is passable - I'd put it in the 'slightly above average' category as far as Bond continuation novels go and - in his finer moments - Horowitz's occasionally succeeds in evoking something of Fleming's characteristic prose. However, as many others have noted, the audiobook version is seriously diminished by the - frankly - tedious delivery of the narrator. A certain degree of verbal languidness suits Bond nicely but, when you actually sound half-asleep, I think you've probably taken it too far. If he's ever providing his voice to a Bond novel again: somebody please get him a coffee first!

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Very authentic Bond

Sounded just like an original. The style, story and casual sexism were perfectly in Fleming's voice. The only problem was the voice narrating. Many others complained about the narrator being flat and disinterested but for me mispronouncing many words such as chassis, telemetry and chamois were pretty unforgivable.

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1D

I love James Bond stories, however this one is a little one dimensional. The story moves far too slowly. There are far better James Bond stories on audible.

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Terrible narration

Sounds like an eighties Hollywood film trailer. "Just when you thought it was safe" Had to give up it was so bad.

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