Devil May Care

Fantastic book, and having only ever watched Bond movies (and being a great fan of them) I was delighted with this book - it was true Bond and with the excellent narration, it almost made me miss my bus stop several times I was so involved in the story. The pace was great and I could truly imagine all the great Bonds in the role and more realisticaly Bond was showing his age in 1960's London but still managed to show what he was capable of in the worst of situations (typically far-fetched in Bond fashion but then that is true Bond). My only regret is that the book finished too soon, it was so easy to listen too.

I very much enjoyed listening to this book. Sebastian Faulks has done a good job of capturing the essence and style of Ian Fleming's books without sacrificing his own distinct way of writing.

My only criticism is that I thought that he was running out of steam towards the end of the book, and whilst it is always easy to listen to and absorbing, the tension distinctly slackened towards the end - at least compared to the original books. I think, for example, that they would struggle to make a good movie out of the book, as is, without adding quite a lot more action and thrills! Hence four stars rather than five for me.

A real plus point for me was the truly excellent narration from Jeremy Northam - I hope he is signed up by someone else to do more because he is top class.

Overall though, recommended.

Considering the hype surrounding the release of this book, and the author's undoubted credentials I was expecting something pretty special with 'Devil May Care'. Instead this book is a poorly-written rehash of just about every Bond story you can name.

Okay, I appreciate that my background in Bond is based upon the films which were generally set in the present, whereas the books were mostly written in the late 50s early 60s, and therefore the authors' constant reference to other stories 'Bond thought back to his encounter with Scaramanger/Goldfinger/Drax' (no really, they're all mentioned) adds nothing to the narrative except confusion.

Which is a shame because the general premise of the story is a good one. It is set in the mid 60s. The USA is embroiled in the Vietnam War and is looking to the UK to join them. The UK refuses and the USA are angry at this, as they consider they saved the UK's bacon in 2 world wars (gotta love those boys). An evil mastermind with a deep hatred of the British and their colonial history cooks up a plan to bring the UK to its knees. He will engineer a conflict with Russia which the UK will have no chance of winning. The USA will not come to the UKs aid, and the UK will become a 3rd world country. Like I said, a pretty sound premis for a plot.

But it's in the telling of the story that everything goes wrong. The narrative is basically clumsy, and with a plot twist that you will guess about 2 pages after the character appears. The set pieces are pretty much all taken from previous Bond films; the tennis match where the Bad Guy arranges for the net to raise every time Bond serves (the steeplechase fences in View To A Kill); the henchman who gets sucked out of a plane when a gun goes off (Goldfinger); the fight aboard the tourist boat in Paris (View to a kill again); the close combat fight in the moving train (Spy who loved me) and so on and so on.

This book should've been called 'For Old Rope'.

most probably the best bond story since the originals by fleming.
a good absorbing listen. i would recommend it to all members bond fans or not

I bought this download at the same time as Flemings Casino Royale. Sebastian Faulk's new story is close enough in style and plot to be as authentic as an original. The Cold War setting reminded me how different the world was 40 years ago. This is a great Bond story with an interesting ending. The narrator is very good, clever accent changes and real style.

Excellent!!

Marvellous evocation of 60s Bond brilliantly brought to life by a perfectly matched reader. A pastiche of various other plots and novels but with enough originality to prevent charges of parody. The twist at the end is signposted in neon throughout the book but its still a cracker !
Faulks injects just enough of his own richness of language to raise the descriptive bar.
The book is slow to start but its worth the price for the elctrifying reading of the tennis match alone - from then on it shifts gear considerably
Very highly recommended

I've never read a Bond book so was a bit dubious about this but have no regrets. It draws you in and it's easy to visualise the action and events. A real must listen!

I listened to this audio book as was disappointed, the story is poor and to be honest it has far more style than substance, I believe the author spent too much time trying to effect Flemings original style and that the story itself was almost an after-thought.

Thoroughly enjoyed this, I was gripped from start to finish, brilliant story, I think Sebastian Faulks has caught the spirit and the style of Ian Fleming's James Bond whilst perhaps attributing the reader with just a little more intelligence.

Not much like Fleming's Bond. The gratuitous violence in this book would never appear in any of Ian Fleming's titles. The storyline is weak and the girl unlikely, but still not a bad read.