Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Carte Blanche

  • A James Bond Novel
  • By: Jeffery Deaver
  • Narrated by: Toby Stephens
  • Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (1,436 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Carte Blanche cover art

Carte Blanche

By: Jeffery Deaver
Narrated by: Toby Stephens
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Lincoln Lawyer: Booktrack Edition cover art
Father Paolo Baldi Mysteries cover art
The Teeth of the Tiger cover art
Act of Vengeance cover art
Meet the Tiger cover art Ruritanian Rogues: Volumes 1-3 cover art
Straight Shot cover art
Bad Traffick cover art
Maisie Dobbs cover art
Ratking cover art
The Very First Damned Thing cover art
The Gray Man cover art
Debt of Bones cover art
Free the Darkness cover art
Cold Monday cover art
Spider Shepherd: SAS cover art

Summary

The face of war is changing. The other side doesn't play by the rules much anymore. There's thinking, in some circles, that we need to play by a different set of rules too....

Fresh from Afghanistan, James Bond has been recruited to a new agency. Conceived in the post-9/11 world, it operates independent of Five, Six and the MoD, with its very existence deniable. Its aim: to protect the Realm, by any means necessary.

The Night Action alert calls Bond from dinner with a beautiful woman. GCHQ has decrypted an electronic whisper about an attack scheduled for later in the week: casualties estimated in the thousands, British interests adversely affected. And 007 has been given carte blanche to do whatever it takes to fulfil his mission.

©2011 Ian Fleming Publications Limited (P)2011 Hodder & Stoughton Audiobooks

What listeners say about Carte Blanche

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    613
  • 4 Stars
    484
  • 3 Stars
    249
  • 2 Stars
    62
  • 1 Stars
    28
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    385
  • 4 Stars
    180
  • 3 Stars
    63
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    11
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    274
  • 4 Stars
    217
  • 3 Stars
    103
  • 2 Stars
    42
  • 1 Stars
    11

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A new premium Bond

James Bond is rebooted for the 21st century just has the new films have done, so now Bond has once again for the first time since the 60`s got both a written and film life set in the same era with a younger Bond unlike the older Bond in most of the other non Fleming books.
The changes needed to do this are not as drastic as most fans would have you believe and are both logical and believable.
This book is well plotted and written by Jeffery Deaver who while not replacing Fleming does understand and respect the character.
The book is very well read by Toby Stephens who was in Die Another Day as the villan and has played Bond in two radio plays for radio 4.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

53 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent narration

I am about 4 hours in so far and feel the need to review already! The story is good and the plot is interesting - seems to be James Bond in the Daniel Craig style...which I like, but the reason I am writing so early is just to applaud Toby Stephens - his narration is (in my view) superb. The accents are correct, the pace is good and there are lovely little details such as when reading the vocal of an answerphone message he speaks into a can or something to make the voice sound tinny. Hands down the best production of any audio book I have read/heard to date (this is number 23 in my library). If you like action/thriller books and have been disappointed by the quality of the voice acting *cough Tom Clancy *cough then give this a try and just sit and smile.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

30 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Ian Fleming's Bond for the 21st century

I originally thought of buying this novel for the Kindle but was put off by some of the reviews on Amazon, when I saw it on here I thought that I'd give it a chance.

I'm so glad that I did, excellent book. As someone that's read a lot of the original Ian Fleming novels this comes across as Fleming writing it, the attention to detail, character and style all sit well with the original.

Toby Stephens does a cracking job reading it and really adds to the excitement.

One of the best Audiobooks I've listened to!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

classic bond

really enjoyed this - think ian flemming would've been proud of it himself. easy listening to toby stephens ( has he narrated anything else???) good twists & fast paced plot - brilliant!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Classic James Bond

This is James Bond at his best. Jeffrey Deaver wears Ian Fleming's shoes very comfortably and has produced a Bond story in the classic style. Lots of interweaving plots that hold you until the end. A long book, but my attention did not waiver. I was not expecting much of Toby Stevens as the narrator, but he was brilliant. He donned the accents of the different characters effortlessly and brought them to life. He was a major reason why the story gripped me from start to finish. I thoroughly recommend this as a really entertaining listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliamt

Real James Bond but new; with a realistic and true espionage world. Certainly not Judie Dench withs sci-fi glass moving IT images around like some all knowing and super slick agency. To my mind this is as Flemming would have wrote James Bond if he had started today. Believable, interesting, modern, yet still authentic; and thank god nothing like the films.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A good listen

First let me say I don't really do reviews, normally. I find my tastes - and literary standards - often differ from the norm.

That said, I enjoyed this audiobook. It's the first James Bond book I've read/listened to, so I won't be comparing it to any of the original novels.

I loved the narration - great choice. The varied accents and occasional use of what sounded like a tin can for the 'phone' effect was great. It really helped bring the book to life and made the various characters that bit more rounded and easily recognisable.

The narrator also did a good job of keeping the pace and suspense going when appropriate - I never felt that the story was dragging or lacking in pace. I did think that there were some interesting insights to the character of Bond which were a bit of a surprise, but I think this is probably as much a reflection of being written in today's climate, socially speaking, vs the 'old bond' that I know from the films of the past.

In many ways I think the book stuck well to Bond's character, but showed a another side to it - a more modern side in some ways. It's certainly interesting and looking back on the films it's not implausible, either.

I enjoyed the book - I'd definitely listen to it again, and to any others that have the same author and narrator in the future.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Un- Turnoffable

Not sure what the Ipod version of "page turner" is, but I thoroughly enjoyed this new James Bond. Had to invent new ways of hiding my earphones so I could continue listening at work!
Toby Stephens does a great job with the narration and I'm hoping Jeffery Deaver continues the Bond series.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Bond by Deaver

A really good read. A more 'earthy' portrail than one gets in the films. A lively plot which keeps one's interest throughout. I look forward to more Bond intrigue via Jeffery Deaver

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A must for all Fleming book fans

Deaver has quite clearly put a lot of thought into this first exploit of his 21st century 007. The plot is full of suspense, action, and twists, all of which made it a gripping listen – but it was the many 'upgrades' to Fleming's characters that raised a number of smiles. It's not just that gadgets have transferred to apps, or that MI6 has transferred to a new Churchill-inspired secret agency. Goodnight is still there as 007's secretary, but with an entirely new backstory, as is his housekeeper. And just when you think there is no way 007 could get out of a tricky situation, he is able to turn to a friend. If you don't know the Fleming books, you could interpret these characters as dei ex machina. But to those well-versed in 007 lore, you will kick yourself for not seeing them coming.

The character of 007 himself goes quite a bit beyond the dry mystery-solver of early books, reminding me more of the Fleming's writing from "Diamonds Are Forever" onwards (by which time he was probably being influenced by Connery's portrayal on camera). A lot of the action sequences seem more reminiscent of the films than the books. But in my opinion, Deaver always manages to hold it back – the result being that 007 is different, but more like a younger version of Fleming's original than a totally new 'hip' 007. And unlike with Craig's 007, who still seems a tad immature, you can clearly see that Deaver's will grow into Fleming's aftera few years of the job. Thus the book can easily be enjoyed by big fans of the originals or the films.

That's not to say it isn't without faults. I would have preferred a certain character to end up with a wooden leg, for instance. And the amount of twists began to get predictable, so that by the end I could successfully guess (a) that it wasn't over yet, and (b) that 007 had already put a plan into action. But the writing is fast-paced and witty, and made you want to find out what would happen to the characters as well as the plot. Hence still 5 stars.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful