Solid, rollicking Bond adventure

Enjoyed this fast paced Bond adventure, not as fantastic as his recent Sherlock Holmes novels but solid and enjoyable. Shame Oyelowo makes all the female characters sound ridiculous!

8 people found this helpful

Almighty struggle to finish

The narrator made this impossible to enjoy , he was totally wrong for this book . He sounded bored and couldn't care less about his performance. I have just heard the BBC abridged version of this book which was pitch perfect . Avoid

32 people found this helpful

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!

6 people found this helpful

Time for Bonding

I liked this old style Bond adventure with the usual Fleming formula well emulated by Horowitz. Suspend belief and enjoy the ride.

6 people found this helpful

AS AN ORIGINAL

Horowitz sets out to try and write in the original style of Fleming and, in my opinion, he wholeheartedly succeeds. I would therefore recommend the book to anyone who was hooked by Fleming's original Bond novels, as I was as a teenager, and enjoys something of a trip down memory lane. My only criticism is that Oyelowo speaks too slowly and I must admit that until I speeded up the playback, I was finding it difficult not to fall asleep. Once that was sorted, I enjoyed the story.

5 people found this helpful

Good story, under-prepared narrator.

I really enjoyed this yarn and think that Horowitz has produced something that will appeal to Bond fans.
What grated on me was the actor being under-prepared. He did well to bring some of the characters to life, but there's no excuse for his mispronunciation of fairly straightforward words. Audiobooks are expensive and their quality should reflect this. Presumably there are a director, producer, and editor involved so there's no excuse for this. That said, this recording is no worse than many others in my library.

5 people found this helpful

Bond at his gritty best

This book seamlessly follows on from where Fleming finished, the whole structure of the book was perfectly tempered by the story teller who delivered every line with the clinic perfect of 007, always well thought out and timed to deliver maximum impact.

5 people found this helpful

Entering the world of 007

This is a book I've throughly enjoyed, the action sequences and build up the the climatic set piece kept me guessing every turn of the page and Horowitz's writing is infectiously addictive. I e read the book over the course of four months reading and listening two chapters a night and it is a well worth listen and read for James Bond fans.

4 people found this helpful

Who ever produced this, ruined the book for me

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Damn you, I was so looking forward to this book and heard such great thing but the read is just awful. Not sure if it's just the way David reads or if the producer chose this slow laboured style. It just sucks the joy right out of the narrative. Have now gone and bought a hard copy before they totally spoil it for me!

24 people found this helpful

Gets better as you stick with it

Anthony Horowitz has a strong track record with his Holmes and Moriarty pastiches, and he is clearly steeped in the Bond originals, so one starts this audiobook with some expectation. The comments about the narrator are pretty well-deserved; he mangles a lot of words and intonation. In fairness, as the story climaxes, he manages some of the pacey action sequences with fervour, but in sum, he is a very poor successor to the likes of Dominic West (Solo) and Jeremy Northam (Devil May Care) who have made polished jobs of recent Bond stories.

The story clips along and has all the Bond set-pieces: a sporting duel: this time it is racing cars, more impossibly-named beautiful women, booze and fast cars, a ludicrous "let me explain my evil plan before you die" soliloquy from the bad guy, then a climactic battle and the "mano a mano" at the finish; before the triumphant, bitter-sweet conquest of his female partner, of course.

It's an accomplished, solid entry into the Bond canon, just a shame about the narrator.

13 people found this helpful