On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Nova Audio Books)

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Summary: BELUGA CAVIAR WITH MINE ...
Review: The downside of the massive popularity of James Bond on film is the shadow cast over the extraordinary Ian Fleming source novels. In truth, nothing Fleming wrote - the 13 novels, two books of short tales, a children's book (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and two non-fiction journalistic works - falls short of high inspiration. "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", a book written in the glow of the first Bond movie success in 1963, is among Fleming's best. It is poetic, ingeniously plotted, and shows a full-dimensionality of character in Bond that John Grisham or Freddie Forsyth can only drool for. This is the book in which Bond finally falls in love (it came late in the book series), and it shows the maturation of Fleming's style - a style much admired by Raymond Chandler and the poet William Plomer, to name but two stalwarts - and also reveals the cynicism of battle scarring that Fleming personally was suffering in his copyright disputes on the earlier "Thunderball". The novel begins with a description of beachside, late summer, that is as richly evocative as a sonnet, and takes us into an Alpine Christmastime. Here was Fleming's "secret": like Dickens, he had the ability to create ambience so intense that one could taste the soft shell buttered crabs, and feel the cold sand of a winter strand. No recommendation is more heartfelt. So much snobbery pollutes novel reviews, but the driest academic will see the deep wells of Fleming, and the pure thrill of fantasy. Rider Haggard and John Buchan come close, but Fleming is perhaps the best escapist romancer of the twentieth century and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (along with "Dr No" and "From Russia With Love") are his masterworks. It is nothing short of criminal that these great romances are no longer available in their elegant Richard Chopping-designed hardcovers, or in well-styled mass paperbacks. They are, in short, the stuff of connoisseurs. Forget the sugary dribble of Kingsley Amis ("Colonel Sun": not bad), John Gardner (better with his originals, like "The Werewolf Trace"), or Raymond Benson. Go for gold.

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Summary: Another top from Fleming
Review: This book is among four Fleming's finest. The adventure of the mission is excellently interwoven with Bond's personal life (for the only time)and the ski chase sequence is masterful writing. Bond loves and get married, turning in a true bone-and-flesh character. The villain's plan could have made for a fuller sci-fi plot, but this time the mission doesn't eclipse 007's persona. The finale is a blow for those happy endings some people grow accostumed to. No wonder this book was made into the best Bond movie of all.

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Summary: Extremely well written. A perfect 10!
Review: This book is impossible to put down after you've started. I had to read it twice it was so good.

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Summary: Ian Fleming's best work about 007!
Review: This book was the best work by Fleming! Bond Did everything in this one!

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Summary: From Russia with Love
Review: This certainly ranks among the top three Bond novels. Unfortunately, my remembrance of most of the others is slim. I have read them all except OHMSS, but it has been over the course of a few years. I wonder if a real Fleming afficionado out there could e-mail to me the chronological order of these novels? In other words, in what order is it best to read them to gain a proper understanding of persons and events in the novels.

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Summary: A thriller of a ride!!!!!
Review: This is one of Bond's biggest assignment ever. It had love, and action. I loved this book and this is a book for 007 fans to read. Buy this book!

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Summary: James Bond Faces Himself
Review: This is probably Ian Fleming's most interesting and personal James Bond novel. This book precedes "You Only Live Twice" as it sends James Bond on a mission to track down the head of SPECTRE. This is a very well written novel and is very interesting trying to fathom what Fleming had been contemplating for his hero at that time in his life. I found this absorbing novel very difficult to put down once I started reading it as I did with its follow-up. If you do decide to read it I recommend that you read it before "You Only Live Twice." I will go one step further, if you read both of these novels then read "The Man with the Golden Gun" after you finish "You Only Live Twice." These three novels make up a sort of trilogy. One hint: "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is very close to the movie version. "You Only Live Twice" and "The Man with the Golden Gun" movies have very little at all to do with the Fleming novels in any direct sense of plot and conflict. So don't be discouraged. I have read these three novels several times over.

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Summary: The best by his creator
Review: This is the best by Fleming. A real treat to read! Danger is what Bond gets into.

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Summary: Great
Review: This story is much like it's movie version and contains pretty much the same events as the movie version. The end is the most tragic event in Bond's life and probably one of the only Bond tales where he doesn't come out the winner.

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Summary: Probably the story with the most significant event for Bond.
Review: This story is much like it's movie version and contains pretty much the same events as the movie version. The end is the most tragic event in Bond's life and probably one of the only Bond tales where he doesn't come out the winner.