Rating: 
Summary: A flawed gem
Review: DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER marks the point in the James Bond series where Ian Fleming begins to tinker with the absurd. Later in the series, Dr. No is killed by falling guano, and Blofeld holds up on a Japanese "suicide island." In DAF, Bond takes a mud bath and fights a gangster who dresses up like a cowboy. Fleming writes that the gangster "should have looked ridiculous, but he didn't" in his western regalia. Funny, his description reads like he looks ridiculous.All of Fleming's Bond books are worth reading, and DAF is no exception. But this isn't his strongest work. The theme switches from gangsters to western to Agatha Christy-esque cruise-ship drama. It doesn't really all hold together. Fleming also keeps introducing new villains. He is most effective with Wint and Kidd, who have an ominous presence throughout the book. Fleming perfects the ominous presence with Donovan Grant in his next book, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, but Wint and Kidd are adequately eerie and threatening. Less effective are the Spang brothers. The Spangs seem to be the embodiment of Fleming's inability to make up his mind about who his villain was going to be. What little personality these characters have (along with appearance and even one of their names) changes almost every time they are mentioned. They don't catch on as other Bond villains do, which is perhaps why they didn't translate even in name into any Bond movie. Another flaw of the book, and to some degree the series, is that Bond seems to be going along for the ride in DAF. He forgets or doesn't notice the most obvious clues (and is surprised by Wint and Kidd), lets his guard down at the mud baths, and generally doesn't prove why he's so special. He and the girl, Tiffany Case, come close to falling in love...but why? The relationship seems very shallow. Finally, DAF is not really a spy novel. Bond is acting more like a detective than a spy. The reader is continuously reminded that these gangsters are just as tough as Russian spies and whatnot, but the reminder is only repeated because the story just isn't played out on as grand a stage as the cold war. DAF has its strengths. Ian Fleming could have probably written a description of the contents of his refrigerator in an interesting way. For me, the settings of this book are familiar as well - it was neat to read about Bond staying at a hotel that I also stayed at. There's less 1950's atmosphere in this book than the others (another selling point for the other books), but DAF remains a genuine Bond novel, better than anything then non-Fleming Bond authors could produce. While not the best, Diamonds are Forever is at least enduring.
Rating:
Summary: A flawed gem
Review: DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER marks the point in the James Bond series where Ian Fleming begins to tinker with the absurd. Later in the series, Dr. No is killed by falling guano, and Blofeld holds up on a Japanese "suicide island." In DAF, Bond takes a mud bath and fights a gangster who dresses up like a cowboy. Fleming writes that the gangster "should have looked ridiculous, but he didn't" in his western regalia. Funny, his description reads like he looks ridiculous. All of Fleming's Bond books are worth reading, and DAF is no exception. But this isn't his strongest work. The theme switches from gangsters to western to Agatha Christy-esque cruise-ship drama. It doesn't really all hold together. Fleming also keeps introducing new villains. He is most effective with Wint and Kidd, who have an ominous presence throughout the book. Fleming perfects the ominous presence with Donovan Grant in his next book, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, but Wint and Kidd are adequately eerie and threatening. Less effective are the Spang brothers. The Spangs seem to be the embodiment of Fleming's inability to make up his mind about who his villain was going to be. What little personality these characters have (along with appearance and even one of their names) changes almost every time they are mentioned. They don't catch on as other Bond villains do, which is perhaps why they didn't translate even in name into any Bond movie. Another flaw of the book, and to some degree the series, is that Bond seems to be going along for the ride in DAF. He forgets or doesn't notice the most obvious clues (and is surprised by Wint and Kidd), lets his guard down at the mud baths, and generally doesn't prove why he's so special. He and the girl, Tiffany Case, come close to falling in love...but why? The relationship seems very shallow. Finally, DAF is not really a spy novel. Bond is acting more like a detective than a spy. The reader is continuously reminded that these gangsters are just as tough as Russian spies and whatnot, but the reminder is only repeated because the story just isn't played out on as grand a stage as the cold war. DAF has its strengths. Ian Fleming could have probably written a description of the contents of his refrigerator in an interesting way. For me, the settings of this book are familiar as well - it was neat to read about Bond staying at a hotel that I also stayed at. There's less 1950's atmosphere in this book than the others (another selling point for the other books), but DAF remains a genuine Bond novel, better than anything then non-Fleming Bond authors could produce. While not the best, Diamonds are Forever is at least enduring.
Rating: 
Summary: Lackluster villains do litle damage to this gem.
Review: Diamonds Are Forever, the fourth James Bond novel, is one of the least engrossing. This is mostly due to the near lack of a main villain. The Spang brothers, common mobsters, are seen little, and woefully underdeveloped. Wint and Kidd are more satisfying, and the final showdown with those two and Bond is great. Felix Leiter makes a welcome, though all too brief, return. Even with the less than engrossing villains, this book is a page-turner because the other elements are handled so well.
Rating:
Summary: Bond, Detective Bond
Review: For his fourth 007 novel, Fleming drew inspiration from a real-life international diamond smuggling ring which would also be the subject of a non-Bond book, The Diamond Smugglers, a year later. The premise here is that an American mafia family is running an elaborate operation to smuggle diamonds out of the British colony of Sierra Leone (it didn't win independence until 1961), the British don't like it, and Bond is inserted as a courier to try and discover who's behind the scheme. While this setup remains exceedingly topical almost 50 years later (indeed, the latest Bond flick features the laundering of diamonds from Sierra Leone), however it's not likely to engender much enthusiasm in the contemporary reader. Hmm, someone is smuggling diamonds out from the under the noses of the imperialist colonizing British, gee, that's too bad... so why does this warrant sending a government assassin into the mix? However, if one is willing to overlook the rather small potatoes of the setup, there's a decent enough potboiler to found if you don't examine it too carefully. The pages turn quickly enough as Bond is partnered with the hard-boiled beauty Tiffany Case (like so many of Fleming's women, an underdeveloped character with lots of potential), and then heads to the horse races at Saratoga, the casinos of Las Vegas, a desert ghost town, and the staterooms of the Queen Elizabeth. There are some nice set pieces (especially the mud bath scene and the casino action), but Bond seems to be distracted the whole time. One could mark it down to his being overconfident about his Mafia adversaries, but he's throughout the book he's missing clues, botching basic spycraft, and most importantly, impatient and sloppy. In several places it's hard not to think that if he were this bad an agent, he'd have been killed long ago. It also doesn't help that the Mafia dons Bond is up against are totally generic and unmemorable, and more than a little ridiculous as major villains. The semi-climactic railroad chase scene is borderline farcical for example. Nor are matters aided by Felix Leiter rather improbably crossing Bond's path as a Pinkerton's agent. Still, the homosexual hitmen, Wint and Kidd are memorable characters who bring a great deal of menace and (for the time) exoticism to the story. More of a detective story than a spy thriller, it's not your normal Bond book.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe Diamonds aren't forever (I hope not)
Review: I found Flemings novel to be a bit off the typical "Bond" style genre of writing. An alright book none the less but not the best of the series. The novel was written in 1956 and I think it shows a little. As i said earlier a good book none the less.
Rating:
Summary: James Bond is Forever!
Review: Not nearly as high-tech as the movie, but an excellent novel. Of the five Fleming Bond novels I've read so far, this one seemed to be (from a technical point-of-view) the best written. Wint and Kidd were much more of a threat in the novel than you would suspect after watching the movie. Picture the way Fleming describes the action when reading about Bond and Tiffany Case trying to survive a locomotive chasing them at about 60 miles an hour while they are out of petrol. I'm looking forward to reading From Russia With Love and the Penguin release of the other classic Bonds. Nobody does Bond better than Fleming!
Rating:
Summary: James Bond is Forever!
Review: Not nearly as high-tech as the movie, but an excellent novel. Of the five Fleming Bond novels I've read so far, this one seemed to be (from a technical point-of-view) the best written. Wint and Kidd were much more of a threat in the novel than you would suspect after watching the movie. Picture the way Fleming describes the action when reading about Bond and Tiffany Case trying to survive a locomotive chasing them at about 60 miles an hour while they are out of petrol. I'm looking forward to reading From Russia With Love and the Penguin release of the other classic Bonds. Nobody does Bond better than Fleming!
Rating: 
Summary: Glad I don't have to wait for "From Russia With Love"
Review: Of all of Ian Fleming's novels -- this is the worst. I am an avid fan of Fleming (and Benson), but this particular novel did nothing for me. A weak villian (an American mobster) and two homosexual assains are not in the same league as SMERSH or SPECTRE. There was a good casino scene in this book (come on, Fleming is the master of the casino scene), but the horse racing was weak. Tiffany Case was an excellent, strong character (not accurately portrayed in the movies). Felix Leiter was great reprising his role (although no long with the American CIA). But, like I stated earlier, I'm glad I don't have to wait a year before the publishing of Fleming's masterpiece -- "From Russia With Love."
Rating:
Summary: 007 VS. THE MOB
Review: OO7 is given a challenging task in Fleming's fourth novel. It seems diamonds are being smuggled out of Engish mines and MI6 is called on to stop it. This assignment even has M worried, but not James Bond who considers American gangsters not to threatning. But that is before he meets Wint and Kidd and the hunchback Shady Tree and the Spang brothers. Diamonds may be forever but 007's life might not. Highlights:Felix and Bond reunion; Horse Race; Acme bath sequence; derailment of train; climax on the ocean liner.
Rating:
Summary: Fleming's a God, But He's Only Human
Review: So, it comes to this: everybody goofs now and then, so why such a big deal if Fleming does it. You can't save the world once a year, and not slip up. But, the real thing that Fleming messes up on in this is a real villian (Italian gangsters don't cut it) and a real conflict (big deal if diamonds are smuggled every year, I can't afford them).
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