Customer Reviews

The Bond Code: The Dark World of Ian Fleming and James Bond

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This literary deconstruction is at least as entertaining as its subject. I compare it favorably to studies of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with regard to autobiographical influences on his creation of literature's greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes. Ian Fleming was--like A. Conan Doyle-- a complex and jaded educated man with both a sense of history and a spiritual dark side which seem to have deliberately informed his idealized, fictional alter ego.

At the very least, Gardiner demonstrates that Fleming's James Bond adventure series is an elaborate literary conceit with private jokes and allusions Fleming didn't care whether the average reader discerned or not--which makes it even more piquant than his most devoted fans could desire. Whether one buys Gardiner's premise or not --and he seems to have done his homework--fans of the Bond oeuvre will enjoy this book. It's the thinking man's "Da Vinci Code".

On a personal note, besides having taught English, I am a retired ornithologist who worked for years in the (formerly British) West Indies. When I was starting out in my early 20's I had the great good fortune of having the REAL James Bond, THE legendary West Indian ornithologist, then living in Philadelphia in his late 80's, --as a kindly and brilliant mentor. Fleming's fictional spy caused him no end of inconvenience, ("What's your REAL name sir?" ) as recounted in a delightful informal memoir "Far Afield in the Caribbean" by Dr Bond's wife, Mary Wickham Bond. If your interest is birdwatching, the Caribbean, or the eccentricities of marriage to a field naturalist, it's worth looking up this charming, out-of-print book.

He talks about James Bond and Bond's Dark Side,
but doesn't really say anything. Several movie/book facts are incorrect, e.g., he talks about the "dragon" in Live and Let Die. In reality, the dragon he is describing was in Dr. No (the tank with wings and a flame thrower). If you are looking for Bond, stay away from the book: you'll be disappointed.

Inspiration has to come from somewhere. "The Bond Code: The Dark World of Ian Fleming and James Bond" takes a look behind the man behind the icon of pulp spy fiction, Ian Fleming. Touching on a long list of facts and how Fleming came across them ranging from the moniker 007, Fleming's final novel, and more, "The Bond Code" is fascinating reading to any Bond fan or any who want to understand the man behind the phenomenon.

Leave it to Philip Gardiner to pierce the veil of Ian Fleming's James Bond series so convincingly. While I always enjoyed the adventure side of Bond movies, it was interesting to find first that Fleming played a role, a most significant role, in British intelligence, and second that he had a darker role as student of the occult. The book was an enjoyable and quick read the first time. Then I read it again as I went out and rented Casino Royale, You only live Twice and View to a Kill.

Couldn't put this book down, once i started reading it. Extensively researched life of the creator of the "James Bond" series,.. books and movies,.. Ian Flemming was a very interesting fellow.. Along with many of the Real people that he came into contact with. Alot of mysterious and interesting things were revealed in this book.

A five-star supersleuth masterpiece of adventure and mystery, with just the right amount of twists and turns leading to many an unexpected yet welcomed surprise at the end!

Only once in a decade does a book come along that captures me front the first page to the last one. But this is a page-turner extraordinare that you will not be able to put down until you finish it, too!

The perfect book to take on a trip in order to forget your cares for awhile in our war torn, troubled world.

A must read for the lovers of Bond, James Bond, 007!

Dr. John Jay Harper is author of Tranceformers: Shamans of the 21st Century.

This book was terrible, and so boring I had to skip several less-interesting chapters (of which there were many). The whole basis of it is the author's conjecture on what Fleming may or may not have been thinking and influenced by while writing Bond novels. And he keeps metioning some obscure 60's TV show, and all these odd references. Most of his basis is taking character names and the supposed origins behind them, and reading waaaaay into each one. Then he goes on and on about Fleming's supposed fascination with the occult and with alchemy. This had very little to do with James Bond, and felt like a trashing of Ian Fleming. Stay away from this book, unless of course you want to burn Fleming at the stake in Salem, this book's "theories" may make a good case for you, if any are true. Even if they are, I still don't care.

Yet another book angled on the great fiction spy and Ian Fleming's world. Fleming was a man of great intelligence and imagination. He was not the assistant to Naval Intelligence for nothing. However his novels were very much a call from his juvenile mind and influenced greatly from the books he read growing up. Naturally he came into contact, whether it be via files and dossiers or physically meeting an agent, with extraordinary people. In the end Fleming's fertile mind took situations and elaborated them with literary characters popping up in his novels in different guises. Col. Kurtz from Conrads Hearts of Darkness becomes Dr. Shatterhand (Blofeld) in You Only Live Twice. Blofeld before You Only Live Twice is very much Captain Nemo. Drax is Moriarty's second in Command from the Sherlock Holmes Stories. Felix Leiter is Fleming's Phillip Marlowe. Live and Let Die is Flemings version of Treasure Island. There are many influences in Flemings writing, too many people try to delve into Fleming's past claiming there were many influences from his life that went to create the Novels. There were but they were not all secret.