Customer Reviews

James Bond: The Living Daylights

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

 

 

One of Ian Fleming's best James Bond stories!!! With this short story, Fleming gives us an interesting view of Bond and his opinions on his cold, lonely profession. While many of the typical 007 trappings are missing, Fleming conceives a perfectly written story that keeps the reader's (or listener's) attention throughout. One of the best elements is that Fleming dispenses with the fantasy and makes the premise very beleivable. The story is very moody and the narrative paints vivid portraits of the action in Cold War Berlin (The Perfect Location for a Perfect Spy Story) and the man that is James Bond. Fleming's descriptions of Bond's feeling about his chief "distraction" from duty are masterful. This particular audio book perfectly captures the spirit of the story. Anthony Valentine's narration is very soothing and helps the listener to visualize the action as it develops. Valentine's clear voice and well-timed inflections make this interpretation the best of all of the audio book versions of Bond novels currently available in the U.S.

FOR BOND FANS, THIS IS MUST. BUT DON'T EXPECT THE MODERN SLAM-BAM. BASED ON A SHORT FLEMMING STORY, NOTHING LIKE THE MOVIE. SET IN 1961 BERLIN, TYPICAL BOND OF THAT ERA. SHORT (I.E. - 1 CASSETTE STORY - BUT AT THIS PRICE, WHY NOT)? TITLE PROVES TO BE A FUN SUPRISE AT THE END....

This was a single cassette tape with a thin paper sleeve, such a convenient format for those of us who have only cassette players with our old car radios. I thought it would have to be a joke or spoof of some kind, but nothing of the sort. It runs a little under one hour and is a short story with all the elemtns of James Bond thriller: the ruthless, upper class ethics of an English spy organization, the villainy of the KGB, the Berlin Wall era with historical accuracy, the minute details of James Bond's snacks, his reading habits, and his taste in girls, a slight plot twist, the thrill of the kill and the guilty conscience --it's all there, nostalgically reminding one of the good old -sixties in England. And the nice English reader has a versatile English public(=boarding) school accent which he varies just slightly for each speaker. What a new generation of listener/readers would think of it I have no idea - but they'd be unlikely to listen to it on a cassette player, wouldn't they?