Customer Reviews

Role of Honor

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

 

 

Coming on the heels of "Icebreaker" this ranks as a major disappointment from John Gardner. The plot and prose is a collection of disjointed and very uninspiring ideas for our hero James Bond. However, several of these ideas did seem to make it to the screen shortly after in some of Roger Moore's later Bond films and Timothy Dalton's first outing. "Role of Honor" ultimately has a rambling plot that leaves the reader totally disinterested. I was very disappointed with this novel.

Role of Honor could have been better if there were less plot-holes and there was more frequent action. The biggest plot-hole is this: why is James Bond attacked in the streets? The attack is never explained, and I was waiting the whole book to find out why, but there was no answer. I felt let down. Another plot-hole is: Why does the villain turn up at the casino with Bond? Hmm. The action, which is infrequent, isn't very good. All there is is a training-camp sequence which is too flimsy to enjoy and a brief fight on a blimp.

The plot in this book is lame. I don't know how else to say it, it just needs a lot of work. In fact, this was the first Bond book that I had to force myself to finish. It just didn't hold me like the others

The plot to this novel is pretty intrigueing and it's good to see Bond square off against SPECTRE again. The book does have some bad points, but all in all it's one of Gardeners better Bond novels.

This has to be John Gardner's least successful James Bond novel. It has a meandering plot, which leaves the reader totally bored. It was difficult for me to even finish reading this Book.

I was very disappointed. After "Icebreaker" I thought Gardner was finally on the right track.

This has to be John Gardner's least successful James Bond novel. It has a meandering plot, which leaves the reader totally bored. It was difficult for me to even finish reading this Book.

I was very disappointed. After "Icebreaker" I thought Gardner was finally on the right track.

As a Bond fan who counts the movie A VIEW TO A KILL as one of his favorite entries, it should come as no surprise that ROLE OF HONOR was at one time one of my favorite of the Gardner books.
My favorite Gardner 007 novel is the first one I ever read ICEBREAKER and so I had very high hopes for this novel. Although ROLE OF HONOR does not live up to the promise of the previous outing I still found it an entertaining read and one I enjoyed very much. It is also one that clearly left its imprint on the 1985 Bond movie A VIEW TO A KILL.
Not only do we have a plot involving computers (now very dated with PCs being referred to as Micros throughout) but we also have a fight on a blimp. Of course two years later the 007 picture reenvisioned the plot of GOLDFINGER with microchips replacing gold, Silicon Valley replacing Fort Knox and the final battle with the villain revolving around an airship instead of an airplane.
One area where ROLE OF HONOR does fall flat is in the relative lack of action with a rather weak training camp sequence and a fight aboard the airship and its somewhat rambling incohesive plot. What we do have though is Bond battling SPECTRE once more and an interesting introduction to c haracters that would reappear in Gardner's novel (and a firm fan favorite) NOBODY LIVES FOREVER.
This is far from the best Gardner and can probably best be summed up as an interesting experiment by the gifted author that ultimately failed to truly deliver. Ultimately though time has not been kind to this Bond novel.
Incidently this book's plot bares more than a passing resemblence to Deighton's BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN - nuclear war games becoming real, Supercomputers, a deranged American and his private army.

Not John Gardner's best, but certanly not his worst. The plot and villians could be spruced up a bit to make it better. At least SPECTRE is in it. This 007 book is very complex and only should be read by true 007 fans!