Customer Reviews

The Spy Who Loved Me

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
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First off, I must say that my experience w/ Blackstone audio books has been VERY positive. I've purchased most of the audio books in the Bond series, & so far I've only had problems w/ one of them (On Her Majestie's Secret Service). A couple of the discs had what appeared to be glue (from the packaging?) on them & would not play properly. When I first encountered the problem, I called the 800 number on the box, fully expecting to get an automated answering service w/ menu options. To my surprise, a very pleasant woman named "Carol" answered, assuring me that there would be no problem getting a replacement disc to me free of charge. The entire phone call was over in a few minutes & left me feeling very happy w/ the company & w/ my purchase Thank you, Carol!

As for the Blackstone Bond series audio books, Nadia May does an outstanding job narrating this book. It took some getting used to hearing a woman narrator after listening to Simon Vance's excellent narration on several titles (this is the only title in the Bond series NOT read by Vance), but this is also the only Bond novel written by Fleming in first person from a woman's perspective, so it makes sense to use a woman narrator. Unlike some narrators I've encountered w/ other companies (such as Brilliance) who read descriptive passages AND dialogue using the SAME TONE so that it's difficult to tell which character is actually speaking, May (like Vance) gives each character his or her own voice and manner of speaking. It makes for a MUCH more pleasant & enjoyable listening experience.

Part of the fun of the original Bond novels is seeing how they compare to the films that bare their titles. In many cases, there's scarcely any similarity at all (and sometimes none whatsoever). However, I actually enjoy that. Having seen the movies so many times, it's great not knowing what will happen next in the books. Fleming definitely enjoyed meting out "poetic justice" w/ regards to eliminating his villains. I've read all of the Fleming Bond books, either on audio or in print, and they are all worth-while. Once I have the entire Blackstone audio series, I plan to start over from the beginning & "read" them all again in sequence.

This book IN NO WAY resembles the film that bares its title. It is, in fact, as different from the film as it is from the other Bond books written by Fleming. As mentioned before, the story is told in first person from the point of view of a female character, so that alone makes it a considerable departure in terms of tone. However, in terms of PLOT, this book isn't really a traditional James Bond thriller either. Nearly the entire first half of the book is simply a flashback of how the female protagonist (and Bond's eventual love interest) came to work at an out-of-the-way motor court in the Adirondacks. There are NO megalomaniacal villains bent on conquering the world. Just a couple of thugs who terrorize the protagonist until James Bond happens by (nearly two-thirds into the book) and complicates things. This is a thriller on a much less grandiose scale, yet it nevertheless remains thrilling. In many ways, Fleming delves deeper into men's pulp adventure w/ this novel than w/ any other of his Bond stories. He really was a very gifted writer, and this short novel really is an impressive piece of noir fiction.

If you enjoy classic noir, pulp adventure novels (as I do), then you owe it to yourself to read this one. It's got virtually all the classic tropes and first-class writing. This story could easily be adapted to film w/o changing anything except the name "James Bond," and it wouldn't look out-of-place on a shelf next to Reservoir Dogs or even as a segment in a film like Pulp Fiction. Most people probably wouldn't even realize they were enjoying a James Bond story.

This book falls between Thunderball and On Her Majestie's Secret Service, both of which pit Bond against SPECTRE and his arch-villain, Blofeld. However, while Bond is technically "tracking down" Blofeld after the events of Operation Thunderball, neither Blofeld nor SPECTRE really figure into the plot of The Spy Who Loved Me. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the Bond books (and the Blackstone audio books) to anyone enjoys action/adventure stories.

I've listened/read all the Bond Novel and this one is special ; it's narrated and read by a female from Canada who gets in trouble with the wrong crowd in a dinky town in upstate New York where she accidentally meets Bond.

Enjoyed it a lot and i highly recommend it.