On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Nova Audio Books) [ABRIDGED] [AUDIOBOOK] (Audio Cassette)

by Ian Fleming (Author), John Kenneth (Reader)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
High in the air of the Swiss Alps a set-up is planned. A man is hunting respectability with all the cunning that made him Europe's most ruthless criminal. Nothing is to stand in his way. Especially not 007.

And Bond, too, has a lot on his mind. . . she is so beautiful, so sensual, that the charms of bachelorhood seem oddly tarnished. Bond is skating on very thin ice.

About the Author
During World War II Ian Fleming served as Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, rising to the rank of Commander. His wartime experiences provided him with knowledge of secret operations. After the war, he built his house, Goldeneye, in Jamaica. There, at the age of 42, he wrote Casino Royale, the first of the James Bond novels. By the time of his death in 1964, Fleming’s 14 Bond adventures had sold more than 40 million copies and the cult of James Bond was internationally established.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Nova Audio Books; Abridged edition (June 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561009407
• ISBN-13: 978-1561009404
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,058,570 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 11 in The James Bond Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars James Bond Faces Himself, November 9, 2000

By	gobirds2 (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (The James Bond Classic Library) (Hardcover)

This is probably Ian Fleming's most interesting and personal James Bond novel. This book precedes "You Only Live Twice" as it sends James Bond on a mission to track down the head of SPECTRE. This is a very well written novel and is very interesting trying to fathom what Fleming had been contemplating for his hero at that time in his life. I found this absorbing novel very difficult to put down once I started reading it as I did with its follow-up. If you do decide to read it I recommend that you read it before "You Only Live Twice." I will go one step further, if you read both of these novels then read "The Man with the Golden Gun" after you finish "You Only Live Twice." These three novels make up a sort of trilogy. One hint: "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is very close to the movie version. "You Only Live Twice" and "The Man with the Golden Gun" movies have very little at all to do with the Fleming novels in any direct sense of plot and conflict. So don't be discouraged. I have read these three novels several times over.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Close to From Russia With Love, October 10, 2000

By	Terry Anderson (Littleton, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (The James Bond Classic Library) (Hardcover)

Very good. This was a fun read. One of the best books that I have read, but not as good as From Russia With Love. The book was very exciting and had a great ending. Definitly one of Fleming's best.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fleming reclaims Bond, January 22, 2002

By	Jeffrey Ellis "bored recluse" (Richardson, Texas United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Paperback)

One of the last of the original Bond Books, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is also one of the best. Picking up a year after the end of Thunderball, this book finds James Bond again battling the nefarious schemes of Ernest Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE and, most importantly, falling in love with the beautiful, resourceful, and ultimately tragic Tracy. Though the usual intrigue is well-presented by Fleming, he also makes it clear that Blofeld's plan is hardly meant to be taken all that seriously. (Without ruining it for those who might never have read the book or seen the surprisingly faithful film adaption, it all comes down to Blofeld hidden away in Switzerland, pretending to be an allergist, and brainwashing English farm girls. No, it doesn't make a lot of sense but Fleming obviously had so much fun presenting it that most readers won't take offense.) The heart of this book -- and this Fleming treats with an admirable seriousness that should take his critics by surprise -- is the love story between Bond and Tracy. In Tracy, Fleming has created perhaps his most fully realized "Bond girl." Vulnerable yet resourseful and more than capable of taking care of herself (and, at times, perhaps even more so than Bond himself), its hard not to fall in love with this character and when Bond finally does decide to reject all others for her, its impossible to disagree with his logic. Its a compelling, rather touching love story and, even though most Bond films know how its going to end, the ending still packs a heavy impact.

As for Bond himself, after being a rather predictable presence in Thunderball, he's back in full form as a full realized, interesting character in this novel. On Her Majesty's Secret Service was written after the release of Dr. No (Ursula Andress even makes a cameo appearance at the time) and one can sense that, with this book, Fleming is reestablishing his claim on the character. From the intentionally ludicrous evil scheme to the frequent excursions into Bond's head (revealing him hardly to be the ruthless, unflappable killer that filmgoers though him to be), Fleming comes across as a reenergized writer in this book -- determind to let all the new Bond fans out there know who is really in charge of their favorite secret agent's destiny. The result is one of the best of the original Bond books and one of the best spy thrillers I've read in a long time.