Thunderball by Ian Fleming (narrated by Jason Isaacs)
It's Mr. Bond take a holiday. M sends Bond to a resort in Brighton to wean him off the red meat, martinis, and 60 cigarettes a day (seriously, how does he have time to save the world from terrorists? How can he even see them through the smoke?). But trouble follows Bond, of course, because who wants to read about 007 eating yogurt and vegetable broth?
This novel introduces the world to SPECTRE and Blofeld. They have stolen a plane with two nuclear bombs and are threatening to blow up cities if they aren't given (and you can't help hearing Dr. Evil) ONE MILLION DOLLARS! Bond goes to the Bahamas to investigate.
It's pretty good, as long as you're willing to overlook the female stereotyping and raw machismo seeping from the pages. The interesting thing is how this novel sort of anticipates the terrorist society we live in today. When the plane is first reported missing, M and Bond speculate on how any person any where could sneak a bomb into any where in a golf bag. It was slightly creepy to realize that's almost a daily threat now, and depressing to realize that at one time, even in my lifetime, this was considered just something worthy of fiction.
A note on the narration. I'll admit that Jason Isaacs narrating this was a big draw. I'm a huge fan of his. However, I don't think there was much distinction between some of the characters, the two Italian characters sounded very alike, except that one voice was higher because she was the female. Worse than that, they didn't sound Italian to me. Honestly, I don't know that many Italians, so maybe that's exactly what they sound like, but to me, they sounded anything but Italian. For a bit, I thought Domino was from the Bahamas and had a Caribbean accent. I had to keep reminding myself where they were from. The American accents also sounded similar. Apparently all Americans are Southerners. I know Mr. Isaacs can do a much more diverse work - I've heard him doing sort of Boston-ish/New Yorker. Maybe it was a rush.
Criticism aside, Fleming is a classic. Like Agatha Christie, anyone who reads mysteries or who wants to be considered well-read should read at least one Bond novel.
This novel introduces the world to SPECTRE and Blofeld. They have stolen a plane with two nuclear bombs and are threatening to blow up cities if they aren't given (and you can't help hearing Dr. Evil) ONE MILLION DOLLARS! Bond goes to the Bahamas to investigate.
It's pretty good, as long as you're willing to overlook the female stereotyping and raw machismo seeping from the pages. The interesting thing is how this novel sort of anticipates the terrorist society we live in today. When the plane is first reported missing, M and Bond speculate on how any person any where could sneak a bomb into any where in a golf bag. It was slightly creepy to realize that's almost a daily threat now, and depressing to realize that at one time, even in my lifetime, this was considered just something worthy of fiction.
A note on the narration. I'll admit that Jason Isaacs narrating this was a big draw. I'm a huge fan of his. However, I don't think there was much distinction between some of the characters, the two Italian characters sounded very alike, except that one voice was higher because she was the female. Worse than that, they didn't sound Italian to me. Honestly, I don't know that many Italians, so maybe that's exactly what they sound like, but to me, they sounded anything but Italian. For a bit, I thought Domino was from the Bahamas and had a Caribbean accent. I had to keep reminding myself where they were from. The American accents also sounded similar. Apparently all Americans are Southerners. I know Mr. Isaacs can do a much more diverse work - I've heard him doing sort of Boston-ish/New Yorker. Maybe it was a rush.
Criticism aside, Fleming is a classic. Like Agatha Christie, anyone who reads mysteries or who wants to be considered well-read should read at least one Bond novel.
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