James Bond - THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

 THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

The Spy Who Loved Me - James Bond was the spy

- Ian Fleming -

I get that authors might feel pigeonholed when they write a successful series, always writing the same character and story over and over. I get that they might want to try something new. It seems that Fleming tried to do something new with The Spy Who Loved Me... but, it also seemed like he wanted to hedge his bets and keep the Bond name attached. 

It was interesting to see Bond as a secondary character in a James Bond novel. However, it was the main character (not Bond but a nice young lady named Vivian) that didn't live up to the Bond standard. She was weak. There were hints and tales of this Vivian girl doing adventurous things in her life, in her past, in her spare time. But, when it came down to do or die, she almost died.

I think it was the authour's fault here. Fleming tried to tell the story from the point of view of a woman...and it didn't quite come across as believable. I get it. Fleming was a man of the fifties, wrote about macho men. He even seemed to believe that woman were frail and needed directing by a man. I give him grace though, he was trying something new. And it half worked. The story was interesting and I made it through the book at a good clip. It was just some of the descriptions, or the thoughts that this Vivian had were...not believable. 

Like I said, the book is good. I would say read most of the other Bond books before you pick up this one. But, if you are a die hard Bond fan, this is one to add to the collection. That's mostly why I'm keeping it. I have a bunch of Bond on my bookshelf right now. But, I can always find room for an early sixties printing of a Bond book!

MORE BOND REVIEWS - https://bookwormsfeastofbooks.blogspot.com/2017/04/dr-no-james-bond-novel.html

Book Haul - James Bond & Isaac Asimov

Book Haul

Our last trip to the thrift store was a real winner. Should have bought a lotto ticket that day b/c I was lucky.

First find - '67 printing of James Bond - The Spy Who Loved Me.

James Bond - The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming

I saw the PAN books logo on the spine of the novel. It was mixed in the 'F' section of the used paperbacks. There is no alphabetical order on the shelves at the Mission Store past the first letter of the last name. So, if you are looking for a Stephen King book. You would need to find the 'K' section, and then look through every single book in the 'K' section. 

I'm a bookworm, so this doesn't really apply to me since I look at every single book they have.

I was lucky, my eagle eye spotted the PAN icon. The spine is in rough shape - really creased up and hard to read. I love old pulp books like this, so I took a closer look. A James Bond classic!

The front cover is a map of northern NY. The Adirondack region. Isn't that strange?

Pan Book - The Spy Who Loved Me

The back cover is pretty sweet. You have the heart with a gun and 007. A nice pic of Fleming smoking a giant cigarette. And the price tag. The book is a real investment piece. Original cost was 60 cents. I bought it for 125 cents, and thought that was a smokin' deal. Imagine you had bought 1000 of these babies back in the sixties. You'd be looking at a nice return on your investment.

The Spy Who Loved Me - back cover

The next find was in the sci-fi / fantasy section. 

Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation

Asimov's foundation books. The first three, all lined up. Sitting there on the metal shelf, just waiting for a dork like me to come along and buy them all up. And, at 50 cents each...well I couldn't resist. Could you?

I've read them before, like all good sci-fi readers should. It was about twenty years ago. I remember having to order one through an inter-library loan b/c the local library didn't have them all. Oh, how nerdy is that?

While I was waiting for the book to come in I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy...I was fresh out of University on the job hunt. So I had a lot of time on my hands.

Asimov's Foundation Series

Overall a good haul. 1000 pages of pure pleasure for the low, low, cost of $2. That's why I love used books!

LINK TO PREVIOUS BOOK HAULS

Vintage James Bond Books SOLD

Vintage James Bond Books SOLD!

THE VINTAGE JAMES BOND BOOKS

These books were sold for $20, which is a really good deal for the lot of both of them. Unfortunately, it wasn't sold to me. I had a bid in mind of $11 (just a bit over the $10 mark to beat any $10 max bids), but I was quickly outbid days before the closing. The other thing is the auction pickup location was about an hour and a half drive from my house. So, it didn't seem worth it to me. 

However, there are always more auctions...stay tuned to see what I did end up winning.

VINTAGE JAMES BOND BOOKS

Vintage James Bond Books

My collection of Bond books may get bigger in the next few days. I found these two books on an online auction site - maxsold. It is a collection of estate sales, business downsizing sales, etc. I have gotten a lot of books in the past through these auctions - books seem to go for a reasonable price. Sometimes even really, really cheap. For eg. I picked up 44 western novels last summer for $6.

I am hoping to be lucky this time as well. I have a one vintage Bond book, Dr. No...and original 1958! I didn't know it at the time, but it is worth a fair amount of money. I bought it at a yard sale for $1, then promptly threw away the cover (which I guess gives it the most worth). So instead of $40, it's probably worth $10. But, it's a good start to a vintage James Bond Book collection!

 

DR. NO - JAMES BOND NOVEL

DOCTOR NO

James Bond #6

- Ian Fleming -

If you only read one Bond novel, make it this one! Dr. No is that great mix of action/adventure, an out of this world eccentric villain, and of course a happy ending with a 'Bond Girl'. As an added bonus, any Austin Powers fans will get a real kick out of Dr. No, who is no doubt the inspiration for the movie's Dr. Evil.
This bond adventure is even more unbelievable than his other assignments. In this book he discovers a madman (Dr. No) has been building a secret hideout on an island in the Caribbean. The twist is that the island is made of bird excrement (no joke).
Turns out the crazy doctor likes to do experiments on people. His forte is testing pain thresholds and things of that nature (ie he has a huge torture fetish).
Yet, as in classic spy novel style, Dr. No is a highly civilized man who treats his captives kindly, providing a nice meal and luxurious accommodations before he does his experiments. He has a very impressive parlour where he entertains Bond, a room that has a window into the sea, a window that cost "1 million dollars!" (again, no joke!).
There are many strange and eccentric henchman, impossible sounding vehicles, unbelievable Dr. No pain experiments, and action packed misadventures that make you want to keep turning the pages of this book.
I was overjoyed with this book and to make things even better I had picked it up at a yard sale for fifty cents! It was that classic cover in the pic above too. You don't have to wait for a yard sale, you can order it on Amazon right now - Doctor No

THE SPECIALIST

THE SPECIALIST - A Talent For Revenge

- John Cutter -

I picked up this exciting looking book at the Bibles for Mission Thrift store for only 50 cents! Well, let me tell you this book is worth at least double that, at least!
If you want to escape reality and enter a world of fiction this is the book for you. It is so fictitious that there is no way it could be confused with any sort of reality.
This is the first book in 'The Specialist' series. First one I have read too. This 'Specialist' is a real action hero. He fights for the good guys by killing scores of bad guys. And, he seems almost indestructible. He is also smooth with the ladies, wink wink. A James Bond type guy...but, a bit more on the psychotic side.
The story could easily have been made into an 80's action movie starring Steven Seagull with a lot of over the top karate moves and bulls-eye shooting. This 'Specialist' manages to show off all his skills starting with a parking lot brawl, moving onto a racy encounter with his lady friend, then onto his snorkeling prowess and his underwater explosives knowledge, followed by his tree fort building skills, and of course his sniping skills. He even manages to single handedly storm a castle style compound surrounded by electric fencing, filled with dimwitted henchmen, and one evil madman.
Not to give away the ending, but, his mission to save the girl was thwarted as the girl ended up saving herself! So, this is a good book for the feminists out there too.
The writing was basic and right to the point, none of that literary mumbo jumbo to take away from the action, and there were even a few phrases I have never seen used before. Eg. He drove his boat towards the chateaux like it was a hard-on. Not sure exactly how to interpret that, but, it sounds like The Specialist means business! Doesn't it?
Would I read another one of these books? Probably. I'm a closet paperback action novel junky!

GOLDFINGER

GOLDFINGER

Bond #7

- Ian Fleming -

Now this is classic Bond material.

The story starts with the overconfident, macho, superior attitude of Bond bragging about his latest covert mission where he succeeded in killing some evil doer, against all the odds. Then, on the journey home he runs into Mr. Dupont (a character from the first book, Casino Royale). This leads to a card game where the classic bond villian is introduced - Goldfinger. The little guy with an oversided football shaped head who is obsessed with gold.

They end up meeting again in England and one thing leads to another and they duel, a head to head showdown...on the golf course! Twenty or so pages of intense action all based around drivers and putters and how to hit a ball out of the sand bunker. Very undercover agent! Of course, it just shows that Bond can do anything.

After this gentlemanly combat, we meet Goldfinger's body guard. A half mute Korean man who has hands and feet of steel. He can bash through two by fours and elegant stair bannisters with the flick of his wrist. A very deadly guy. How could Bond ever defeat this guy in a hand to hand battle to the death? You know it's coming at some point.

From there the backstory fleshes out and it turns out Goldfinger has ties to SMERSH, that evil communist organization that is bent on taking over the free world. The adventure Bond goes on to capture this guy takes him across the world. I won't give away the ending, I will only say it ends in the typical Bond fashion. Him, a lady, and a bottle of champagne.

I have to say, after reading a couple of Bond books now I'm still baffled at how often he is captured by the enemy. Instead of the world's greatest secret agent, Bond should be labelled the world's best escape artist. By the end of this book Bond has been captured by the evil villain twice and managed to escape in a couple of dramatic and epic ways. Similar in scale to the world domination plans of the villain. As in, unbelievable and ridiculous. Let's just summarize some of the evil plots and escapes. We have a plan to kill tens of thousands of people and break into Fort Knox to steal thousands of tons of gold. On the other hand, an escape from a plane at thirty thousand feet by smashing a window out (thereby sucking bad guys out into space) and crash landing in the ocean and living to tell about it with only a few bruises.

In other words - awesome!

Rating : READ

CASINO ROYALE

CASINO ROYALE

James Bond #1

- Ian Fleming -

Well, that was not what I expected.

What I thought I'd read was non stop action full of dubious double crossing spies with hidden razor blade faux playing cards and walkie talkies in their cuff links blowing up souped up sports cars and leaving a trail of at least a dozen or so dead bodies behind them. Instead what I read was a low key story about Bond doing a bit of gambling, falling in love, and being beaten/tortured to near death. He did not save the day. He did not have a fancy watch that shot laser beams. He did not capture Dr. Evil and lock him away in a dungeon on Skull island. He was actually a flawed hero who obsessed over every detail , appeared to lack any confidence in himself whatsoever, and completely lost his mind over a woman he barely knew!

There was a car chase, there was a small shoot out, there was a gun hidden in a cane...but, that's all the secret agent stuff I can recall. That being said, it was still a good book. Bond is an interesting character to read, with all his little quirks, and his insight into the mind of a killer (the killer being him). I was surprised to find that a good chunk of the book had almost nothing to do with the whole spy vs spy thing, that it was almost a love story. Bond agonizes over every word and action this episode's 'bond girl' does. I actually found it interesting to see him consciously ignore all the warning signs that this girl is going to leave him. I wondered how far he would go, how much he would pass off as nothing, how desperate he would become? It was pitiful by the end. A double O agent (aka the cream of the crop) almost crawling on his hands and knees begging an obviously broken woman to love him...just not the image I had of Bond before I started this book. Which actually makes me want to pick up the next one, Live and Let Die, to see if Bond can redeem himself or if he will fall for the next woman he meets?

RATING : READ 

I think the covers on these Bond books are hilarious. Imagine seeing that in a bookstore today? I'd love it.