In the opening chapter of Diamonds Are Forever Ian Fleming describes how a scorpion kills a beetle & it's a wonderfully detailed piece of writing, typical of the marvellous prose that he writes so well.
This time M sends James Bond undercover as a diamond smuggler & 007 is soon up against some ruthless American gangsters. I love the way M sits in his office, smoking his pipe, & gives Bond the details of his assignment. It really draws you into the story, & I much prefer it to the recent films where Daniel Craig's 007 frequently heads off on his own rogue assignment.
Fleming dishes up another fine thriller with good dialogue & a fast paced plot. It's a delight to read things like his description of someone having "a face like a sad cream-puff."
Such a pity that this great novel was turned into a rather poor film in 1971, but as Tiffany Case observed in the book: "It reads better than it lives."

As I may have pointed out before on these pages, I have been venturing back into the Bond novels with the idea that the contrasts with 'Sixties sexual mores and concepts of maleness may be enlightening or amusing or both.

Ian Fleming was masterful in his descriptions when the setting was in Britain. And I thought he did a nice job of describing Istanbul, not that I would know from the couple of times I've been there for visits of only a few days.

But sally onto American soil, and, I'm sorry, the verisimilitude goes into limey Thomas Crapper's famous invention. I don't know whether Fleming ever traveled here, but he writes about the US of A as if he read about it in some comic book. ("Live and Let Die" suffers from the same lack of believability, with the added annoyance of racial stereotypes that are also in this book, but not center stage.)

He can't even coin American-sounding names! Bond's perennial CIA helpmate is Felix Leiter. And he's from Texas. Come again, pardner? That might be the moniker of a low-class pimp in SoHo but not a chisel-jawed, tobacco-chewin' Yank.

Ho hum. But also the experience was ruined by my seeing an ageless Jill St. John in my mind's eye every time Tiffany Case reenters the plot.

Not much can be said about the literary merits of "Diamonds are Forever". You read it because it's the original conception of an iconic fictional character. You read it for a quaint romp through 50s America as imagined by an Englishman. You read it to draw comparisons with the movie. Yet be warned, Bond doesn't really do much. The reader gets more details on Bond's eating, drinking, showering and napping habits than anything else. The "mystery" is on par with, say, a "Rockford Files" episode, conveniently solved before the final commercial break, the dialogue no more than a risque episode of "Leave it to Beaver". Overall it's a goofy and cute book, a harmless way to spend an afternoon.

"They've got a good machine, even if they do have funny names," warns Bond's old friend from Texas, former CIA agent Felix Leiter.

Leiter's words of warning turn out to be exaggerated. The "Spangled Mob" Bond does battle against are amateurs, and only with help from Bond in terms of some lunkish decision-making do they even come close to threatening him. It is a singularly dissatisfying element in a novel that never gels, and in terms of plot, represents a step back from the engagingly visceral storylines of previous Bond adventures.

What Fleming does get right, beyond an interesting beginning which presents a scorpion stalking a beetle before the narrative moves up the food chain, are the settings. Whether describing mud baths in Saratoga, N.Y. or dining out in Manhattan, Fleming makes sure his prose bathes you with atmosphere. His ability to make minutia diverting is almost a thing of amusement in itself. Las Vegas gets the blunt end of Fleming's pen, described as a noisy, gnashing place where old ladies clutch mindlessly at slot machines and every casino is mobbed up. Nothing wrong with writing the truth.

You only wish Fleming allowed his book more space to capture all this and room enough for Bond to have a decent case. Alas, 007 is largely a mule in this one, pretending to be a diamond carrier in order to get to the heart of the smuggling operation. He gets so bored he decides to flip things over with some sudden improvisation work that exposes him as a potential risk to the Spangled Mob. Since Fleming seems to share Bond's contempt for the situation, this doesn't succeed in making things more interesting.

Death is forever. But so are diamonds

And so my project to read all of the original series of James Bond novels in 2015 continues! Diamonds Are Forever is the fourth book by Ian Fleming and was initially published back in 1956. In the book Bond smashes a diamond smuggling operation, the pipeline of which originates in the mines of Sierra Leone and ends in Las Vegas. Along the way Bond meets and falls in love with one of the members of the criminal gang, Tiffany Case.

It was interesting to compare the plot of the book to the 1971 movie of the same name. In the novel there's no Blofield clone or Blofield in drag, no moonbuggy and no exploding oil rig. Tiffany Case is portrayed as intelligent, strong and a survivor and is probably Fleming's most fully fleshed out female character so far but in the movie she is portrayed as shallow, dumb eye candy.

Bond’s character is expanded further in Diamonds Are Forever and builds on the details revealed in the previous three novels. Bond actually falls in love with Case, the first time he has done so since Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale. We also get to see his sensitive side too. After learning about Tiffany’s back story from Felix Leiter, Bond is surprisingly rather sensitive. He becomes protective and treats her sympathetically and delicately. Typically, he knocks women about a fair bit and is generally a misogynistic swine. He also steps in to defend an innocent woman (a manicurist) who is being verbally and physically abused: good for him!

As expected there is a degree of unacceptable language used, but thankfully nowhere near the excruciating level that was present in Live and Let Die. Jews, Italians, blacks and homosexuals are all mentioned in a very derogatory manner. Also, the villains were somewhat feeble: Jack and Serrafimo Spang were described as being the hardest of the criminal gang but are never given enough time to prove this. Perhaps it would have helped to have Bond’s torture scene portrayed as unlike Casino Royale the incident is skipped. I thought that it was a shame as it was one of the best parts of Casino Royale and gave the reader an insight into how Bond thinks and acts when he was under pressure and in significant distress.

The book also describes a lot of travel in a fair amount of detail; multiple locations are visited, for example New York City, Saratoga Springs, Las Vegas, etc. and while I'm sure this was of interest to readers in the 1950s who never set foot outside of the UK it meant that there was no real geographical anchor to the story. But it is interesting to hear Fleming's observations and musings on the USA and the American way of life from a mid-fifties perspective.

Fleming's action set pieces are full of tension and excitement and are what really makes the book. The ones earlier on, for example the mud bath scene are better than the ones later on, the train chase through the desert for instance. Unfortunately, yet again we get drawn out gambling scenes explained in excruciating levels of detail. I have to confess that this tends to bore me and in Diamonds Are Forever we have the added "thrill" of not only card playing but horse racing too.

So in summary, probably the weakest of the Bond novels so far with too much exposition about the mechanics of diamond smuggling and I felt that Bond succeeded in his mission primarily by luck and violence alone. Yes, it has the usual ethnic and racial faults plus we get far too much detail on the minutia of gambling (yet again) but it’s the first novel where Bond is actually nice to women. Criticisms aside it was still exciting, plus it contained enough action to keep me entertained. Like the name of the novel itself: this book is a gem albeit perhaps not the most sparking one.

I'm enjoying reading the Bond books, especially as I know the movies so well. James Bond will return!

Bond investigates a diamond smuggling ring in an adventure that brings him back to the states for another meeting with his good friend Felix Leiter. Felix is sporting a hook for a hand and presumably and artificial leg due to the shark attack from Live and Let Die, so that's a pretty major continuity change when compared to the movies.

Actually the books have been very different than the movies so far, in most cases only the title and some of the character names being directly related to the novels. The novels come across as more straight forward and realistic, but I'm a huge fan of the films so in a way I like them both equally.

This wasn't my favorite as it seemed to lack a certain spark, but it was still enjoyable. I don't know why I waited so long to finally read the James Bond novels but I'm enjoying them all. If you're a Bond fan, it's probably worth reading at least of a few of the novels to give you an idea of the character's roots.

If the introduction to From Russia With Love is to be believed, and Diamonds Are Forever was supposed to be the penultimate James Bond novel (with its fatal poisoning at the end, only to have Bond, and the series revived with Dr. No), Ian Fleming planted lots of clues, like seeds, into the story of diamond, which also proves that things asides from death will last forwever. Twice does Bond suggest that he and Tiffany Case have "all the time in the world," reminiscent of the same mistake he made about Tracy Bond, where there is also mention of the passenger ship Queen Elizabeth meeting up with the Royal Navy QE. More intreguing is the seemingly wry comment James gives Tiffany about marriage, how he get himself "sent to Japan" once he was married, just as he did in You Only Live Twice. How much of these are foreshadows or afterthoughts is anyone's guess.

I tried to read Casino Royale some time after seeing the movie-I enjoyed the movie but not the book. But I decided to give Fleming another chance and I chose Diamonds Are Forever mostly based on the cover.

Summary: James Bond is sent to investigate the smuggling of diamonds from South Africa to America.

I really liked the description of the airplane on page 50 of my copy: the passengers are served cocktails and caviar on the two hour flight from London to Ireland. I feel lucky to get two drinks and a bag of pretzels on a US cross-country flight.

Perhaps because Casino Royale is the only Bond film I've seen, I kept picturing Daniel Craig as Bond. This works. Bond is cool and efficient whether knocking out some baddies or seducing Miss Tiffany Case (who has a horrific backstory).

I was offended by some passages regarding race and gender but I kept in mind that this book was written 1956 by an Englishman with a vastly different perspective than me. I also felt the ending was somewhat rushed but in the end it's only important to know that Bond completed his mission.

Overall: I would rate this 4 out 5. The chapters were short and suspenseful so I could move through the book quickly. I am definitely planning to read some more Bond books.

So because George Lazenby couldn't make it as James Bond in the previous movie, Sean Connery was back for Diamonds Are Forever, which the trailer (behind the link) points out a whole lot. "Hey guys, we made a mistake with that other guy, but look! Connery! COME BACK!"

Also making a come back with this movie was Shirley Bassey singing the theme song, as she did for Goldfinger. (The theme songs are nearly as important to me as the films themselves.) For those of us who pay attention (or at least remember to go back to do a little research), Guy Hamilton also directed this one in addition to Goldfinger.

Having just finished On Her Majesty's Secret Service yesterday and being pleasantly surprised by how much it didn't actually suck, reading Diamonds Are Forever today was sort of a return to the meh-hood of the previous Bond books I've read.

Here's my theory: Bond doesn't belong in America. Or Fleming doesn't belong in America. Someone doesn't belong in America and when Fleming writes Bond in America? Things get dirty. And not in a good way. It's like Bond's racism comes out in full force when he visits the States, full of awkwardness, Paula-Deen-style:

Bond had a natural affection for coloured people, but he reflected how lucky England was compared with America where you had to live with the colour problem from your schooldays up. He smiled as he remembered something Felix Leiter had said to him on their last assignment together in America. Bond had referred to Mr. Big, the famous Harlem criminal, as 'that damned nigger'. Leiter had picked him up. 'Careful now James,' he had said. 'People are so damn sensitive about colour around here that you can't even ask a barman for a jigger of rum. You have to ask for a jegro.'"

My, my.

Something that doesn't come up in the trailer is that Jimmy Dean (that's right, the sausage guy) had a role in the movie. I don't know why that struck me as so funny, but it was. Laugh, dammit.

Missing from the book are Bambi and Thumper which makes one wonder why they were added to the movie at all. But then, oh yeah, that's Hollywood. There wasn't enough skin and sex in the book, so let's create these two. I remember that scene exceptionally well from my childhood. For some reason, that made an impression on me.

Also made an impression on me as a young movie-viewer were the characters Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, portrayed by two very creepy characters. I had blocked them out until seeing them again on the screen now and all of it came flooding back to me. These assassins didn't play as large of a part in the book, or at least not to the same degree of creepiness so therefore didn't frighten me as much on reading them.

Before anyone gets all upset, the creepiness factor wasn't because the characters are lovers. I couldn't give a shit. But those actors? Are seriously creepy.

Dear Mr. Fleming: Please stop writing Bond in America. It just... doesn't work. Thanks.

Next up... Live and Let Die (thus begins the Sir Roger Moore years.)

Yet another Fleming book that clearly outshines its poor theatrical adaptation. There's little real development of Bond's character from start to finish, but for once the female lead is an actual human being with believable motivations (although she quickly turns into the usual pile of boring, fawning putty once Bond lays the charm on her).

For the most part, Fleming sticks to his usual formula and it's an enjoyable ride. At the very least, an enjoyable window into the burgeoning era of jet travel and the days when Vegas (and other gambling hot spots like Saratoga) still belonged firmly in the hands of the mob.

It's a shame really that the movie adaptations got a different actor to play Felix Leiter every time, because it meant he never got the chance to become as much-loved as the book character is becoming (in my case anyway).
I admit I've been reading these books completely out of order, which hasn't really been an issue, and the one thing I'm getting above anything else, is that Leiter not only appears in so many more books than movies, but that he's also a really fun character. Sure, one can be cynical and say the character is there simply to provide exposition and convenient rescues when required, but he does it with such charm, I can only say: "so what?"

As for the rest of the book: fun enough, no surprises, plenty of action, bond gets the girl, blah, blah, you know the drill.

tDiamonds Are Forever (1956) (Bond #4) by Ian Fleming. This is one of the lesser Bond outings. Sent to uncover and destroy a diamond smuggling operation, Bond must work his way into the good graces of his contact, Tiffany Case. Together they are to smuggle a grouping of diamonds into the U.S. Along the way he meets some interesting characters including a diabolical duo of killers who mask their true identities. In doing so, they keep their features hidden from the world, including Bond.
tWhile the story is a competent one, I find the process flawed. The story is about rich people keeping their riches while those who work for them are kept as near prisoners. I don’t know how much has changed over the years but I assume there isn’t a great difference in how the workers are treated. So much suffering inflicted so a few people can fill their bank accounts.
tAnd Bond, as usual, is merely a tool the powerful use to keep their positions.

3.5 stars but not enough to round up.