Bond actually seems to fall in love in this one, and almost loses Tiffany, but manages to save her. From Africa to New york to california back to Africa..Torture, a train chase, gun play, violence, high adventure. Felix is back, but bunged up and if I tell anymore it might be a spoiler...they might be called "fun" books if not for all the killing, but then that's what a 00 is you know, a license to kill.

Sadly this one didn't hit the mark, was slow and at points struggled to make sense of it, as a lover of the bond series, it is hard to say this, but this book is a flop that I could not recommend.

Book four in the James Bond series.

This is a funny series really, four books in and you think we'd be starting to know Bond a bit better by now however there's no character development here, Bond is as surface level as he was in book one. 

It's been said a million times, these books are a product of their time, women and race are handled very badly. That aside there is something very readable about these books.

I will continue to pick these books up as and when I want a lighter read.

Three stars.

It’s been some time since I last read Ian Fleming’s 1956 novel, Diamonds Are Forever

One of the weaker Bond novels in the series, this installment is more akin to a crime novel and a spy thriller that you'd normally associate with Fleming's famous agent.

007 is tasked into tracking down a diamond smuggling organization from Africa through Europe to eventually Las Vegas.

The discrimination of Bonds travels are fascinating and one of my favorite aspects of the book.
There's quite long sections where he's visiting a casino and a racetrack.

Even though this isn't the strongest entry in the series I still found it an easy and enjoyable read.

(A-) 81% | Very Good
Notes: James Bond fights evil American capitalists, escapes by road, air, rail and sea, and has his profanities bleeped in-text.

"Slowly the sting slid home into its sheath and the nerves on the poison sac at its base relaxed. The scorpion had decided. Greed had won over fear."

I won't copy all of the opening scene of Diamonds Are Forever, but this is one of the reasons why I keep reading this series - Fleming's ability to write nature scenes is phenomenal. They even make up for his writing about what passes for romance in these Bond novels. But I'll get to that later.

In Diamonds Are Forever, James Bond is tasked to investigate diamond trafficking that funds the American mafia. There are plenty of typical Bond capers which include passing himself off as someone else, getting entangled with a woman while undercover (haha) and converting her to the right side (i.e. Bond's side), blowing things up, gambling, and trying to foil the bad guys while Bond is being rescued himself by his friends.

As you know, I'm not a huge fan of James Bond himself, but in this novel he actually acknowledges how much he owes to his friend Felix Leiter. In fact, we get to know quite a bit about Felix - he has a sense of humor and he is happy to challenge Bond's snobbery. He's straight-talking, homophobic, but can be tactful, and he doesn't burn bridges. Leiter drinks just as much as Bond, which is probably another reason why they are friends.

Anyway, the cast of supporting characters in this book is what I enjoyed most. We have Leiter, and we have Tiffany Case, who is not a push over like her film counterpart but a pretty strong and independent woman with a tough past that leads her to reject other people, especially men.

Throughout the book I actually wondered how scenes might be written differently if they were told from her perspective - I would also have hoped that this might give me a clue about what on earth attracts her to this "Bond person" that she knows is lying to her on their first meeting. But alas, the book follows the adventure of James Bond....and so we get his perspective, which is - surprisingly - less sexist and less patronising than in the previous books.
Yeah. I know. That is not saying much. We still get Bond pondering in the following way:

"But was he prepared for the consequences? Once he had taken her by the hand it would be forever. He would be in the role of the healer, the analyst, to whom the patient had transferred her love and trust on her way out of the illness. There would be no cruelty equal to dropping her hand once he had taken it in his. Was he ready for all that that meant in his life and his career?"

Yeah. I know. Like she needs him to heal her and save her and .....ugh. But, as I said, it looks like he's come a long way since Live and Let Die where he described Solitaire as his "prize".

The characters I enjoyed most were, as in the other books, Bond's evil counterparts, except that in Diamonds Are Forever, the best baddies are not the criminal masterminds but their two henchmen: Wint and Kidd. They are such an unlikely duo, and yet, so evil. There is a scene in a spa that will stick in my memory for quite some time....

This is the last of the Bond books for me. I've struggled through 6 of these now, and no matter how hard I try I cannot get beyond the virulent racism. It is not simply a matter of contextualizing Fleming, the racism is unlike anything I have read from the period, and because of this I have found it impossible to overcome or worth the effort of overcoming.

Still a fan of the movies, where Fleming's Bond has been sanitized, but the books are not worth anyone's time.

The sexism and sadism I can live with...the sadism is even fun, but there is absolutely no excuse for the race hatred.

Pass on Felming's Bond.

Given the massive selection of homoerotic spy thrillers of the mid-fifties, it's hard to select the best. But "Diamonds are Forever" is the weirdest by far. Toward the end of "Diamonds" Tiffany Case questions Bond about marriage. His reply is, "Matter of fact I'm almost married already. To a man. Name begins with M. I'd have to divorce him before I tried marrying a woman." Concerning the "lavender boys", a driver says "the only irons they can handle are in their pockets," then later Bond says, "I wouldn't mind seeing a little more of those two." There are lots of naked guys, at one point twenty or so covered in mud with only one shower to share. Not to mention the appearance of a "black sausage of metal." I'm not necessarily saying that this one is a soft-core precursor for "Fifty Shades of Gray" fifty years later, but I just couldn't help myself from typing this. I've read the previous three, so to me "Diamonds" is the weakest as far as plot/storyline, "Moonraker" the strongest. "Diamonds" is absolutely worth a read just for the laughs at the many weird and surprising sexual metaphors. Now, on to "From Russia With Love", which I already have on my "to read" shelf here at home. I'm really enjoying these, they are far better than I ever imagined.

"Negro" and "Black bastard" over ten times in one chapter.

That's as far as I go with this series.

The Ian Fleming James Bond books are just one of the series that I undertook to start and finish in this calendar year. Diamonds are Forever is the fourth of the series published in 1956. The year is relevant because it can not be judged (IMHO) with a modern eye nor a modern ear. These books must be judged in the context of their historical milieu. It is more than 65 years old. Are these books misogynistic and racially insensitive? To a modern reader, quite possibly, but bear in mind it was published in Great Britain circa 1956. Tiffany Case is an okay Bond girl / Bond woman. Felix Leiter returning is a highlight. Yay! I love the character! Bond versus the mob, infiltrating a diamond cartel with a mostly not-present leader. What's that about? How can you have a superior Bond book without a memorable villain? After reading the novel, I would have settled for any villain, never mind memorable. Good, but not great, more middle-of-the-road.

"Death is forever. But so are diamonds."

You may recall from my last review that Moonraker turned out to be a terrific little book that was adapted into a seriously terrible movie. As fate would have it, I also despised the movie version of Diamonds Are Forever, but while Moonraker became my favorite book in the series so far, Diamonds became my least favorite in the series (so far).

A large part of that is due to the fact that nothing much happens on Bond's assignment in Diamonds. There isn't even really a villain of any consequence to be found. Moonraker was all the better for Hugo Drax's larger than life presence. Ostensibly, the Spang brothers are the head bad guys in Diamonds, but you barely even get to know either one of them. They only really turn up at the very end, just in time for 007 to dispatch them to save the day. There are some henchmen, but they also lurk on the periphery--only turning up roughly three times during the entire book. Without a villainous presence, the only thread for the plot to grasp at is Bond's mission--and even that is mostly boring.

M sends 007 to take the place of a diamond smuggler in order to figure out who is behind a large diamond-smuggling operation that is undermining the British economy. Bond meets up with Tiffany Case, the mob operative who is going to oversee his transport to the United States, and immediately drops the fake identity. He gets to the U.S. and basically meanders his way through the plot. He doesn't get any dangerous assignments from the mob, he spends more than half the book just trying to collect payment from them for his smuggling trip. That takes him on a detour to Saratoga, where he inexplicably helps his former CIA buddy, Felix Leiter (now a detective with the Pinkertons), cause trouble with the very mob he's trying to trick into drawing him close. Yes, Leiter is his friend, but the reckless hit to Bond's cover doesn't quite make sense.

Once the horse race payment method goes south, the mob sends Bond to Las Vegas to pay him out in one of their casinos. Bond decides to apply some pressure to the mob bosses to find out who's heading up the pipeline, but the action is still painfully slow compared to the other books--and once again, 007's movements seem unnecessarily reckless. His rather sudden infatuation with Tiffany Case doesn't improve things. It's one thing for 007 to feel attracted to a Bond Girl like Moonraker's Gala Brand, but he inexplicably falls directly into full-on Vesper-Lynd-style love with Tiffany. They barely even know each other, and nothing about their interactions seems worthy of the marked fixation they have for each other.

So you see, Diamonds is the most problematic of Ian Fleming's Bond books (so far) by a long shot. It's also the most dull. It's not a terrible read but given how enjoyable the rest of the books have been it is definitely a disappointment.

For more on 007’s adventures check out the James Bond page on my blog. Up next: n  From Russia, With Loven.