Stavolta il nostro agente segreto 007 James Bond viene inviato in America, precisamente a Las Vegas, dove indagherà su un commercio di diamanti (sintetizzando molto).

In questa quarta avventura di Bond (li sto leggendo in ordine cronologico) ritroviamo i nemici, la bond girl di turno, e il cattivo che si è costruito un paese stile western con tanto di stazione e locomotiva personale. E poi l'immancabile casinò, corse di cavalli truccate, sparatorie durante la seduta ai fanghi, ma stavolta ho trovato un Bond sottotono, come se fosse stato costretto a portare a compimento quella missione per ritornarsene subito nella sua amata Londra.

Direi che stavolta ci serve una licenza non per uccidere, ma per annoiarci di meno.

5/10

Probably the weakest Bond novel in the series to this point which was somewhat surprising to me as the film is a fond favourite (who would have thought that the screen and page could differ?!). This more felt like Bond visits various locations with a little bit of spying on the side.

The setup is no different to any other, Bond meets M and gets his mission (I do enjoy the relationship these two have), Bond sets off on mission and finds a lady to admire and try to woo (book Bond is not as suave with the women as film Bond), Bond does a bit of shooting and puzzle solving, Bond gets the bad guy and the mission is a success.

The book just didn’t work though this time though, the whole diamond smuggling aspect was quite interesting but the plot never really got fleshed out and the villain is less villainous and more just mediocre thug.

Overall it was disappointing (even the gambling aspect was toned down in this one which is quite a shock as a large chunk is in Vegas!) and didn’t live up to some of the others in the series. I hope Bond and Fleming will be back on form in “From Russia with Love”.

If you enjoy this try: Anything by Vince Flynn

https://poseidons99.wordpress.com/201...

Has Bond gone soft?
That's what she said.



The Bond girl, Tiffany Case, feels more like a real human woman and James treats her as such. Bond likes her, respects her, and because he has information about a trauma in her past actually treats her with kid gloves.
He even takes the time to think about what it would mean to her if they slept together!
WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH JAMES?!
Don't get me wrong, I liked it.
Mostly.



We also get a more badass Bond.
While the movies show him as a slick fighter, I've gotten kind of used to him getting a really thorough (dare I say embarrassing?) beatdown at least once per adventure.
This reads a teeny bit more like the movies but not enough to ruin my gleeful exploration of these books.



This is Bond's second trip to Florida and Felix Leiter is right there with him again, only this time he's a Pinkerton.
They team up to take down diamond smugglers who are stealing from the British government and working with a group of American mobsters.
This is fun because we get lots of fun mobby hijinks in this one.
Fixed horse racing, Vegas gambling trips, and terrifying mud baths.
Classic.



This book turned some kind of a corner.
Not sure whether or not it's a lasting corner, or even if I would enjoy these books so much if James wasn't such a piggy little ass. It's part of the, we'll call it charm, of these books.
Just this unfettered look into what a boozy, sexy, sexist, secret spy supposedly had running through his head in the 50s. Because (and I mean this honestly) that's just some fun shit to read.



This was a good installment in the series and it really held my interest. And yes, I know some of his views might be considered a tad outdated, so these might not be for everyone.
Recommended for fans of cheesetacular secret agent men.

Death is forever. But so are diamonds.

Sometimes I feel guilty about reading the James Bond novels, since Bond and Fleming are racist misogynistic snobs. But sometimes the action pulls you in and you overlook things like ridiculous personality flaws among all the protagonists. With this book, I have no reason to feel guilty, except that I finished it. This is a terrible book with tons of padding and travelogue in between the brief action sequences; it reads like a novella that Fleming's editors told him to triple in size. The final action sequences are maybe the only worthwhile section of the book (and Tiffany Case the only heroine so far drawn halfway realistically) (emphasis on halfway). To get there you must read 120 pages of what Bond ate at the local restaurants, learned about Las Vegas and Saratoga Springs, and felt like doing to kill time. My favorite sequence is when Bond walks off the plane in Vegas and looks contemptuously at the slot machines and "oxygen bar"--and then proceeds to play the slots and sample the oxygen. He's an idiot.

Marked by his descriptive use of words, better imagery, characterization, and plot development, Ian Fleming's quality of writing has evolved with each book. This book one contained more of the action that the last one had lacked. As we've come to expect of our writer, Ian did not disappoint the reader with a shortage of gambling. In fact, this book broadened the gambling spectrum with an equestrian variety, where heretofore it has been limited to the just the average casino venues. Though the story-line lacked some of the uniqueness or originality that the latter books in the series have had it was nonetheless entertaining and engaging. Overall I must say that I enjoyed its reading.

3.4 so I’ll round down to a 3.

This was probably the best Bond book I’ve consumed so far. The misogyny and racist was way down. The terrible diets of the 50s are still present. The action was definitely the best. Finally a good spy twist too.

The other highlights for me are:
1. Bond visiting Saratoga a region in very familiar with.
2. Bond touring Vegas
3. Bond being too snooty of a gambler for blackjack or slots.

Favorite line: *when arriving in Vegas* “Better watch out for any fellow with a coat on. Nobody wears ’em here save to house the artillery”

This is probably the first James Bond book I’ve read that I would recommend to other people.

Noiosetto, scialbo, sonnacchioso, ed infatti abbandonato e ripreso solo ora.
Di nuovo un antagonista con i capelli rossi, di nuovo la ragazza dal passato travagliato ed incredibilmente attratta da Bond, di nuovo noia fino al finale di nuovo rocambolesco. Ancora frasi sessiste. Che dire, i romanzi di questa serie sono un po' tutti uguali. Di solito, però, la trama spionistica è più interessante; qui, alla fin fine di diamanti non si parla mai, perciò non è stata una splendida lettura. Mi aspettavo qualcosa di più. Salvo la scorrevolezza e comunque un intreccio senza difetti, anche se monotono.

Part four of my 2023 James Bond movie/book project. Continued from You Only Live Twice in March.*

Diamonds Are Forever theme song by Shirley Bassey, the only artist to do three songs for the franchise. (None of the others even get two.)

3.5+ stars, but not quite four. Much of this is rather slow, but it picks up towards the end.

Before I start the review, I must address something in the edition I have. It was supposedly done in 1956, though it's the 20th printing, so it was probably a couple/few years later. Here's the bottom of the cover.

n  n

See that little blurb down at the bottom? The one that says "A Signet Book Complete and Unabridged?" n  LIAR!!!n It's missing the following passage which happens right after a big negro who is about to give James his mud bath "sauntered off about his business."

Bond watched the huge rubbery man, and his skin cringed at the thought of putting his body into the dangling pudgy hands with their lined pink palms.

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 dam’ 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.”

The memory of Leiter’s wisecrack cheered Bond up. He took his eyes off the Negro and looked over the rest of the Acme Mud Bath.

Yeah, it's racist as hell; more on that in a second. Just don't tell me you're giving me a complete and unabridged copy of something and then cut crap out of it. I wonder what else is missing from the book. I'm only aware of it because I was looking for it after being tipped off from another review.

The passage makes even me go "wow," but only because it always amazes me what people used to get away with in the past. It doesn't offend me because I can appreciate it as being a product of its time. It would be different if I were to see it in something put out today, but frankly this doesn't affect my enjoyment of the book, and I think it shows that we've come a long way since this was written. If you don't believe me, find me a reputable publisher that would allow such a thing to roll off its printing press today.

The passage's inclusion adds nothing to the story. Its omission subtracts nothing from the story. The story works just fine with or without it. It tells us something about James' character, but is anybody other than a grad student reading these books as a character study? No, we're here for spying, shooting, sex, fights, and all the fun stuff one expects from a spy novel. I'm surprised the editors of my copy took the passage out since the first printing was in 1956, and I think it's unusual to make a change from one printing to another of the same edition, though I could be wrong. People weren't so concerned about that kind of thing back then, but it was starting.

That passage reflects attitudes and ideas around the time it was written. Whitewashing it does a disservice to both history and the future, for those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, and that brings us to something else I just discovered. It looks like our culture curators are giving Ian Fleming's James Bond novels the Roald Dahl treatment just ahead of Bond's 70th anniversary. (Personally, I can think of better ways to commemorate an anniversary than to rape an author's body of work, but what do I know?) All the books have been reviewed by "sensitivity experts," and we all know what an expert is: a jackass with a briefcase 100 miles from home. The changes were announced just a couple of months ago, and it could explain why these books were harder to find than I expected, not to mention a little more expensive than I anticipated, though I didn't have to break the bank to get the ones I needed for my project.

These experts have removed some offensive content, but not all, (e.g. there are still "homos"), though I'm sure they'll get to those in a future scouring. Eventually Bond will be tiptoeing through the tulips in a dress to kiss Blofeld's hand and tell him if he wants to rule the world, then have at it; we are so sorry for standing in your way in the past; it was very insensitive of us. Trust me: these smug, smarter-than-thou, nanny-state pukes aren't going to stop until they've expunged every trace of badassery from the world for the protection of your simple, innocent, gentle mind. Pshaw! James Bond is a killer who gets shit done to save the world, and he does it with savoir faire. The racism and misogyny is part of who he is (or was when the books were written). And while we're at it, Han Solo shot Greedo without him returning fire, God dammit! James Bond would do the same in a similar situation.

Okay, enough of that. This is the first Bond book I've ever read, though I'm somewhat familiar with some of the Sean Connery movies, including this one, and I have the Roger Moore ones practically memorized. The rest... it depends. Diamonds Are Forever is one of the ones where the book and movie are almost completely different. Wint and Kidd are in this.

n  n
(The weirdest henchmen in the whole franchise, and that's saying something.)

The Wint/Kidd showdown even takes place on a ship, though it's quite different. Some of the action takes place in Las Vegas. Tiffany Case is the name of the Bond girl (though she isn't a twit, and that was a nice surprise). A few other characters are in both (though most of them are a little different). There's a scene with a mud bath... And that might be it. There's no SPECTRE. No Blofeld. No clones. And consequently no...

n  n

No Bambi and Thumper. No Willard Whyte.

n  n

No Plenty O'Toole. No massive plot involving nuclear weapons and a space laser. Instead we have diamond smuggling, horse racing, and gambling. It's just some high-end hoods getting rich and killing people who get in the way. Still, that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the book; quite the contrary.

The first half was pretty slow, but it picked up the pace later on. I'm led to believe this one isn't quite as exciting as some of the others, so it's nice to be starting on what's considered a low note, I guess? It'll be a nice treat if that's true.

The book kind of humanizes bond. He's not quite as smooth and efficient as his movie counterpart, and he's a little rougher around the edges. He falls for a couple of ruses that wouldn't trick movie Bond. Movie Bond still gets taken in from time to time, but those schemes are a little more complex. Book Bond also takes longer to figure out a couple of things when all the signs are right in front of him. He's not an imbecile by any stretch, but I guess he has more human foibles. Still a badass, but maybe not an a-list badass.

This project is starting off well. Next up in May: Live and Let Die

*Diamonds Are Forever is the first I read because I came up with this project in April, this was the movie for April, it was the first Bond book to show up in the mail, and it came right when I finished my last book. All the signs were there to kick it off with this one, and that's what happened. Here's hoping I can hit the first three (Goldfinger, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice) before we watch Live and Let Die.

Diamonds Are Forever is a spy classic that brought James Bond back to the U.S.

On the trail of a diamond smuggling pipeline, originating in Africa and moving through London on its way to New York and Las Vegas, Bond goes undercover as a diamond mule. He works with the beautiful but damaged Tiffany Case, hoping to use her connections to infiltrate the vicious Spangled Mob. Old pal Felix Leiter, a former CIA operative who’s moved on to Pinkertons, helps out along the way. Bond has a misadventure at a Saratoga Springs horse race before landing in Sin City. A battle of wits with the head of the Spangled Gang leads to a desperate showdown in a reclaimed desert mining town. A climactic encounter with a pair of brutal killers aboard the QEII puts a dramatic flourish on the caper.

Diamonds Are Forever was one of Ian Fleming’s earlier Bond works. By the time of its publication, Fleming had done a good job of establishing the super spy and his world. There was a depth to the characterization that’s not always evident in Bond’s film translation. In Fleming’s hands, Bond wasn’t perfect. He made mistakes and had blind spots. The fun is in seeing how Fleming extracted his hero from the mad scenarios where the author had deposited him.

The period descriptions are always one of the best parts of these classic Bond novels and Diamonds Are Forever doesn’t disappoint. Fleming provided a detailed look at the life of a high end international vagabond. The details are a vital part of transporting readers into Bond’s highly stylized world. Fleming also had a knack for sketching out brutal action sequences and clever bits of spycraft. As always, seeing Bond navigate an undercover assignment while essentially acting like himself was one of the more entertaining aspects of the story.

Keep in mind that Diamonds Are Forever, like most of the Bond series, is decidedly pre-PC. Bond expressed some gender and racial attitudes that were period-accurate but could be difficult for some modern readers to swallow. But that’s a part of revisiting period genre works and it doesn’t detract from how entertaining the novel is otherwise.

This Bond reprint series is a gift for the character’s fans. Diamonds Are Forever is as enjoyable as the earlier outings.

This book was interesting for a couple reasons. One of Fleming's nonfiction works is titled the Diamond Smugglers; this book's plot revolves around a smuggling enterprise. Many of the details match up between the two books. Although the book I reviewed is a work of fiction, many of the details coincide with material from the nonfiction book. Also, as anyone familiar with the franchise knows, the fiction book was adopted into the screenplay and movie by the same name. Several details were changed when the book was made into the movie, mostly for dramatic effect. Overall a very entertaining read.