By the premise it sounded like I would enjoy this instalment of James Bond the most but I never got invested in the audio book and didn't much care for this book. It's not bad but not my cup of tea

Ich war neugierig, als ich dieses Buch zum Verschenken herumliegen gesehen hab. Bin kein Fan der Filme, aber war neugierig auf die Vorlage.
Man merkt sehr deutlich, in welcher Zeit dieses Buch geschrieben wurde. Kalter Krieg, die bösen Sowjets und die - naja, kalter Krieg eben. Schwarz-Weiß-Denken, recht flache Charaktere und keine wirkliche Entwicklung, aber das ist auch nicht der Schwerpunkt. Das Hauptaugenmerk der Geschichte liegt auf Spannung, auch wenn ich sie nicht so überwältigend fand.

Was mich am meisten irritiert hat ist der heute als Hauptcharakter gar nicht mehr tragbare Charakter James Bonds. Säuft, raucht wie ein Schlot, schaut absolut chauvinistisch und überheblich auf Frauen herab. Vor allem Letzteres stößt mir ziemlich auf. Ich kann mir einfach nicht vorstellen, dass diese Weltanschauung damals noch gesellschaftsfähig war. Wir reden hier über die nahe Vergangenheit, ca. -55 Jahre.

Es ist auf jeden Fall interessant, dieses Buch mal zu lesen, auch wenn ich es wohl kein zweites Mal in die Hand nehmen werde. (einen weiteren Band davon lese ich trotzdem gerade).
Außerdem ist es echt schnell zu lesen. Heute werden ja kaum noch so kurze Bücher geschrieben (zumindest nicht die, die ich mir so kaufe)

I didn't like this one.
I am very much over Blofeld and starting to wonder if his storyline will ever fully be finished in the original novels.
Tracy was fine but their relationship was too ridiculous to be believed.
I thought the main evil plot was stupid but at least there was humour throughout. I don't know if it was intentional this time or not though.
I think what gets me the most is that not only can James ski like a professional, he also avoids avalanches like one.
And! He can skeleton on a broken sled going 80MPH and live. He's a wizard, our James.
This just felt really weak. It also took me forever to get through since I took a break to beat a game. I wasn't sad about it honestly.

Fleming won me over slowly with this one. The setup for Bond and Tracy's relationship is ridiculous, so much is so far over the top (especially the needless constant sexist asides), but overall it's his details that draw you in. The long explanations of skiing and the geography, the details of mission briefs, the long asides about heraldry; they're all wonderful. The ending, as much as you know it is coming (as a fan of the films but also from careful foreshadowing), is still shocking and the tender final scene is heartbreaking. Worth reading for any fan of the films

“When the odds are hopeless, when all seems to be lost, then is the time to be calm, to make a show of authority – at least of indifference”
― Ian Fleming, On Her Majesty's Secret Service



One of my favorite Bond novels so far. It contains most of the things that draws people to Bond novels and movies (action, intrigue, charm, violence) and tones down some of the more obnoxious parts too (sexism, racism, etc). The character of Bond is fascinating in this novel as his normal cycle with women is warped a bit. The movie sticks pretty close to the narrative on this one, which is probably due to the fact that it was already a pretty well-developed story.

This is my first Bond book. Of course, I’ve watched all the movies, so I could easily picture the story in relation to the movie, as I read it.
There is plenty of action in the book but not as much as in the movie. The book is superior because of this but also because it is able to paint context and meaning behind things, far better than a movie can.

The story is very well planned and told. I was expecting something less quality which earned its reputation based on the story alone but this author writes with great expressive skill, immersing me deeply in to the story.
In fact, outdated sexism aside, this book shows Bond’s weaknesses and softer side more so than you get out of the movie.

I do believe I will have to read more Bond books. This is one of the earlier books so it will be interesting to see whether the Bond character hardens or changes in any way as his career develops.

The usual stuff for teenagers, slightly above Fleming's average.
The first pages look promising, but there is not too much action, a sad final, Bond in love and somehow careless.
And probably a silly question: why do almost all Bond girls have to die? It would have been ten times nicer (and not only for him) to have a living ex-lover everywhere around the globe...

A Lancia Spyder with its hood down tore past him, cut in cheekily across his bonnet and pulled away, the sexy boom of its twin exhausts echoing back at him. It was a girl driving, a girl with a shocking pink scarf tied round her hair. And if there was one thing that set James Bond really moving, it was being passed at speed by a pretty girl.

Forget ever James Bond movie you ever saw when you read the books. These are much more a mystery/adventure story. Recommended

I’d never read or watched James Bond before, but when an audiobook narrated by David Tennant was on offer I decided to give it a try. The action was good, the writing fairly good, and the narration was good.
However, the shear quantity of ridiculously sexist comments was really overwhelming. I understand this book was written in a different time, but it still made me really uncomfortable. Often I only continued because of the narration. Having read books by other authors before and during that era, I do believe this is not the norm for that time.
I don’t think I’ll be continuing my adventures in the literature of James Bond.

Good! It has been awhile since I have seen the movie, but from what I remember the book and the movie are fairly similar.

While reading On Her Majesty's Secret Service, I found myself wondering if Ian Fleming had ever been married and what his relationship with his spouse was like.

The question arose early in the story when the father of Tracey (the supposed love of Bond's life) is having a conversation with Bond about the pursuit of Tracey's mother. When the comment that some women just want to be raped came up (not for the first time in the Bond series, mind you), I couldn't help but wonder about Fleming and his wife. Living in the world of easy researching, I quickly found out that the romance and relationship of Fleming and his wife was a volatile as I expected based on some of the comments made by various male characters in his novels.

And yet, interestingly enough, it's never Bond who makes such statements. If Bond is intended as some type of Mary Sue for Fleming, it's interesting to note that while he enjoys the company of the ladies, he doesn't necessarily support forcing his interest on them. Of course, that doesn't mean that Bond is exactly a knight in shining armor -- though Fleming would have you think he is. Bond is a man of opinions and principles. While he isn't agreeing that some women just need to be sexually assaulted, he is quick to agree that what the depressed Tracey needs is some good loving -- and he's only too happy to provide that interest for her.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service feels like Fleming is trying to do some character building with Bond, though whether or not it's a success depends on the reader. Some of the more recent Bond movies have suggested that Bond is a relic of different era and it feels like Fleming is saying that in this novel. Bond is dismissive of certain trends that younger men seem to be showing throughout the novel and clearly believes that his old-fashioned ways are the way to a woman's heart --or at the very least her bedroom.

His nature leads him to save Tracey's embarrassment early on in the story at the casino (this is after following her along the road because he finds her attractive). Tracey "rewards" him by offering herself to him because she's planning to end her life and she might as well have the last night of good lovin' from Bond.

In the bigger Bond picture, the story brings back Blofeld, though this time his nefarious plot is a bit more eyebrow-raising than we saw in Thunderball. It certainly sets the precedent for the various absurd schemes that various Bond villains come up with in the movies.

And, of course, Bond falls in love with and marries Tracey. Honestly, this feels a bit like Fleming is trying to set up some things for the next installment than it is actual character growth from Bond. I did find the idea that Bond is growing weary and lonely from his life as a secret agent an intriguing thread and it does (sort of) explain his falling for Tracey. However, in the overall scheme of things, Tracey isn't really any different than other Bond love interests from other novels, except that she finally gets him to the altar. Unfortunately, newly wedded bliss doesn't last long because (SPOILER alert for a novel that is fifty years old), Blofeld gets revenge by having Tracey killed.

Maybe knowing the ending from the movie hurt a bit here and maybe this twist was a bit more shocking in the end. It reminded me a bit of an early Jack Reacher novel in which Reacher is given a house and a reason to settle down and you have to wonder just how the author will undo this for the next story or else radically change the series as a whole. I feel like Fleming may have been trying to change things a bit and can't help but wonder if and how a novel or two of Bond balancing his life as a secret agent with being a husband might have been.

I decided to re-read this one because it was put into the Amazon Unlimited program and I was allowed access to the audio version, read by David Tennant. I'd been curious about this new wave of Bond audiobooks since they were released a few years ago and I have to admit that Tennant does a nice job with this one. Given that Fleming was leaning into the movies a bit with this one, hearing the book read in Tennant's native Scottish accent was an added bonus.