This is my very first ever James Bond book. Of course, I saw several of the movies as a child, and never really thought the books would interest me. I noticed that this Audible book was narrated by David Tennant and I figured it would be at least decent. Decent? It was FANTASTIC. David Tennant handles some French and German beautifully, as well as pacing changes for scenes where he is either trying to be quiet to avoid detection, or running (rather skiing) for his life. He also handles different voices for a number of different characters and does it so well, I couldn't help but wish he would narrate about 20 or 30 more books. He's just a fantastic narrator.

And yes, this book is actually very good, too! I was quite surprised! Ian Fleming is a great writer, and now I will move on to checking out some more books in the Bond series.

If you read this book, do yourself a favor and get the audio!

First James Bond book I have read (yep, starting at #11). Picked up this book from someone who was downsizing. The book had a handwritten note on the inside cover: "Happy Mother's Day! Sonly, Dave." I am compelled to read personalized books. Yes, it makes no sense. Yes, I read them anyway.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is written from Bond's perspective. I was surprised that this was not written as an invincible "super spy" but rather a reasonably smart man's man. Oddly, he seemed as surprised about what was going on as anybody. Bond rolls with it, but even he seems to be surprised that any of these plans work (for as long as they do).

The writing is disjointed and the descriptions are difficult. In fact, I somehow skipped 80 pages and didn't notice until 100 pages later. How did I skip 80 pages? I have young children who knock over my books, sometimes without telling me. The fact that I picked up in the wrong spot is not surprising - what surprised me is that the writing was so disjointed that it took 100 pages for the plot to refer to something that I missed in those pages. That's a first.

Two and a half stars, rounded up, mainly because I imagined Roger Moore on this one which gave it some more humor. The Bond in this story is just not Sean Connery.

This is only my second Fleming read and I enjoyed it. I am also a big fan of the film version, which does not really resemble this storyline. Much more talk than action. Modern James Bond fans would be bored silly.

‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ is an exciting and nerve-wracking James Bond novel! Ok, most of us have seen the movie dozens of times, and the movie follows the book’s plot very closely. But that doesn’t mean the book is without merit just because a movie based on it has been overexposed on television! It’s been a popular action movie for good reasons, and the novel’s plot the movie is based on is partially why. People who have not seen the movie yet like it very much when they do, despite the shock in the changeup of the actor who plays the part of James Bond! Those of us who have watched the movie a dozen times have done so because it is very entertaining and remarkably bittersweet for a Bond movie.

‘OHMSS’ is book two in a trilogy about the SPECTRE leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld, an extremely hardcore bad guy James Bond tangled with in a previous book in Ian Fleming’s Bond series, Thunderball. Bond also meets a headstrong young woman, Teresa “Tracy” di Vicenzo, daughter of a powerful Corsican organization mafia boss, the Unione Corse’s Marc-Ange Draco, in this novel. Tracy will change Bond’s life forever - as does Blofeld.

Tracy has a history of being suicidal, but James is drawn to her because of her beauty and high-spirited attitude when in danger. Her depression is caused by various losses of people close to her. Tracy is very reckless in her approach to challenging or dangerous circumstances partially as a result of her emotional pain, but she is expert in everything she does. Draco made sure she was trained in many things . Bond admires her skill set, which is similar to his own. The two young adventurous lovers (of course they are, this is a James Bond novel) are like matching bookends in what they enjoy doing for fun.

Some of the things Bond thinks are fun is stuff like destroying the nefarious plans of bad guys like Blofeld. Bond already wrecked one of Blofeld’s extortion capers, despite that Blofeld himself escaped being captured. But there are emotional difficulties with which Bond is struggling lately after every assignment. He is burning out. Tracy seems to be offering him a new path forward. But Bond cannot resist taking one more assignment from the Secret Service.

Blofeld has turned up unexpectedly in Switzerland. Maybe. Apparently, if the information was accurate, a man who could be Blofeld is interested in establishing his line of descent from established royal titles. This person contacted London’s College of Arm’s department researcher Sable Basilisk asking for official verification of his noble lineage. The title the wealthy Swiss gentleman, Monsieur le Comte Balthazar de Bleuvulle, wishes to be bestowed on himself is Comte de Bleuville, with the family arms.

Bond cannot believe it, but Bleuville seems to be Blofeld. There is no extradition agreement with Switzerland, so if Bleuville is Blofeld, he is safe in Switzerland. The Service needs confirmation of Blofeld’s identity, and if it is the master criminal, a plan is needed to entice Blofeld out of Switzerland. Basilisk agrees to send Bond to Blofeld’s Swiss ski resort business as a College of Arms' employee with fake credentials. Bond and Blofeld never met, but it still is a risky visit. Blofeld is not only a murderous psychopath, he is very intelligent and cautious. If he finds out Bond really is 007, he will kill Bond immediately. Plus, is it possible a man like Blofeld has settled down to running a ski resort? No, not, gentle reader.

This novel is definitely one of the best in the James Bond series.

I have to admit, OHMSS is my least favourite of the "classic Bond" movies (By classic I mean everything before Daniel Craig. The Craig movies are mostly ok movies for what they are, but they don't feel like Bond to me...). Bond getting married just seemed completely out of character, and Lazenby isn't exactly my favourite either.

The book is better, much better than the movie. even though the whole getting married thing still comes completely out of left field, so to speak, there seems to be a far more interesting reason behind it in the book. Never mind Tracy... Bond seems to be head over heels in love with her dad! I'm quite certain that gaining Draco as a father-in-law had more to do with his decision than Tracy herself did.

Either way, it's another fun read, and I can heartily recommend the audio version narrated by David Tennant!

The first time I read the Bond books I was a teenager, and at that tender age I have to confess that I thought Fleming actually knew what women were all about, which probably explains my spectacular lack of success with them in my younger years. On reading them a second time around, I have to say (and it seems I'm not the first), the guy had no idea about women.
So, if we accept that Fleming was a social neanderthal, we can concentrate on the story. 007 is hunting Blofled, gets a tip from a mafia boss (who strangely becomes friends with a British spy), and tracks him down to the alps. Jim falls in love with the capo's daughter, and of course completely believably, M appears to agree to 007 marrying her (no security risk there at all).
Of course, this far into the series, you can't possibly take them seriously. So you're left with the entertainment factor, and this time around Fleming does a reasonable job. Car chases, high speed ski-ing, bob sled chases, firefights. So not bad. Not the best, which in my view was Moonraker, but not the worst.

Because I recently listened to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Ian Fleming's only children's book) on audio, I decided to listen to some classic Fleming while I was at it. James Bond. I love love love this series! Years ago (how many I shall not admit to) I actually got in trouble for having this paperback at school. James Bond and the Secret Service was considered inappropriate reading material to have at school. Other classmates were carrying around Stephen King and other authors whose books included more sex and bad language than anything included in the James Bond books, but his bed hopping behavior from the movies made the principal assume that the books were filled with nudity and sexual escapades. The stories are actually action-packed, fascinating tales of espionage, larger-than-life criminals, and nefarious, evil plans that need to be averted. Wonderful books! I read the books at home after that incident and never again took Britain's 007 agent to school with me. As part of my goal to spend more time this year reading books I love and want to read .... I'm revisiting James Bond.

I chose this particular Bond novel to read (#11 in the series) because it is my favorite Bond movie and because it was the book I was restricted from reading at school. Plus, the audiobook is narrated by David Tennant. Every audiobook I have listened to with Tennant as narrator has been excellent -- and this one is no exception. Tennant's performance is excellent! He reads at a nice even speed with proper emotion and excitement during action sequences. I have hearing loss but was easily able to hear and understand Tennant's narration. The audiobook (from Blackstone Publishing) is just over 8 hours long.

The basics: Bond is up against Blofeld, a criminal mastermind who is planning to decimate Britain financially by contaminating and destroying the nation's food supply. Bond infiltrates his compound in Switzerland, learns that Blofeld will be using brainwashed young women to do his dirty work. He escapes narrowly and gathers a small group of mafioso to help him rout out Blofeld and stop his evil plan. Great action sequences.....drop dead gorgeous women.....bigger-than-life criminals. This book has it all. This is the book where Bond gets married.....he wishes to share his life with Teresa di Vicenzo (called Tracey). But, alas, his happy ever after is not to be.

Great book. I enjoyed it just as much as I did years ago when I first read it. Some fault these books for sexism. I don't feel that way. James Bond is an international spy and a man's man. He kills people who deserve killing. And he spends time with beautiful women in beautiful places. He uses people as becomes necessary to do his job. And sometimes this involves using sex to get information he needs, or just for enjoyment. If that offends, then perhaps spy novels are not a good choice of genre. Obviously it does not offend too many people as Bond movies have been popular since the 1960s, and the movies add in much more bed hopping and scantily clad Bond Girls than exist in the actual books.

I enjoyed re-visiting this book so much that I'm adding the rest of this series to my TBR plans for this year. The series has been continued by other authors following Ian Fleming's death. I'm interested in finding out if the new books are just as good as Fleming's. Can't wait to find out!

This book written by Ian Fleming is the 2nd installment of the Blofeld trilogy, the 1st being "Thunderball" and the 3rd being "You Only Live twice". Ernst Stavro Blofeld is the leader of SPECTRE the criminal organisation that has targeted the NATO and Great Britain on two occasions. The first attempt was stopped by 007 and the second attempt is written about in this novel OHMSS.

James Bond in the beginning of this novel is thinking about his future with the secret service after spending too much time chasing Blofeld and never getting anywhere or even close to the man or his organisation. He is thinking about his resignation from Her Majesty's secret service when he meets a mysterious young lady who triggers him into a protective hero. With her attempt at suicide James Bond starts a chain of events that will end the book in a personal drama for James Bond 007 and sets the mood for the third book.

This book is easily my favorite one as written by Fleming, it shows more insight in the major characters created by Fleming, namely M & 007. It is also a very well written thriller about biological warfare.

The movie while having the one time 007 actor George Lazenby is a very faithful but enlarged version of the Fleming book. Both are well worth your time.

Just read it; You have all the time in the world.

And the book always leaves me in the end with a small tear in my eye.

I’m not a fan of the James Bond movies. Actually, if I am really honest, I have never watched one in its entirety but I get the feeling that they are not for me. However, I decided to give one of the books a try because I didn’t want to be too judgemental without cause to back it up. Maybe I just prefer books to movies.

What I found was this: the books haven’t aged aged well. They are quite mysogenistic and I really don’t think glib conversations about rape really endear a reader to the characters.

However, taken as an action thriller and removing sexual abuse I can see why the books (and I guess the movies) have such a following. They are fast paced, have clear discernible villains and heroes and as a reader you have the clear knowledge that you know the hero will win.  It is is the knowledge that you know that the story will end well that makes readers (and viewers) enjoy the stories. The knowledge that they good guy will win that makes it quite satisfying.

I have surprised myself by acknowledging that I would be willing to read more of the Bond, James Bond series.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by Ian Fleming is available now.

I expected a lot of socially outdated stuff and to be fair it's there, but generally speaking Bond is more three dimensional here than in the films, and that goes some way to balancing out the male fantasy.

I like the movies but they lose me when they get into the nitty gritty of the adventure, rather than looking at Bond the Guy. I've seen Secret Service twice but reading it felt like finding out about the plot for the first time.

Maybe reading the story instead of seeing it helped me focus on the characters as real people instead of impossibly sexy caricatures. They are still all written as caricatures, but I guess it's being played straight, in a pre-Austin Powers world, so it's just fun to experience without that ironic detachment

I don't know what came over me but I decided to read all of Ian Fleming's James Bond books as well as see, or see again, all of the movies. The part of my autobiography I am currently working on involves the Cold War years and its effect on my life as a young adult, so I thought reading these books and watching the movies would give me the flavor of that from a spy's perspective. Though there were more literary authors writing spy fiction during the Cold War (John le Carre, Graham Greene, etc), I think it was the glamorous James Bond who captured our imagination in the United States and the movies just inflamed us more.

I made a list of the books. They span 13 years with as many books. The releases of the movies were in a completely different order. For example, Fleming's first book, Casino Royale, was published in 1953 but the movie came out in 1967. The first movie was Dr No in 1962 though that book was published in 1958.

I started with On Her Majesty's Secret Service because it was published in 1963 and that is the year I am reading right now. I don't know yet how I will coordinate the reading and movie watching.

In any case, it was an entertaining read and I knocked it off in one day. There is a beautiful, sexy girl (of course), Bond's old enemy Blofeld from earlier books, the head of the French mafia (the girl's father), a Swiss hideout, lots of skiing, and even genealogy is involved. Bond seems to have found the love of his life but a spy is never in control of his heart's desire.

The skill of Ian Fleming lies in this: you know Bond won't die and you know it won't work out with the girl but he makes you worry desperately for Bond's life and believe that the romance will have a happy ending. Every other spy fiction writer creates his own variation of this, but after reading just one book, I don't think any of them does it better than Ian Fleming.

Of course, my rating of this book takes into account that it was written in 1963 and so all the rules and mores of 2019 need not be followed, in my opinion. Of all the James Bond books I have read, and all of the movies I have seen, this version of James is the one I like best. He is both man and super spy. It shows him sometimes weak but able to learn from his mistakes, and intelligent to know that he does make mistakes. The action in the book does keep the reader in suspense and the outcome is not expected. I thoroughly enjoyed it.