Vaguely similar to the movie

If you have seen the Roger Moore movie, the general outline of the plot will be at least somewhat familiar but more believable and without the silly gadgets.

A major part of the novel revolves around pirate Henry Morgan's treasure which added interest to the plot for me.

On top of both books being been bathed in misogyny, the last book was insensitive towards r*pe, this one towards racism. Wondering what joys await in the next instalment :/ I am only continuing with the series because they are free audiobooks and I want to see Bond become a better agent; so far, he’s been reliant on others saving him.

Score: 3.75 out of 5
Grade: 75% (B) | Good

James Bond goes international with yet another beautiful woman and a villain who completely steals the show! Here is my review of Live and Let Die (James Bond #2):



The Good:

What lacked in “Casino Royale” is made up for in “Live and Let Die”. I finally got that spy/thriller vibe I was looking for and was happy to see Bond in some more unfamiliar territory. The story moves forward at a brisk pace with various locations and more unique characters. I’m also happy to report that we get some pretty cool action sequences – with a karate chop here and a kick to the head there!



The standout is without a doubt Mr. Big! I think what I loved most was the duality between this smart, calculating man and someone who can rip your head off if he wanted to. I also like how Mr. Big had the upper hand throughout this entire book. I got some heavy Kingpin-from-the-Ben-Affleck-Daredevil-movie vibes, which was a great thing! I just wanted as much Mr. Big as I could get!



I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed Bond’s relationships with Solitaire and Leiter. Yes, Bond may be a horny bastard who, even with a f***ed up hand, still wants to get it on with Solitaire. But he is also a good friend to Leiter, who has slowly become a favourite of mine. The stakes are higher than ever, and you feel invested in the outcome of these characters.



I also appreciate the absolutely ridiculous parts of this book like when Bond straight up fights an octopus. Now that is something I wish was in the “Live and Let Die” movie (1973) with my main dude Roger Moore! If you saw the movie, then you know that Bond finding an octopus isn’t that crazy.




The Bad:

The book was littered with filler that did little to progress the story. We get this rundown of voodoo, which just went on for too long and lost my interest. We get this rundown of Bond’s flight to Jamaica, which was f***ing boring as hell. Then we get this rundown of Jamaica and its history, which was bland and purely used as a transitionary chapter. It felt as if chapters were added to lengthen the book, which ended up adding next to nothing to the main story.



After our first run in with Mr. Big, which was fairly early on, we don’t get another Bond and Big interaction until the very end. He was an awesome villain and I would have loved to have seen more of him. When it comes to the finale, Bond versus Big, it wasn’t the showdown I was anticipating. All Bond really does is attach a bomb to a boat and lives long enough for it to explode. I was really hoping for a boss fight between Mr. Big and Bond, which I think would’ve been great!



As many have pointed out, this book is racist. But I was taken aback as to how racist it really was. I knew it would be bad, but not this bad. Let me share with you some excerpts from Mr. Flemings’ “Live and Let Die”:

The smell of Mr. Big’s bar in Harlem was described as n  “the feral smell of 200 negro bodies.”n

Then there’s Bond’s way of referring to black men as n  “clumsy black apes.”n

By far the worst is the dialogue written for this black couple in Mr. Big’s bar, n  “'dat ef Ah ketches yuh makin' up tuh dat dope Ah'll jist nachrally whup da hide off'n yo sweet ass.”n

I’m not even sure that was English… My point is, this book was n  extremely racistn and if something like this makes you feel uncomfortable, steer n  WAYn clear of this book. The “black” dialogue written by Fleming is just absurd, offensive and honestly, hard to read.



Bond immediately trusts Solitaire because…well, she’s hot, I guess. He tells her exactly where he is and what he plans to do, and for a secret spy that seems like a dumb thing to do. He’s a sucker for a pretty lady, but aren’t we all? Speaking of a secret spy acting like an idiot, there’s a moment where Bond and Leiter leave Solitaire just long enough for Mr. Big’s men to kidnap her. Then, moments later, Bond leaves Leiter just long enough for Mr. Big’s men to come and f*** him up. I’m no genius but learn from your mistakes Mr. Bond - tsk tsk!





Conclusion:

Once you get past all the racist jabs, you’re left with a pretty good book. Some unnecessary filler slows down the story, but Mr. Big as the villain, fun action sequences and Bond actually Bond-ing about makes up for it.

Recommended for: Fans of Bond or white supremacists…



Thanks for reading! :)

This second book in the James Bond series was quite exciting. Full of dangers from poisonous fish, voodoo and a sophisticated crime syndicate based in Harlem. I found the action in this one (especially at the finish) to be raised several notches above the previous book (Casino Royale). The setting moved from NYC to St. Petersburg to Jamaica which kept things interesting. Bond remained the vulnerable hero that Fleming created in the first book, even to the point of shedding a tear after a particularly hair-raising escape from death. I highly recommend the book.

(Note: There is quite a bit of racist language employed in the book. Given the British sensibility to the writing and the fact that it was published in the mid-1950s, this vocabulary might have been more in the mainstream then. But today's reader might well be put off by some of the descriptions used in the book.)

It is tough to rate this one. I kept having to remind myself that it was written in the 50's before the Civil Rights movement. The entire first half of the book referred to anyone of color using a derogatory word, the stereotyping was horrendous, plus the entire network of bad guys was black which was a little much. But....if you are able to look past all that, the plot that James Bond faces was exciting.

Bond is sent to NYC to try to figure out how a bunch of ancient coins from a pirate treasure are being smuggled into the country. The main suspect is "Mr. Big". Mr. Big is a cunning villain who uses fear of Voodoo to control his own network of spies and criminals. Mr. Big also has a woman, Solitaire, that supposedly can tell if a man is lying and see into the future. Bond quickly makes her an ally by agreeing to free her from Mr. Big's clutches. They travel from NY to Florida to investigate the boat that is suspected of bringing the coins to the US. There James discovers just how they are being smuggled, but not before Solitaire is kidnapped by Mr. Big's men again. Bond then travels to Jamaica to figure out where all these coins are coming from in the first place and must battle sharks and barracuda to do so.

So like I said, the plot itself is consistent with what we would expect for a James Bond adventure. But geez, my modern, non-racist sensibilities were challenged trying to get through all the racist language. Honestly, I wish I had just skipped this particular installment in the series.

Ahahahahahahahahah … il problema di “Mister Big” è che non ha potuto guardare  “Indiana Jones” , che è arrivato parecchio dopo di lui, altrimenti avrebbe saputo che invece di stupire James Bond con i suoi effetti speciali, avrebbe dovuto piantargli una pallottola in testa la prima volta che l’ha avuto tra le mani.

Comunque, mi è piaciuto molto meno del primo libro della serie. Le due stellette sono proprio risicate. Giusto giusto perché si tratta di James Bond, altrimenti sarebbe stata una.

Adesso mi tocca recuperare il film, che non ho visto all’epoca.

******

05/12/15
Ho visto anche il film, che ha una "parentela" molto vaga con il libro e che ho gradito ancor meno. Recitato veramente male, tra l'altro.

Anyone complaining about the racism in this book let me assure you, read by a middle aged British gentleman, it is much much worse. Painful. I try to understand, when reading books from different eras, the prevailing thoughts on race and gender roles. Not forgiving but understanding, but this book was a bit too much. 2 stars.

The second book of the original Bond novels by Ian Fleming shows a definite change from the first. There is more action, more perilous situations, more attempts on Bond’s life, and definitely more sexy scenes (but no actual sex). In short, it is more “Bond”. The plot surrounds the pursuit of “Mr. Big”, an agent of SMERSH and an underworld voodoo leader who is suspected of selling 17th century gold coins in order to finance Soviet spy operations in America. For Bond, it’s a great assignment because it allows him to pursue his personal goals of eliminating a branch of SMERSH as well as allowing a trip to Jamaica, a country with which he is very familiar due to a previous posting.

The supporting cast is awesome in this one, not only with Mr. Big, an intelligent and conniving villain, but also with Felix Leiter (Bond’s counterpart in the CIA), and “Solitaire”, the beautiful fortune-telling girlfriend of Mr. Big. I say they are awesome, not because they are in any way original, at least for what we have all been exposed to in the 21st century, but because they are all so…”Bond-like”. These sorts of characters, after all, are one of the primary draws to Bond in the first place and this second book in the series really starts to develop this “type”. As for Bond himself, he comes across as a much more human character than he was in Casino Royale, definitely more likeable. And his friendship for Felix Leiter really shows in this novel, providing the personal nature of his quest to stop Mr. Big, beyond the actual mission assigned to him by M.

Readers need to understand what they are getting into with this book, however. It was originally written and published in 1953-54, back when race relations in the US were going through some major change. It was the time of forced busing/integration and the year before Rosa Parks stood her ground. So when reading this over 50 years later, readers need to understand just how much the culture has changed and try to read from that historical perspective. Fleming’s observations (through Bond’s eyes) of blacks, in general, are far different than we would see from a writer today. There is some occasional use of the “N” word and other stereotypical language but, of course, it’s no shock to the characters of that era. So if that sort of thing offends you, then I would recommend steering clear of this novel. Hopefully, that won’t be an issue because this one, in my opinion is the more definitive origin, at least in style, of the entire Bond-verse than Casino Royale.

James Bond and another meeting with SMERSH. We meet Felix Leiter in this one but things don't go as they do in the movies. You continually get treated to Fleming's none to flattering opinion of the US in these books. (The Americans have success says a Russian. Yes but if you plant a million potatoes... )It seems we were lucky to have James to protect us.

Don’t Get Too Attached
25 January 2021

tI was a little disappointed with this book because one of the main characters ended up being Fubared, but then again you sort of should expect that with novels like this. Okay, George R R Martin did that with his books, but the difference was that he would build up your relationship with the character over the course of a number of books, only to have them killed. This is probably more like Ash vs The Evil Dead, in that whenever a character is introduced during an episode, you pretty much know that this character to going to die in a heap of blood and gore. Honestly, I probably should have expected that with James Bond as well because, having seen pretty much all of the movies, I know that many of the characters end up getting killed – unless it happens to be a Bond Girl, but then again Bond Girls bite the dust as well.

tI’m sure that we all know what this book is about, considering that the movie of the same name is based upon it. We have this guy named Mr Big that is selling gold coins in New York City. The thing is that he happens to be working for the Russians, which is why Bond ends up getting involved. So, we have a scene in New York, a trek down in East Coast by train, and then off to Jamaica for the final battle. Of course, during that time one of the characters meets a sticky end.

tActually, I should have expected this to happen because it happens in the films as well, except that it is somewhat down the track as opposed to this particular film. Then again, I suspect that the Broccolli brothers had other ideas. Like, they introduced a guy that happens to have a metal claw instead of a hand (which also makes me think of Ash vs The Evil Dead, except Ash happens to have a chainsaw instead of a hand). Also, Solitaire reads tarot cards in the film, whereas in the book she just has hunches that turn out to be correct.

tI have to be honest and say that when that event happened that I’m referring to, I sort of started to get put off by this book. It just wasn’t all that interesting anymore. However, I suspect that maybe there is something to do with the film in this one, and that they decided to keep him around for a lot longer than in the books. I guess that is probably why we end up finding that people end up watching the films as opposed to reading the books, namely because the films have reached a stage that they literally eclipse the books, and we start to expect the books to be closer to many of the films that we really liked. Oh, and that thing about Solitaire losing her powers when she sleeps with Bond – doesn’t happen either.

My favourite thing about the first book, unsurprisingly, was the description of the food. I know it’s weird, but it made me want to cook. I think Ian Fleming roasted American cuisine pretty good here (hilarious to me since British cuisine is known for being the colour beige and generally unpalatable— jellied eels anyone?)

Live and Let Die did a great job at showcasing Bond’s toughness— whereas Casino Royale solidified him more as a cool, manly spy with a predilection for beautiful women and cars.

I loved the description of the landscape. I preferred Casino Royale though. I’m going to continue with the series and to wish martinis were actually good so I can pretend to be as cool as James Bond.

I’m rating this 3.8 barracuda bites

Is it dreadful to say I have only read this because I had a copy unread in the house? I need to read through some of these book piles I have had for kicking on ten years now, which is how I've come to this book. It maybe sounds like I had an utterly miserable time forcing myself to read it. If a book is truely bad, I will stop. This one wasn't awful. It's light entertainment, not too complicated and not too long a read. I have grown up with the Bond films, so I will say the usual ridiculous statement: It's not like the film! Well, I saw elements of two films in this one, as I'm sure the CIA agent Felix got his leg bitten off in one of the Timothy Dalton films. And wasn't Solitaire Jayne Seymore with Roger Moore? ANYWAY,... the book.

This is delving into Voodoo from Haiti, although we don't get to go to Haiti. Instead we're away to Harlem in the 50s, then down to Florida and over to Jamaica for the final show down. The plot isn't over complicated, nor are the showdowns and espionage. Mr Big, who many seem to believe is the zombie form of the top guy in the Voodoo religion, is running old golden coins from lost pirate booty into the USA. So Bond and the CIA are off to sort him out. It is very dated writing. I know you have to accept that things are a product of the time, but it was uncomfortable to read every single black person being described as a negro. Anyway, there's a bit of a punch up in Harlem with not a lot actually done/discovered, then they go to Florida where they don't do so much although Bond discovers how they're sneaking the coins into the states, and some sharks get fed. Then it's away to Jamaica, where he has a training week and then does a night swim over to Mr Big's island for the final showdown. And that's it. The sequence when Bond is moving across the bottom of the sea to get to Mr Big's island was possibly one of the best bits as there was so much about the different fish and corals - it created such an image. And an octopus almost has its way with him.

Yeah, light entertainment.