by Ian Fleming
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Five Short Tales That Might Leave You Shaken AND Stirred, 2008-06-19
To commemorate what would have been Ian Fleming's 100th birthday, on 5/28/08, and in anticipation of the latest James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace," I recently reread Fleming's 1960 offering "For Your Eyes Only" for the first time in 30+ years. Of the 14 Fleming books featuring the exploits of the world's best-known secret agent, only "For Your Eyes Only" and the author's posthumous "Octopussy" (1966) consist of short stories, and the five collected in this earlier volume are a particularly good batch indeed. Two of them had been published previously; the other three were originals for this volume. All feature what is popularly known as the "Fleming Sweep"; the ability of the author, through fast pacing and a remarkable amount of picturesque detail, to make the reader accept even the most improbable of scenarios. And although two of these stories are not exactly espionage tales per se, they all provide insights into the fascinating character that is the literary 007.
The collection starts off strongly with "From a View to a Kill," in which Bond is given the task of finding out who has been murdering governmental dispatch riders on their motorbikes and stealing top-secret documents. The tale takes place in the suburbs of Paris and features some exciting gunplay at the conclusion, as well as an intriguing female ally, Mary Ann Russell, who we unfortunately do not get to know overly well.
In the title story, "For Your Eyes Only," Bond goes on a personal mission for his boss, M, whose old friends, the Havelocks, have just been killed by an ex-Gestapo agent named von Hammerstein and his Cuban hitmen. In the northernmost wilderness of Vermont, Bond finds these men in a mountain lodge, and (as in the 1981 film, which otherwise is completely different from this story) encounters the Havelocks' daughter, hot on the vengeance trail herself. The suspense quotient in this tale is very high, as Bond uses all his commando skills to sneak up on the villains' lair, and, as in the collection's first story, an explosive finale caps things off. A most satisfying tale indeed.
The book's third offering, "Quantum of Solace," originally appeared, of all places, in the May 1958 issue of "Cosmopolitan" magazine. This is a most unusual story in the Bond canon; indeed, it is one that is narrated TO Bond by the governor of Nassau, where 007 had just completed an assignment involving Cuban revolutionaries. The governor's after-dinner tale concerns a couple that he once knew in Bermuda society; one whose marriage went sour after infidelity, jealousy and bitterness poisoned it. It is a fascinating story of domestic hell, and one that makes Bond realize that his (previously regarded) exciting life may be a little dull when compared to some others'.
In "Risico," M, much against his will, condescends to involve his Secret Service in drug busting, and sends Bond on a mission to Rome and Venice to smash the heroin ring that had recently started to corrupt British youths. Bond encounters two rival smugglers in Rome, Kristatos and Colombo (again, two characters that feature in the "For Your Eyes Only" film, in a wholly different context), as well as the mysteriously motivated Austrian Lisl Baum (ditto), and participates in a ship raid on a drug-storage warehouse. The story is fast paced and generally exciting, and features an incredible amount of travelogue detail to add to its realism.
The collection concludes with "The Hildebrand Rarity," which initially appeared in the March 1960 issue of "Playboy." Like "Quantum of Solace," this is not really a secret agent tale, but rather an adventure that Bond is involved in, after investigating certain security arrangements in the Seychelle Islands for the British Admiralty. He and his friend Fidele Barbey (similar to the Quarrel character in 1958's "Dr. No") are hired by a boorish American millionaire, Milton Krest (a completely different character than the one portrayed by Anthony Zerbe in 1989's "Licence to Kill"), to go on an expedition to capture a rare tropical fish for the Smithsonian. Aboard Krest's luxury yacht, Bond meets Krest's attractive and abused wife and gets involved in a sudden murder. Fleming's love of scuba diving yields effective results here; his detailed descriptions of undersea life are both gorgeous and evocative. This story, although lacking any real action per se, features wonderful characters, great suspense and a nicely ambiguous conclusion. Like "Quantum," it is an unusual Bond story that succeeds marvelously, bringing to a conclusion this rather winning collection of (as the book's subtitle puts it) "Five Secret Exploits of James Bond." The book should serve as proof positive that novelist Ian Fleming had a sure hand with the shorter form as well. It is required reading, needless to say, for all fans of 007.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Nobody did it better than Fleming, 2008-06-12
All of Fleming's Bond novels, and most of his short stories, are such a relief to read in today's relativist, anti-patriotic, multi-cultural, male-bashing or emasculating culture. These novels (and also Mickey Spillane's) are my measure of what a cultural norm should be. They are such an antidote to the weepy, pseudo-introspective rubbish that passes for popular literature today.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Bond times five, 2007-11-11
For those who have made their way through the first seven James Bond books, the eighth book in the series, For Your Eyes Only, is a bit of a change-of-pace, a collection of five short stories. Not only are these stories shorter, they are also simpler, with no grand villains or complicated plots. For those familiar with the movies, two of the stories would, at least nominally inspire movies; the titles of the other three tales would be less familiar.
Three of the stories are typical spy type tales. The first story, A View to a Kill, opens with the murder of a courier in France carrying valuable information for NATO. Bond is in the neighborhood and recruited to assist in the investigation and uses his skills to outshine the allied intelligence agencies. The second story, For Your Eyes Only has Bond planning an assassination of a Cuban/German thug who killed a couple who happened to be friends of M's. Things get more interesting when the couple's daughter has her own plans for vengeance. The fourth story, Risico, puts Bond in the middle of a feud between two smugglers, forcing him to join up with the lesser of two evils.
The out-of-the-ordinary stories are the third and the fifth. In the first of this pair, Quantum of Solace, Bond doesn't really do anything beyond listen to a tale told by the Bahaman governor. This story-within-a-story involves the marriage of a civil servant and a flight attendant, one that goes sour quickly due to her blatant affairs and leads to her harsh comeuppance. The final story, The Hildebrand Rarity is another story of a marriage gone bad: Bond is cruising on the yacht of an abusive millionaire and his cowed wife; it's the sort of relationship that will wind up with a dead body by the end of the trip.
All of the stories are passably entertaining, with the spy tales slightly outdoing the offbeat ones. What's missing are the elements that make the Bond stories stand out: the adventure, the psychotic villains and the threats to England and the rest of the West. What's left is decent, but unexceptional. This one won't win many new fans, but it should satisfy the ones who already exist.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Not the greatest Bond adventure but not bad, 2007-09-20
This grouping of short stories doesn't hold up to the normal standard that i think most of the Ian Fleming's James Bond novels do. It is still a good read and if you like the other James Bond novels then give this a toss.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Super Reader, 2007-08-04
Not a novel, but a collection of five stories.
From a View to a Kill, For Your Eyes Only, Quantum of Solace, Risico and The Hildebrand Rarity.
So, Bond investigates the death of a NATO employee, then looks into the death of a friend of M's as a favour, then is told a story at a boring dinner party, looks into drug smuggling in Italy, and finally goes on a fishing trip where he learns about some extraordinary methods of wife discipline.
For Your Eyes Only : 01 From a View to a Kill - Ian Fleming
For Your Eyes Only : 02 For Your Eyes Only - Ian Fleming
For Your Eyes Only : 03 Quantum of Solace - Ian Fleming
For Your Eyes Only : 04 Risico - Ian Fleming
For Your Eyes Only : 05 The Hildebrand Rarity - Ian Fleming
Motorbike murder trail.
3.5 out of 5
Bowhunter beautiful daughter.
4 out of 5
Dull dinner party dirt dished.
2.5 out of 5
CIA drug caper.
3 out of 5
Millionaire stingray tail spousal corporal corrector is stuffed, piscatorially.
4 out of 5
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