The book lover's Chronicles

I love reading... I might not be the fastest reader and I can take a long time to read a book but I love being transported in a book and trying to understand, grow to love and befriend the characters in the different stories that I discover. I love that you can move from world to world in a second and unravel new adventures. The bottom line is I'm a passionate reader and I love books!

12:46 am 17 June 2013

The Spy Who Loved Me - Review

The Spy Who Loved Me (James Bond, #10) - Ian Fleming, Nick Stone

So let me start of by saying that the book was enjoyable and fun but it lacked a couple of things in my opinion. First of all I would have given it a better rating if I wasn't such a diehard fan of the James Bond movies and if The Spy Who Loved Me wasn't an exceptional movie (not my favourite but very close).
So let's talk about the plot. The story is told from the Point of view of one of the main characters, Vivian Michael. We get to know her background, where she's from etc., but there's a focus on her love life and her heart-breaks. And those heart-breaks lead her to Canada and then to the US were the important part of the story happens. She finds herself at a small motel where things go for the worst.

I didn't mind her even though sometimes she felt a bit whiny and too naive. But you could relate to her specially with her failed relationships because let's face it we've all been through those. And I thought the story was not that bad even though the movie's premise was far more exciting and completely different. However there were 2-3 things that really annoyed me. First of all, James Bond doesn't appear till about 45% of the book. Being a James Bond book I would have expected him to appear sooner or to be mentioned at least during the first half of the book. Secondly he was so rusty. He was not the Bond that I expected and that all the Bond lovers enjoy and want to see. And he even says it in the book that he's losing his touch and I totally agree. It was also missing the gadgets that make the man. And lastly, the book was so slow pace during the first half talking about Viv's personal life and her relationships and all the action starts at the second half of the book and that's when it gets exciting and fast pace. I wish there were more of that and earlier in the book.

I would recommend it but only if you haven't seen the movie yet because you'll dive into this book with very high exceptions concerning Bond specially and you will probably be disappointed.

Number of books: 69

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