SilverFin: Young Bond, Book 1

My 12yo (and rabid Bond fan) son and I listened to this on a recent roadtrip. I have to say it was a hit with both of us... a good introduction for young Bond fans who may not be ready for the "Full-Flemming". We look forward to grabbing the sequel from Audible when it is available!

FYI - Another good 'starting Bond' is Thunderball - similar to the movie, straight forward, minimal graphic content.

Wow. I really liked this book. I didn't think I was going to like the book into the second chapter when we find young Bond newly at Eton. Oddly, the Eton chapters have a very Harry Potter-esque feel to them. The bad guy that Bond encounters is blonde and his father is evil and blonde and very influential at the school. There is a contest involving three events (reminding me of the tri-wizard cup) and our young bad guy has two moronic henchmen. However, after we leave Eton, the book vastly improves and is a very fun listen (although, Bond encounters and befriends a red-haired boy -- Red Kelly -- who he lands in a scrape with and a girl who basically is a Hermione Granger though she is not as pivotal a character as Hermione). This is really a book for young readers but it is fun for adults, too. All in all, I really enjoyed it.

The narrator is excellent and great with dialects (except the American dialects).

If you are a Bond fan you will enjoy this. Since the movies are on hiatus I needed a little 007 fix and this did the job. Although this book takes place when Bond is a boy it, it still hits the James Bond themes very well.

In truth, the Young Bond series had me more than nervous. When IFP announced that they had commissioned Charlie Higson a comedian to pen the series. However, he is an obvious 007 fan because he definitely stays true to the spirit of the character. Any Bond fan should definitely read this series because Higson very smartly throws in bits and pieces of the 007 legacy in the novels and gives us reasons why Bond is the way he is. Silverfin being the first of five novels (so far) must be read first. The characters are rich and feel like Ian Fleming himself could have pinned them. The Narrator's voices for each charater is amazing and the same narrator does all three in the series that are currently in audible. In my opinion, Silverfin is a page turner when I read it in book form I couldn't put it down and again when I listened to it I couldn't stop. The Young Bond series is the perfect way to introduce a child to the wonderful world of 007. May anyone who reads or listens to this book be shaken and stirred.

Any who are a Bond fan has a preconceived notion of who James is, how he became 007 and how he should act. And thus it is really hard to follow in the foot steps of such a hugely successful movie character. (And book character too, credit has to be given to Ian Flemming after all.)

But I feel that Charlie Higson has done an excellent job introducing us to that young boy before he became the famous 007. I loved the story, and really enjoyed that fact that James seems like just your average boy, with normal bully, school and life problems. Of course James, is anything but normal. Another review stated that the story didn't have that Bond "edge of the seat" feel to it. And while I mostly agree with that, often I caught myself gripping the wheel tighter then I should be.

Nathaniel Parker's narration is superb and really brings James and his cohorts to life. I truly enjoyed the accents and intellects.

Enjoyable to listen to but not teh "edge of the seat" read that other suspense thrillers are. Zig Zag is a better intorduction to Bond.