Live and Let Die

De: Ian Fleming

Narrado por: Rory Kinnear

Duración: 6 h y 48 m

Resumen del Editor

When 007 goes to Harlem it’s not just for the jazz. This is the kingdom of Mr Big, master of crime, voodoo baron and partner in SMERSH’s grim company of death. Those who Mr Big cannot possess, he crushes – like his beautiful prisoner, Solitaire, and her would-be saviours James Bond and Agency man, Felix Leiter. All three are marked out as victims in a trail of terror, treachery and torture that leads from New York’s underworld to the shark-infested island in the sun that Mr Big calls his own.

Ian Fleming was born in London in 1908. He was educated at Eton and worked as a journalist in Moscow and a banker and stockbroker in London before becoming personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence during the Second World War. He wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952 at Goldeneye, his home in Jamaica. Since then James Bond has gone on to become a global phenomenon.

Rory Kinnear, a renowned theatre actor, won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor for his performances as Angelo in Measure for Measure and the title role in Hamlet, and gained an Olivier Award for his portrayal of Sir Fopling Flutter in The Man of Mode. His TV credits include Count Arthur Strong, Lucan, Women in Love and Black Mirror, and he played Bill Tanner in the Bond films Quantum of Solace and Skyfall.

©1954 Ian Fleming Publications Ltd (P)2013 Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. © AudioGO Ltd, 2012. James Bond and 007 are registered trademarks of Danjaq LLC, used under licence by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Speed… tremendous zest… communicated excitement. Brrh! How wincingly well Mr Fleming writes." ( Sunday Times)
"Tense; ice-cold, sophisticated." ( The Evening Standard)
"Don’t blame me if you get a stroke." ( The Observer)
"This is an ingenious affair, full of recondite knowledge and horrific spills and thrills." ( The Times)
"The second adventure of his Secret Service agent fully maintains the promise of his first book…containing passages which for sheer excitement have not been surpassed by any modern writer of this kind." ( Times Literary Supplement)

Required reviews are wrong

They are the cause for useless writting and plenty of lost time. Who is the...

A product of its time

Nicely performed and written. Rory Kinnear sounds a little condescending but JB is not a boy scout. He is a cold blooded killer who is very professional and lucky. He gets hurt, he feels pain and he has ambition. He is human, something the movies seem to only touch on as they need Bond to have sex. A little hard if you don't feel. Yes this book is dated in language and attitude, but it was written back in 1954. I am so glad they didn't update the language as it would be all wrong. Would be nice to see Ian Fleming's James Bond novels made into a TV series set in the 1950s without all the stupid gadgets and over the top explosions.

Cast in the prejudice of the 20th Century

The second James Bond novel surprised me a bit. It felt like walking into a word attic with a lot of old idea cobwebs. This novel is squarely a child of its time. M and even Bond's racial prejudice shines through as Ian Flemming sets the scene in the beginning of the book.

You do get the idea that Black people are playing a catch-up game with White people. Also on the criminal front, a certain Mister Big, has become prominent through illegal gold coins (stolen by the pirate Captain Morgan) he smuggled to the USA from Jamaica. Using Voodoo to mask his activities, he sounds like a true arch-enemy.

Solitaire is the name of the Bond girl in the book. Like always he saves the damsel in distress and everybody lives happily ever after... or at least until the next assignment.

In a way this is typically James Bond, but the racial undertones alienated me from the story.

Rory Kinnear offers a fair reading of the book.

I would recommend it to staunch Bond supporters.

Very good indeed

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Despite many people saying that it’s one of the worst Bond books, I enjoyed it a lot. I obviously didn’t like the outdated racial ideas, but the story was well crafted and I really liked Rory Kinnear’s reading. I definitely recommend this version to people who have struggled with the book in the past.

A decent read to pass the time

Ian Fleming's second 007 novel is probably not the most intense or action-packed of his repetoire, but it is a fairly enjoyable read. Bond's investigation into illegal currency trafficking leads him into a culture entrenched in voodoo superstition.

Rory Kinnear does a great job of narrating the story. His crisp British tones are perfect for the story and he brings Bond to life superbly. His voicework for Mr Bigg's goons is a joy to listen to, however his attempts at American accents are terrible and thankfully infrequent.

One thing this audiobook has done is instill in me an incentive to get the next in the series. I've always been a huge fan of the Bond films, but never read the books. While it is hard to listen to the story without thinking of the films that were based on them, they are worth the time.