Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories (James Bond 007) | Ian Fleming

Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories (James Bond 007) | Ian Fleming | Fleming at His Best

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Quantum of Solace:...

	Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories (James Bond 007) Ian Fleming Penguin (Non-Classics), 2008 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Many of Ian Fleming?s short stories have been the inspiration for the extremely successful James Bond film franchise, and included in this collection are such stories as Octopussy, The Living Daylights, and For Your Eyes Only. The title story, Quantum of Solace, lends its name to the upcoming James Bond film, slated to release in Fall 2008. This collection will be published to coincide with the film?s release, as well as to continue Penguin?s centenary celebrations of Fleming?s birth.

007's Comfort and Discomfort in 9 Short Stories

"Quantum of Solace - the amount of comfort. Yes, I suppose you could say that all love and friendship is based in the end on that. Human beings are very insecure. When the other person not only makes you feel insecure but actually seems to want to destroy you, it's obviously the end. The Quantum of Solace stands at zero. You've got to get away to save yourself."

- James Bond (QUANTUM OF SOLACE)

This paperback, recently released before the debut on November 7, 2008 of the latest 007 movie of the same name, "Quantum of Solace," is actually a compilation of nine short stories written by Ian Fleming in two separate books (FOR YOUR EYES ONLY and OCTOPUSSY/THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS). According to Fleming's biographer John Pearson in his book THE LIFE OF IAN FLEMING, six or so of these short stories began as outlines for half-hour TV episodes written for CBS in the late '50s. The TV series never got off the ground but the short stories have survived. Several of them were made into full-length movies having absolutely nothing to do with the original stories (e.g. "Octopussy," "From a View to a Kill," and "For Your Eyes Only"). I can't imagine the next Bond movie, starring Daniel Craig as a much better 007 than any of the previous ones in my opinion, (Sean Connery excepted) has anything to do with the short story "Quantum of Solace," since it is only about a conversation between JB and the Governor of The Bahamas (the governor's name is never given) in Nassau after a dinner party. There's no action. No intrigue. No skullduggery. It's simply a story about a failed marriage. Suffice it to say, the short stories are well-worth reading on their own. Bond is his usual suave and deadly self and a staunch defender of Queen and Country against the West's old Cold War nemesis...the Soviet Union. Highly recommended.

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Fleming at His Best

I have always enjoyed the Ian Fleming James Bond short stories over his novels. They are always very interesting to say the least, and still cocked full with literary witticisms, worldly knowledge and great use of the English language. I like that they have repackaged these short stories under the title "Quantum of Solace." It's a great title and the cover artwork is also well conceived. This is very much worth adding to your library.

Collection of Fleming's James Bond stories is a Masterpiece

Finally we get all of Ian Fleming's James Bond short stories in one book. This is a very good collection of these fine works. Using one of the short story titles as the title of this collection, "Quantum of Solace" is a masterpiece.

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James Bond Lives in Quantum of Solace

Fleming wrote a series of novels and a number of short stories featuring the Bond character. All of the novels have been made into movies. Now, Fleming's estate is apparently turning to the short stories that have not been used yet (though one or two have been already). If you want to understand the meaning of Quantum of Solace, you don't need to buy this book, which is obviously marked up and marketed to cash in on the up-and-coming movie.

If you want to save money, buy the book FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. It's been available for decades and contains the same five short stories. From a View to a Kill and For Your Eyes Only have already been loosely borrowed. The remaining three stories - Quantum of SOlace, Risico and The Hildebrand Rarity. This is nothing but a retitled paperback of FOR YOUR EYES ONLY so you can save money and buy that instead. Unless you like slick covers and packaging.

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The contents of this book

This is a collection of all of the nine short stories about James Bond which were written by the late Ian Fleming.

(Fleming, of course, created the character of James Bond and was the author of the books which became the basis for all the James Bond movies. In addition to the short stories, Fleming wrote twelve novels about Bond.)

Over the years, these short stories have been kept in print in two collections: _For Your Eyes Only_, with five stories; and _Octopussy and The Living Daylights_, with four.

Now, for the first time ever, every one of the nine stories have been collected in a single volume, _Quantum of Solace_, which makes owning all these stories more convenient and economical.

That's the good news.

The not-so-good news is that the publisher here exercised no imagination, merely sandwiching together the contents of the two books.

Looking for a well-written foreword or afterword about these stories or their author? No such luck: The publisher includes no foreword or afterword at all.

The stories as earlier collected were not arranged according to the sequence of James Bond's life -- or to any other discernible plan. This new omnibus collection does absolutely nothing to fix that -- it just puts one unchanged collection behind another unchanged collection. This is disappointing, because we know from books by researchers like John Griswold (_Ian Fleming's James Bond: Annotations and Chronologies_) that there are sound ways to sequence the stories (and novels) by events in the life of James Bond.

Here are the contents of _Quantum of Solace_, as arranged in the book:

(Repeating the contents in sequence from _For Your Eyes Only_ ...)

"From a View to a Kill"
"For Your Eyes Only"
"Quantum of Solace"
"Risico"
"The Hildebrand Rarity"

(... and then repeating the contents of _Octopussy and The Living Daylights_)

"Octopussy"
"The Property of a Lady"
"The Living Daylights"
"007 in New York"

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reviews: page 1, 2

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