Blackstone Audio Books
Read by Robert Whitfield
I've read
this book several times over the years and having recently purchased the entire Fleming/Bond novels on audiobook from Ebay I can dip in and out whenever I feel like it. And it still stands as an exciting read.There's a lot of description - the game of Baccarat (changed to Poker for the recent movie) is explained in painstaking detail, as are the exotic locations in which the novel takes place. Bond's habits are also explained in great detail but his character is kept vague as Fleming pushes the story forward with a pace that is truly breathtaking.
"Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Liller. Shake it very well until it's ice cold, then add a large slice of lemon peel."
Immediately Bond comes across as a sophisticated, though slightly snobbish character. The world he operates in is larger than life and the women all impossibly beautiful, the bad guys incredibly brutal. And the formula continues to pay d
ividends to the present day. Casino Royale is a slim book, paced with dazzling speed. This was one of Fleming's most unique skills - the ability to seamlessly weave incredible detail into his story and yet maintain the intense narrative that keeps the reader turning the pages.Robert Whitfield's voice is perfectly suited to the book and the story is completely unabridged - old anorak that I am, I checked the reading against the original book and every word is present and correct. This is the entire story and the sound quality is quite excellent.
As I've said I've got the entire Fleming canon on audiobook and I think I'll go through them all again, so expect potted reviews of the entire series here on The Archive over the coming weeks. With everything going on at the moment my reading time is severely curtailed but I can listen to an audiobook when driving. They are a wonderful way to pass monotony of the motorways.
The book is much tougher than the rest of the series and offers a cynicism which the rest of the series didn't share. Fleming plays it all with a deadly seriousness and the ending is downbeat in a way which none of the other novels were.
"Yes, dammit, I said "was". The bitch is dead."
4 comments:
Agree, a powerful ending. And the recent film script was deservedly nominated for an Oscar because it managed to retain a lot of the book's dialogue and narrative drive, even while updating the storyline.
great info on audiobook of Ian Fleming I am very quite intersted to buy this any one tell me where to buy?casino en ligne francais
Cook - try Amazon. They have several versions of the Bond audiobooks. Thanks for stopping by
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