Customer Reviews
starts well, but goes off the rails, then drags and drags - By: jrhartley, 31 Aug 2008 
Just finished listening to this on my ipod. I was hooked for the first seven or eight chapters, then I just found myself willing for it to be over. For a double O agent, Bond's perception is severely lacking when it comes to Scarlett / Poppy - I think anyone listening would have figured out their / her background about Chapter 10. This really detracts from the book as you just keep thinking "Come on Bond, why would she be phoning her investment banker boss to try to sort matters out". Meanwhile, Faulks does a good job of describing the colour of the socks Bond buysin a Paris store, but glosses overin under a sentence the bank job he pullsin Saint Petersburg. Ultimately, the fact that Gorner's achilles heel is is monkey's paw is also too weak an element to pin his demise upon.
Overall, formulaic, overly simplistic, & too long for the material. Needs a good re-edit. Not worth the time to listen through it all.
Devil may care? A great audio production. - By: Stuart Brown, 05 Aug 2008 
I like listening to audio CD'sin my car on the drive to work & this didn't let me down.
Initial impressions are excellent, the CD's are storedin a gun metal tin inside a cardboard sleeve. Inside the tin the disks are heldin individual cardboard sleeves. As a Bond fan I had a smile when I noticed there were seven disks, all labelled 001, 002 etc...
The story is read by Jeremy Northam, defiantly a voice for Bond. His style of reading suits the story well & draws youin & holds you there.
The story itself is said to be written "as Ian Fleming". I wonder who decided to give it that strap line. It's true the story picks up where Fleming's James Bond stories left off. So the time & place & characters all feel very familiar.
What isn't familiar is the length of the novel & the amount of writing that really has nothing to do with the main story put "Sets the scene". That's not a style Fleming usedin his brief & punchy Bond novels.
Faulks carries this off well however & the story is really very good. There are times when the story seems to get lost, wanders along & then gets going again. This doesn't sit to well if you are expecting a strait Fleming copy but works if you treat Faulks's tale as a new look into the life of an old acquaintance.
A great production of a good book. I thoroughly recommend this for all Bond or adventure fans.
