Much better than the previous three. Only better so far is Casino Royale. ( )

Oh, good lord.

As with a couple of these books, at about 1/4 of the way through I wondered why I don't read these books every year. They are funny, well-written, and just drip with ideas and knowledge of the spy-trade. It's all very fun.

And then there's an interlude in with a Turkish MI6 agent recounts his meet-cute with his first wife (it involved kidnapping her and chaining her below his kitchen table, and then after being unchained by the diplomat's mother, not wanting to leave), and it's like: "Oh, now I remember".

Anyway - even by Fleming standards, the misogyny is off the chain, here, with entirely too much female perspective being written about, and absolutely none of it ringing true in any way.

But, to reiterate, it's really well written, funny, with interesting characters and schemes interacting in novel ways, and extremely plausible observations of the psychology of the male characters all over the place (e.g., it is absolutely plausible the diplomat would believe the story went that way). And the audiobook (which I bounced between that and the kindle), read by Toby Stephens, is fantastic on a number of vectors. He's a very good narrator. ( )

Good god this one started out long and boring. Chapter after chapter about Russians in meetings. Thankfully, it mostly redeemed itself with the Darko Kerim stuff, although that was kinda long and drawn out, leaving the actually plot of the book to end up feeling rushed and then left off with a cliff hanger. It was a bit more of the Bond I expected, per say, but I still don’t get what all the hype is about...must be because of the movies... ( )

How can you go wrong with Cold War Russia and the Orient Express. ( )

This is my favorite Bond movie but the novel is a bit too contrived. ( )