8 replies to this topic

[Qwerty]

This thread is intended for reviews and ratings of Octopussy & The Living Daylights by members of the The Blades Library Book Club here. Be sure to add your review if you do vote in the poll!

Please do not reply directly to reviews in this thread, rather start a new thread to ask questions or post comments about reviews.

The Blades Library Book Club will be reading Octopussy & The Living Daylights from:
15 April 2006 - 15 June 2006

[K1Bond007]

I went with a 5. I'm a very critical guy and I don't normally hand out 5's, but rating a short story collection is much harder rating a novel. In my opinion, The Property of a Lady and The Living Daylights make this book. Octopussy is a decent short story, and even 007 In New York, for what it's worth, isn't that bad. Maybe I should have gone with a 4, but I look at For Your Eyes Only (which I rated a 4) and comparing it to that, O&TLD is just better, IMHO.

[007_fclmdb]

gave it a 3.
Actually, I realy liked THE PROPERTY OF A LADY, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and 007 IN NEW-YORK, but OCTOPUSSY just ruined the experience for me...
it dragged and it bored me so much that at first I had my doubts about finishing the story and the collection. I think that FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was much much better.

[Byron]

gave it a 3.
Actually, I realy liked THE PROPERTY OF A LADY, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and 007 IN NEW-YORK, but OCTOPUSSY just ruined the experience for me...
it dragged and it bored me so much that at first I had my doubts about finishing the story and the collection. I think that FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was much much better.

I really liked Octopussy, even slightly more than the living daylights. Property of a lady was decent and 007 in New York fun.

Overall i give this collection 3.5 stars.

Out of the two short story collections i prefer FYEO as it has 3 stories i really dig (Quantum, FYEO and Hildebrand) whereas O & TL has one (Octopussy).

[Qwerty]

One of my earliest reviews on CBn.

Ian Fleming's Octopussy & The Living Daylights

Octopussy

In the simplest of words, this story is one of the most interesting Fleming ever created for James Bond. It, like other certain other short stories, does not put Bond as the main attraction of the story, and the action does not revolve around him this time. It tells of James Bond going to Jamaica to track down Major Dexter Smythe, a man who lives in luxury, along with a certain octopus. Smythe confesses in a flashback tale of how he killed a man for gold, how the gold has financed his life up until then, and how he committed the murder. Bond respects the man and gives him the chance to choose his own fate, and then leaves to return later. Ironically, the choice of his fate is not left up Smythe, and he is killed. James Bond returns later, and closes the case with the conclusion of

[Qwerty]

Keep the reviews coming!

[manfromjapan]

A good little collection, but not as substantial or memorable as For Your Eyes Only. Octopussy and The Property of a Lady were entertaining if nothing special, 007 in New York was fun but a mere trifle, and The living Daylights was simply fantastic. i enjoyed that particular story more than some of the novels (especially the tedious The Spy Who Lloved Me). It made me hope that somewhere in the vaults is a finished full-length novel of the same title of which the story was merely the first few chapters!!

3 out of 5

PS. It is fun reading all the novels in order and spotting where the film-makers have paid homage or lifted directly eg. the Fanshawe character in 'Property' becoming Fanning in the Octopussy film.

[Sbott]

I know I'm late! But as I'm playing catchup I thought I would add my review of Ocopussy.

Octopussy is a great short story from Fleming in which Bond plays a minor role. The plot has been covered by the previous reviewers so I won't go over old ground. What I enjoyed is Fleming's story telling, his ability to describe the detail/technicalities of a scene in such a manner that it creates an atmosphere instead of sounding like a manual for fixing your car. For example, the description of the scorpion fish is higly detailed and could have been very mundane. However, the use of military language (camouflage, supreme weapon, heavily toothed etc.) helps to create a sinister atomsphere which helps to set the story up.

Fleming also uses the story to tell the readers more about Bond, we learn a little about his releationship with Oberhauser, the man Major Smythe killed, who was a father figure to Bond and taught him to ski when he was in his teens. This sets up a problem for Bond, he has tracked down the killer of Oberhauser, his mentor and he turns out to be an ex Royal Marine with an distinguished track record, until the murder and the stolen gold are discovered. Bond must have had mixed feelings about Smythe, but still gives him time to clear up his own affairs - the implication of which is the honourable way out. It reminds me of Trevelyan line in the film GoldenEye "Somehow I knew that 007's loyalty was always to the mission, never to his friend". Bond's feeling towards Smythe are never explored in the story although Bonds demeanor gives us clues (for example "Bond said unemotionally") and this is a shame.

Captivating short stories are hard to write and this one is a gem.

[MHazard]

I think I posted this in the wrong thread and since I always like to see what I've written, I hope it's okay if I add my thoughts here:

For some reason Octopussy has always left me a little cold. It's not just that Bond seems incidental to the story, but for me, the story told isn't particularly captivating. I don't mind Fleming making Bond incidental to the story, which he does in Quantum of Solace a story I far prefer to Octopussy.

In contrast, Bond is central to the Living Daylights which explores his distaste for killing (something you would never get out of any of the movies) and shows a somewhat burnt out Bond fed up with the moral ambiguity of his profession and dealing with a colleague who has absolutely no clue what emotional price Bond pays by doing his job. All of which comes to a head when he's required to kill a beautiful girl. How he reacts to having all of these buttons pushed in him is fascinating.

But hey, it's not like I hate Octopussy as a story, I just don't view it as one of Ian's highlights