17 replies to this topic

[Bon-san]

I thought this would be a provocative topic. I'm too tired (It's 1:00 am!) to put forth a proper list right now. Off the top of my head, my favorites, in order, are On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Live and Let Die, From Russia With Love, Moonraker, Casino Royale, You Only Live Twice, and Dr. No. The rest of the lot all present some problems for me, and ranking them is difficult for me right this moment. Eyes Only is "merely" a collection of short stories, but an excellent collection indeed. Goldfinger has strong villains, but gets wayward in its middle, and Pussy's conversion is unconvincingly short-shrifted. Diamonds is often cited as weak, which it is in areas, but I love the character of Tiffany Case--such pathos! I need to reread Thunderball--I cannot remember anything too great about it, which doesn't bode well. Spy is just a bit too much of a departurefrom the normal Bond Universe. Octopussy is too shallow. And TMWTGG, despite being unfinished and spare, has a dynamite intro, Mary Goodnight, and some extremely odd passages which, although they smack of "ghost writer", make the book a pleasurable oddity for me. Well, that was a shameless bit of rambling. Take it away from there, gang. I'll follow up later.

[Icephoenix]

I think TMWTGG is way to much underatted.

[rafterman]

it's harder than ranking the films, but here goes

You Only Live Twice
OHMSS
Casino Royale
From Russia, With Love
Live and Let Die
Moonraker
Dr. No
Thunderball
Goldfinger
Octopussy and The Living Daylights
For Your Eyes Only
The Spy Who Loved Me
The Man with the Golden Gun
Diamonds are Forever

is that all?

[freemo]

1. From Russia with Love
2. You Only Live Twice
3. Doctor No
4. Thunderball
5. On Her Majestys Secret Service
6. Goldfinger
7. Casino Royale
8. Diamonds Are Forever
9. Live and Let Die
10. For Your Eyes Only
11. Moonraker
12. The Man with The Golden Gun
13. Octopussy and the Living Daylights
14. The Spy who Loved Me

Yeah, I think TMWTGG is a little underrated. It doesn't have the depth and the storyline of the others, hence partly why its a long way down on many peoples lists and rightfully so, but its a good read, I like the Bond and M scene, I like 3 1/2 Love Lane, I like Jamiaca, I like alot of it, it has a good feel to it.

You know, I had alot of trouble ranking the books. With the films I find it pretty easy to order them in a way that more or less reflects my opinions, but with the novels its far more difficult. Maybe because two of the books are short stories and one is first person, but I think its more than just that.

[JAWS]

Ranking Fleming's novels in order is too difficult but I will list my favorite four:
-FRWL (the first Fleming novel that really 'grabbed' me)
-DR. NO (possibly my favorite)
-THUNDERBALL
-OHMSS (oddly enough, my least favorite of the films)

[Kronsteen]

I

[Dr. Shatterhand]

From Russia, with Love
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
You Only Live Twice
Doctor No
Thunderball
Casino Royale
Live And Let Die
Moonraker
The Spy Who Loved Me
For Your Eyes Only
Diamonds Are Forever
Goldfinger
The Man With The Golden Gun
Octopussy and The Living Daylights

Actually, I thought TSWLM was an interesting departure for Fleming. Some scenes are very provocative.

[RossMan]

This is a tough one, let's see...

1. You Only Live Twice
2. Doctor No
3. From Russia With Love
4. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
5. Live and Let Die
6. Thunderball
7. Goldfinger
8. The Man With The Golden Gun
9. Diamonds Are Forever
10. For Your Eyes Only
11. Moonraker
12. Casino Royale
13. Octopussy and The Living Daylights
14 The Spy Who Love Me

And I do this keeping in mind that every book is excellent and highly enjoyable. (except for TSWLM, I just don't like it.)

I know that some won't like the the low rating of Casino Royale but I thought the last quarter of it, after Le Chiffre is killed where he is with Vesper was a bit dull and I did not find it interesting but everything leading up to it was great.

[AlphaSigOU]

My list of favorites:

From Russia, With Love
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
You Only Live Twice
Thunderball
Goldfinger
Dr. No
Diamonds Are Forever
Live And Let Die
For Your Eyes Only
Moonraker
Casino Royale
The Man With The Golden Gun
Octopussy and the Living Daylights
The Spy Who Loved Me

[zencat]

I'm gonna have to do this off the top of my head...

1. CASINO ROYALE
2. YOLT
3. MOONRAKER
4. DR. NO
5. OHMSS
6. FRWL
7. LIVE AND LET DIE

...and the others.

[Mister Asterix]

I'm going to leave out the short story collections because that would be like comparing apples and... well, three to five little apples with various qualities.

• You Only Live Twice
• From Russia, With Love
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service
• Live and Let Die
• Casino Royale
• Thunderball
• Doctor No
• The Spy Who Loved Me
• Moonraker
• Goldfinger
• The Man With The Golden Gun
• Diamonds Are Forever

[Kronsteen]

Since my last post I have read some more of Flemings novels, and I have some changes.

1.Thunderball
2.Dr. No
3.On Her Majestys Secret Service
4.You Only Live Twice
5.Casino Royale
6.From Russia With Love
7.The Man With The Golden Gun
8.Moonraker

It

[Bondpurist]

1) Moonraker
2) From Russia With Love
3) Casino Royale
4) Thunderball
5) On Her Majesty's Secret Service
6) You Only Live Twice
7) Live And Let Die
8) The Man With The Golden Gun
9) Octopussy/ The Property Of A Lady/ The Living Daylights
10) For Your Eyes Only
11) Dr No
12) Goldfinger
13) The Spy Who Loved Me
14) Diamonds Are Forever

[1q2w3e4r]

Its like asking whats you favourite kid. Even a bad Fleming novel's better than most writers best.

Kinda hard, I don't find it as easy to rate the novels as films sorry

[brendan007]

i cant rank em, but my faviorite is On Her Majesty's Secret Service and my least liked is The Man With The Golden Gun. The rest would obviously fall somewhere in between

[mi6spy005]

1. You Only Live Twice
2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
3. The Spy Who Loved Me
4. Casino Royale
5. For Your Eyes Only
6. Thunderball
7. Doctor No
8. Live and Let Die
9. From Russia, With Love
10. Diamonds Are Forever
11. The Man with the Golden Gun
12. Octopussy and the Living Daylights
13. Moonraker
14. Goldfinger

(Note: #13 and #14 are the only ones I had major quibbles with and only just enjoyed. The rest I enjoyed a lot and made #4-11 tough to rank)

[freemo]

I may have another crack at this, it was quite a while ago when I did the rankings the first time...

1. Doctor No
2. You Only Live Twice
3. From Russia With Love
4. Thunderball
5. On Her Majestys Secret Service
6. Casino Royale
7. Goldfinger
8. Diamonds Are Forever
9. Live and Let Die
10. The Man with The Golden Gun
11. Moonraker
12. For Your Eyes Only
13. Octopussy and the Living Daylights
14. The Spy who Loved Me

The top three are absolute masterpieces, actually, they're all pretty darn good. DN was the first one I read, YOLT I live the insight into Japan and life and death, FRWL is just a brilliant story, even the "Bondless" first third is captivating. Don't like the short stories quite as much, I've always found them hard to get into.

[Spectre001]

1. OHMSS
2. TB
3. MR
4. FRWL
5. GF
6. DN
7. LALD
8. YOLT
9. DAF
10. CR
11. TMWTGG
12. OP & TLD
13. FYEO
14. TSWLM

But all in the the top 10 are all great read's