![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51oiW7ALA9L._BO2%2C204%2C203%2C200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click%2CTopRight%2C35%2C-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg?resize=210%2C210\" "\\"Diamonds"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\nAh, now on to Ian Flemming’s Bond book 4 – Diamonds are Forever.<\/p>\n
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This book is only about 50\/50 the same as the movie.\u00a0 Bond is trying to track down a diamond smuggling ring this time.\u00a0 He starts by slipping into the Spang mob’s supply chain by kidnapping and replacing one of their diamond couriers.\u00a0 He meets the lovely Tiffany Case who is his mob ‘boss’ and they smuggle some of the stolen African diamonds into the US.\u00a0 Bond tries to track through the hierarchy of the mob and get his hands on the mysterious Spang Brothers.\u00a0 In the process, he goes to some horse racing, journeys to Vegas where he mixes it up with the Spang mob, and then has one final adventure on his trip back to England on the Queen Elizabeth.<\/p>\n
While the adventure is grand in concept, this book falls far short of most of Fleming’s other novels.\u00a0 It’s a bit schizophrenic in it’s plot lines with a few too many villains.\u00a0 Also, the job itself of tracking down the diamonds is more like police work instead of the high government intrigue\u00a0 we’re used too.\u00a0 His smuggling of the diamonds with Tiffany case is a good bit of writing, but it falls apart again when he goes for some horse racing in which the delightfully evil, well-done, but far underutilized mob couple Kidd and Wint dump hot mud on the jockey that Bond bribed to toss a horse race in order to tease out the mob.<\/p>\n
Bond adventures to Vegas, and decides to stir up the mob by ‘stealing’ money from the mob casino which is set up to pay our Bond’s smuggling pay via a rigged card game that Tiffany deals for him.\u00a0 This starts the mob after him and eventually gets him captured.\u00a0 He’s dragged out to the Spang estate – which is a somewhat ridiculous western-era town recreation.\u00a0 Here we see Bond run completely out of ideas, and take a clean beating from Kidd and Wint.\u00a0 It’s only by the action of Tiffany that he’s saved, and a train race ensues.\u00a0 This whole plot line is weak and a bit schizophrenic.\u00a0 Knowing what we do of mobsters, we’re wondering why they don’t just off bond with a few bullets and be done with it?\u00a0 Why do these gangsters treat Bond with any respect or concern?\u00a0 The height of hubris is when Bond, finally captured after killing at least half a dozen of Spang’s men, asks the Spang brother to make him a drink before he talks – and he DOES it.\u00a0 In every story of mobsters I know they would have beaten him senseless and chopped off a finger for even opening his mouth.\u00a0 To me, if feels very much like a very British Flemming trying to write about American gangsters from just what little scraps of info would have drifted back across the ocean of his time.\u00a0 He doesn’t seem to really get mob behavior, and still tinges it with a bit of British culture.<\/p>\n
Alas, Flemming pretty much flubs the whole track of the Spang brothers.\u00a0 They make some amazing blunders for supposedly being so careful – and it just didn’t feel like Flemming knew what he was going to do with these characters.\u00a0 It’s almost like he set it in motion, realized he was running out of space, and just ends the thread.\u00a0 Badly.\u00a0 It’s no surprise they never make it to any of the movie editions.\u00a0 There’s so little of them present, and what there is is so schizophrenic, that there’s little to even grab hold of.\u00a0 Probably the worst Bond villains in the books I’ve read to date.<\/p>\n
The love interest with Tiffany is as equally disappointing.\u00a0 She’s certainly an interesting character, but for being such a tough character, she just sorts of falls in love with Bond for little to no reason.\u00a0 The final adventure they have on the cruise back to England also feels rushed and somewhat hollow and unbelievable.<\/p>\n
So, Diamonds are Forever is a so-so book.\u00a0 One could easily skip it and not miss anything; but for the true Bond fan, there’s plenty of good stuff in here to enjoy.\u00a0 Give it a C+<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ah, now on to Ian Flemming’s Bond book 4 – Diamonds are Forever. This book is only about 50\/50 the same as the movie.\u00a0 Bond is trying to track down a diamond smuggling ring this time.\u00a0 He starts by slipping into the Spang mob’s supply chain by kidnapping and replacing one of their diamond couriers.\u00a0 He meets the lovely Tiffany Case who is his mob ‘boss’ and they smuggle some of the stolen African diamonds into the US.\u00a0 Bond tries…<\/p>\n