Rating: 
Summary: About as much as one can ask for in a 1950?s pulp novel
Review: "Live and Let Die" holds up as a story and moves quickly, but the really amazing thing about it is that it serves as a portal into a 1954 mindset. This is most apparent in Flemming's treatment of blacks. The villain is black, and he controls a black voodoo mob with communist ties and tentacles from Harlem to Jamaica. At one point James Bond notices the villain's black female chauffeur and thinks to himself how unusual the site of a black woman driving a car was anywhere in the world. While Flemming's fantasy-land world of universally linked superstitious black conspirators smacks of a genuinely racist outlook, the most surreal comments are about the reality of the world that existed when the book was written. It is tough to get beyond the book's racial stereotypes, but all of Flemming's gangs are pretty much the same international conspiracies. Flemming probably thought that his treatment of black was somehow elevating. In any case, beyond the racial element of the book, Flemming's way with words remain captivating, the plot remains slightly off (as is characteristic for the Bond books), and Bond remains Bond. Flemming's Bond is not nearly so smart as the movie Bonds. The literary Bond is, in a sense more superhuman in that his body endures inhuman abuses, from terrible beatings to poisonous levels of alcohol, tobacco and high-cholesterol foods. But he is extremely reckless and has as much bad luck as good. Luck, rather than wits, carry Bond through much of the book and in a sense he sort of flows along. Not so for his partner, Felix Leiter, who meets the kind of surprising fate that makes the twists and turns of a Flemming novel actually unpredictable (Flemming reaches a climax in unpredictability with the close of his best work, "From Russia with Love"). The other interesting thing about "Live and Let Die" is how elements of this book later appear in the films. The movie version of the book is a considerable departure, yet scenes from "For Your Eyes Only," and "License to Kill" are stolen almost word-for-word form this book. That three movies are derivative of this one book indicate its action-value. The whole combination of "Live and Let Die" is about as much as one can ask for in a 1950's pulp novel. It is fun, it is dated in an unintentionally interesting way, and it is quick. For these reasons and because it is Bond, "Live and Let Die" will live and not die for at least another 50 years.
Rating:
Summary: About as much as one can ask for in a 1950¿s pulp novel
Review: "Live and Let Die" holds up as a story and moves quickly, but the really amazing thing about it is that it serves as a portal into a 1954 mindset. This is most apparent in Flemming's treatment of blacks. The villain is black, and he controls a black voodoo mob with communist ties and tentacles from Harlem to Jamaica. At one point James Bond notices the villain's black female chauffeur and thinks to himself how unusual the site of a black woman driving a car was anywhere in the world. While Flemming's fantasy-land world of universally linked superstitious black conspirators smacks of a genuinely racist outlook, the most surreal comments are about the reality of the world that existed when the book was written. It is tough to get beyond the book's racial stereotypes, but all of Flemming's gangs are pretty much the same international conspiracies. Flemming probably thought that his treatment of black was somehow elevating. In any case, beyond the racial element of the book, Flemming's way with words remain captivating, the plot remains slightly off (as is characteristic for the Bond books), and Bond remains Bond. Flemming's Bond is not nearly so smart as the movie Bonds. The literary Bond is, in a sense more superhuman in that his body endures inhuman abuses, from terrible beatings to poisonous levels of alcohol, tobacco and high-cholesterol foods. But he is extremely reckless and has as much bad luck as good. Luck, rather than wits, carry Bond through much of the book and in a sense he sort of flows along. Not so for his partner, Felix Leiter, who meets the kind of surprising fate that makes the twists and turns of a Flemming novel actually unpredictable (Flemming reaches a climax in unpredictability with the close of his best work, "From Russia with Love"). The other interesting thing about "Live and Let Die" is how elements of this book later appear in the films. The movie version of the book is a considerable departure, yet scenes from "For Your Eyes Only," and "License to Kill" are stolen almost word-for-word form this book. That three movies are derivative of this one book indicate its action-value. The whole combination of "Live and Let Die" is about as much as one can ask for in a 1950's pulp novel. It is fun, it is dated in an unintentionally interesting way, and it is quick. For these reasons and because it is Bond, "Live and Let Die" will live and not die for at least another 50 years.
Rating:
Summary: Very solid
Review: Fleming's second James Bond novel, Live and Let Die is a solid thriller although it certainly has room for improvement. And Fleming would improve and polish Bond's adventure very very well as time went on. Here, his prose is more terse, often feeling less descriptive than it would in later novels, but still very smooth. There is some really solid action and Bond is also given a very believable reason to go after Mr. Big, the villain (what else could he be with that name?) Felix Leiter, Bond's CIA chum, is mauled by sharks. (This part of the story was not in the film Live and Let Die but was rather used in the later film Licence to Kill.) Bond also forms a solid romance with the mysterious Solitaire and in the end...well, give it a read. A lot of fun for sure and very smooth.
Rating: 
Summary: To Live and Let Die!!
Review: Gold coins from Jamaican 17th-century pirate hoard are turning up in pawn shops and banks in Harlem and Florida. M suspects the treasure is being used to finance KGB activity in America, and sends Bond to unmask the operation. Bond discovers a virtual empire of gangsters masterminded by the imposing Mr. Big, who keeps the beautiful Solitaire as his personal captive. Voodoo, sharks and barracuda, time bombs, harpoon guns, torture and terror are the ingredients for a scalding brew that reaches the boiling point in an eruption of violence. Another great Bond book to read! Buy this book when it is back in stock!!!
Rating:
Summary: In the better half
Review: I only tend to review the best of the novels (From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Dr. No, Thunderball and Live and Let Die) for some reason. Most people talk about everything in the book, but I am just going to tell you that Live and Let Die is, along with the others listed, one of the best. Better than the movie, although I didn't dislike the movie that much. Worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: This guy really could write !
Review: Ian Fleming is not a cheap besteseller author. He really has his own style, a credible character (Bond, in the books, has almost nothing similar with his partner in the movies!)a good plot.
Rating:
Summary: The Literary James Bond comes into his own
Review: Live and Let Die was Ian Fleming's second book to feature the secret agent and future icon, James Bond and although the book directly follows up on the storyline started in the previous Casino Royale (i.e., Bond's initial motivation is revenge against the Soviet Smersh for the events at the end of that novel), Live and Let Die is in many ways a different animal entirely and a fairly good harbringer of the future emphasis on adventure and exotic villians and lovers that would dominate the series. Whereas the Bond introduced in Casino Royale was, at times, surprisingly niave, Live and Let Die's James Bond is more in line with the death defying superspy that most think of when they here the term "007." Still, the Bond seen here is still much more vulnerable and, at times, much more ruthlessly unlikeable than the Bond film character -- an aspect the keeps this book rooted in reality and, in my opinion, makes the literary Bond far superior to his movie doppleganger. The plot of Live and Let Die will probably be problematic for some politically correct readers. James Bond travels from Harlem to Jamaica in pursuit of Mr. Big, a gangster and Soviet agent who also happens to be black and, at one point, proclaims that his goal is to be the first "great Negro criminal." Mr. Big's criminal organization is, as well, made up totally a blacks and a great deal of time is spent explaining that Big keeps his organization in line by exploiting their belief in voodoo. Obviously, this is the type of stuff that makes some readers uncomfortable but one gets the feeling that Fleming would have enjoyed making them squirm. When taken out of context, the book's plot can certainly sound like some '50s version of the infamous racist screed, the Turner Diaries, but upon actual reading, it becomes obvious that the book -- if, at times, showing the accepted stereotypes of the time it was written (even I cringed at Fleming's attempt to write dialect), is not itself meant to be racist -- i.e., Big is a villian because he's evil and not because he's black. And for that matter, he's also a very memorable and formidible villian -- every bit the equal of such later heavyweights as Blofeld and nowhere near as pathetic as Royale's Le Chiffre. As well, Mr. Big's intricate scheme and the execution of it actually makes sense and Fleming maintains an admirable atmosphere of suspense and danger throughout the book. Fleming's style here improves on the occasional awkwardness of Royale and he gives the reader a well-paced adventure filled with memorable characters and some startlingly strong action sequences. (One need only compare this book's underwater scenes with the more languid scenes in Thunderball to see how well Fleming pulls them off.) To go into any more detail of the plot would be unfair to the reader because most of the twists are genuine surprises (especially if one is expecting the book to be anything like the film). This is a book full of remarkably strong scenes and writing -- amongst the most vivid are the fate of Felix Leiter, the painful torture inflicted on Bond in Harlem, and Fleming's hilariously dismissive view of Florida retirees -- and it is a must read for anyone who wants to discover what made James Bond such an icon in the first place.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, with one BIGtime caveat...
Review: So the Bond saga continues, in this the second book of the series. I'm finding Bond to much more multifaceted in the books when compared to the films...and I do love those films! His "relationship" with Solitaire is nicely done here, and the finale...if filmed the way it was written...would have been one of the more thrilling moments in cinema history.
The problem here, which will be insurmountable to many people's sensitivities, is the mid-50's pre-civil-rights attitude towards minorities. Political correctness, I feel, will one day be looked back upon by historians in nearly the same way as McCarthyism. It's an embarassing movement in American civil thought.
That being said, the tone towards Africans/Black/whatever the proper term currently is...is antiquated to say the least, and may be offensive to many.
The novel itself is a lightning read, much like Casino Royale, and you will wish for the day that these books...not just their titles...will be made into movies.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, with one BIGtime caveat...
Review: So the Bond saga continues, in this the second book of the series. I'm finding Bond to much more multifaceted in the books when compared to the films...and I do love those films! His "relationship" with Solitaire is nicely done here, and the finale...if filmed the way it was written...would have been one of the more thrilling moments in cinema history.
The problem here, which will be insurmountable to many people's sensitivities, is the mid-50's pre-civil-rights attitude towards minorities. Political correctness, I feel, will one day be looked back upon by historians in nearly the same way as McCarthyism. It's an embarassing movement in American civil thought.
That being said, the tone towards Africans/Black/whatever the proper term currently is...is antiquated to say the least, and may be offensive to many.
The novel itself is a lightning read, much like Casino Royale, and you will wish for the day that these books...not just their titles...will be made into movies.
Rating:
Summary: More Like 4 and a 1/2 Stars
Review: This book is good...not great, just, good. It isn't as Good as the previous Bond Book, Casino Royale(read my review), and that is why I gave it 4 and a half stars instead of 5. It starts out slow, like all Fleming Books do, but it gradually builds itself up to a great closing action sequence. Sorry, no surprise ending this time around for Bond(even though it seems like there is going to be one). Anyways, the book seems like two books combined. For one, it's rather longer than "Casino," but, it's the build-up that will keep you from falling asleep. everything is really well described, you can imagine everything. My favorite part is(don't worry, I wont give away any spoilers)towards the end, when bond is,...uh,...in the water(i'm trying to keep it a surprise for those who haven't read it yet) It is very descriptive and very exciting. All in all, it starts out long and slow and boring, but I beg you, don't put it down...please, just hold out at least to the Harlem, NY part(which is only 3 or 4 chapters in), and I promise it will get better. So, read this book, you'll like it...eventually:)
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