Good stories. I particularly liked Risico. It would make a good movie, it had enough plot, action, and surprising reversal to make an entire movie -- but apparently, unfortunately, they already did that, combining it with an unrelated story and mangling them both. It was interesting how different Fleming Bond is from Movie Bond. I suppose Fleming had to make things a little bit over-the-top and far-fetched to avoid tangling with the Official Secrets Act, and then the movie makers found that fun and just took it further. And further. The Living Daylights and Property of a Lady were also particularly interesting stories, featuring an introspective Bond considering the fate of agents working for the Eastern Bloc: both women of course, because Bond. It was enjoyable to read, and I would be up for reading this book again at some point. ( )

I really liked this collection of short stories. And I must have read an earlier edition years ago (as they were all familiar to me in one way or another), re-reading them was just as pleasant as sinking into your favorite overstuffed armchair.

[ It is important to note that just because one enjoys the movies, they may not necessarily enjoy the books. Fleming's (paper) Bond is, in many ways, quite different than the character portrayed by Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton and Brosnan (but not, perhaps, Craig). ]

Each short story adds to the Bond character; even the one that's not about Bond tells us quite a bit about him!

Read it for fun, read it to round out your knowledge of Bond, read it for the thrills—but read it. ( )

Whoever holds the Bond novel rights typically republishes the appropriate Fleming novel when a film adaptation comes out—if one is available. When Quantum of Solace came out, the complication was that "Quantum of Solace" was a short story, not a novel, and that it was already part of the collection For Your Eyes Only. In 2008, Penguin solved this issue by taking both Bond collections, For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy & The Living Daylights, and combining them to make Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories. I dutifully picked it up even though I had already read all the contents because it featured a new cover by Richey Fahey matching the design of his gorgeous covers for the previous fourteen books... although because Quantum of Solace was only published by Penguin US, and my copies of the previous fourteen were the Penguin UK editions, its height is slightly taller than the other ones, and so it doesn't really match at all. Oh well.

I don't have much to say about this that I didn't about the constituent parts. Fleming was a good short story writer, perhaps a better short story writer than he was a novelist. I read in detail the stories I remembered liking ("From a View to a Kill," "For Your Eyes Only," "Quantum of Solace," "Octopussy," "The Living Daylights"), and liked them again this time around. I didn't waste my own time and only skimmed the ones I remembered not being very into ("Risico," "The Property of a Lady," "007 in New York"). There was one I remembered liking last time but couldn't get into this time ("The Hildebrand Rarity"); I guess because it's kind of complicated and I wasn't in the mood for complicated.

I will dutifully watch the film adaptation even though I know it has nothing to do with this book! I wonder what film fans who picked up this edition in 2008 thought. I wonder if it will be mined for more titles. Possibly: I can't imagine "Risico" or "007 in New York" being used, but "The Property of a Lady" seems Bondian enough, though it would have to have a new plot, as that story's essentials were already used on screen in Octopussy.

A nice change of pace from my recent reading. I miss the James Bond novels. I miss the James Bond movies (next one won’t be shown til Spring 2021). Nice short stories. I enjoyed them all. Fleming’s descriptions of places, restaurants and venues that 007 are in are an enjoyable read other than 007’s many adventures. Fantasy for straight males---a desirable woman (and conquest) in every story... ( )

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories they varied in intrigue, missions, and continents. In one or two of the stories Bond is only a minor part of the action - but honestly that made it more interesting. Some of the stories include Octopussy, For Your Eyes Only, The Living Daylights, Quantum of Silence, 007 in New York, The Hildebrand Rarity, From a View to a Kill, and others. Many are also movies but their only similarities to the films are the titles, the plots are vastly different. Minus the blatant sexism and racism; the action is always unique and intense, and the stories are compelling and readable. This collection is better than some of the full length novels, I had no idea that these even existed, being published in Playboy, Cosmopolitan, and other publications. A great collection! ( )