The Rough Guide to James Bond

I knew practically everything in this book being a 007 veteran. I could imagine it being very useful fro people beginning the bond craze. GOOD READ.

I've been a James Bond fan my entire life (I was born one year after DR. NO was released), and I found this to be a fun little volume that takes quick looks into Bond's origins, the novels, the films and the phenomenon. But I really had to wonder how the authors could rate THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN better than ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. I found a few other errors, but this, to me, is the most glaring mistake in the book. In "The Girls" chapter, both ladies from YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE are missing. In the middle of page 170, a quote from Tiger Tanaka is mistakenly attributed to FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. Bottom of page 246: "sene" instead of "sense." On page 259, a sentence reads "Bond also appears there to visit the grave of his dead wife Tracy in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE," which is very odd since Tracy expires in the final seconds of that film! I also wondered why there was no mention of Sydney Reilly, the World War I British spy of whom Fleming said, "Bond is just an imaginary figure--but he's no Sydney Reilly." (There are books and a mini-series with Sam Neill called REILLY: ACE OF SPIES available). These quibbles aside, this is definitely a handy little volume for the James Bond fan. It's on my Swinging Sixties Spy shelf at home.

This guide has a complete listing of the books and movies up to "The World is Not Enough." It's a light and entertaining read for casual Bond fans or for people who don't know much about the older Bond movies, like myself. However, I can't imagine that hardcore Bond fans could enjoy this. Probably those fans know more about Bond than is included in this book. The listings for the books are about a page each, and for the movies rarely exceeds two pages. So if you've seen all the movies or read all the books, then I don't recommend it for you. However, if you'd like to have an introduction into the world of Bond, it's an excellent book. I thouroughly enjoyed it from cover to cover.

This is one of those books for someone who wants to know as much about James Bond as possible in just a short amount of time. It gives you just what it promises, a rough history about Bond. If you truly want to impress people with your knowledge about 007 you need to research more. But if you want to just get by in a conversation about Bond this is the book for you. So I recommend this for anyone who needs to know about the most famous secret agent out there in just 007 minutes.