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James Bond (Original Series) #9, 11-12
The SPECTRE Trilogy: Read the full SPECTRE saga with these three addictive James Bond novels
There's no better time to rediscover James Bond.
SPECTRE is the ultimate threat; the merciless international terrorist organisation led by James Bond's nemesis, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
In Thunderball , SPECTRE is holding the world to ransom with two stolen nuclear weapons and it is 007's duty to find them in time to prevent a global catastrophe.
In On Her Majesty's Secret Service , Bond disrupts SPECTRE's plan to destroy Britain from the inside, but little does he know victory will bring tragic consequences.
In You Only Live Twice , grief-stricken and erratic, Bond is given one last chance to face his arch-enemy in a battle to the death.
'Bond is a hero for all time' Jeffrey Deaver
SPECTRE is the ultimate threat; the merciless international terrorist organisation led by James Bond's nemesis, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
In Thunderball , SPECTRE is holding the world to ransom with two stolen nuclear weapons and it is 007's duty to find them in time to prevent a global catastrophe.
In On Her Majesty's Secret Service , Bond disrupts SPECTRE's plan to destroy Britain from the inside, but little does he know victory will bring tragic consequences.
In You Only Live Twice , grief-stricken and erratic, Bond is given one last chance to face his arch-enemy in a battle to the death.
'Bond is a hero for all time' Jeffrey Deaver
834 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 1997
226 people are currently reading
609 people want to read
About the author
Ian Fleming
736 books3,332 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Ian Lancaster Fleming was an English writer, best known for his postwar James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his father was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing.
While working for Britain's Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, Fleming was involved in planning Operation Goldeneye and in the planning and oversight of two intelligence units: 30 Assault Unit and T-Force. He drew from his wartime service and his career as a journalist for much of the background, detail, and depth of his James Bond novels.
Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952, at age 44. It was a success, and three print runs were commissioned to meet the demand. Eleven Bond novels and two collections of short stories followed between 1953 and 1966. The novels centre around James Bond, an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond is also known by his code number, 007, and was a commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. The Bond stories rank among the best-selling series of fictional books of all time, having sold over 100 million copies worldwide. Fleming also wrote the children's story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and two works of non-fiction. In 2008, The Times ranked Fleming 14th on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
Fleming was married to Ann Fleming. She had divorced her husband, the 2nd Viscount Rothermere, because of her affair with the author. Fleming and Ann had a son, Caspar. Fleming was a heavy smoker and drinker for most of his life and succumbed to heart disease in 1964 at the age of 56. Two of his James Bond books were published posthumously; other writers have since produced Bond novels. Fleming's creation has appeared in film twenty-seven times, portrayed by six actors in the official film series.
Ian Lancaster Fleming was an English writer, best known for his postwar James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his father was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing.
While working for Britain's Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, Fleming was involved in planning Operation Goldeneye and in the planning and oversight of two intelligence units: 30 Assault Unit and T-Force. He drew from his wartime service and his career as a journalist for much of the background, detail, and depth of his James Bond novels.
Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952, at age 44. It was a success, and three print runs were commissioned to meet the demand. Eleven Bond novels and two collections of short stories followed between 1953 and 1966. The novels centre around James Bond, an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond is also known by his code number, 007, and was a commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. The Bond stories rank among the best-selling series of fictional books of all time, having sold over 100 million copies worldwide. Fleming also wrote the children's story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and two works of non-fiction. In 2008, The Times ranked Fleming 14th on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
Fleming was married to Ann Fleming. She had divorced her husband, the 2nd Viscount Rothermere, because of her affair with the author. Fleming and Ann had a son, Caspar. Fleming was a heavy smoker and drinker for most of his life and succumbed to heart disease in 1964 at the age of 56. Two of his James Bond books were published posthumously; other writers have since produced Bond novels. Fleming's creation has appeared in film twenty-seven times, portrayed by six actors in the official film series.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 18, 2018
A good idea putting these three excellent stories in one volume.
Thunderball
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (My favorite Bond book)
You Only Live Twice (with a shocking ending)
Reading the Bond books, there are scenes from a particular book that isn't in the movie though I"ve seen it in a different movie but kinda tweaked somewhat.
Thunderball
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (My favorite Bond book)
You Only Live Twice (with a shocking ending)
Reading the Bond books, there are scenes from a particular book that isn't in the movie though I"ve seen it in a different movie but kinda tweaked somewhat.
December 26, 2015
I really, really wanted to find something to enjoy here. The first time I watched a Bond film was The World is Not Enough and I loved it. The fast cars, the explosions, the ridiculous gadgets, the naughtiness of 007 - aged twelve, it all seemed like fun. I had similar feelings about Tomorrow Never Dies although Die Another Day stretched my credulity rather. Aged fifteen, I acquired a Dad who adored Bond movies and learnt to appreciate the subtler beauty of On Her Majesty's Secret Service and then more recently have enjoyed the change in pace brought by Daniel Craig. Despite the often outrageous representations of women, I have managed to enjoy Bond and I wanted to like the original source material. However. Reading The Spectre Trilogy actually depressed me. There is no kindly Judi Dench to take the part of M, or indeed any female characters who are afforded the slightest modicum of respect - reading this felt like stepping into the mind of extraordinary malice and cruelty. Fleming's Bond made my flesh creep, made this book feel like sitting on a bus next to a man who keeps 'accidentally' touching your leg - creepy, cloying and someone you move away from with a huge sigh of relief.
This trilogy is clearly getting a re-release due to the recent film and indeed, for all that the protagonist, subject matter and author mindset made my skin crawl, I could not deny the skill of the writer behind it all. Fleming directs his characters with apparent effortlessness - always a sign that something quite skillful is going on. As thrillers go, nobody ever breaks a sweat - even the crime is curiously elegant with the central organisation SPECTRE being an organised committee committed to high standards of professionalism. Blofeld is a poised and confident villain, never resorting to the crazed monologuing of other antagonists - he may be a visionary but his dignity is important to him. He has been so iconic though - the bad guy stroking his white cat has become a cliche but Fleming did it first with Blofeld. It was Blofeld who convened his minions around a table and then casually murdered one of them; it's been done so many times since but here you sense something that is fresh and even innovative.
Still, for all that we are seeing something original, there is a true nastiness that is inescapable and all pervasive. The henchman killed at the table is punished for having deflowered one of the recent kidnapping victims prior to her return to her parents, something Blofeld apologises for via a personal letter and the return of half of the ransom. There is a pool going round Bond's offices about who will first bed his new secretary, Mary Goodnight. When visiting a medical clinic, Bond seizes and kisses his female masseuse, knowing that she must instinctively want him to do so. Although she protests, they still later have sex in her car. Women are not just disrespected, they are simple marionettes for Bond's whims. Occasionally certain women do catch his attention and affection, but there is still a superficiality - there was no obvious difference between the way Bond pledged himself to a young woman as part of his cover and the way he declared himself to his apparent true love. Despite all of Domino Vitali's efforts on Bond's behalf, she vanishes after the first book, another of his forgotten paramours. This trilogy also features On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which relates Bond's doomed affair with Tracy but although in this we have apparent True Love, he still observes his beloved with that kind of forensic - almost anthropological - detachment. When he discovers that her mother was an Englishwoman who had 'a subconscious desire to be raped' and that her father had been the man to do so, this apparently explains all.
There is a greater depth and respect between Bond's relationships with the other men who meets, even a professional respect for those who find themselves on 'the wrong side', but the women are mere paper dolls to be swept away, their feelings having no meaning. They will all submit to his will, for why ever would they fail to desire him? He may have his occasional twinges of guilt for manipulating them, but that is all they are. There is more fire and intrigue to his rather childish combat with the man at the rest cure than there ever is to Bond's romantic manoeuvres. Bond decides and the object capitulates and so they go to bed. It troubled me most of all in our post Operation Yewtree world, to read of a society where consent was never really considered. I do not believe that all men are misogynists, but James Bond is a touchstone of mainstream culture and he definitely is. In marking his attitudes and behaviour as acceptable, we condone a world where women are dismissed as lesser, demeaned as no more than a convenient orifice for a man when the need takes him. The Savilles, Harrises undsoweiter survived because they lived in a world that read these books, watched these films and accepted that women were flighty and unreliable and easily swayed into physical relationships.
To be frank, reading The Spectre Trilogy has ruined Bond for me. I didn't go out to see the film, I now grimace when I see the posters - I actually feel vaguely nauseous - Ian Fleming has spoiled my enjoyment of the whole franchise. Certainly there are aspects which have been adapted and improved down the decades, the addition of the female M was a particular masterstroke, but Bond's inherent lack of warmth makes him a chilly protagonist but then again, Ian Fleming's private life reveals that Bond's creator had little in the way of this himself and so it can be of small surprise that in his original form, Bond is little more than a sneering cad. I don't want to hear him talk, I just want him to die.
This trilogy is clearly getting a re-release due to the recent film and indeed, for all that the protagonist, subject matter and author mindset made my skin crawl, I could not deny the skill of the writer behind it all. Fleming directs his characters with apparent effortlessness - always a sign that something quite skillful is going on. As thrillers go, nobody ever breaks a sweat - even the crime is curiously elegant with the central organisation SPECTRE being an organised committee committed to high standards of professionalism. Blofeld is a poised and confident villain, never resorting to the crazed monologuing of other antagonists - he may be a visionary but his dignity is important to him. He has been so iconic though - the bad guy stroking his white cat has become a cliche but Fleming did it first with Blofeld. It was Blofeld who convened his minions around a table and then casually murdered one of them; it's been done so many times since but here you sense something that is fresh and even innovative.
Still, for all that we are seeing something original, there is a true nastiness that is inescapable and all pervasive. The henchman killed at the table is punished for having deflowered one of the recent kidnapping victims prior to her return to her parents, something Blofeld apologises for via a personal letter and the return of half of the ransom. There is a pool going round Bond's offices about who will first bed his new secretary, Mary Goodnight. When visiting a medical clinic, Bond seizes and kisses his female masseuse, knowing that she must instinctively want him to do so. Although she protests, they still later have sex in her car. Women are not just disrespected, they are simple marionettes for Bond's whims. Occasionally certain women do catch his attention and affection, but there is still a superficiality - there was no obvious difference between the way Bond pledged himself to a young woman as part of his cover and the way he declared himself to his apparent true love. Despite all of Domino Vitali's efforts on Bond's behalf, she vanishes after the first book, another of his forgotten paramours. This trilogy also features On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which relates Bond's doomed affair with Tracy but although in this we have apparent True Love, he still observes his beloved with that kind of forensic - almost anthropological - detachment. When he discovers that her mother was an Englishwoman who had 'a subconscious desire to be raped' and that her father had been the man to do so, this apparently explains all.
There is a greater depth and respect between Bond's relationships with the other men who meets, even a professional respect for those who find themselves on 'the wrong side', but the women are mere paper dolls to be swept away, their feelings having no meaning. They will all submit to his will, for why ever would they fail to desire him? He may have his occasional twinges of guilt for manipulating them, but that is all they are. There is more fire and intrigue to his rather childish combat with the man at the rest cure than there ever is to Bond's romantic manoeuvres. Bond decides and the object capitulates and so they go to bed. It troubled me most of all in our post Operation Yewtree world, to read of a society where consent was never really considered. I do not believe that all men are misogynists, but James Bond is a touchstone of mainstream culture and he definitely is. In marking his attitudes and behaviour as acceptable, we condone a world where women are dismissed as lesser, demeaned as no more than a convenient orifice for a man when the need takes him. The Savilles, Harrises undsoweiter survived because they lived in a world that read these books, watched these films and accepted that women were flighty and unreliable and easily swayed into physical relationships.
To be frank, reading The Spectre Trilogy has ruined Bond for me. I didn't go out to see the film, I now grimace when I see the posters - I actually feel vaguely nauseous - Ian Fleming has spoiled my enjoyment of the whole franchise. Certainly there are aspects which have been adapted and improved down the decades, the addition of the female M was a particular masterstroke, but Bond's inherent lack of warmth makes him a chilly protagonist but then again, Ian Fleming's private life reveals that Bond's creator had little in the way of this himself and so it can be of small surprise that in his original form, Bond is little more than a sneering cad. I don't want to hear him talk, I just want him to die.
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January 11, 2017As Wonderful As Ever
I received the 13-volume set of the James Bond books many years ago. They were paperback and I kept them until the pages turned brittle and began to crumble. Now the stories are available in e-format and I shall soon own them all again. I purchased this set out of curiosity - it's been years. I had forgotten about the fact that SPECTRE only appears in three of the stories. I do remember that Hollywood has always gone for the spectacular rather than the truth. If you are a James Bond fan, you won't recognize these stories: the characters, yes; the plots, not so much. Ian Fleming is an excellent author. The novels are well worth the time.
I received the 13-volume set of the James Bond books many years ago. They were paperback and I kept them until the pages turned brittle and began to crumble. Now the stories are available in e-format and I shall soon own them all again. I purchased this set out of curiosity - it's been years. I had forgotten about the fact that SPECTRE only appears in three of the stories. I do remember that Hollywood has always gone for the spectacular rather than the truth. If you are a James Bond fan, you won't recognize these stories: the characters, yes; the plots, not so much. Ian Fleming is an excellent author. The novels are well worth the time.
May 17, 2014
I really enjoyed this trilogy. It covered the 3 Blofeld stories. For those who are new to Fleming's work, the books are very different from the movies. You get a lot more espionage and political description, and the geographical descriptions are much more vivid.
February 4, 2008
All of the books are so different from the movies. I needed to forget everything I knew about bond and rediscover him the way he was originally created.....
January 11, 2020
A great collection.
February 15, 2020
I enjoyed books 1 and 2 but 3 I found a bit slower.
June 19, 2022
Three of Ian Fleming’s best books
May 31, 2012
THUNDERBALL: there were a few too many scenes where Bond was acting as a cypher for Fleming's disgust with "hippies," here. Also, the level of sexism was pretty over the top. Overall, the book felt way too exposition heavy, and far too much about the tech specifications of boats and submarines. BTW, the sex scene comes literally out of nowhere. 3/5
ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE: While the lineage detail is interesting, this book is glacially slow. The problem is that the eventual plan to go after Blofeld takes place extremely quickly. Ultimately, though, the novel is saved by the sweetness of the ending. It's a shame we never really get to know Tracy--she seemed very complex. 3.5/5 (interesting side note: Bret Easton Elis' novel, Glamorama, is a kind of retelling of the modifications that they made to this novel's plot for the film)
YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE: Fleming is at his best when Bond is talking to a character who is spouting all of Fleming's research as exposition. This novel absolutely works in the section where Bond and Tanaka are together. Everything after becomes mostly anticlimactic. The 5 or 6 paragraphs of "final battle" is hardly worth the 200 pages to get there. The end really shines, though. I can imagine how shocking it must have been when first published. Overall, interesting in the moments that push Bond in to new places, but the central plot is flimsy and doesn't deliver. 2.5/5
ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE: While the lineage detail is interesting, this book is glacially slow. The problem is that the eventual plan to go after Blofeld takes place extremely quickly. Ultimately, though, the novel is saved by the sweetness of the ending. It's a shame we never really get to know Tracy--she seemed very complex. 3.5/5 (interesting side note: Bret Easton Elis' novel, Glamorama, is a kind of retelling of the modifications that they made to this novel's plot for the film)
YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE: Fleming is at his best when Bond is talking to a character who is spouting all of Fleming's research as exposition. This novel absolutely works in the section where Bond and Tanaka are together. Everything after becomes mostly anticlimactic. The 5 or 6 paragraphs of "final battle" is hardly worth the 200 pages to get there. The end really shines, though. I can imagine how shocking it must have been when first published. Overall, interesting in the moments that push Bond in to new places, but the central plot is flimsy and doesn't deliver. 2.5/5
December 4, 2012
Anytime you read books you last read at 15, it's going to give you a different experience. I picked up this three-book volume after reading an interview in which Michael Chabon mentioned he was re-reading Ian Fleming. That poked at me enough to get me to do the same. This trilogy: Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and You Only Live Twice, show off what appealed about Fleming in his day--not merely the sex and spying, but the details of travel, which would have been terribly exotic then, taking us off into the air in a JAL jet with its "50,000 pounds of thrust."
Oh, and exclamation marks. My God! It seems like half of everything Bond ever thought was worthy of an exclamation!
Oh, and exclamation marks. My God! It seems like half of everything Bond ever thought was worthy of an exclamation!
March 20, 2013
On Her Majesty's Secret Service - I considered this an intermediary between Thunderball and You Only Live Twice as the novel itself was relatively slow. Bond ends up going after Blofeld in the high alps of Piz Gloria and doing so, uncovers Blofeld's scheme to unleash disastrous poisons and whatnot through 10 hypnotized English girls all over England. A masterful scheme actually, but Bond thwarts it despite Blofeld getting away. The end of the book was quite exciting with Bond linking up with Marc-Ange and destroying Blofeld's headquarters in Switzerland, and all seemed well at the end until the assassination of Tracy, Bond's wife of one day. That was sad.
All in all, it's a fun read and the final book in the trilogy should sum everything up nicely.
All in all, it's a fun read and the final book in the trilogy should sum everything up nicely.
January 20, 2016
Exceptional entertainment
I am reviewing a three-volume set of James Bond stories about SPECTRE, Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and You Only Live Twice.
In Thunderball, a plane is hijacked and two atomic bombs are held for ransom.
In the second book, Bond travels to the Swiss Alps on an unrelated matter and discovers his nemesis is operating an exclusive clinic where he claims he is curing allergies. In You Only Live Twice, he finds his old enemy in Japan where he has created a "Garden of Death."
I enjoyed these books very much. I can't imagine why it took me so long to discover these treasures. As time permits, I hope to read more of Ian Fleming's fine stories.
I am reviewing a three-volume set of James Bond stories about SPECTRE, Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and You Only Live Twice.
In Thunderball, a plane is hijacked and two atomic bombs are held for ransom.
In the second book, Bond travels to the Swiss Alps on an unrelated matter and discovers his nemesis is operating an exclusive clinic where he claims he is curing allergies. In You Only Live Twice, he finds his old enemy in Japan where he has created a "Garden of Death."
I enjoyed these books very much. I can't imagine why it took me so long to discover these treasures. As time permits, I hope to read more of Ian Fleming's fine stories.
March 22, 2016
If it wasn't Fleming/Bond, I might give these a pass. I'd rather read Jack Reacher or Gabriel Alon. But I enjoy these time-capsules of adventure, style, and social mores of their author. I can't help but picture Connery throughout. The characters stick with you-- more so than say, a Dirk Pitt adventure. Bond's romantic urges are a bit much, even for those familiar with his reputation. Perhaps most surprising is that the climaxes of each book are relatively short and often at the end of their respective stories. The fun is to be had in the locale, the descriptions of Bond's meals, and the lengthy detective work. I grew up watching the movies with my Dad and these books are fun hammock-reads on the weekend.
August 3, 2012
Fleming at his finest and Bond at his best in this trio of international espionage, true love and revenge tales. World-weary 007 takes us on three thrilling adventures with the British Secret Service in some of the best reads of the Bond books. Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a vicious psychopath plotting to dominate the world's economy and rule it to his own advantage. James Bond has to stop him, but Bond is only human...humans can fall in love...anytime...anywhere...and at any cost! Stories in this trilogy: 'Thunderball', 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' and 'You Only Live Twice'.
April 14, 2016
Maybe we've all just been brainwashed with the movies and see Bond in a certain way...
No one can dispute Fleming as a great writer, I just find the Bond character, how can I put it, rather dislikable... i actually found myself having more admiration for Largo and Bloefeld, at least they didn't leer at a woman every time they saw one.
Certainly a book of its time.
And yes I'm a crusty old fart myself
No one can dispute Fleming as a great writer, I just find the Bond character, how can I put it, rather dislikable... i actually found myself having more admiration for Largo and Bloefeld, at least they didn't leer at a woman every time they saw one.
Certainly a book of its time.
And yes I'm a crusty old fart myself
January 20, 2016
I can't believe I haven't read any of the Bond books before. Obviously, some parts have aged better than others, but the writing holds up. It's interesting to compare the written character with the movie one, misogyny and all. Totally worth the read, although if I was starting over, I probably would have read them one at a time instead of three in a row.
June 21, 2011
Incredible! The second story, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, is probably the best of the bunch here but the two other stories are pretty good as well. With regards to the last two stories, I never even saw the twists coming and I was genuinely surprised at how they ended.
February 3, 2016
Ian Fleming really was a fantastic writer, and the books still hold a resonance that some of the later films lost in the translation to the big screen. He writes with an easy understated skill that is difficult to top.
October 13, 2009
Great book! Having seen the movies first, the books are a breath of fresh air and lend a realistic and human edge to James Bond. I highly recommend this trilogy.
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August 3, 2010In English language,Inglise keeles,fiction,novel,spy fiction,espionage fiction,adventure fiction,made into a movie
January 31, 2016
Three In One
Three James Bond novels are presented here as a tie in to the most recent movie SPECTRE. In these novels Bond battles SPECTRE at great personal lost to himself.
Three James Bond novels are presented here as a tie in to the most recent movie SPECTRE. In these novels Bond battles SPECTRE at great personal lost to himself.
February 23, 2016
I can't get through this poorly written misogynistic crap.
January 9, 2016
Some excellent writing, but thin and unconvincing plots
March 21, 2016
I liked them more than I thought...I may even read another one at some point.
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October 25, 2016wow just finished the book and it was captivating from the start at Thunderball to the end in You Only Live Twice
November 9, 2016
Enchanting thriller, English is very old fashioned. Fleming's descriptions are breathtaking.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews