Review: For Your Eyes Only by Ian Fleming

Mass market paperback, 232 pages
Published 2006 (contents: 1959-60)

Acquired and read November 2017

For Your Eyes Only by Ian Fleming

This isn't the eighth James Bond novel, but rather the first James Bond short story collection. There are five in total, varying from typical Bond spycraft in short story form to more literary, domestic tales.

"From a View to a Kill" and "Risico" are the more typical Bond tales here; the first has Bond defeating a Soviet plot to intercept NATO intelligence despatches, while "Risico" sends Bond undercover to defeat a drug-smuggling operation. I enjoyed the former, imbued as it is with Fleming's usual attention to detail, and also a captivating female character that I wish we saw more of. On the other hand, "Risico" didn't seem to offer anything new.

"For Your Eyes Only" and "The Hildebrand Rarity" are a little more personal than normal. In the former, M sends Bond on a personal mission of vengeance, while in the latter, a vacationing Bond discovers an abusive marriage, a problem beyond the powers of Britain's top spy to do anything about. I liked both of these. "For Your Eyes" has another captivating woman for Bond to interact with, while "Hildebrand Rarity" is surprisingly interesting and complicated and violent.

The least Bondian story here is "Quantum of Solace," which is mostly a story a civil servant is telling Bond about a bad marriage. I really enjoyed it, and it's pretty clever what Fleming does with Bond here. The story would work on its own regardless as a horrific but all too plausible story of human cruelty, but having it framed with James Bond coming off an exciting adventure gives it a little extra oomph: "Suddenly the violent dramatics of his own life seemed very hollow." It leads to a nice moment of self-reflection for a man not terribly prone to it.

On the whole, I enjoyed the book. Fleming's spare style is suited to the short story, and some of his novels struggle to fill up a novel's worth of space, I think (e.g., Moonraker and Goldfinger), so giving him less space to work with fits his strengths as a writer.

Next Week: James Bond tries to prevent nuclear armageddon by hanging out in the Caribbean again... Thunderball!