James Bond 007 in Quantum of Solace by Ian Fleming

Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories by Ian Fleming

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.

Collection published: 2008
Contents originally published: 1960-65
Acquired: May 2021
Read: June 2021

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 (though I am behind; as of this writing I still haven't even watched The Man with the Golden Gun) 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.

I read a James Bond book every four months. Next up in sequence: nothing!

Book Rankings (Final):

1. Casino Royale
2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
3. Dr No
4. Thunderball
5. Moonraker
6. For Your Eyes Only
7. From Russia with Love
8. The Spy Who Loved Me
9. Quantum of Solace
   
10. Octopussy & The Living Daylights
11. The Man with the Golden Gun
12. You Only Live Twice
13. Live and Let Die
14. Goldfinger
15. Diamonds are Forever