For Your Eyes Only Paperback – October 16, 2012

This book contains five James Bond short stories. All of them are quite good. Fleming had a real knack with short stories.In "A View To A Kill" Bond tracks down the killers of a classified document courier. He comes up against a brutal and clever set of foes. In "For Your Eyes Only" he is on the trail of a brutal Cuban general who is not above using violence to achieve his end. Unfortunately for this general and his friends, Bond's 00 means that he is licensed to kill. After the general kills an Englishman who is a friend of M's Bond intends to do just that. That is if he can deal with the young woman who seems to be getting in his way."Quantum of Solace" is a strange Bond tale. No real spy stuff here. He listens as the Governor of Jamaica tells a story about an old friend. At the end of the story Bond realizes that sometimes the people with the most interesting stories are right in front of him and that he needs to not write certain people of as uninteresting so quickly. The plot of "Risico" will be familiar to those who remember the film version of "For Your Eyes Only." It is the story of a smuggler who is dangerous and needs to be eliminated. The only problem is that Bond has to figure out which of the smugglers he is dealing with is the man behind the drug trade. Finally "The Hildebrand Rarity" is a sea adventure complete with the rich, sadistic American millionaire, his beautiful wife, the search for a rare fish, and murder.All of the stories are well written and quite entertaining.

There are worse ways to while away a few hours than reading Ian Fleming's short stories featuring his bulletproof spy, James Bond. The trademark Fleming attention to detail is present, as is usual, and Bond, of course, occasionally hits the Caribbean, as he seems to do in EVERY novel at least once. It pains me that the title story in this collection of shorts wasn't put up on the big screen intact...it would have made a heck of a SPY movie, rather than the lame, hard to follow adventure it became with old Rogie the Usurper in the lead role.The story, "The Hildebrand Rarity" is the basis for the Timothy Dalton film "License To Kill", where, though Franz Sanchez, Agent Bouvier and Felix Leiter from the movie aren't present, one of Sanchez's cronies, Krest, IS!As with just about every OTHER Bond book-to-film transfer, the plots and supporting characters are fiddled around with extensively, but a sharp eye would be able to discern the similarities.I would have liked it if this book had been in better condition when I got it, but it was one of the original Signet paperbacks, which makes it more than 35 years old. I guess it could have looked a LOT worse! (g) However, as far as reading is concerned....not bad at all!

Amazon often writes me and says they won't post a particular review as it doesn't fall within their guidelines. They offer zero clue what the perceived problem was. They will not communicate further and refuse a valid review. I simply waste time writing reviews for Amazon. Amazon behaves like a dictatorship asking for free speech then repressing it.That being said, your product is just peachy. It works as advertised. I will likely buy it again.I will recommend it to all my associates. There you Amazon, I hope this falls within your criteria for the reviews you beg me to write for you for free.

Reading a Bond book will show you how much the world has changed -- and for the better -- since the 1950s. If you are nostalgic for an age when gender and race politics were uneven and when men thought of the fate of the world as a giant game -- a sport, really -- then this is the book for you. Otherwise, the characters, situations, and conflicts might make your skin crawl. I was looking to read these books as an escape -- as something lighthearted and perhaps a throwback, sort of like the little vignettes in "Mad Men" when that show showed you how we all used to behave and think. But "Mad Men" and other retro shows and novels give you the comfort of knowing that they are comments on the times in which they are set, rather than a product of them. The Bond books are a product of the times in which they are set, and this reader is very glad she doesn't live in them any more.

Really good. This is the first Bond book that I can recall where it is not one story, but a collection of 4 or 5 novelettes. That story format works really well. The more I read, the more I come to appreciate Ian Fleming’s writing skill. He is so great at fleshing out memorable characters. It’s too bad he passed away so young.This is book has a lot of good stories, none of which seem to have much to do with any of the movies. But still recommended!

Fleming flexed his creative mind muscle to present Bond in a different way in these five novellas. In "From a View to a Kill" Bond is sent to investigate the murder of a courier. In "For Your Eyes Only" Bond is sent by M to avenge the double murder of a couple that M was Best Man to years before. He encounters a surprise that has echoes of Dr.No and Goldfinger. In "Quantum of Solace" Bond spends an evening with a bureaucrat who chills Bond with a story of "normal people" and extraordinary revenge. In "Risico" Bond almost falls victim to a sinister plot by a supposed friendly agent. In "The Hildebrand Rarity" Bond encounters a very ugly American and his beautiful wife and must deal with a mysterious and vicious murder at sea. The back cover of the book describes the setting as a Caribbean cruise. NOT!

This is a book of five short stories, very unlike anything else in the James Band canon. In fact he hardly gets caught or roughed up at all. Nice descriptions of interesting places. Language cleaned up. Some of the story titles were re-used for movies which have no resemblance to these stories.

The first book I received definitely did not look very new; fortunately, Amazon was kind enough to send me a replacement for free. This is why I'm giving this 5 stars; it would be a 2 otherwise. I don't know what happened to this first book, but it clearly slipped through the cracks. I guess it'll be a good coaster or a loaner book if anyone I know happens to take an interest in the 007 novels.

Book arrived completely bent out of shape. The other two items in the package were fine though making it even more frustrating

This collection includes stories like "From a view to a kill", "For your eyes only" and "Quantum of Solace".I read all these three stories yesterday night, during my flight from Rajkot to Mumbai and Mumbai to New Delhi.Both "a view to a kill" and "for your eyes only" have a high thrill element and self talk on Bond's moral dilemma of being an executioner for MI6.Every Air Hostess in this world will feel happy and elated after reading the first two lines of "Quantum of Solace" in which Bond has expressed his preference to marry an air hostess !!....it is one of those stories, where you find that human emotions also have an element of thrill.....I liked the concept of "The law of quantum of solace" in human relationships lucidly explained in this story.Makes you want to read all the stories again and again..........Ian Fleming is an architect with words and you want to experience this architectural grandeur repeatedly.......

Short. Not sweet.

For Your Eyes Only is a collection of five short stories featuring James Bond. The titles of three of these, A View To A Kill, For Your Eyes Only and Quantum of Solace will be familiar since they've been used as titles of Bond movies. The plots of FYEO and Risisco may also ring bells as elements of both were used in the movie version of FYEO.The five stories are quite divergent in terms of their themes and subject matter. A View To A Kill, for example, follows Bond on a short, minor mission in France. Its smartly paced and recounted in a lean, spare style. It also gives you an insight into the sort of work 007 does when he's not involved in the convoluted plots that feature in the novels, and shows thats not every Bond adventure takes weeks and has to include some sort of meglomaniacal super villain. Its about as close to an 'ordinary day' in the life of 007 as its possible to get.By contrast Quantum of Solace focuses on a tragic but non-espionage related story recounted to Bond after dinner by the Governor of Bermuda. This may sound dull by comparison to View To A Kill, but the way the story is told makes it compelling and the twist in the tale is unexpected. Its also provides additional insight into Bond's psyche and mindset.In fact all the stories provide fresh insight into James Bond, even if some of his trademark habits such as the love of women remain unchanged, and they're worth reading for that alone. Some might find the likes of Quantum of Solace boring or View To A Kill and FYEO lacking in substance but personally I enjoyed them all. Not only are they each entertaining in their own right but they also show Fleming trying different things in terms of subject matter and writing style and in all cases succeeding admirably.If you pick up FYEO expecting a traditional Bond novel you will be disappointed, but if you go in with an open mind then the five stories offer a very rewarding experience.

Didn’t realise that this is short stories rather than a novel. But I am rereading all the Bond books from the beginning and this was next in the list. However, it was still an enjoyable read. I’m now onto Thunderball.