Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is something special, 6 Nov 2002
I had read the original, 1998, edition of this book, but only skimmed the 2000 edition, so my reading of the 2002 edition was my first close reading in four years. As I read it, I realized that this is really something special. The book consists of an up-to-date guide to Bond fiction in all media. The overview of the books is excellent, and the coverage of the Bond newspaper strips is simply outstanding. To accomplish this strip guide, the authors had to scroll through years of daily newspaper archives--a formidable, hands-on, uncomfortable task, and an impressive achievement.Ironically, the coverage of the films is the weakest part of the book. There is little there that can't be found elsewhere. On the plus side, most of the misquotations and misspellings from earlier editions have been corrected. Not all, though: for example, the authors still don't recognize that the spelling of a key character's name differed across the prose and film versions of FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, and they spell actor Jeremy Bulloch's surname two ways within five pages. There are a few jarring occasions where the authors take writers of the Bond novels to task for alleged errors, and in so doing, make mistakes themselves. Contrary to the authors' claims, John F. Kennedy didn't become President in November 1960 (p. 45), nor is it automatic that Ambassadors get replaced when the party in government in the UK changes (p. 120). In addition, the authors state that current Bond author Raymond Benson "betrays a fundamental ignorance of the British intelligence services" (p. 113) in labelling the Secret Intelligent Service the "Secret Service." Since the authors themselves adopt the same convention on numerous occasions (e.g. pp. 23, 103, 337), this is a double standard. Moreover, by following the authors' logic here, one could have a field day claiming to have found an error each time that the UK is referred to in the books and films as Britain. The most striking error on the authors' part, however, occurs when they note that in Ian Fleming's GOLDFINGER book, Goldfinger always carries a million dollars in gold with him. The authors mock this claim, asking: "does he check the markets each morning, and take a little piece out if the price has gone up?" (p. 31). But as part of the Bretton Woods exchange-rate system, the price of gold was pegged (fixed) in US dollars throughout the 1950s and 1960s, so their mockery on this occasion is unjustified.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A true workman's reference guide to 007, 20 April 2007
I have over a thousand James Bond books on my shelf. But when I need a Bondian factoid, this is the only book I reach for (and is always the only one I ever need). What sets The Bond Files apart from ALL the other books about Bond is that it does not stop at just the Fleming books and/or the official films. It has everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, including the continuation novels, videogames, James Bond Jr., Find Your Fate novels, the Daily Express comic strips, etc. etc. Sure, some errors creep in here and there, but that's forgivable considering the sheer volume of info here.
My only wish is for a new updated edition. Not only have we had a new film since the last edition, but we've had several new novels and videogames, as well as reprints of the Daily Express comic strips that the authors hadn't access to in 2002. So, please, if you're out there Andy and Paul...bring us an updated edition of The Bond Files. This is THE manual for Bond fans.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
The Bond Bible, 9 Oct 2008
All you could ever want to know about Bond and then some.
Every novel, short story, film, tv show, radio show from Casino Royale up to Die Another Day is covered in detail here. You can't class yourself as a Bond fan unless you own this.
Esssential.
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by Robert Sellers
