On Her Majesty's Secret Service
ISBN: 9780340425657
Description
When Bond rescues a beautiful, reckless girl from self destruction, he finds himself with a lead on one of the most dangerous men in world - Enrst Stavro Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE. In the snow-bound fastness of his Alpine base, Blofeld is conducting research that could threaten the safety of the world. To thwart the evil genius, Bond must get himself and the vital information he has gathered out of the base and keep away from SPECTRE's agents.
Reviewed on 29th March 2012
Ian Fleming was certainly on top of his game when he wrote OHMSS. Following on from Thunderball and The Spy Who Loved Me, Blofeld's trail is going cold when Bond meets his match - the gorgeous and slightly reckless Tracy.
Disguising a love story as a thriller can't be an easy thing, and Fleming does it again in this story, with echoes from Casino Royale subtly arranged throughout the tale. The plot is incredibly believable from the emotional aspect in Bond himself through to Blofeld's secret mountain-top hideaway and dastardly plan.
It's almost fifteen years since I last read the Bond stories and I'm constantly impressed by how much more about the character they are than I remembered, and than in other books which purport to be of similar genre. I think this is why they have survived the intervening years and not been brushed aside like many other books must have been (although the film series probably helped).
The film version of OHMSS is one of the closest to the novel it was based on. George Lazenby's portrayal of Bond seemed to fit well with the character I was reading about and I found my mind's eye visualising him in the role. Overall, one of the best of the series - an absolute classic.
