James Bond is not a superstitious man, but it’s hard not to feel unnerved in the presence of Mr. Big. A ruthless Harlem gangster who uses voodoo to control his criminal empire, he’s also one of SMERSH’s top American operatives. Mr. Big has been smuggling British pirate treasure to New York from a remote Jamaican island—and funneling the proceeds to Moscow. With help from Solitaire, Mr. Big’s … beautiful and enigmatic Creole fortune-teller, and his old friend Felix Leiter, 007 must locate the crime lord’s hideout, sabotage his operation, and reclaim the pirate hoard for England.
From the jazz joints of Harlem to the shark-infested waters of the Florida Everglades, Live and Let Die sends Bond headlong into the exotic.
The text in this edition has been restored by the Fleming family company Ian Fleming Publications, to reflect the work as it was originally published.
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Live and Let Die, Ian Fleming, 1954
My favorite quote: “The gain to the winner is always less than the loss to the loser.”
Notable characters: James Bond, agent 007; Felix Leiter, Bond’s friend in the CIA; Mr. Big, the Voodoo Baron of Death; Solitaire, Mr. Big’s fortune-telling employee
Most memorable scene: The note pinned to Leiter’s chest: “He disagreed with something that ate him.” Ha, ha, Mr. Leiter … ha, ha
Greatest strengths: The way it just gets right to the point. All these books are like that. No real foreplay, just … BAM! — right to the point. Which is cool with me
Standout achievements: Its clear view of the Harlem jazz clubs of the 1950s
Fun Facts: While I’m probably one of the last people on the planet to get one, I do have a Kindle now, but I put off using it for a long, long time. I have enough technology in my life, you know? When I finally decided to give it a try, I decided on Casino Royale, the first book in the James Bond series, as my maiden ebook voyage. I picked that one for two reasons: first, it’s short, and second, I didn’t think I’d like it very much, which would give me the perfect excuse to stick to paperbacks. But that’s not how it turned out. It turned out that I liked it. A lot. So much that I completely forgot I was reading it on an electronic device. I promptly bought the others in the series, and the rest is history. Now I use my Kindle all the time, and am even further enslaved to technology. So, yeah. Thanks, James Bond
Other media: The 1973 film of the same name, starring Roger Moore as Bond … among others
What it taught me: All about jazz clubs in the 1950s which, when you write about ghosts and vampires and other creatures from various time periods, is likely to come in very handy one day
How it inspired me: This, along with a patchwork of other works of fiction and non-fiction, helped me get a solid understanding of voodoo, Obeah, and other such practices — information that came in handy when I was writing The Black Wasp
Additional thoughts: I noticed a few improvements in this book from the first one — especially regarding the characters. Even James Bond feels a lot more well-rounded here than he did in Casino Royale. And villains seem more … well, villainous
Haunt me: alistaircross.com
There are definitely parts of these books that don’t age well, so be aware going in that even for 1954, the characters in this series aren’t particularly woke. That said, this one has a little more movement to it than Casino Royale, and sets up the beats that would be followed in the films. Enjoyable, but not mind-blowing. A good choice if you love the movies but always wished more time had been spent describing every single one of Bond’s meals in excruciating detail.
the book sort of follows the movie but the book is better
Was this appallingly racist? Yes. Sexist? Yes. Was it a good book? Ehhh. It was okay. I mean, I enjoyed Casino Royale a lot more, this one…I realize the racism was par for the course in those days, and that you can always try to view the story through the lens of its contemporaries, but I really struggled to get past the total abject racism. I felt kind of embarrassed to be reading this book in public it was so bad- and I was reading it on a Kindle! So no one could’ve known I was reading it unless they literally looked over my shoulder or asked!
Now, excluding all that, the plot? Moderately intriguing. I guess I’m just more into detective novels where I figure out the bad guy as I go, in this book, the bad guy is known from the get-go. Which was also the case with Casino Royale, but I guess this book had me already unhappy and so every little thing just added to it.
Still, I gave it that second star because it did have some interesting moments, and Bond is a pretty clever dude, which I can appreciate. I’ll be reading more of the Bond books, for sure, but I can confidently say I’m glad to be done with this one, it was a struggle to get through.