Colonel Sun cover art

Colonel Sun

James Bond, Book 15

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Colonel Sun

By: Kingsley Amis
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

The life of secret agent James Bond has begun to fall into a pattern that threatens complacency…until the sunny afternoon when M is kidnapped. The action ricochets across the globe to a volcanic Greek island, where Colonel Sun Liang-tan of the People's Liberation Army of China collaborates with an ex-Nazi atrocity expert in a world-menacing conspiracy.

Stripped of all professional aids, Bond faces, unarmed, the monstrous devices of Colonel Sun in a test that brings him to the verge of his physical endurance.

©1968 Ian Flemming Publications (P)2000 Blackstone Audioooks Ltd Action & Adventure Crime Thrillers Espionage International Mystery & Crime Mystery Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense Thriller Fiction Romance Solider

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Rather spoilt by some technical faults: there are 3 points in this story where a passage is repeated by the sound editor. This takes the listener out of the story.

technical faults.

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James returns, charming and as active as ever. The story line keeps one listening to a great story and the final outcome is enjoyed...

Bond is back......

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Robert Markham (Kingsley Amis) wrote this novel in 1968, 4years after Ian Fleming died. I think that it is a good read. I have read the ~print book and Kindle more than a few times. Look the continuation novels are all good, nobody has tried to replace Ian Fleming.
Simon Vance as usual is excellent with his his voice acting, bringing this Bond action / thriller to life. I gave the story four stars because I felt that although very good it was just a small amount less than expected. Markham ( Amis) delivers the goods. Recommend to anyone that loves the literary Bond, espionage thriller’s and great escapism.

Colonel Sun; The First James Bond Continuation Novel *****

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Colonel Sun is an interesting book. Narration by the amazing Simon Vance was top notch, but the book itself fell a little flat at times. M is kidnapped, and it's up to Bond to save the day. But how he does that is basically all luck and very little "Bond" action. That said, a few parts of this book inspired a scene in the film Spectre, so one shouldn't complain.

Fun in the Colonel Sun

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I know the book was written years ago but it never seemed to get going I wasn't expecting it to be as dull

thought it was a weak story line

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Great story, Supurb naration but on several occasions there were repeated sections. should have been edited out.

Spoiled by bad editing.

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A review here is how accurately Kingsley Amis can reproduce a Bond novel ; and he does this very well indeed in a true spirit of a Bond adventure

For those familiar with the original series, K-A has done his homework w accurate inclusion of Bond’s idiosyncrasies; past adventures and understated humour. There are the references to Bond’s taste in food and drink; as well as the inevitable woman…(Ariadne, who I thought did really well)… and there is the typical less than nuanced homophobic prejudice of both Bond (and Fleming).
Sun himself epitomises the cruellest and most diabolical of villains … and on a political palette, the novel’s context moves correctly w historical times bringing in the Chinese and right wing South Africans but not forgetting the Nazis
Technically there are at least three areas of repetitions within the recording; narration of Bond himself is excellent but the female voices are weak and there are lapses in consistency of some minor characters. Despite these … thoroughly enjoyed and recommended !

Bond lives on

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A few times the audio repeats itself so you hear the same sentence twice.

Sort out the editing

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"You're a very lucky chap, James" says one of the protagonists, and indeed more luck than judgement seems to determine the outcome of this adventure of one slim Englishman...

I would describe it as From Russia with Love meets Captain Corelli's Mandolin meets Lucky Jim - the latter only because the Kingsley Amis Style does leak through even though this is a fine tribute band effort to Fleming. it contains the same kind of details on matters of local colour - descriptions not unfamiliar from Corelli's Mandolin.

I do recommend and it's a pity that a film was never made of this - although apparently scenes from other films have taken material from it.

The decision to make China the bad guy was new - Fleming never managed to get quite so sympathetic to the Russians and Amis seems to have been quite prescient in his choice of rogue state. Fleming had rogue Chinese, but Dr No was really just a rogue individual, the actual state didn't seem to figure in the original fourteen books, an oversight compensated for a bit in this one.

You only write Lucky Jim twice...

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If this was a Fleming novel, it would easily sit within the top two thirds of his stories by any measure. i
It probably wasn't going to set the world alight, but if you already like the Fleming books then it's absolutely worth a listen. Have to say I didn't get on with the performance, especially his sloppy pronunciation of even basic Greek words, but you get used to it.

A really solid continuation Bond novel

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