Licence To Thrill???

Where does Licence Renewed rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Licence Renewed is a mid-point book, neither stunning or awful. Most of it is down to the formulaic writing of the author rather than the performance. However, this is James Bond and formulaic isn't necessarily a bad thing (and definitely not unexpected).

Would you be willing to try another book from John Gardner? Why or why not?

I have listened to two John Gardner - James Bond books and read one too. All diverting and better than listening to the radio.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

I enjoyed the bits set in Scotland, even if I had to put up with a few stereotypes along the way. Definitely a 1980s James Bond.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I did listen to this book in one sitting as I was driving to Paris.

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1 person found this helpful

Excellent narration & storytelling

A great book and an all round good listen. Nothing outrageous from bond here. A well planned and executed story about Bond with great narration.

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Somebody does it better

Any additional comments?

Having already gone through all of Fleming's Bond books twice i thought i'd give these a try. They're good if all you want is to continue listning to stories in Bond's world. The story, though seemingly high stakes didn't invest me enough to care all that much, and the villain is a little bland.

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A ripping yarn, but not quite Bond

This is the first time I have read John Gardner's rendering of 007. My initial impression was that Garner's Bond lacked the suave sophistication of the Bond I know and love. Finesse in his love of gastronomy was slightly lacking. His delight in gadgets and choice of car didn't quite ring true. The description of Qute's apartment was not something Flemming would not have written, in my view - reserving this kind of fantasy for the villain's lair.
However, I liked this Bond. He was not the man I was so familiar with from Flemming books, but a man of action, brave and noble nonetheless. A Sandhurst officer with middle-class roots, not a navy officer with aristocratic roots.
Hardcore Bond fanatics may be put out, but any 'normal' person will enjoy a thrilling ride with nasty villains, impossible scrapes and alluring women.

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Worst Bond ever?

poor story, just another megalomaniac wanting to blow up the world, rendered lifeless by poor story and wooden delivery. Only for completists.

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Ho hum

Afraid this did nothing for me. After the first intriguing 5 minutes, it lapsed into a rather dated and pedestrian tale of a powerful rich baddie up to dastardly deeds in his Scottish castle plus beautiful girl in need of rescue. There are a couple of notable action sequences that raise the heart rate a little, but these are more than overwhelmed by the screeds of minutiae in the rest of the writing. Even the narrator (the usually excellent Jeremy Northam) sounded bored. I kept listening in the hope that it would pick up but, believe me, it doesn't.

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3 people found this helpful

Bored, James Bored

Firstly, Audible has this book listed in the wrong place. This book was released after Colonel Sun and was the first by John Gardner.

The book itself, well its a Bond-ish style story, although only a small handful of locations (and none of them exotic, sorry Scotland). Characters are a bit two dimensional, and Bond really isn't Bond in this book.

And then the narration. I had to speed it up as Jeremy Northam just sounded boring, with very little enthusiasm for the book. Some of his characters and accents were good, but his Bond was more Bland and Bored (lines like "Dilly Darling" were almost Carry On).

The first 007 audiobook I've got bored listening too, and occasionally changed to listening to the radio on my commute instead.

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This felt like Bond of old under Fleming...

Very pleasantly surprised with the story, it really felt like the original Bond books, loved the idea of a Scottish Laird (who happens to be an eminent nuclear physicist) as the villain, the awkward romance was like the old books too! The narration was great - loved Bond's and M's voices...If there's more of these, I'll definitely give them a go!

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usual Bond adventure

All right but not great, has a super Bond villain and a girl of course, some long unnecessary descriptive passages and a couple of cliched characters. I have listened to all the John Gardner Bond books this one is not one of the better ones.

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Licence Renewed : well done John Gardner.

I had read Licence Renewed before, and I enjoyed it then, but having it read to me was much better.
Jeremy Northam read it very well, though I was expecting Anton Murick's voice to have a Scottish accent, him being a laird. Maybe he wasn't really Scottish or I missed a subtle Scottish brogue.

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