Classic Flemming

Absolutely brilliant read. I'd swear it was written by the great man himself. Every credit to AH

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Good book - wrong reader

Where does Trigger Mortis rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Fairly low down as the reader could not hold my attention with his inability to pronounce certain words correctly, and his overly precious way of attempting to build up tension by reading louder and faster

What other book might you compare Trigger Mortis to, and why?

Thunderball

How could the performance have been better?

Simply the wrong person to be asked to read this book. This is a book written in English by an English author about a British hero. Why, therefore, is it read by as if by an American with no understanding of correct pronunciation of English words and certain foreign terms and cities?

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00h. My Word...It’s Not My Bond

Good. But too slow. And I don’t mean the plot. This story is way better than many other post Fleming attempts at Bond but not a patch on Horowitz’s second Bond novel, Forever and a Day. That was superb. That was helped in audio form by Matthew Goode’s classy reading.
David Oyelowo is a great film actor but often that’s not a guarantee of a good reader. He just fails to deliver. His performance is not helped by Audible, which I am certain downloaded this book at a too slow a rate. Run this recording st 1.25x and it sounds far better and more like Oyelowo. So, no spoilers here. I’ll just say it’s great but no Morlands Filter tip. Listen to Forever and a Day for true class and a much tighter, gripping story. Makes me think. Whilst Phoebe Waller Bridge is a good call to jazz up the script for the next Bond movie why isn’t Anthony Horowitz involved. I’m assuming the man whose written some of the best scripts over the past two decades was asked and said no.

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Very enjoyable.

A bit slow to start but picked up pace. Reminded me of Reacher at points (a good thing).

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the narrator

Great story but please have a bond story read by someone who has not got an American accent however slight

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A great actor doesn't necessarily make a great narrator

The story is fine and romps along (although not up to the originals), the narration however is poorly paced at times deathly ponderous and other times pitched too high for top long. David Oyelowo is a fine actor I'm just not sure he gets this right.

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Good story, under-prepared narrator.

I really enjoyed this yarn and think that Horowitz has produced something that will appeal to Bond fans.
What grated on me was the actor being under-prepared. He did well to bring some of the characters to life, but there's no excuse for his mispronunciation of fairly straightforward words. Audiobooks are expensive and their quality should reflect this. Presumably there are a director, producer, and editor involved so there's no excuse for this. That said, this recording is no worse than many others in my library.

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7 people found this helpful

Horowitz does it again!

A wonderful addition to the Bond canon, licks along at a pace and bears all the hallmarks of a classic Bond adventure - an exciting mix of locations, stunts and psychological intrigues (as well as all the 'cheese' on top!).

However, I'm grateful other reviewers have also been quick to point out: David Oyelowo delivers a woeful performance in his reading of this audiobook. I originally purchased this title not long after it came out, attempted to listen to it three times and each time could never get past the first chapter, so poor was the narration. It was only having become utterly absorbed by other Anthony Horowitz novels in recent months that I decided to give this another go, using immersive reading of the text on my kindle to help me get a better feel for it. I know David Oyelowo has an excellent reputation as an actor, but nothing here clicked; he seemed to miss out words and struggle with the intonation at certain moments, and keeps up such a monotone drawl (or unsuitable accents for foreign characters) that you have to concentrate all the more to keep up with the action. He does up the ante considerably during the 'action set pieces', but even then mistakes are apparent in his reading, and I chose to close out the book using the reader's copy on my kindle instead (perhaps audio isn't his thing), as the only joy in listening along was in feeling utterly baffled by his efforts - sorry!

Very entertaining James Bond novel, but I'd recommend the physical copy.

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Adrenaline fueled classic Bond tale

Great listen. Huge Bond fan. Roger's my fav but you can't listen to this without thinking of Connery. And rightfully so. Super cool. Charismatic. Fearful. Fearless. Highly intelligent. Insights into his mind a joy too. Great villan. Terrific Bond girl. Bear with the narrator: he picks up the tempo later on when needed. I ended up really enjoying his style. Glad I stuck with it. If you're a Bond fan you'll be t007.

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Stepping back into Bond

Really enjoyable story, faithful to the original Bond stories written by Fleming himself. Bond finds himself in a post Auric Goldfinger mission with an interest insight on a post mission relationship at start. What to do with Pussy Galore and whether he can really have a relationship.

From there he finds himself in the world of formula 1 trying to prevent an assassination. This leads hims to the real threat and the larger mission in hand.

Very well read by David O, who seemed to be relishing the role.

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