MOONRAKER James Bond, Book 3

If you’ve forgotten how wonderful Fleming’s books are as books, you are in for a huge treat. Bill Nighy’s James Bond is a man who knows he can fail, a man who might not get the girl. That quality marries beautifully with Fleming’s high-octane plotting, Cold-War style. There’s a duel between Bond’s souped-up Bentley and the ghastly Sir Hugo Drax’s Mercedes, which Nighy makes hair-raising. Even better is a veddy British scene in which Bond must catch Drax cheating at cards at a London gentlemen’s club. Drax and his crypto-fascist henchmen are cartoonish, red meat to Nighy; the voice he creates for the loathsome Krebs is particularly entertaining. Most impressively, Nighy convinces you that this Bond is a real human being. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2014]