For Your Eyes Only
Ian Fleming

007 tracks a cold assassin and impersonates a helpless victim in "From a View to a Kill", then goes rogue on a personal vendetta mission for M in "For Your Eyes Only". The tale of one man's path to vengeance in "Quantum of Solace" almost shakes Bond's solid foundation to the core. In "Risico", a Mediterranean smuggling war delivers 007 into the jaws of an effusive CIA informant and an Italian opiates mogul. And "The Hildebrand Rarity" pairs Bond with a brash and violent American on a Caribbean cruise with no escape.
Through these five stories, Ian Fleming explores not only 007's exotic adventures but also his dark and disturbing inner life.

This book is a compilation of James Bond stories, with the title being the most well known of them all - For Your Eyes Only. All of the stories are good, solid 007 adventures and it's interesting how they show different aspects of Bond's life.

From a View to a Kill shows Bond in his role as British Secret Service agent 007. On assignment, as with most of the novels, and looking to see why a courier was murdered on his route. While this was entertaining and showed off some neat gadgets, it was a bit too short of a story. It was good, but it could have been done as a full length novel. I wish there would have been more to this story.

For Your Eyes Only has Bond on an unofficial mission from M. Not acting in his official capacity, he is to take out the men who murdered personal friends of M. It's interesting to see Bond using his talents in an unofficial capacity, however, much like the other short story, this one would have been neat to have been a full length novel.

Quantum of Solace shows Bond during his down time. Not on any sort of mission, he listens to a man tell a tale of a marriage gone horribly wrong. While not as intense as other Bond stories, I found this one to be quite engaging and the perfect length for the story that was being told.

Risico has Bond on a mission once more and has a very nice twist in it as to who the villain truly is. This one also had the potential for a full length novel in it, but did work well as a short story.

The Hildebrand Rarity, in my opinion, is the best short story in this novel. It has Bond in his down time on vacation and trapped on a boat with a cruel and possibly insane American who beats his wife and needs to find a certain fish to prove to the IRS that his many tax deductions are real. It also forces Bond to make a few moral decisions and it's interesting to see what he chooses. More than any other, this seems to show the inner world of Bond.

All in all, none of the stories were disappointing and the entire book was a great read. I highly recommend this to all Bond fans.

My rating: Four and a half out of five snails.