Review: Well Researched - Not Great Fiction
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 30, 2013
Mr. Stevenson knows Ian Fleming inside and out.  That much is obvious.  Unfortunately, this novel got lost for all the research.  Every character's wardrobe is described down to the buttons and snaps.  Don't even begin to talk about insignia and medals! Fleming's life is dissected down to the number of cigarettes he smoked per day.  At times the research gets in the way.  For instance, after noting that Fleming's running records for the 1500 meter still stood at Eton when he entered the war, Mr. Stevenson then had him run 50 miles through terrain too mountainous for radio signals - in one night!  He knew his real life main character extremely well, but the novel suffered for the minutae.That having been said, this is James Bond with Ian Fleming being the super spy.  The plot puts Fleming in the English refugees fleeing from France, the negotiations to buy France's navy after the French capitulation and the destroying of a super weapon.  Pretty strong fare for any Bond novel.  The historical backdrop was interesting, but Fleming as Bond was almost cartoonish in his ability to get into and out of every scrape.  Fleming's Bond novels were less ambitious and much better for it.The history is enjoyable.  The speculation of British intelligence behind events is thought-provoking.  Some of the derring-do is fun.  These good elements make the book a fairly good one, but nothing up to Bond or even a real biography of Fleming.