Review: Excellent
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 21, 2013
"The Ian Fleming Files" books both use the creator of the James Bond series and make him the hero in his own James-Bond-style adventures.Set in 1940 Operation Armada shows Fleming as a Naval commander who is on a secret mission in France regarding the French Navy.As Fleming used to be an navy officer in real life this has an excellent real feel to it, an idea so simple and genius, you wonder why nobody has thought of doing it before Many have written James-Bond style books, but few have thought of going to the root of the creation itself.Very authentically written the story has everything that you would expect from a James Bond story: thrilling action scenes, gadgets, women and cars.I am a big fan of history and absolutely loved the idea of bringing Bond into the past rather than the future. For me James Bond is a cult figure and I find that the recent film instalments with the ever increasing pyrotechnics and technology advances take the fun out of the original idea.Stevenson has done a fantastic job at extracting the essence of Bond.On "Operation Parsifal" Ian Fleming acts as a spy in her majesty's service and is sent to Egypt to recruit a German deserter and the mistress of a German industrialist to the British Intelligence. Parsifal is a secret organisation to bring down Hitler and replace him with a new Chancellor and naturally the Allies take an interest in this internal power battle and its consequences for Europe.As writer of historical fiction about the era I was stunned at the detailed research and the accuracy of the people, places and the times: The physical descriptions of the Nazi big wigs and industrialists, the scenes set in a bombed and semi-destroyed London and the feeling amongst the German nation so briefly before the end of the Reich to name but a few, all are portrayed with competence and perfection.The story itself also held great interest for me. I have seen all Bond films and very much enjoyed that Parsifal is written in a similar style but with a real historical connection rather than the invented villains with no connection to reality. For me that concept really worked and I enjoyed wondering where the story line would take us next: Berlin, the Eagle's Nest or Fort Alderney in the channel islands.Not only does Stevenson know his Bond and Fleming, he writes eloquently and with appropriate pace. There were no redundant stretches in the story line, dialogue and characters were well composed and made this a very enjoyable read. Now I'd like to know more about Fleming and his life so I could figure out how much of this is true and what was added as fiction.