Quantum of Solace is more profound than you're giving it credit for Calvin. It's not just about one person cheating, it's about the erosion of self respect changing ones character over enough time. One can transform from love and devotion to bitterness and cruelty. The more one invests in the beginning the deeper the bitterness in the end. This is a story about cause and effect broadly, and cruelty in particular. Quantum of Solace is a brilliant title.

I'm really glad you enjoyed Hildebrand Rarity! I remember liking Quantum of Solace when I read it. For me, the story was about Bond learning that there is just as much drama, intrigue, and suspence in everyday life as on his missions.

Quantum of Solace was actually my favorite story out of the collection. I couldn't put it down once I started.

Not joking. Your analogy for summing up Quantum of Solace's overly long, drawn out dinner party anecdote literally just reminded me of the film. "..... so they're after the water?" 😂

The real sad thing about Quantum of Solace is that I see two places in the film where the short story could be adapted. There's that scene on the plane where Bond is having that conversation with Mathis. The Governor's dialog could have been given to Mathis in that scene. Alternatively, there is that party scene later in the book - the conversation with the governor could easily be told there at some stage. While there's no action in the short, Bond does allude to a mission he just completed in which he had to scuttle a ship with a thermite bomb. That could have been used. The short story itself could have segued into The Hildebrand Rarity story, since it clearly shows the law of The Quantum of Solace in action.

Actually the concept behind a Quantum of Solace is pretty deep, and I think people unconsciously push others to that point sometimes intentionally; sometimes not without ever realizing it more times than we think. We see the results all the time, but never consider the cause. While the story doesn't necessarily need Bond, it's Bond's reaction to it at the end that really tops it off. While Bond is not necessarily a sociopath, he doesn't really consider other people all that much. For him to actually say that something has changed the way he views people is a pretty big deal.

Fleming may have been really bad at writing women, but he was really good at writing two things: Underwater sea-life scenes and fear of flying.

I think you missed the point of Quantum of Solace. It's not just about relationships, it's about cruelty. A relationship can survive as long as it has the quantum of solace, basically as long as each one cares whether the other lives or dies. The story is about that breaking and the cruelty and pain a person can inflict on the other when it is gone. It's worse than "oh no, she's going to lose the tv". He leaves her the tv etc apparently as a final act of kindness which is then turned around when, instead of being a source of much needed money, it then becomes a debt she has to pay for him and she is left begging the businesspeople she was hoping to get money from to take her last possessions for free. Yeah you can say it's a first world problem, but in terms of the depths that a loving relationship can go to, it's pretty dramatic.

Apparently Fleming was a fan of W. Somerset Maugham and wrote Quantum in his style as a homage. Bond really seems to be in only to get it into this collection

The film version of Quantum of Solace might have been a lot more interesting if it had been about a woman struggling to keep up the payments on her telly.

Calvin for bond once Craig leaves🤔

I love The Hildebrand Rarity and hoped it would be a film title

The Hildebrandt Rarity is one of the favorite short stories of my dad and I tied with Octopussy. Both have James Bond at his most humane and interesting and the other characters are all very memorable.

These Fleming short stories (originally written as TV episodes) work really well as palate cleansers between the big stories, and it's nice to have Bond on a little mission, or working as a fisherman and being around a murder. Which got me thinking. As the gap between the films is so large these days, how about if EON knocked out a few episodes for say Netflix in between films with whoever plays Bond in the films on a few little 30 mins missions. Or a chance to see Bond's life outside of saving the world. If Daniel Craig didn't want to do all, you could do an episode with Moneypenny, or Q, or even Felix. Shouldn't cost too much to make, and like I say would act as bridges between the films to keep the fans sated. What does anyone think?

I actually really liked Quantum Of Solace. If shortened parts of the dialogue could serve for a film to give an ally some depth. As you say it could be written in five pages. Risico Will probably be used as a title for a movie at some point but of course the plot has been used in the movie For Your Eyes Only. I hope to see some guy die like Milton Krest in the story with the fish in his mouth. I Also really like the idea of Bond cleaning up a crime scene where a guy has been killed but noone knows by Who. The rest of The Hildebrand Rarity has been used cleverly in Licence To Kill.

Great summing up. I don’t usually like short stories but have always loved this collection.

I've been waiting for part 2 for so long !

5:40 In the Risico story Bond fires his storied Walther PPK the first of only two times in all of Fleming's books. After M forces the piece on him in Dr. No it lies dormant for two years until Bond gleefully busts some caps during the warehouse raid in Risico. He won't heat up the old iron again till the train ride through the swamp with Mr. Hendriks ("Sank you") & Scaramanga in The Man With The Golden Gun. A fierce firefight it is, Bond has to reload.

Elizabeth as the killer seems the far more interesting option.

ive always considered myself a big bond fan, but i never read a bond novel. Your book reviews have inspired me to start reading them

There's a lot of middle/upper class angst in these stories maybe Fleming was getting things out of his system at times his mood did affect the style and feel of the Bond stories

Great review. Perhaps when you're finished the official series, you could give your review of the young Bond series? They are great books. Thanks.

I can't wait to hear what you have to say about The Spy Who Loved Me. That's right after Thunderball.

You can only imagine how upset I am that Quantum of Solace was such an un-faithful adaptation. Actually sounds like it could be a pretty decent drama- be hilarious if someone made a film on it intended as a straight Oscar contender or something, then threw a Daniel Craig or Pierce Brosnan cameo in there just so we can say "Yeah! Bond film!" Maybe make it a "From Dusk 'Til Dawn" sort of thing where the first half is one genre and halfway through it becomes a crazy action flick.

I recently read Fleming's "Thrilling Cities" for the first time and he uses the term "Quantum of Solace" when talking about celebrities like Noel Coward who live in Switzerland due to to tax issues in the UK. It was quite a surprise to see it. Yes, I'm not sure how it fits in there either...

I found Quantum Of Solace much for interesting an engrossing than From A View To A Kill and For Your Eyes Only. It is a lot neater (though the aforementioned two stories have their moments they're a bit patchy with several passages that go on for too long), and has a moral and just generally more engaging.

Keep up the great work. It's been a while since I read the books, I shall have to re read them. Will you be reviewing the continuation books as well?

This is my ranking: 1. The Hildebrand Rarity 2. Quantum of Solace 3. From a View to a Kill 4. For Your Eyes Only 5. Risico As many have commented here, Quantum of Solace is a fave of this short story collection.

Yay NightFire music at the end!

I'll say forth to have fun, however I find it to be a bit of a coincidence, just finished reading Quantum of Solace today. Wonder how the other stories will pan out.

I love Bond novellas in general and Quantum of Solace in particular.

The film *For Your Eyes Only* feels like the most "authentic" Moore Bond film in large part because it directly adapts two of these stories and mines the novel *Live and Let Die* for additional action scenes. (It also stole the plot of *From Russia With Love* to lesser effect.) I would like to peek into an alternate universe where Dalton got to play Bond in the film instead, but Moore is genuinely great in it as Fleming's character (rather than the entertainingly comedic riff on that character he usually played.) The film *Octopussy* also benefits from taking ideas directly from the other short story collection and then expanding on them cleverly, but that's also the film where Moore does a Tarzan yell, so it's not quite as "pure" a Fleming experience as its predecessor. I own a compilation of every Fleming Bond short story that was released alongside the film Quantum of Solace, and while I think that *For Your Eyes Only* and *Octopussy and The Living Daylights* work as solo collections, I appreciate the convenience. The book also includes "007 in New York," which is both the weakest title Fleming ever conceived and pretty disposable as a story unto itself.

Maybe Risico will be the title of Bond 25.

I'm curious why is the short story called Risico? I can't seem to find an explanation anywhere...

Okay, I still can't wrap my head around the point of that QOS story o_O What, people who have been in a long relationship get bored of each other in the end?

Are you going to change the lighting?

What’s a worse way to go? Book Krest: choked with a poisonous fish, or Movie Krest: head blown up in a decompression chamber? Neither sound particularly pleasant.

Can't wait for the Thunderball review!

I have no clue why, but The Hildebrand Rarity reminds me of the Natalie Wood case, only a cracked mirror version of the Natalie Wood case...

I think he probably tried to eat the hildebrand variety and choked to death

speaking of tv shows why don't you review Danger Man AKA Secret Agent Man.

Third

29th

Second

Never knew much about this, even though I watch a lot of James Bond movies.

“Quantum of Solace”: A boring kitchen sink story “Risico”: The cinematic “For Your Eyes Only” in a nutshell. “The Hildebrand Rarity”: An engaging thriller, with Fleming showing himself as kind of an enviromentalist and featuring, at least for me, the best ending in all the Bond literary canon.

First I don't care