Magnificent and huge: “Nobody Does It Better”

007 Travelers book review

Book: Nobody Does It Better The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of James Bond.

Writers: Mark A. Altman & Edward Gross

Publisher: Forge Books / Tom Doherty Associates

First Edition: February 2020

Pages: 720

“Nobody does it better. Though sometimes I wish someone could. Nobody does it quite the way you do. Why’d you have to be so good?.” sings Carly Simon in the title song of “The Spy Who Loved Me” (1977) and that tells the basics of the character of James Bond.

The title of the new book by pop culture historians Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross is long: “Nobody Does It Better The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of James Bond” (2020) and the book is huge: 720 pages. Is that too much? No! This is definitely one of the most comprehensive and interesting work that focuses on the world´s most famous secret agent: James Bond 007.

Style and content: The authors have collected the comments of several people who have a connection to the world of James Bond and then put them in an order that makes this book very enjoyable to read. It is very fascinating to read the stories from people who are attached one way or another to the world of James Bond.

Timothy Dalton: “Every story is a different story and different from the other, in terms of both style and content. For example, “Dr. No” and “Moonraker“. How would you compare “From Russia with Love” and “A View to a Kill“. I think the valuable question to ask is did you enjoy your two hours in the movie theater?”

Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross: “Nobody Does It Better The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of James Bond” (2020)

Roger Moore: “It’s very difficult to get in touch with the character by reading Fleming, because there’s very little about the person that Bond is, only what he’s doing. I sort of did quick shifting through all the books to try and find out what he was like. I only found one thing and that was that he had a scar on his cheek and looked like Hoagy Carmichael. The only other key to the character was that he had come back from Mexico, where he had eliminated somebody. He didn’t particularly like killing, but he took pride in doing his job well. That was the only thing I could find out about Bond. That I don’t like killing, but I’m pleased that I do it well.”

Mark A. Altman & Edward Gross: “Nobody Does It Better The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of James Bond” (2020)

The book starts describing the character of James Bond, continues to the road of Bond, where they go through the history of the literary Bond and Ian Fleming and then through all the decades when Bond films have been introduced to us, starting from 1960’s all the way through to this day. It is really nice that the comments are written to follow the timeline from the past to the present. These interesting stories are the highlight of the book and there is new info also to most dedicated 007 enthusiasts!

The name of the book describes its content perfectly. We have not seen this kind of work before, at least not as that comprehensive as this book is. This book is made for all Bond fans who love 007, but also for all those who are interested in the world’s most famous secret agent. It is very hard to rate this kind of work, which has not been seen before, but we can really recommend this to all Bond movie and book fans around the world!

The authors:

Mark A. Altman is a film and television writer / producer who most recently was co-executive of TNT’s hit series “The Librarians“. He previously coauthored “The Fifty-Year Mission“, “Slayers & Vampires” and “So We Say All” with Edward Gross.

Edward Gross is an author and journalist, currently executive editor of “Empire” magazine online and coauthor of the bestselling “The Fifty-Year Mission“, the definitive oral history of Star Trek, from St. Martin’s Press.

“Nobody Does It Better The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of James Bond” Forge-books, on sale now!

Buy the book here

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