John Gardner's Role of Honour

The latest Bond novel that I have read is John Gardner’s fourth book, Role of Honour. I will start out by saying that the novel was a typically entertaining read. But, I will add that it is not the most memorable of Gardner’s books that I have read so far. It is now a couple of months since I finished it, and already my memories of the novel are quite vague.

It starts with Bond resigning from SIS in order to allow him to get closer to the enemy by infiltrating their camp. The enemy in the novel turns out to be SPECTRE once again. I found the first half of the novel quite slow moving – the opening chapter is an exception, which features an exciting heist. Bond then spends a great deal of the first half of the novel learning to be a computer games programmer!

The second half of the novel features some exciting action. Apparently Bond and one of the villains were supposed to have a computer gaming match against each other but this was changed because the film Never Say Never Again had already used this idea. The finale takes place on an airship, and the climax of the novel is quite good.

Ultimately this novel goes down as simply a bit of fun, but nothing too significant in the literary 007’s history. The focus on technology and computers make this 1980s novel seem very dated, but for me that is half the fun of reading older novels. Definitely not the worst of Gardner’s books and worth a glance, Role of Honour should entertain you if you enjoy Gardner’s Bond, but don’t expect it to blow your socks off!