Double or Nothing

A Double O Novel, Book 1

By: Kim Sherwood

Narrated by: Pippa Bennett-Warner

“I spy … a brilliant thriller! Double or Nothing is a clever and utterly compelling addition to the Bond canon.” —Jeffery Deaver, author of Carte Blanche, a James Bond novel

The start of a brand-new trilogy following MI6’s Double O agents with a license to kill, that blows the world of James Bond wide open!

James Bond is missing…

007 has been captured—and perhaps killed—by a sinister private military company. His status unknown. MI6 will do everything in their power to recover their most lethal agent. But in the meantime, the rest of the Double O division has a job to do.

Meet the new generation of spies…

Johanna Harwood, 003. Joseph Dryden, 004. Sid Bashir, 009. They represent the very best and brightest of MI6. Supremely skilled, ruthless, with a license to kill, they will do anything to protect their country.

The fate of the world rests in their hands…

Tech billionaire Sir Bertram Paradise claims he has developed new cutting-edge technology capable of reversing climate change and saving the planet. But can his ambitious promises be trusted, and are his motives as noble as they appear? The new spies must uncover the truth because the stakes could not be higher; for humanity… and for James Bond himself.

Time is running out.

©2023 Kim Sherwood (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Long story but worth it

So 007 is not in this. Because of that you are introduced to a number of 00s and that does take time for the back story. A lot of jumping back and forth time wise but it actually helped the story out making it more suspenseful. There are some sections - a chase in the German hillsides that was really well done. And the fight scenes were well done. A lot of reference to other characters from the 007 books. Leiter, Tanaka, M and a promoter Moneypenny. I look forward to the next book in the trilogy.

“Everything AND Nothing.”

Disclaimer: I am a James Bond superfan and completist. I will read and support ANYTHING about my favorite franchise. But this missed the mark- and not because it didn’t have 007 in it. I applaud the choice of telling the story of different 00 agents, I applaud the inclusion of meaningful diversity in MI6, and I appreciate the attempts to weave in literary references as obscure as Trigger, Gen. Nikitin and Mary Ann Russell.
But the execution ends up “everything, AND nothing” - way too long, way too many ingredients slapped in, too many characters we don’t care about and don’t know why we’re spending time with, too little quality time spent with the villains, and not enough of the Bondian flavor. Fleming worked because he wrote short. Punchy. Brutal. I recognize the difficulty in updating this feel to modern times, but this missed the mark.
And then…. SPOILERS:
Turning Q into a computer? Making Tanner the mole? A bridge too far.
That said, I will be reading the next book - if only as a completist, and not with enthusiasm.

Something a bit different

Having read all of Fleming’s novels, and several others, I can say this ranks among the better novels. Sure, James Bond isn’t the protagonist (and the promotional copy makes that very clear), but it’s every bit a 00 novel.
Great villains, compelling new heroes, and an intricate plot. The narrator does a great job.
Perhaps the haters were expecting some half-baked misogyny or racism, only to be met with characters from our real world? Not sure what the vitriol is about, beyond revealing a particularly ugly underside to every fandom.
I look forward to the next installment.

A Different Take……

I listened and it was ok..took awhile for the action to start but determined to finish and looking forward to the next one hoping for a more fast paced story

If This Is the Future of Bond Books, I'm Sad

I'm a big Bond fan, so was hoping for an exciting reboot.

I don't know if this would be a better read than as an audio book. Listening to the audiobook, I got lost early and never found my way.

With less than 4 hours left out of 11 hours, I do not know what is going on. Or who's who. Too many he, she pronouns, not clearly pointing to anyone.

I know there's an industrialist that holds either the climate change solution or disaster in his hands. He either controls the bad guy organization, Pied Piper, or it controls him. It's hard to tell. James Bond is missing and the other 00's are showing up places, doing stuff and thinking thoughts. Are there two or three 00's? Is one 00 a traitor? At least that is what I have gotten so far.

The newly introduced 00's sound interesting, but I never cared or related to them. They already sound burned out. Who the heck is Lucky Luke?

Different Direction, Not My Cup of Tea

Let me say up front, the direction taken in this novel series isn't a bad one, just not one that interests me.

My comments merely reflect my personal preference which determines whether I enjoy a book or not. The editorial decisions that were made were made by people who own the rights to do whatever they want to with the 007 series. I'm just sharing that the decisions that were made were not my particular cup of tea.

This is the order I made my notes as I listened . . .

Disappointingly political...And the reborn Moneypenny's sentence structure sounds too much like Judy Dench.

The new Q intrigues me and is a unique twist.

If the author meant to make the women "strong" I think she missed and made them unnecessarily "hard."

WAY TOOOO MUCH character development on the other double "0s"

I've been looking for the right words and I think, I found them in, "this book is the womanification of the 007 book series." Mind you, there's NOTHING wrong with that. It's just not my cup of tea.

I think the author is more interested in character development than in crisis/action storylines. Again, nothing wrong with that, just not my cup of tea.

I've decided that I'll go back and watch Casino Royal to get my head back around the 007 series I prefer. Which Casino Royal, you ask? ;)

There are so many characters and sub-plots, they become a maze of disparate angles to the book, taking the fun out of reading. Again, not necessarily a bad thing, just not my cup of tea. I'm really surprised this book was allowed to be written this way.

Dual fights in the same chapter was nicely done.

Near the end of the book the writer takes a direct swipe at the idea of a "good old boys club." If the goal of the current editors was to move away from that concept in the series, THEY ACHIEVED IT. . .

AGAIN, not a bad thing, just not my cup of tea.

Disappointing!

Disappointing at best…..

I was excited to read this after hearing about the new direction that the series was going to take by rounding out some new OO characters in the James Bond universe. I found that there were too many characters to keep track of. Too many agents, and too many layers in the British Secret Service hierarchy. My biggest problem is that I feel the James Bond universe did not need to be “woke”. We didn’t need an LGBTQ+ injection into the 00’s. I did not find it believable given strong hetro history of 00’’s. I also found it hard to believe that Moneypenny as M’s admin was qualified to run the 0O section of the British Secret Service. Typically Admins to CEOs don’t succeed CEOs. They don’t have the experience. It also added a layer of complexity in the hierarchy of reporting and yet another character to the cast.

Where to now?

Ambitiously written first installment of a trilogy so the plot and sub-plots of this are wide open. All one can ask is, Where to now? There is much to track and swallow, the narrative expansive, the ensemble of characters large, the momentum of the story not propelled but a can kicked down the road. Properly this novel can only be evaluated properly with the trilogy complete. Yet, with just this novel, reading another installment is not guaranteed. Reading the author’s bio, the novel wreaks of literary workshopping. The author needs to tighten the style, streamline the writing, cut the adjectives, and ensure all the arrows are pointed in the same direction. Despite the writing smorgasbord, the performance of the Audible narrator excels.

Damn. A good Bond film they will never make.

Excellent top to bottom. My only dislike was the Hurricane Room elements. Took away a tiny bit from the action.

Pippa Bennett-Warner is a wonderfull, versatile voice actor. Kim Sherwood, the author, creates a rich, multi-layered story.

Review by Charles Ynfante.
Kim Sherwood, the author, is excellent. She researched the Bond world thoroughly. James Bond is missing --- he went to Barcelona, Spain and disappeared. Q is now a quantum computer--- a great way to replace a character and bring the story deep into the 21st century. James Bond is in this story only tangentially--- how he is remembered and what he said and did. So, yes, the novel is all about the other double-o agents. Kim Sherwood has created rich and complex characters, where time and memories jump back and forth. James Bond did not live in a bubble. He worked with and loved some of the other agents. Now that he is missing, tney take center stage. This is not a simple linear storyline: the reader must be alert and engaged. I read this novel as an ebook. I now have the audiobook because I want to experience it. I have the second novel, A Spy Like Me in the qeue. Kim Sherwood carry on !!