Book Review: Role of Honor by John Gardner

July 11, 2024

About:

Role of Honor by John Gardner pits James Bond, agent 007, against computer geniuses intend to start a nuclear war. Mr. Gardner was an English novelist, known for his Bond Books, as well as books featuring Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis, Professor Moriarty.

  • 304 pages
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Putnam Adult
  • Language ‏ : English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : 039912912X

Book Review: Role of Honor by James Gardner
My rating for Role of Honor3

Buy Role of Honor from Amazon.com*
More books by John Gardner*
John Gardner’s Bond series (16 book series) *

Thoughts:

I know this book was published in 1984, but even then, I think the premise would have been laughable. James Bond infiltrates a group of SPECTRE computer geniuses learning computing and Cobal (COBOL?) to become a senior computer programmer in a month.
A foolish premise, however we already have established that Bond memorized the first paragraph every Wikipedia page that exists, so it might be plausible.
Might!

Role of Honor by John Gardner is a very fast read, but lacks humor and suspense. As cartoonish as it is I do think that Mr. Gardner does a good job picking up the character arc from Ian Fleming. It’s a tough job to take a familiar character and still keep it fresh.

This is an easy read; the plot moves fast and some of the parts are very good. Unfortunately, that’s when Gardner leaves technology alone and goes back to spy craft.

Like the previous James Bond novels by John Gardner, this one inspired part of the 1980s 007 movies. For me, it’s actually enjoyable to hunt for bits and pieces of those parts, so I enjoyed this book much more decades later than when it came out.

About half way through the book, the plot starts to make sense, which require the author to get rid of several of the plot elements from the first half. I believe I read somewhere that Mr. Gardner had to rewrite a lot of the book because they were too similar to the non-canon Bond movie Never Say Never Again, and I can certainly tell why.

I did enjoy reading this book, but not as much as the others. Some of it didn’t make sense (the programing boot camp, Bond working for SPECTRE, to name a few), but it comes together eventually. I’m looking forward to read the next one, but I wouldn’t recommend this book as an introduction to James Gardner’s James Bond series.

Synopsis:

To infiltrate a nefarious group of SPECTRE computer genius, James Bond and MI6 come up with a plan. Bond has retired and puts his services on the open market, and SPECTRE can’t wait to recruit him.

To make his story believable Bond spend a month in Monte Carlo training in computer programing with CIA agent Miss Percy Proud. Using this background Bond infiltrates the group of SPECTRE agents plotting to destabilize the world.

Buy Role of Honor from Amazon.com*
More books by John Gardner*
John Gardner’s Bond series (16 book series) *

Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I bought this book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account, the money is usually spent on books

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Summary
Review Date
Reviewed Item
Role of Honor by James Garnder
Author Rating
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Wrap Up

Role of Honor by James Garnder

Role Of Honor By John Gardner

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