You almost have to forget what you've seen on screen and take Bond in his original cold war context, but thanks to the recent Daniel Craig films coming closer to Fleming's work, the in-road to the classic version has never been friendlier. For those new to the original Fleming novels, this is a great introduction to the series.

As many times as I've gone through the original novels, I'm still not as familiar with them as I am the films, and this provides the perfect excuse for me to dive in again and live with them for a while. I almost wish he could do the rest of them too, but the point is to have a variety of talent for this series, so I'm looking forward to riding that wave. He impressed me with his work on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and his work here is every bit as nuanced and incredible. Be that as it may, I have begun the series, and I'm over the moon impressed with this new performance by Dan Stevens.

Instead of referring to them by their official series name of '007 Reloaded,' they're called 'celebrity performances.' Well, by any other name, it means my 2 credits a month are dedicated for the next few months (barring Star Wars releases), and not being independently wealthy, I can't afford to spring for them all at once as I'd like to do. At last, my prayers have been answered, and wouldn't you know, I had to hunt for them. Then I found out these new recordings weren't available outside of the UK, and my heart sank. I own copies of the original Simon Vance recordings from my pre-Audible days, which are phenomenal, but being the Bond fan that I am, I'm always curious to see what others can bring to the table. When AudioGo first announced this round of new recordings a couple of years ago, I was manic to have them.

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