The Science of James Bond cover art

The Science of James Bond

The Super-Villains, Tech, and Spy-Craft Behind the Film and Fiction

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Science of James Bond

By: Mark Brake
Narrated by: Alex Wyndham
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £13.38

Buy Now for £13.38

About this listen

From Sean Connery to Daniel Craig, James Bond is the highest-grossing movie franchise of all time. Out-grossing Star Wars, Harry Potter, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the world's most iconic and international secret agent has a shelf life of almost six decades, from Dr. No to Spectre. As nuclear missile threats are replaced by a series of subtler threats in a globalized and digital world, Bond is with us still.

In The Science of James Bond, we recognize the Bond franchise as a unique genre: spy-fi. A genre of film and fiction that fuses spy fiction with science fiction. We look at Bond's obsessions with supervillains, the future, and world domination or destruction. And we take a peek under the hood of trends in science and tech, often in the form of gadgets and spy devices, in chapters such as:

  • "Goldfinger: Man Has Achieved Miracles in All Fields but Crime!"
  • "You Only Live Twice: The Race to Conquer Space"
  • "Live and Let Die: Full Throttle: Bond and the Car"
  • "Skyfall: The Science of Cyberterrorism"
  • And more!
©2020 Mark Brake (P)2021 Tantor Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV Science Entertainment Bad Boy Fiction Science Fiction Espionage Spy Craft
All stars
Most relevant
I've enjoyed some of Mark Brake's other books, as a huge 007 fan i was eager to see his take on the Bond franchise. Sadly, this was more Bronzefinger than Goldfinger.

Leta start with the premise. The book is called "The Science of James Bond" but don't expect to hear scientific explanations for Bond's gadgets, and instead hear tenuous links to somewhat related scientific events from the real world. Each chapter is based on a film, but frequently jumps to other films and quotes from people (not all Bond film cast & crew). Each chapter starts with a reading from a table, going through the films Director, Producer, budget, return etc.

I could possibly forgive all that if it wasn't for the glaring errors in almost every chapter. For example, when talking about Octopussy Brake says "Her scheme is more diabolical, she plans to detonate a bomb in a US air base". Even casual Bond fans know that Octopussy is not the villain of her film. Nearly every chapter has similar, glaring errors.

Lastly, the narration is just awful. It sounds like a cross between a text-to-speech program on your computer and a Discovery channel documentary narrator. Weird pauses, weirdly emphasised words, fluctuating tone and cadence.

Unfortunately this book deserves to on the receiving end of Q's exploding pen!

002 stars!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.