Kindle
$8.33
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$37.97
Paperback
from $38.38
Out of Print--Limited Availability.
Select delivery location
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

John E. Gardner
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Role of Honour (James Bond (Original Series), 4) MP3 CD – Unabridged, October 27, 2015

by John Gardner (Author), Simon Vance (Reader)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 413 ratings
See all formats and editions

“People notice things and word around Whitehall is that Commander Bond is living a shade dangerously—gambling, the new Bentley, er…ladies, money changing hands.…”

Following scandal and his shock resignation from Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, James Bond becomes a gun for hire; able, and willing, to sell his lethal skills to the highest bidder. And SPECTRE, it seems, are eager to have the disgraced British super spy on their payroll.

But before he can be fully embraced by his new employer—and deadliest enemy—007 must first prove his loyalty. And in doing so he must threaten with nuclear annihilation everything he has fought his whole life to defend. Until honor is fully restored.…

Gardner’s stunning reinvention of Bond secured critical acclaim and blockbusting sales around the world. Role of Honour, the fourth book in the series, kept 007 at No.1.

Previous page
  1. Book 4 of 16
    John Gardner's Bond series
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Brilliance Audio
  4. Publication date
    October 27, 2015
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 5.5 x 0.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1511306890
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1511306898
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Edmund Gardner was an English spy and thriller novelist, best known for his James Bond continuation novels, but also for his series of Boysie Oakes books and three continuation novels containing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional villain, Professor Moriarty.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Brilliance Audio; Unabridged edition (October 27, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1511306890
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1511306898
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 5.5 x 0.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 413 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
John E. Gardner

John E. Gardner

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
413 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Ron Rives
5.0 out of 5 stars A Different Bond Novel
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2022
Verified Purchase
Bond is sent to infiltrate the schemes of Dr. Holy, a computer genius who faked his own death. Bond pretends to resign and is trained in computer programming by a beautiful agent who was once married to Holy-just to keep him under surveillance. One major plot hole: why would Bond pretend to be a programmer? He joins the bad guys as James Bond, a bitter vengeful ex-agent. His task for the Evil Plan has nothing to do with programming. At least Bond is not captured and tortured which is refreshing. The other hole: Bonds actions have nothing to do with stopping the Evil Plan.
Helpful
 Report
Edward N. Tabb
4.0 out of 5 stars Above the mediocrity
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2018
Verified Purchase
Given a pound Sterling for every successor to Ian Fleming - one could enjoy a marvelous dinner for two at the Dorchester. Mr. Gardner, however, seems to have risen above the sea of mediocrity and done a fair amount of Justice to Mr. Fleming's vision of his MI6 Bon Vivant. I would have given it five stars but that would have constituted a bit of hieracy as there is and will always be only one Ian Fleming . . . as there is and will always be just one James Bond.
Helpful
 Report
GN
3.0 out of 5 stars Finishes well, but dated and unimaginative
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2020
Verified Purchase
Once again, Gardner's Bond is an homage to the era it was written in. The author is obsessed with providing Bond a blonde woman or four, embarrassingly so, but falling to take the time to paint a scene the way that Fleming always did in luxurious detail. Gardner attempts, but it feels forced, and poorly mimicking Fleming might be his greatest downfall next to unimaginative stories obsessed with bringing back old foes.
Helpful
 Report
Louis E. Bridges
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2018
Verified Purchase
Nice item, nice price
Helpful
 Report
Kathy S.
1.0 out of 5 stars One Star
Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2017
Verified Purchase
Bad writer. Incompetent portrayal of Bond. This guy could not shake his vodka martini.
Helpful
 Report
KB2187
3.0 out of 5 stars Not Gardner's Best
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2022
I do like the Gardner run of Bond books. They don't match the original Fleming tales. That's obvious. But, they're a collection of mostly damn good Bond tales.

This book, Role of Honour, is my least favorite of all of Gardner's stories. The book starts well, and it ends well. But, the middle of the book--the vast majority of the book--is slow an uninteresting.

This should be forgiven, but I'll mention it: The book is a product of its times, too. It's very dated. The plot centers around computers, and as you can imagine, we can do more today with our phones than Bond's powerful high-tech computer could do in the story.

Let me mention two positive things, too. First, I thought the bad-guy plot, when it is finally revealed, is pretty neat. It's very interesting where Gardner took the story (he just took a long time getting there).

Second--I'm not giving anything way because I've seen it mentioned on this book's cover--SPECTRE is the bad guy organization in this book, but Bond doesn't deal with SPECTRE directly. The story is set up around some of SPECTRE's lackeys--the contractors that handle SPECTRE's farmed out tasks.

I thought that was a nice way to go.

If you're reading your way through the Gardner Bond tales in order, of course you won't skip this one. But, if you just read a Gardner Bond book here and there--maybe not even in order (which is not really necessary that you do)--then I'd pick another one over this one.

I liked the book immediately previous to this one (Gardner #3), Icebreaker, a lot more than I liked Role of Honour.

I read the book back in the 90's, and I'm just finishing a listen to the audio version of the book, with Simon Vance narrating.

Vance was born to narrate Bond books. He does a superb job. My only criticism is that he really only has one "other voice" for bad guys (actually heard a third voice in this story). I had listened to Vance read Zero Minus Ten, Raymond Benson's first Bond tale (which I really enjoyed), and I kept hearing characters from that book.
Helpful
 Report
GLENN J SCHREIBER
1.0 out of 5 stars not the book pictured and in average condition at best!!
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2018
Verified Purchase
Once again , not the book pictured and in average condition at best!!!!!!!
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars it's daniel criag Daneil criag knows how to portray james bond
Reviewed in Canada on August 10, 2023
Verified Purchase
it was a page turner. I throughly enjoyed reading this book.
Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Bond-tastic!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 19, 2020
Verified Purchase
This is perfect for those who are big James Bond buffs, like me. If you love reading James Bond books, then listen to the audiobooks. They are fantastic and they take you to a different world.
2 people found this helpful
 Report
René B.
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in Canada on April 29, 2018
Verified Purchase
Very Gooy
Report
Amon Avis
4.0 out of 5 stars On a Roll
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 5, 2011
Verified Purchase
In an interview with 1990s Bond author Raymond Benson, Gardner stated that this was the one that gave him writers' block. In spite -or perhaps because- of this, Gardner powered through by reverting to a strong de facto depiction of our hero in a traditional 'Bond takes on megalomaniac while apparently on his staff' plot (eg Moonraker, OHMSS, Licence Renewed).

Score: 8/10. The villain (Jay Autem Holy) is from the world of early computing with which the writer was familiar (before anyone had heard of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates). This one's a rogue genius in war games, hiding from the Pentagon behind a private front in Oxfordshire. With a grudge against the West, he plans to bring the Cold War to a stalemate. Could hiring an ex-007 prove a mistake?

After the valiant misfire of  Icebreaker , it's natural (and welcome) that Gardner throws so many Fleming nods into the mix. His contact at Saab had moved to Bentley, so the Mulsanne Turbo makes its debut. Having answered its critics the Silver Beast and its realistic gadgets are a miss, but Bond in a Bentley in Monte Carlo is an irresistable lure. Though you suspect it's not Gardner's first love, the casino stuff is classily handled; there's another twist in SPECTRE's story and for the first time the author really gets a handle on Bond's character- far less glib and pompous.

Gardner's own innovations are great: the mature plot gambit of putting Bond out in the cold and having him recruited by the enemy to commit cyber terrorism really works. The ASP is an inspired choice of firearm for Bond: he sticks with it for the rest of the Gardner books and you feel Fleming would've loved its detailed idiosyncracies. The girls are convincing too, ably in control of their own destiny.

There are problems. The computer training goes on a bit and became so quickly outdated you were probably playing the war games at home by 1997 ("Command & Conquer" anyone?). Notoriously Gardner was banned from such a showdown in the Bunker's Hill chapter (lest it impinge on the arcade version in the film  Never Say Never Again [DVD] [1983 ]), resorting to a mundane counters and dice tabletop version.

However, it's the Fleming-like depiction of Bond as a dry, no-nonsense, sophisticated man of the world that lifts this up a notch. A strong entry in the series, the next book  Nobody Lives For Ever (James Bond)  maintained this high standard and was a direct sequel.
3 people found this helpful
 Report
Will
3.0 out of 5 stars An okay read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 14, 2019
Verified Purchase
This novel took a while to get going. I just couldn’t believe Bond to be training as a computer programmer.
One person found this helpful
 Report