Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • For Special Services

  • By: John Gardner
  • Narrated by: uncredited
  • Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (115 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
For Special Services cover art

For Special Services

By: John Gardner
Narrated by: uncredited
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Where Eagles Dare cover art
Assassin Series, Four Novel Bundle cover art
The Fourth Protocol cover art
Kidnap the Emperor! cover art
The Terminal List cover art
The Insider cover art
The Orffyreus Wheel cover art
Thrilling Cities cover art
Meet the Tiger cover art The James Bond Bedside Companion cover art
The 007 Diaries cover art
Black Sunday cover art
Pacific Vortex! cover art
Chasing Shadows cover art
Carrion Comfort cover art
The Kill Zone cover art

Summary

In this second instalment of John Gardner's Bond series, Bond teams up with CIA agent Cedar Leiter, daughter of his old friend Felix Leiter, to investigate Markus Bismaquer, who is suspected of reviving the notorious criminal organisation SPECTRE.

©2011 John Gardner (P)2011 Orion Publishing Group Limited

What listeners say about For Special Services

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    46
  • 4 Stars
    39
  • 3 Stars
    25
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    41
  • 4 Stars
    37
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    31
  • 4 Stars
    30
  • 3 Stars
    23
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Oh oh 7

Very entertaining and continues the James (007) Bond legacy. Took me back to the sixties and the height of the films.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

I've cream villainy, with a twist.

The narrator is Jeremy Northam, not sure why it states uncredited.

More John Gardner madness, but an enjoyable romp. If you like Bond stories and the franchise then you'll find this enjoyable enough.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Hotpot Story but excellent narration

This is one of the strangest Bond books I’ve read: First read in print on release and now 30+ years later via Audible.
The narration elevates the story. It was exceptionally well read and the accents and intonation fit perfectly.

There are some parts of the story that haven’t aged well for a reader in 2023. I wonder if, when it was written, it felt so anachronistic? It’s not so much that Bond is inappropriate but that the writer puts some storylines in that are designed to titillate but we’re more disturbing especially by the very end of the book. I won’t “spoil” that here.

Still don’t find the inclusion of the SAAB in keeping with Ian Flemings Bond. Not that another car could be used by Bond, it just seems to be a mismatch imho and features prominently. The Aston Martin was always a better fit.

The storyline ultimately felt like an episode from a Bond TV series clawing in a few new versions of old characters, a cameo, an unoriginal enemy agency and poorly used “who is it” enemy mystery.

The depiction of sexuality and sex left me feeling icky as a reader. Perhaps another reader will feel differently but for me there wasn’t a genuine appropriate love interest, rather weakly explored fetishes that had no appeal.

Whether or not the writer matures a better Bond I don’t remember. I had intended to read more Bond novels by the same author but I’ll skip to a different writer as I’m not so committed to Bond to endure books of this calibre.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant Bond Book

Fleming esq - exciting and dramatic story in suiting with the originals. Great interlinking of the spectre story

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

2nd best book by Gardner. Well worth a read

rushed end as always but still worth a listen. Bit ridiculous at times ,good fun

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Bond battles Blofeld...

Outstanding story telling, twists and turns on every page. 10/10. John Gardner is a master of suspense ...

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Bond vs Bismacher

John Gardner's second book is much better than the first (Licence Renewed) and this is also the second narrated by Jeremy Northam, who this time doesn't seem bored or uninterested. His Bond is still, well, Bland, but it's miles better than his previous attempt. The story itself is much more a typical Bond story, albeit farcical at times. And sadly the ending, after the big twist, is sadly anticlimactic.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Okay

It was well narrated but it felt like I've heard a lot of it before and knew pretty quickly who Blofeld was.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Only read as part of the whole bond series

One to miss if not. It just doesn't work as a story. To much name dropping not enough story.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Spoiler alert. This may spoil the upcoming oboe SPECTRE

Usual good fun. A bit predictable. Ultimately satisfying. Give it a go. The narrator does a good job

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!