Reading progress update: I've read 41%.
Bugger the silly covers, bugger the slower pace, bugger it all. This is a PROPER Bond story!
In fact, it is so much smarter than many of the original Bond stories. This should, of course, make it less like a Bond story, but ... it makes it what Bond story should have been - a bloody gripping and smart tale of espionage.
Oh, and someone needs to push Miss Comely in front of a train. (I may have been reading too much Agatha Christie...)