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Billion-Dollar Brain

Penguin Modern Classics

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Billion-Dollar Brain

By: Len Deighton
Narrated by: James Lailey
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About this listen

Texan billionaire General Midwinter will stop at nothing to bring down the USSR - even if it puts the whole world at risk. The fourth and final novel featuring the cynical, insolent narrator of The IPCRESS File sees him sent from his shabby Soho office to bone-freezing Helsinki in order to penetrate Midwinter's vast anti-Communist network - and stop a deadly virus from wiping out the planet.

©1966 Len Deighton (P)2021 Penguin Audio Espionage Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense

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The narration is perfect and the main characters remain enjoyable but overall this is not quite up to the standard of the first three books

Not as good as the first three books

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With apologies to Michael Caine in the Italian job! This is a wonderful story with themes that resonate today (sadly). I read the book many times and seen the film many times two – one of the best soundtracks ever. The one thing that I found distracting with the story though is the narrator reading with a Michael Caine accent. If this accent was put on then I think that’s a poor decision. If this is the actors real accent, I apologise.

You were only supposed to read the b****y story

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It is a product of its time thus has slightly dated male female roles and attitudes.

Wonderful similes

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I found this a bit difficult to get into at first, only because it was the first of the early Deighton's I'd listened to ( as opposed to read) . I initially found James's interpretation of the main character slightly off putting. However I persisted, and his performance really grew on me. He really gets the dark humour across as well as the drama. Really pleased, thank you. I'm now listening to Funeral In Berlin (yes I know I'm going backwards) and it too is really good.

I knew it was good but this is better than I remem

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Great listen, love to compare the books to the movies .i have enjoyed all of the audiobook
And the narrator does a grand job of bringing Michael Caine’s Harry palmer to audio reality
I advise everyone to listen a touch slower on the settings for maximum effect

Harry palmer the working man’s bond

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obviously well researched but not heavy handed, memorably drawn characters, good balance of action, drama and comedy.

excellent narrator

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The Billion Dollar Brain is probably my favourite of the three Harry Palmer movies, as it has the Connery era Bond feel to it.

After reading and listening to Funeral in Berlin, I was looking forward to getting around to Billion Dollar Brain.

Narrated again by James Lailey, he breaths life into all the characters and brings more to them than all the actors in the movie.

In terms of Movie vs Book, there is elements of the plot the book does better (Colonel Stok is such a better character in the book, rather than comical character he is in the book) but same time there is elements the movie does better (Anya in the movie is a much better and interesting character than the female lead in the book, Signe, is towards the plot.

Also in the book, General Midwinter is a MUCH better character compared to the z-list Bond character villain in the movie, but the actual brain itself only plays a very small part compared to the movie.

The movie follows our “unnamed hero” (affectionally known as Harry Palmer) in a good old fashion espionage story, where a man from Harry’s past, Harvey Newbegin (who also appeared in the Funeral in Berlin book) after the murder of a journalist in Helsinki.

Our hero is hired by a private intelligence outfit with the aim to bring down the Soviet Union, starting with revolution in the Baltic State of Latvia.

The story follows our hero as he gets in deeper and deeper to uncover a plan that could lead to another war.

It is a globe hopping adventure from London to Helsinki, into the Soviet Union taking in St Petersburg and Riga, before travelling to the United States in Midwinters offices in New York and then his “Brain” in Texas.

Only issue I have is the ending is rather subdued and no real answers, while the movie has the big Bond style ending.

All in all maybe not as good as Funeral in Berlin, but every bit as enjoyable.

Bit of a slog to get through, but expands upon the movie

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