James Bond Theme Spy Who Loved Me", titled "Bond 77", featured a disco sound, reflecting a style of music which was very popular at the time. "The Spy Who Loved Me" returned briefly to using the surf-rock guitar associated with the theme from the early days. One unusual instance occurred in "Octopussy", when Bond's contact, who is disguised as a snake charmer played a few notes of the tune for Roger Moore's James Bond, presumably as a pre-arranged identification signal; this is an example of the tune being used as diegetic music. In the last Bond film of Roger Moore, "A View to
James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me has bravely tackled his formidable task, that of turning a typical late Bond film, which must be basically facetious, into a novel after Ian Fleming, which must be basically serious. ... the descriptions are adequate and the action writing excellent." T. J. Binyon, writing in "The Times Literary Supplement" said, "Christopher Wood's style is lusher than Ian Fleming's, and teeters throughout on the brink of parody." Maurice Richardson in "The Observer" called "The latest licensed ersatz Bond"" a ""[s]uitable silly season read." Australian novelist Eileen Alderton, writing for the "Australian Women's Weekly" called it "a gutsy, punchy novel" that has