JAMES BOND BOOKS #13 - THE LAST NOVEL: THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN

The Man With the Golden Gun is Ian Fleming's final novel. It was written in the first months of 1964 when Fleming was suffering from the effects of his serious heart ailment. His illness was the product of stress, family heredity, a life of heavy drinking, and a 70-cigarettes-a-day habit. The book was published posthumously in the spring of 1965.

With the exception of the 1966 publication of a collection of 3 previously published short stories, The Man With the Golden Gun represents the end of Fleming's James Bond books. As I read through the final chapters, I could not help but feel sadness as if I was still mourning Fleming's passing. 

Maybe I was.

By the way, as with so many Bond movies, don't expect the book to be like the movie. There is no arcade-like killing game, no laser and Nick Nack, the creepy little guy played by Hervé Villechaize.

The last real James Bond novel (I don't count the subsequent Bond novels written by others), begins with Bond, brainwashed by the Russians, attempting to kill M. After Bond is treated, M gives Bond a shot at redemption by sending him on an assignment to kill Francisco Scaramanga, the world's most dangerous assassin, also know by his weapon of choice -- a golden gun. 

The trail of Scaramanga takes Bond back to Fleming's favorite location—Jamaica, the place where Ian Fleming wrote all of the Bond books at his beloved winter home, Goldeneye. Bond ingratiates himself to Scaramanga, who calls on Bond to help with a meeting of mob figures and Russian agents. The meeting leads to a showdown between Bond and Scaramanga on a narrow gauge railroad crossing a dense swamp.

The book draws the reader in, as do all of Fleming's works. It's a fitting final adventure although it will leave the reader wanting more, just as it did 60 years ago.  It is a MUST READ for any Bond fan.

JAMES BOND BOOK #12: YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE

You Only Live Twice, the 12th Bond novel and the last of the James Bond Blofeld trilogy, was the last Bond book published during Ian Fleming's lifetime. I last read it more than 50 years ago. 

While this novel is somewhat different in structure from the previous Bond books, it is a powerful, well-written thriller that stands out in many ways. But if your only knowledge of this title comes from the movie, don't expect rockets, astronauts and a volcano spaceport. That is NOT the Ian Fleming book.

The story opens with Bond suffering debilitating depression from the loss of his wife, Tracy (On Her Majesty's Secret Service). The depression has caused Bond to botch two recent assignments and has caused M to consider removing Bond from the 00 section. Instead, he offers Bond a chance at redemption with an impossible task—one that is more diplomatic in nature than 00 section assignments. Bond is sent to Japan to negotiate for Britain's access to the highly secret Japanese code-breaking machine that reveals Chinese secret communications, something that currently is only being shared with the CIA.

When Bond arrives, his host is Tiger Tanaka, the head of Japan's secret service. Tanaka's price for the secret information is high. He wants Bond to rid Japan of its newest problem -- Dr. Shatterhand and his Garden of Death (what a great name for a 60s rock band).  Bond quickly discovers that Dr. Shatterhand is Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the mastermind behind Thunderball and On Her Magesty's Secret Service and the murderer of Bond's wife, Tracy.

The book is, at times, almost a travelogue of Japan. The major action is confined to about 20 pages, but it is not at all slow or boring. It is a fascinating look at Japan in the post-war years from a Westerner's eyes, including the world's introduction to ninjas. And, as with From Russia With Love, it ends with Bond's future in question.

The book famously includes Bond's obituary, written by M, which provides much of Bond's previously undisclosed background. It also contains perhaps a hint of Fleming's plans for a future Bond storyline—his child with the book's Japanese Bond female lead, Kissy Suzuki, who, unknown to Bond, was pregnant with his child at the end of the book.

Reading this Bond book, particularly at a time when I am simultaneously reading the new Ian Fleming biography "Ian Fleming: A Complete Man," comes with a bit of melancholy. Written in 1963, the book was published in England in the spring of 1964 as Ian Fleming was dealing with severe health issues and the legal morass of the Thunderball lawsuit. 

On August 12, 1964, five days before You Only Live Twice was published in the United States, Ian Fleming died of a heart attack after a weekend of playing golf at Royal St. George's Golf Course. He was only 56 years old. 

You Only Live Twice is a MUST READ for any Bond fan. 

JAMES BOND BOOK #11: ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE

On Her Majesty's Secret Service, published in 1963, is the second of the Blofeld trilogy. It was published to strong reviews just weeks before release of the first Bond film, Dr. No.

This book is most well known to Bond aficionados as the book where James Bond gets married. But more importantly, it marks a return of Ian Fleming to his full stride following a nearly 4-year lean stretch after Goldfinger. In the intervening years, he wrote only Thunderball, which was adapted from a failed screenplay, a short story collection (For Your Eyes Only) of previously published stories, and the failed novel from a female perspective (The Spy Who Loved Me) which was so poorly reviewed that Fleming initially prohibited a paperback version from being published. 

But On Her Majesty's Secret Service is all Fleming, and ranks among the better books in the series. Bond meets Contessa Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo, and her crime boss father, Marc-Ange Draco. It is Draco who helps Bond locate Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who is disguised and hiding in a fortress in the Alps after the failed project that was the subject of Thunderball. Now Blofeld is plotting his next attack, this one on the world's food supply with the help of 10 unwitting young women.

Bond takes the identity of a British expert in heraldry, Sir Hilary Bray (the name borrowed from one of Fleming's closest friends). Undercover, he travels to Switzerland and confronts Blofeld. Bond narrowly escapes in a tense mountain chase, one of the best chase scenes in any Bond book. He  escapes only when he is rescued by Tracy. But with the help of Draco, he mounts an attack on Blofeld's fortress. Any Bond fan knows how it ends, but for those who have spent the past decades living in a cave, I won't spoil it. 

This is Ian Fleming and James Bond at their best. A really great thriller written just on the cusp of Bond's breakout success on the big screen. It is a MUST READ for any Bond fan.

JAMES BOND BOOK #10: THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

 When I first read The Spy Who Loved Me more than 50 years ago, this was by far my least favorite of Ian Fleming's James Bond books. --  It still is.  And going back and reading through book reviews from 1962 when the book was released, my opinion was shared by reviewers of the time.

Still, it is an interesting trip back into early 1960s America. And while it is quite different than any of the other Bond books, it is still an interesting addition to the series, if for no other reason than a peek inside Ian Fleming's mind. 

The Spy Who Loved Me is written in a first person female perspective by the fictional Vivienne "Viv" Michel, a young Canadian woman. James Bond does not even make his appearance until two-thirds of the way through the book. The first half is Viv Michel telling about her life and loves which result in her being a caretaker for a night of an isolated motel in upstate New York. When a couple of thugs burst in on her, we have the stage set for Bond's appearance.

There's no saving of the world here. Just saving a young woman. 

Accounts of Fleming's life at this point more than hint that Fleming was struggling with coming up with new plots for his books. The fact that his three books after Goldfinger were a short story collection, a novelized screenplay that landed him in legal trouble ("Thunderball"), and this out-of-character book, bears evidence that indeed Fleming was struggling with the Bond plots. But the end of the book contains some fascinating reflections by Fleming on the character he has created. Those observations alone make the book worth reading.

The book was so poorly received that Fleming ordered that the book not be released in a paperback version and that it not be released in the United States. When the movie rights to the series were sold, Fleming included The Spy Who Loved Me, but with the caveat that while a film could use the title, the plot of the novel could not be used for a movie. 

Of course when the Bond book sales skyrocketed, The Spy Who Loved Me did appear in the United States and in paperback editions.

Is this book worth reading? It depends. For a casual Bond reader, this is the one I would skip. But if you are a true fan of the Bond book and want a full picture of Fleming and his character, you need to read this one, too. 

JAMES BOND BOOK #9: THUNDERBALL

This ninth book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series has a special place for me. It was the first Bond book I read when I was 13 years old.  And I was hooked on both the books and the movies. This was the first time for me to read Thunderball in well more than 50 years, and five decades later, it still holds up as a great thriller.

For movie fans, this was originally intended by Bond producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to be the first Bond movie. But costs of production and legal issues with the book caused them to look first to Dr. No. More on that later.

Much of the movie comes directly from Fleming's book. There are some modifications, but the movie is very true to the book. This is the book that introduces SPECTRE and Ernst Stavro Blofeld (in a limited roll). The super-criminal organization hijacks a NATO bomber and takes possession of two atomic bombs, demanding a ransom or the organization will explode the bombs in some undefined populated area.

Perhaps one of the reasons that the movie followed so much of the book was that Thunderball was originally written as a movie script. This gets us to the legal issue which plagued Fleming for the rest of his life.

Fleming was eager to get James Bond on the screen. His only meager success was a 1954 Climax TV production for American television of Casino Royale with Barry Nelson as an American "Jimmy" Bond and Peter Lorre as LeChiffre.  (If you want to view the 54-minute black-and-white production, it can be viewed on YouTube, CLICK HERE.

Efforts to market a Bond-style television show failed, although Fleming drafted the scripts for 13 episodes. So in 1959, Fleming sat down with Kevin McClory, a wannabe movie producer, and Jack Whittingham and created a script for a movie originally titled Longitude 78 West.  Fleming changed the title to Thunderball. When the movie effort was unsuccessful, Fleming in January-March 1960, turned the screenplay into the novel Thunderball, not crediting either McClory or Whittingham for their contribution. Undoubtedly that was a mistake, but after all, Bond was Fleming's creation. The book was published in 1961.

Kevin McClory was an Irish scoundrel who overplayed his qualifications and connections in the movie business. When Thunderball was ready to hit bookstands, and with Dr. No on tap for the movies, McClory launched nothing short of a legal vendetta in British courts against Ian Fleming. His attack was vicious. The legal fight sapped much of Fleming's energy and perhaps health. He suffered a heart attack. After years of legal fighting, during the trial, Fleming threw in the towel and settled in November, 1963, giving McClory the film rights to Thunderball while Fleming kept the book rights. The stress of the litigation is credited by many, including Fleming's wife, as adding to Fleming's health woes and causing his death. Fleming, a life-long heavy smoker with a family history of heart problems, died on August 12, 1964 at age 56.

McClory's movie rights resulted in Sean Connery's last appearance as James Bond in the remake of Thunderball, titled "Never Say Never Again." McClory stubbornly refused to part with the rights to Thunderball, hoping to launch his own Bond series. Only after McClory's death in 2006 did his heirs sell the movie rights to ION, which after more than 50 years, finally unified all the movie rights to James Bond.

BOND BOOK #8: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

For his eighth James Bond book, published in 1960, Ian Fleming took a different approach. This is not a novel at all, but rather a collection of five short stories that reveal things about Bond's character. To Bond movie fans, three of the stories carry familiar names: the titular For Your Eyes Only, From a View to a Kill and Quantum of Solace. But only one of the stories, Risico, will seem familiar to Bond movie fans.  

Here's a brief summary of the five stories in the order they appear in the book. 

From a View to a Kill. A NATO motorcycle courier is killed and his top secret papers are stolen. Bond is called in to investigate, almost like an international policeman rather than a spy. The story is intriguing in that for the first time, Bond must deal with the multi-national politics of NATO and the internal political maneuvering between M and NATO.

For Your Eyes Only. Bond becomes the instrument of M's personal revenge. A retired British Colonel and his wife living in Jamaica are ruthlessly murdered by a Batista thug in an effort to secure a Jamaica estate to which the Batista henchman can escape from Cuba in the face of the Castro revolution. But the couple were personal friends of M. He sends Bond to Canada to assassinate the killers. But Bond is surprised when the victim's grown daughter beats him to the scene.

Quantum of Solace. Perhaps the most unusual of all Bond stories. On a business trip to the Bahamas in the waning days of British rule, Bond spends an evening listening to the Colonial Governor telling a tale of an up-and-coming diplomatic officer whose life is ruined by a harlot wife. That's the entire story. There is no other action other than the post-dinner storytelling, yet I love the Hitchcock-like concluding twist. A quantum of solace, by the way, is a term of the story-telling governor's invention meaning the minimal amount of attachment between a couple that holds them together, and without which, they cannot stay together.

Risico. Attentive Bond movie fans will recognize this story as part of the plot in the movie "For Your Eyes Only." Bond is sent on an assignment to disrupt the opium supply from Italy into England. Bond is thrown into the conflicting world of smugglers Kristatos and Colombo, both of whom paint the other as the true drug smuggler. Who will Bond believe?  By the way, one of the best scenes of any Roger Moore Bond movie is taken directly from the conclusion of this short story.

The Hildebrand Rarity. Bond has completed an assignment on a South Pacific island, and now has several days before his return. A friend, Fiedel, talks Bond into joining him on an extravagant yacht owned by a wealthy American and his wife as they search for a tiny six-inch tropical fish termed Hildebrand Rarity, which has previously only been seen once. But what happens is far from a simple fishing trip.

This book contains some of Fleming's best writing. Don't expect the taut adventures of Dr. No or Goldfinger. Instead, you will find a more subtle Bond, and one well worth reading.

JAMES BOND, BOOK #7: GOLDFINGER

Released in 1959, Goldfinger may be the high-water mark in Ian Fleming's Bond books. It was the third in the great Bond trio: From Russia With Love, Dr. No and Goldfinger, which turned in to the first three James Bond films.

This is Ian Fleming at his finest. For those only familiar with the movies, all the elements from the film version of Goldfinger are there : the Miami card game, the sharp-edged golf match, the gold painted girl, Odd Job, the Silver Ghost Rolls Royce, the gangsters, Pussy Galore (although in a different role), and the Aston Martin, only a DBIII with only minor gadgets & no ejector seat. There's even an atomic bomb headed to Fort Knox. But some of these elements are not quite in the same order as in the movie.

Goldfinger -- "the man with the golden touch," as Shirley Bassey sings -- is even a more deliciously disturbing character in the book as created by Fleming than in the movie. There are a couple of places where the pacing dips due to some of Fleming's wafting into too much detail, but that is minimal.

Goldfinger indeed is a thriller that reinforces Fleming as one of the most entertaining spymaster writers ever. It is a MUST READ.

I began this by noting that it was the high water mark in Bond books.  Written in 1958 and published in 1959, Goldfinger preceded the first James Bond film by three years. Dr. No didn't come to film until 1962. But Fleming admitted that by this time, he was straining to find plots for his novels.  In fact, Goldfinger was the last truly original stand alone Bond novel for four years.

His 1960 book was For Yours Eyes Only, a collection of five James Bond short stories that included From a View to a Kill and Quantum of Solace. He worked on other projects, including a 13-episode American television pitch to CBS which was turned down, and teaming up with three other men, including Kevin McClory, to draft a movie script featuring a super-criminal organization called SPECTRE. That, too, was rejected.

In 1960, Fleming used the unproduced script and turned it into Thunderball, published in 1961. That became the source of the great legal controversy that plagued the Bond movies for more than half a century and contributed to Fleming's early death at age 56 (although Fleming's heavy smoking and drinking surely also contributed). 

Even after Thunderball, Fleming still was looking for something different. He wrote The Spy Who Loved Me, published in 1962. Told in a first person narrative by a lonely woman in the woods of New York, Bond is almost a secondary character. He does not appear until well more than halfway through the book.

But by that time, Life Magazine had published the list of JFK's favorite books, which included From Russia With Love, and the first James Bond movie was making its way to movie theaters. By then, Ian Fleming, not Goldfinger, was the man with the golden touch.

JAMES BOND BOOKS #6: DR. NO

Dr. No is the sixth of Ian Fleming's Bond books, and in my opinion, the best. Oddly, it almost wasn't written. After From Russia With Love, Fleming thought he was likely done with Bond. But the reception of From Russia With Love, both critically and sales, was such that he decided to continue.

Unlike previous years, when Fleming headed to his 2-month vacation in January 1957 at his Goldeneye hideaway in Jamaica, he did not have a Bond book planned. But by happenstance, in March of 1956 he had been invited to visit Great Inagua Cay, a desolate marshland island in the Bahamas that hosted birds, mountains of guano (bird shit) and two naturalists.  

The island was both hideous and attractive to Fleming. So when he decided to continue writing, it was a natural fit for the next Bond book. 

Dr. No slides into the middle of the great late-50s trio of the best Bond books -- From Russia with Love, Dr. No and Goldfinger. More than 60 years after it was first written, Dr. No still maintains its fast-pace edge. It is Fleming's writing at its best. In fact, a few years ago I read a book on writing that used Dr. No as one of three books that exemplify great thriller writing.

All the elements of Bond books come together here - the mysterious villain who isn't seen until the last part of the book; the exotic setting in Jamaica; the tense action, and of course Honey Rider, whose appearance in the book is sans swimsuit.

Because of legal entanglements, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman decided to scrap the original plans to use Thunderball as the movie-world's introduction to James Bond, and instead opted for Dr. No. And the world hasn't been the same since.

Fans of the movies will notice many of the scenes are drawn directly from the book -- more so than any of the other movies. This book is about as good as Bond gets.

JAMES BOND BOOKS #5: FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Nearly every noted series, whether mystery, detective or thriller, has a seminal book -- the book that ties together what has gone before and serves as a foundation for what follows. For Ian Fleming and James Bond, that book is From Russia With Love. 

Written in 1957 and published in 1958, From Russia With Love is the fifth of the Bond books. The earlier books had been well received, but they were not mega-best sellers. None had exceeded 12,000 copies sold in the UK, and sales in the bigger U.S. market were minimal. By all accounts, Fleming was beginning to tire of the series, and considered killing off his hero, which led to the ambiguous ending of this book.

But From Russia With Love sold better than the earlier books. More importantly for Fleming, the book drew positive reviews and, most importantly, a rave comment from noted thriller writer Eric Ambler. This prompted Fleming to continue the series by writing Dr. No. 

Three years later, in March, 1961, newly-elected President Kennedy's voracious reading habit and his amazing 1,200 word per minute reading rate were the subject of an article in Life Magazine. He also listed his ten favorite books. Most were in-depth biographies and histories, but coming in at #9 was the only popular fiction book on the list -- Ian Fleming's From Russia With Love. Instantly, Fleming's James Bond books rocketed onto bestseller lists. 

The plot centers on a Russian scheme to lure Bond to Istanbul with a pretty girl and a chance for British Secret Service to get their hands on the Russians ultra-secret coding machine. The plot runs from one exciting encounter to another, including the incredible gypsy camp scene (one of the best-written scenes ever in any thriller), the billboard shooting through the mouth of Marilyn Monroe (in the movie, it's Elke Summer), to the iconic ride on the Orient Express.

For fans of the Bond films, this book will seem very familiar. Of all the Bond films, this is the one that most closely follows the book. The two major differences are the absence of the super crime organization SPECTRE, and, because of the presence of SPECTRE in the movie, the name of the Russians secret coding device is changed from Spekter to Lecter. 

This book elevated Bond to an entirely new level. It is a MUST READ for any Bond fan, and indeed for anyone who enjoys a good book.

JAMES BOND BOOKS #4: DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

 

My progression through Ian Fleming's James Bond books continues with Diamonds Are Forever, the fourth of the Bond books, published in 1956. 

When I originally read these books more than 50 years ago, I ranked Diamonds Are Forever above all but the most known of the Bond books. With reflection brought by a half-century of reading and experiences, I've changed my view. 

This fourth book in the Bond series is well worth reading. It provides an interesting historical look at American organized crime, mid-century horse racing and the early years of Las Vegas. But the story comes up a little short in the Bond genre, and I rank it as the weakest of the first four Bond books. In fact, excluding The Spy Who Loved Me, it may bemy least favorite of all the Bond novels.

The story is a tale of diamond smuggling from South Africa, through England, New York City, the race track at Saratoga, and on to Las Vegas. The shortcoming is that this is more of a police story about catching smugglers than a spy thriller. It seems a bit inconsequential for a 00 agent like Bond. 

As with most of the Bond book-to-film conversions, the 1971 movie does not resemble the movie in the most essential parts of the plot. However, there are some interesting aspects of the book that were appropriated by the moviemakers.

 In the opening scene in the movie, a dentist removes diamonds smuggled by mine workers. It comes almost directly from the opening scene in Fleming's book. Perhaps most surprisingly, the gay assassination team of Kidd and Wentz also comes directly from Fleming's novel. So, too, does the quirkily-named Tiffany Case, who is a much more complex femme fatale in the book than the character played by Jill St. John in the movie. There is character named Shady Tree in the book, but he's not the comedian who appears in the movie. There is no Willard White and Ernst Stavro Blofeld doesn't appear in the book. He is not introduced until Thunderball, which is much later in the Bond series.

A side note about the genesis of the book. Ian Fleming was the foreign editor of the London Sunday Times. He researched the diamond trade and diamond smuggling for a series of articles published in the London Sunday Times, which gave rise to the plot of Diamonds Are Forever. The articles were later collected and published in one of Fleming's two non-fiction books, The Diamond Smugglers, published in 1957.

This book is still well worth reading and a MUST for any true Bond fan.

JAMES BOND BOOK #3: MOONRAKER

 

Ian Fleming's third James Bond book (1955) was the only one of Fleming's 14 Bond books set entirely in England. It shows Fleming continuing to hone his craft as one of the finest thriller writers of the mid-Twentieth Century. I last read this book in high school more than 50 years ago. It was a joy to re-read it now. 

Hugo Drax is a post-WWII hero. Found severely wounded and with amnesia in the rubble of WWII, he has built a fortune and now is giving back to England by building Moonraker, the world's most advanced rocket that will protect the motherland. Only this multi-millionaire hero has a flaw -- he cheats at cards. 

At M's encouragement, Bond accompanies his boss to Blades, a posh fictitious private card club based on Fleming's own private club. The battle of bridge between Bond and Drax is even more intense and suspenseful than the duel between Bond and LeChiffe in Casino Royale, and is Fleming's writing at its best. But that is only the beginning.

When the security officer at the Moonraker sight is murdered, Bond is sent in his place. And the story kicks into high gear.

It is a well-written book that carries with it more than a bit of mid-century history. It brings back the time when the world was still trembling at the thought of nuclear weapons raining down from the sky on supersonic missiles fired from over the far horizon. Fleming latches on to that fear. Still years before the public started hearing terms like pitch and yaw, Fleming does a very credible job of writing about rocket technology of the time. 

Two final points.  First, Fleming's Moonraker bears no resemblance to the absolutely dreadful Roger Moore movie of the same name. Second, this is the rare book in which Bond doesn't walk off into the sunset with the girl, in this case, Gala Brand. Instead, on the last page, she walks off with her fiance, leaving Bond on his own.

If you enjoy thrillers or books set in the first decade following WWII, this is a MUST READ.

JAMES BOND BOOKS #2: LIVE AND LET DIE

 Live and Let Die is the second book in Ian Fleming's iconic James Bond series. For those who know Bond only through the movies, there is some similarity in the movie to this book, but it is mostly limited to a few characters and settings (Mr. Big, Solitaire, Harlem and the Caribbean.)

Live and Let Die features Bond up against Russian spy service SMERSH  and its "negro" agent Mr. Big. Bond's love interest is the mystical Solitaire. Bond, with the help of CIA agent Felix Leiter, is tracking down Mr. Big's use of Captain Henry Morgan's buried treasure to help communist efforts in the United States. 

It sounds a bit far-fetched, but the plot really works. And the danger of Mr. Big is brought home when one of the major characters suffers catastrophic injuries.

Reading Live and Let Die is like stepping into a time capsule, transporting the reader to the early 1950s, when most travel was by train and places like Harlem, St. Petersburg, FL and Jamaica were exotic places most readers would never visit.

If you're reading the original book, the references to black characters are dated and will cause modern day readers to cringe a bit, (mostly "negros," but I don't think the N-word is ever used).  However the book reflects the reality of perceptions of the time, and is a good history reminder. NOTE; if you're reading the 2023 70th Anniversary release of the Bond novels, they have been re-edited to change some references and language that is now considered offensive. This particularly applies to Live and Let Die.

This is the book where Fleming really begins to his Bond formula. It's a quality thriller that hurtles along at break-neck speed until its dramatic conclusion. Unlike Casino Royale, Bond does not spend time in self-introspection. Nor does the climactic scene come two-thirds of the way through the book. 

The book is noteworthy for being the first of several Bond books and short stories set in the Caribbean, which Fleming loved. He wrote each of the Bond books at his Goldeneye home on the north shore of Jamaica where he vacationed for two months each winter. 

If you keep in mind the time in which this book was written, it is well-worth reading.

JAMES BOND BOOKS: IN THE BEGINNING --- CASINO ROYALE -- Book 1

 

James Bond played a major part in my life. As a middle-school age boy, I saw Goldfinger when it first came out in early 1965.  That summer, I caught up with the series by seeing a double feature of Dr. No and From Russia With Love.  I was hooked!  

By the time Thunderball was heading to theaters, I started reading the Bond books. I read all of them over the next few months -- my first true grown-up books.  I was also hooked on the music, teaching myself to play piano so I could play the Bond music. Two years later, I re-read all the Bond books in order (by that time, The Man With the Golden Gun had been published in paperback.

I have Bond to thank for my interest in writing, reading and music beyond what played on pop radio station.  So last summer I decided to re-visit all of the Bond books, reading them in order. I've started the last of the Bond novels, so I decided to share my thoughts on each of the books with the reviews I wrote on Goodreads upon finishing each one.

So here they are:

Stephen Terrell's Reviews > Casino Royale

Casino Royale (James Bond, #1)
by 

Ian Fleming

Stephen Terrell's review

Oct 20, 2012  ·  edit

it was amazing

bookshelves: favorite-books-ever

"The smell and sweat and smoke of a casino are nauseating at 3 in the morning." So is the very first line of the very first James Bond book, published in 1953.  Seventy years later, it still holds up.

Just re-read for fourth time as part of my re-reading the entire series of Bond books written by Ian Fleming, which have played such an important part in my life. If I remember correctly, it is the first book I have ever read four times. I last read the book in 2012, reading it for the first time in nearly 40 years. I first read it at age 13 when I was making my way through the Bond books in non-sequential order. Two years later, I re-read all 13 books in order.

Casino Royale is an excellent thriller, as the reviews of the time that I looked up stated. Forget the slick gadgets, super-villains and wise cracks -- Casino Royale is a cold-war hard-edged thriller filled with men, like Bond, Felix Leiter, Mathis, Bill Tanner, M - and their creator Ian Fleming - who were hardened and shaped by their experiences in World War II.

Remarkably, the Casino Royale movie with Daniel Craig essentially is the same as the book, just updated. LeChiffe is a money-man for the bad guys (in the book, it's the Russians). He has squandered money that isn't his, and must earn it back in a card game. In the book, it is bacarrate, not Texas hold 'em. But the tension is every bit as powerful in the book, if not more so. 

In the book as well as the film, Vesper Lynd remains one of the most intriguing of all the Bond women. In some ways, her impact on Bond is far greater than any other female character, perhaps even more so than Tracy, Bond's short-lived wife.

I think Ian Fleming would have approved of the Daniel Craig version of Bond in the 2006 version of Casino Royale, much more so than any of the other Bond movies since Thunderball.

Seventy years after it first made its way to bookstores, Casino Royale is still a riveting thriller. If you have not read Casino Royale, you owe it to yourself to do so.