Product Description

‘A dry martini,’ Bond said. ‘In a deep champagne goblet. Three measures of Gordons, one of Vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice cold, then add a thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?’ ‘Certainly, monsieur.’ Introducing James Bond: charming, sophisticated, handsome; chillingly ruthless and very deadly. This, the first of Fleming’s tales of agent 007, finds Bond on a mission to neutralize a lethal, high-rolling Russian operative called simply ‘The Cypher’ – by ruining him at the Baccarat table and forcing his Soviet spymasters to ‘retire’ him. It seems that lady luck is taken with James – The Cypher has hit a losing streak. But some people just refuse to play by the rules and Bond’s attraction to a beautiful female agent leads him to disaster and an unexpected saviour …

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149352 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

About the Author
Born in London in 1908, Ian Fleming worked as a banker and journalist before serving in the British Naval Intelligence during WWII. He published his first novel Casino Royale in 1953 and thus started the astoundingly successful Bond novels and films. Fleming died in 1964.

Customer Reviews

The original and the best Bond book
I wished I had read this book before watching the film as the former is much bettr than the latter. After watching the fim I was highly confused with regards to the plot, the characters, I felt that the story raced along far too quickly for people to keep up with. After reading the book a lot of things fell into place but the film is no comparison to the book which is gripping and rather dark for a Bond book, I read it in an afternoon and could not put it down, perhaps film makers should have stuck to the books original plot rather than adopting it to suit todays audiences... saying that, Daniel Craig plays a good Bond, I think he plays him as Fleming himself would have wished for him to be portrayed. Ian Fleming has to be the best novel writer of our time. A must have for Bond fans like myself and those who wish to understand the film better!

Going back to Bond's roots
This is the first in Ian Fleming's Bond series and the first one I have read and I wished I could have read it without the film/Daniel Craig in mind. It's bleak, brutal and brief but still has the capacity to shock that it must have had on publication in 1953.

Connery's Bond is close to this depiction but with perhaps both more self-deprecating wit and less sentimentality that Fleming's. Yes, I can hear people disagreeing already but Fleming portrays a man who deliberately keeps his own feelings reigned in as a defence, and I guess one of the interests in the book is seeing Bond's own thoughts and feelings, something which is repressed in the films.

In lots of ways this feels like a prequel, the cool, professional killer has a crisis of conscience after that famous torture scene and talks about the lack of moral difference between the 'good' characters and the 'bad'; but then after falling in love with the enigmatic Vesper we see the later Bond emerge out of pain, humiliation and vulnerability.

I'm making this sound far more 'emotional' than it is but the feeling is all beneath the surface. A short book and an entertaining one that certainly whets the appetite for more.

It's good, but it's not Goldfinger.
Although I enjoyed Casino Royale I thought it was clear that Ian Fleming had not yet mastered his art when writing this his first James Bond novel.

I very rarely say this but the film was an improvement on the book. It had more depth and complexity of plot, and it even valiantly succeeded in portraying the awkward love story that makes up the latter third of the book.

If you are going to read only one James Bond novel then I would not recommend this one; give Goldfinger a try instead. But if you are reading this book because you've seen the film then prepare to be disappointed.