MOONRAKER

The most astonishing thing about Moonraker is that it only goes as far as Dover. No exotic locations, no bronzed beauties... Simply another card game, this time Bridge and the sneaking suspicion that a multi-millionaire industrialist and philanthropist is not what he seems...

There's something very charming about M's assertion that Sir Hugo Drax must be a bad apple because he cheats at cards, in England it's simply not the done thing. The first half of the book in which Bond helps M to determine the truth behind Drax's amazing run of luck is brilliant. Fleming's creation of Blades, an institution as recognisable and yet as fictional as Hogwarts immediately draws you in to its cloistered rooms, devoted to gambling. Bond is clearly going to have fun snaring his prey and even admits to M that he'll need to be a little 'tight' to do it... and proceeds to bash the equivalent of a Speed/Champagne cocktail (he even has a come-down the next morning).

The other good thing about the opening is seeing the boredom with which Bond tackles his day job. Inbetween judo and shooting, he has to read file upon file about new inventions, drugs, espionage techniques and he's grateful as soon as M calls him for an audience. We should have more Bond behind a desk, not great cinema, but at least you think "wow, that sounds a bit more like me!".

The second half is Bond in the Big Base, except he works for the boss. He gets involved with Special Branch beauty Gala Brand, who sensibly ignores most of his advances and together they work out that something is deeply wrong with Project Moonraker. The audacity of Drax's terrorist plot - to destroy London with a nuclear missile built for its own defence is both terrifying and slightly ridiculous, could you really use all those Nazi rocket scientists without someone finding out? However, it does tap into a basic fear following WW2 that the Nazi menace could reappear and target the UK, this time in a post-Hiroshima world.

Luckily, next time Bond goes after diamond smugglers in... America - AGAIN! Where are the high-risk missions to assassinate SMERSH operatives with the Cold War in the balance, eh? We shall soon find out...

LIVE AND LET DIE

Gold, Voodoo, Jazz, Pirates... Live and Let Die is laden with atmosphere. From the curses Bond receives, to the notion that his enemy may in fact be supernatural, you can't fault this book for not throwing the reader into a wider world than that inhabited by Casino Royale. Bond, fresh from being betrayed and scarred is keen to take in the smoky, alien worlds of downtown New York. With Felix Leiter as his guide Bond isn't afraid to get stuck in and stir things up, then he meets the girl...

Solitaire is pretty dull compared with the elegant and subsequently guilt-ridden Vesper. She immediately trusts Bond as her way out, they share a train ride and a car ride, she vanishes again and is suddenly tied to Bond in preparation for keel hauling. Full marks for making Bond sympathetic in wanting to protect this young woman, but she seems to float in and out without having much impact on the plot. Far better is Bond's interference in America, like a soldier routed from the War of Independence looking for revenge he's told to 'live and let live' what is a potential powder keg of crime and race relations, instead, in return for a broken little finger he kills three of Mr Big's men. When the FBI want him out of the country he makes sure to kill the people responsible for Leiter's mauling by a shark and takes out the US end of Mr Big's operation.

As a document of the times Live and Let Die does stand out. Repetition of the words 'negro' and 'nigger' look quite startling to today's reader. The obvious worry that somehow the blacks in America were all in cahoots, inadvertently supporting a Soviet backed revolution is symptomatic of paranoia, on both sides of the Atlantic. However Fleming is careful to make sure that not all his black characters are on the side of wrong... it's just that the one with any real power is.

The ending of the book is a delight as Bond and Solitaire are forced into the water to be dragged over a coral reef, never knowing if Bond's mine will go off. After all, 007 does like to end with a bang...

Just a word about the odd couple of pages where Bond suddenly feels the need to muse on mortaility while flying. That passage concerning the nature of fate, air travel and life itself really does stand out in the book, however it gives Bond a sort of reason for carrying on. You only live once, so have a cigarette and be grateful. Bond doesn't have a death wish, he just wants to live life to its full. Interestingly another terrified plane traveller turns up in Diamonds are Forever, which almost looks like Fleming is trying to convince himself it's safe.

CASINO ROYALE

It only took me two days of commuting to get through Casino Royale, but by the end of it I really did feel like I'd been through to hell and back. A very pleasant sort of hell it turns out, the town of Royale Les Eaux, sophisticated people ordering champagne by the bucketload and staying up very late indeed to play at the roulette tables. This was something that had always bothered me a little, that Bond moved in these circles, that he was a bit of a snob... Yet when he explains to the gorgeous and delicate Vesper Lynd that he enjoys taking an interest in what he's eating simply because he often eats alone I actually felt sorry for him. With no company he's become obsessed with the minor details of wine, cheese and scrambled eggs. Such exoticism is blown apart (literally) when a bomb goes off lobbed by a couple of grubby commie patsies who have been paid off by Le Chiffre's bodyguards (one of whom is brilliantly described as looking like a 'Corsican shopkeeper', cos we all know what one of those looks like). The description of Bond picking himself up off the floor amongst the blood and 'flesh' brings an immediacy and frighteningly real touch. Adding to the realism is Fleming's briefing chapter, not the traditional visit to M's office, but a paper explaining the sting operation to M from S, the head of Soviet ops for the Secret Service.

Even today the mission itself seems refreshing, no macguffin to recover, no man to assassinate (pointless, remarks S, they would turn Le Chiffre into a martyr), just a plan to bankrupt a man, discredit him and force massive disruption to Soviet operations in Europe. Fleming's masterstroke is to make this all take place over a table in a casino. A game of baccarat to decide another chapter of the cold war. The scenes where Bond plays, loses, is bailed out by the CIA and then returns is simple and yet incredibly effective. If you think your hands sweat then, you're in for a shock later.

Much has been made of Bond's sadism in the movies and books, but Fleming seems to have an interest in S&M generally. Bond wants to forcibly take Vesper, spank her, he gets aroused seeing her tied up following Le Chiffre's kidnap and yet in the scene where he is tortured he begins to think about the blissful 'twilight' period where pain becomes pleasure. If you ask me 007 is a switch... However the carpet beating torture scene is horrible. Le Chiffre discredits Bond's entire profession, shows him that he plays 'childish' games. It's a great turnabout from the glitz and glamour of previous scenes. Bond's life is suddenly not one you'd wish to have. To top it all off he is branded a spy, just at the point he is rescued. It's no wonder he wants to retire.

The breakdown of James and Vesper's relationship at the end of the book is equally as tortuous, no sudden turn, Vesper simply gets caught making a phone call to her controllers and the guilt begins to gnaw away at her inside. Bond and Vesper's love withers and dies with recriminations and tears, once again you ask, do you really want to be this man? How Fleming leaves the story is excellent too. Bond needs revenge and he seems to choose SMERSH, simply because they terminate spies and that is simply what he does.

Overall Casino Royale was as refreshing to read as the Craig movie, straight into the action, little deliberation, tense and brutal, how we got from here to Die Another Day is extraordinary to say the least.

Introduction

The name's Rivers, John Rivers, current incumbent of the literary site Fifth Estate, pub goer, Dr Who fan and now attempting to read the Bond books in order...

I've done quite a bit of 'hero' fiction - Sherlock Holmes, Sharpe, Dirk Pitt, Morse, erm, Doctor Who etc - some good, some crap (for instance Bernard Cornwell I find to be a lazy, lazy writer sometimes...) but I've never really tangled with the literary version of Bond. When I was a teenager I read some of the Gardiner books, but to be honest don't remember a lot about them. So I decided I'd start at the start with Fleming and see how far I get...



This was prompted by three different things a) the superb Casino Royale movie from 2006 which made me really buy back in to the franchise. b) That Sebastian Faulks has a new Bond novel Devil May Care coming out and c) an encounter with Young Bond author Charlie Higson, where I get my facts wrong (or he did) and completely embarrass myself. Add to this a free Bond giveaway with the Times all last week and the mission begins. Now, pay attention, 007, spoilers follow...