In the first of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, 007 declares war on Le Chiffre, French communist and paymaster of the Soviet murder organization S...
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Dec 19, 2011
Sandybanks
rated it: 
To: M
From : Jane Moneypenny
Subject: An assessment of Agent 007's conduct during operation “Casino Royale”
Dear Sir,
I am aware of concerns raised by certain members of the Service regarding Agent 007’s performance during the abovementioned operation. Therefore, I would like to offer my personal assessment, based on the debriefing reports and my own long familiarity with the subject.
It is true that Agent 007 had somewhat compro More...
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Jun 08, 2011
K.D.
rated it:
My name is Bond. James Bond.
This is my first Ian Fleming's (1908-1964) novel about MI6 agent called James Bond. My dad used to bring us, his kids, to 007 movies when we were kids and I can still remember all the expensive cars exploding on the screen, shapely Bond girls in their bikinis, the high-powered guns and James Bond running, being chased by bad guys, escaping death in a millisecond precision.
I am heartened to know that Casino Royale, first published in 1953, was t More...
This is my first Ian Fleming's (1908-1964) novel about MI6 agent called James Bond. My dad used to bring us, his kids, to 007 movies when we were kids and I can still remember all the expensive cars exploding on the screen, shapely Bond girls in their bikinis, the high-powered guns and James Bond running, being chased by bad guys, escaping death in a millisecond precision.
I am heartened to know that Casino Royale, first published in 1953, was t More...
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Dec 16, 2009
Jacques
rated it:
Fleming's first James Bond novel is better than brain candy, though it is a quick one-sitting read. Notice how the characters are characterized by their ciragettes -- Felix Leiter only smokes Chesterfields, Bond smokes a Turkish/Balkan blend made by Morelands on Grosvenor Street, Le Chiffre smokes Caporals and Gauloises. Curiously, I found Bond's misogyny in the beginning and his sensitivity at the end a little overwrought, but I liked the Vesper Lynd character much more than her counterpart i
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May 25, 2011
Jeanette
rated it:
"A dry martini," Bond said. "In a deep champagne goblet. Three measures of Gordon's, one of Vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?"
When I was about ten years old, my mom took me and my sisters to see Live and Let Die. That was my introduction to James Bond. It wasn't the sort of movie we were normally allowed to see, so naturally, we loved it. Paul McCartney's theme song sti More...
When I was about ten years old, my mom took me and my sisters to see Live and Let Die. That was my introduction to James Bond. It wasn't the sort of movie we were normally allowed to see, so naturally, we loved it. Paul McCartney's theme song sti More...
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Jun 04, 2008
Chris
rated it: 
The literary Bond is far darker than the cinematic Bond. In his debut book this is no more apparent than when he roughly seduces a fellow agent and enjoys the fling for the "sweet tang of rape" that he gets out of her.
Despite and maybe because of the blatant misogyny, James Bond comes off as much more human and interesting than what is seen on the big screen, and it makes you wonder where Ian Fleming might have taken his creation if it hadn't become such a huge commercial More...
Despite and maybe because of the blatant misogyny, James Bond comes off as much more human and interesting than what is seen on the big screen, and it makes you wonder where Ian Fleming might have taken his creation if it hadn't become such a huge commercial More...
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Jan 07, 2009
Shannon
rated it:
The first book in Fleming's James Bond series, Casino Royale launches us straight into the high life at Royale-les-Eaux, there to gamble all the money away from Le Chiffre, an agent of the USSR, who needs the money to get out of his debts and save his life, since the money he initially lost wasn't his to begin with but belonged to a Soviet organisation.
To aid Bond he has his friend Mathis, a new friend in Felix Leiter from the CIA, and the beautiful but reserved Vesper Lynd from Sec More...
To aid Bond he has his friend Mathis, a new friend in Felix Leiter from the CIA, and the beautiful but reserved Vesper Lynd from Sec More...
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Aug 24, 2008
Inder
rated it: 
So. So. Bad. Also - incredibly, over-the-top offensive. Bond wants the somewhat-withholding Vesper because he knows that making love to her will always "have the sweet tang of rape"??
W.T.F.?
Misogynist zingers aside, it's at least 70 pages too long. When it wasn't repulsive and offensive, it was really boring. I'm not saying it didn't have its fun moments, but they were surprisingly few and far between.
Raymond Chandler is quoted on the back as saying More...
W.T.F.?
Misogynist zingers aside, it's at least 70 pages too long. When it wasn't repulsive and offensive, it was really boring. I'm not saying it didn't have its fun moments, but they were surprisingly few and far between.
Raymond Chandler is quoted on the back as saying More...
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Aug 23, 2011
Nikki
rated it: 
I give Casino Royale a low rating because it wasn't by any stretch of the imagination compulsive. I sort of enjoyed it, but I could live without it. Which doesn't mean I'm not going to read the other Bond books -- I am, at least a few, because Bond is this huge cultural thing that I've absorbed by osmosis, but only to some extent. The books are actually my first direct encounter with Bond.
(Yes, I lived to the age of twenty-two years and two days before I ever had a direct encounter wit More...
(Yes, I lived to the age of twenty-two years and two days before I ever had a direct encounter wit More...
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Nov 02, 2011
Morgan
rated it:
As a long time Bond movie fan I came to this book thinking that this particular movie, while good, was awkwardly paced and startlingly afraid of action. Reading the book reveals how slow the material was that the movie had to work with.
The introduction of the characters and the world were great, but when it came down to the meat of the storytelling not much happened, and Bond never did anything to progress the story forward or really do much to accomplish the mission. He avoided get More...
The introduction of the characters and the world were great, but when it came down to the meat of the storytelling not much happened, and Bond never did anything to progress the story forward or really do much to accomplish the mission. He avoided get More...
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Nov 11, 2008
Kirsty
rated it:
I must be one of the only people who hasn't actually watched a whole Bond movie... I've seen 10 min sections and such like, but never the whole thing. So I figured I needed to change that - but thought I'd read the books first (cuz I have that OCDish need to read any book before watching the movie version). Also it means that I'm seeing the book in a different light to a lot of the other readers.
I wasn't really sure what to expect - I know that a lot of people prefer the movies to th More...
I wasn't really sure what to expect - I know that a lot of people prefer the movies to th More...
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May 28, 2008
Madeline
rated it:
Call it a guilty pleasure, this book was just fun to read, mostly because I a) love Bond movies anyway and b) delight in sexist jokes, which made it easier for me to read Bond's anti-feminist rants and just giggle to myself. Here's one of my favorites, when Vesper Lynd gets herself kidnapped by the bad guys and Bond has to take the trouble to chase after them:
"This was just what he had been afraid of. These blithering women who thought they could do a man's work. Why the hell couldn' More...
"This was just what he had been afraid of. These blithering women who thought they could do a man's work. Why the hell couldn' More...
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May 18, 2008
Samantha
rated it:
I don't know if it's where I have already seen the Daniel Craig Casino Royale film or not. When I usually see the film before the book, I love the book so much more because it has way more details. This book I felt didn't. I wanted more explanation about the events and the characters' thoughts and feelings. I didn't get that. I realize that the movie took a lot of liberties especially with the ending but I just thought the book would be so much more. In the book, I never understood why James Bon
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Sep 08, 2011
Meg
rated it: 
A random conversation with a co-worker last week led me to pick this up. I've seen plenty of the movies, but never read Fleming before, and I'm enjoying it. It even has some good advice for library conference goers on the very first page:
"James Bond suddenly knew that he was tired. He always knew when his body or his mind had had enough and he always acted on the knowledge. This helped him to avoid staleness and the sensual bluntness that breeds mistakes."
Learn from
"James Bond suddenly knew that he was tired. He always knew when his body or his mind had had enough and he always acted on the knowledge. This helped him to avoid staleness and the sensual bluntness that breeds mistakes."
Learn from
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May 14, 2011
Mike
rated it:
The storyline follows pretty closely with the Daniel Craig movie version. Most interesting is learning about what goes on in Bond's mind. He is not the superficial lothario we've come to know and love on the screen. He's a bit of a complicated mess with emotional baggage who makes mistakes and sometimes is uncertain of himself and his mission. In short, a pretty interesting dude. I look forward to getting to know him in subsequent books.
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Jul 08, 2010
Shane
rated it:
After so many years absorbing the movies almost by osmosis, the accretion of layer after layer of bond mythos and gesture... reading these novels is a short brutal and pleasurable experience.
based on this first... only Connery and Craig have come close to capturing something in the essence of the literary Bond and i cant really say any film has captured the ambience of Bonds world, something perhaps better suited to Jean-Pierre Melville or 'Elevator to the Gallows' Malle.
More...
based on this first... only Connery and Craig have come close to capturing something in the essence of the literary Bond and i cant really say any film has captured the ambience of Bonds world, something perhaps better suited to Jean-Pierre Melville or 'Elevator to the Gallows' Malle.
More...
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Jan 08, 2012
Lady
rated it:
Diga-se de passagem que nunca gostei do James Bond dos filmes, tendo sempre preferido os vilões (tive uma estranha paixoneta pelo o Scaramanga e a sua pistola dourada quando era miúda). Sempre achei o personagem sensaborão, azeiteiro e aborrecido. Até o Casino Royale com o Daniel Craig: sim, eu se que muitos fãs hardcore do 007 detestaram a "brutalidade" e falta de sofisticação... mas eu pela primeira vez consegui ver o James Bond como um agente do governo, não como o primo rico do Zéz
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Jan 07, 2012
Julia
rated it:
Ian Fleming is an absolutely amazing writer. His sentence structure is really interesting and I read the entire book in one night.
There were a few little things that frustrated me about Bond. Firstly, he spends most of the book ignoring the blatantly obvious. I was sitting on the couch yelling at him as time and time again he stood there staring at the two and two in front of him, thinking that it was odd that there was this weird plus sign in the middle and an equals sign at the end, More...
There were a few little things that frustrated me about Bond. Firstly, he spends most of the book ignoring the blatantly obvious. I was sitting on the couch yelling at him as time and time again he stood there staring at the two and two in front of him, thinking that it was odd that there was this weird plus sign in the middle and an equals sign at the end, More...
Dec 10, 2011
Danny
rated it:
AM I A FAN OF THE JAMES BOND BOOKS? YES I AM. MY MOTHER DURING THE 1960'S PURCHASED THE COMPLETE SET OF IAM FLEMINGS BOOKS IN THE JAMES BOND SERIES FROM A SIGN UP OFFERINGS OF A BOOK CLUB FOR $1.99. IN MY EARLY TEENS I READ EVERY BOOK AND IT STARTED ME AS AN AVID READER OF SPY AND SUSPENSE NOVELS. I HAVE PROBABLY READ THE COMPLETE SET ABOY 6 TIMES FROM 1960. I AM GOING TO WRITE A GENERIC REVIEW OF THE JAMES BOND SERIES AS EVERYONE PROBLY KNOWS THE STORYLINE FROM EITHER READING THE BOOKS OR
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Nov 18, 2011
Alexander
rated it:
One of the most brilliant things about Kindles is you can follow a whim and so, on a whim, I read through all of Ian Fleming's Bond books, one after the other. For me, Casino Royale is still the standout work among them all, but when you put it all together it's remarkable how Fleming's character shines through - and the misogyny hits home hard. There's not one Bond book where a woman is not referred to as a 'bitch', usually a 'poor bitch' or a 'silly bitch'. And Bond always kisses hard and usua
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Oct 30, 2011
Harmonybites
rated it:
I can't say I liked this much. James Bond is so much part of popular culture, I suppose I expected reading the books he's based on I'd find myself charmed the way I am by Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. And well, if a book published in 1953 isn't exactly politically correct, well neither am I and I can make allowances for it the way I do with Victorian attitudes.
Except not. In a way full warning was given by the blurb praising the books by Raymond Chandler: “Bond is what every ma More...
Except not. In a way full warning was given by the blurb praising the books by Raymond Chandler: “Bond is what every ma More...
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Sep 27, 2011
Dfordoom
rated it:
Casino Royale was the first of Ian Fleming;s James Bond novels. It immediately establishes the formula that was to make the Bond novels so successful, a formula that is quite different from that to be found in any of the movie adaptations.
A top Soviet agent in France, known as Le Chiffre, has landed himself in major financial difficulties. He is now trying to gamble his way out of trouble. Le Chiffre is paymaster to some very powerful communist-controlled trade unions in France. He’s a More...
A top Soviet agent in France, known as Le Chiffre, has landed himself in major financial difficulties. He is now trying to gamble his way out of trouble. Le Chiffre is paymaster to some very powerful communist-controlled trade unions in France. He’s a More...
Sep 03, 2011
Sean
rated it:
So I've finally decided to finish a reading/viewing project that I began when I picked up vintage paperbacks of all of Ian Fleming's Bond novels from New Concept Used Book Store one summer way back in 1985. At that time, I only made it through "Goldfinger," "You Only Live Twice" and the first couple of chapters of "Dr. No" before the pressures of rehearsals for "Life With Father" at the Civic Theater, my first year of marching band, and freshman year study
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Sep 02, 2011
Mike
rated it:
Long long time ago I read all of the original books by Fleming. I had seen several of the films by then, also. (They weren't yet making up wholly "fictional" movies (i.e. those not based on a IF novel.) I uniformly thought that the books were more cohesive, better written with one exception: Casino Royale (well for at least 2/3 of the movie).
From the moment that Herb Albert started pumping out the theme song, i was hooked. Sure it had four (or was it five) directors and More...
From the moment that Herb Albert started pumping out the theme song, i was hooked. Sure it had four (or was it five) directors and More...
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Aug 19, 2011
Rebecca
rated it:
We all know James Bond. How can't you? Tall, handsome, sexy, brilliant, and an agent for the British Secret Service. Oh, yes, if you have been around in media at all for the past several decades, James Bond is no mystery name to you.
So, since I am a fan of Mr. Bond, what harm would come in reading the book from which he sprang? Nothing, I tell you! I buckled in for a wild ride, sat down and just... dug right into the first James Bond book...
And then I realized how bad the More...
So, since I am a fan of Mr. Bond, what harm would come in reading the book from which he sprang? Nothing, I tell you! I buckled in for a wild ride, sat down and just... dug right into the first James Bond book...
And then I realized how bad the More...
Aug 18, 2011
Sandy
rated it:
When I first read Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, "Casino Royale" (1953), it was 1967 and I was 13 years old. What most impressed my tender pubescent sensibilities about the book, back then, was, of course, the scene in which Bond puts his hands around Vesper Lynd's breasts and feels "the nipples...hard against his fingers." Pretty hot stuff for a 13-year-old! When I reread the book 20 years later, what impressed me most was the terrible torture scene in Chapter 17, cer
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Aug 05, 2011
Chris
rated it:
Although many of the major components of James Bond are in place, what strikes me as the more unusual aspects of Bond's character in this first novel is his hesitancy towards his job and his daftness towards women. In the instance of questioning his role as a spy, whilst he has killed on the job with cocksureness, Bond seems far too shaken (not stirred) once the tables of violence and duplicity are turned on him. This does create a modicum of reality where actions have consequences which are f
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Aug 03, 2011
Nick
rated it:
Certainly not the best James Bond novel ever written, but it was the first. Welcome to the swingin' world of the Cold War spy thriller! As the first Bond adventure, the character is still somewhat flat and unsubstantial, but that doesn’t make him any less cool. The spy is sent by his government on a mission to discover the motives of mystery bad guy, Le Chifre. But there is a much bigger hand controlling the puppet than Bond realizes.
The real fault in this story lies with the characters. Fl More...
The real fault in this story lies with the characters. Fl More...
Jun 29, 2011
Mark
rated it:
This is a great read, and more thought-provoking than one would expect, having only seen the movie versions of the James Bond books. Casino Royale is the novel that starts it all. Bond's assignment is to discredit a SMERSH agent, LeChiffre, by bankrupting him at cards.
The Bond books should be read in chonological order. At this point in his story, Bond has just received his Double-O number, meaning that he's killed two people in assignments. His assistant on the mission, Vesper L More...
The Bond books should be read in chonological order. At this point in his story, Bond has just received his Double-O number, meaning that he's killed two people in assignments. His assistant on the mission, Vesper L More...
May 08, 2011
David
rated it:
The work of Ian Fleming is often known by it's most obvious features. The fact that Fleming changed the spy genre and wrote very well is forgotten.
Before Fleming, many action based adventures struggled to balance the action with believable motivation.
After World War Two there was a huge market for spy stories and thrillers. The political intrigues of the Cold War made betrayal,ruthless evil and murder a hidden world that lived below the headlines.
Fleming played with his audi More...
Before Fleming, many action based adventures struggled to balance the action with believable motivation.
After World War Two there was a huge market for spy stories and thrillers. The political intrigues of the Cold War made betrayal,ruthless evil and murder a hidden world that lived below the headlines.
Fleming played with his audi More...
Apr 09, 2011
Jesse
rated it:
Well. I was very hesitant to read this one until I read a few reviews of it, just because of Bond's reputation with the womenfolk. However, there was very little of this, and it was (fairly) tastefully dealt with. There was also some language, and of course the violence inherent in such a story.
Suffice to say, I was astonished at how similar the new Casino Royale movie (Daniel Craig, Eva Green) stuck to the book. The primary differences are that M is a man in the book, a few signif More...
Suffice to say, I was astonished at how similar the new Casino Royale movie (Daniel Craig, Eva Green) stuck to the book. The primary differences are that M is a man in the book, a few signif More...
