false 3757 0142002038 9780142002032 1134 68 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165357660m/3757.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3757.Doctor_No 2565 Ian Fleming 16657 1232 3 0 false Sat Feb 28 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 08:37:44 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 03 11:09:30 -0800 2009
It's not bad. a comparison to the silver screen "Doctor No" is inevitable and I had a tough time deciding which was better. Both works are dated and both stories are highly improbable, but they're both still fun.

About half of the book was used in the movie. Some sequences are virtually identical, but the premise of Doctor No and his ultimate fate are quite different in Fleming's version vs. the film. Bond is grittier; less polished in the novel than on the screen and is more a creature of violence than sex on these yellowing pages (not that sex didn't eventually make an appearance, but only after the danger was over).

In order to enjoy this, and probably all of the other Fleming stories, you have to be interested in escapist fiction, the cold war, and a writer's perspective on said cold war while it's actually happening. All that, and of course, you have to want to read vintage Bond as well.

I chose Doctor No as my first Bond novel because it was the first film in the series. Little did I know that the novel is the sixth in the series, with Casino Royale being the first and From Russia with Love being the fifth, right before this one.

Having read this and a series of Bond short stories in the From a View to a Kill compilation, I'd have to say that the films are my official "canon" for the Bond stories. While Fleming's Bond is fun, because I was raised on the films instead, my nostalgic attachment lies there. ]]>