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James Bond (Original Series) #3
Moonraker
Moonraker, Britain's new ICBM-based national defense system, is ready for testing, but something's not quite right. At M's request, Bond begins his investigation with Sir Hugo Drax, the leading card shark at M's club, who is also the head of the Moonraker project. But once Bond delves deeper into the goings-on at the Moonraker base, he discovers that both the project and its leader are something other than they appear to be.
Audio Cassette
First published January 1, 1955
About the author
Ian Fleming
769 books3,461 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Ian Lancaster Fleming was an English writer, best known for his postwar James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his father was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing.
While working for Britain's Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, Fleming was involved in planning Operation Goldeneye and in the planning and oversight of two intelligence units: 30 Assault Unit and T-Force. He drew from his wartime service and his career as a journalist for much of the background, detail, and depth of his James Bond novels.
Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952, at age 44. It was a success, and three print runs were commissioned to meet the demand. Eleven Bond novels and two collections of short stories followed between 1953 and 1966. The novels centre around James Bond, an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond is also known by his code number, 007, and was a commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. The Bond stories rank among the best-selling series of fictional books of all time, having sold over 100 million copies worldwide. Fleming also wrote the children's story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and two works of non-fiction. In 2008, The Times ranked Fleming 14th on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
Fleming was married to Ann Fleming. She had divorced her husband, the 2nd Viscount Rothermere, because of her affair with the author. Fleming and Ann had a son, Caspar. Fleming was a heavy smoker and drinker for most of his life and succumbed to heart disease in 1964 at the age of 56. Two of his James Bond books were published posthumously; other writers have since produced Bond novels. Fleming's creation has appeared in film twenty-seven times, portrayed by six actors in the official film series.
Ian Lancaster Fleming was an English writer, best known for his postwar James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his father was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing.
While working for Britain's Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, Fleming was involved in planning Operation Goldeneye and in the planning and oversight of two intelligence units: 30 Assault Unit and T-Force. He drew from his wartime service and his career as a journalist for much of the background, detail, and depth of his James Bond novels.
Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952, at age 44. It was a success, and three print runs were commissioned to meet the demand. Eleven Bond novels and two collections of short stories followed between 1953 and 1966. The novels centre around James Bond, an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond is also known by his code number, 007, and was a commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. The Bond stories rank among the best-selling series of fictional books of all time, having sold over 100 million copies worldwide. Fleming also wrote the children's story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and two works of non-fiction. In 2008, The Times ranked Fleming 14th on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
Fleming was married to Ann Fleming. She had divorced her husband, the 2nd Viscount Rothermere, because of her affair with the author. Fleming and Ann had a son, Caspar. Fleming was a heavy smoker and drinker for most of his life and succumbed to heart disease in 1964 at the age of 56. Two of his James Bond books were published posthumously; other writers have since produced Bond novels. Fleming's creation has appeared in film twenty-seven times, portrayed by six actors in the official film series.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,205 reviews
June 18, 2022
(A-) 84% | Very Good
Notes: James Bond, dispirited office worker, awaits assignment and considers the empty, material life his profession affords.
Notes: James Bond, dispirited office worker, awaits assignment and considers the empty, material life his profession affords.
April 12, 2023
007 is much less incompetent in this one.
Good for you, Bond!
Still, when his inner monologue drifts into describing or thinking about women, things get unintentionally hilarious. Like, I can see how he thinks he sounds suave with his she may be able to break my arm but she still has a mole above her nipple musings.
But really.
Listening to him describe women makes me think that if James were a real person, he'd be the kind of guy who doesn't understand that foreplay is a thing.
And yet!
He's not as big of a douchebag in Moonraker.
I was looking forward to more of his causal assholery and all I got was one uninvited kiss in the ocean. He actually kinda respected this gal in his own weird way.
Like Casino Royale the beginning of this book is all about a high-stakes bridge game.
I'm not a card player so none of the descriptions excited me. But the gist is that this rich dude, Sir Hugo Drax, is cheating at cards in this fancy club that M is a member of, and he wants Bond to beat him at his own game. The point of it is to warn him off cheating without causing a scandal because the guy is a national hero.
Why?
Well, he's funding this Moonraker rocket, which is going to be an integral part of England's defense system, out of his own pocket. His backstory is that he was badly scarred in the war and ended up with amnesia, yet still managed to pull himself up by his bootstraps and become a millionaire.
I realize that now you can't buy a block of generic cheese for less than 1.2 million, but it was a lot of money back in the day.
Before meeting him, Bond is as big a fan of Drax as everyone else, but after he sits down to cards he finds his manners and mannerisms to be thoroughly disgusting.
Spoilery things happen and he ends up undercover at the site of the Moonraker, trying to solve a murder and keep tabs on anything fishy that might be going on.
Let the spy games begin!
But not really because these books are nowhere near as cool and interesting as the movies.
The biggest takeaway for me was that this installment makes Bond seem like less of a complete chucklefuck, and the dialogue and characters are leaps and bounds less cringy than the last book.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but that actually makes me sad in a way. I've been thoroughly enjoying my romp with 007 simply because these books were a filterless look at the inner workings of a dude who gives zero shits about being a nice guy.
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Edition: Unabridged
Awards: Earphones Award
Bill Nighy - Narrator
Good for you, Bond!
Still, when his inner monologue drifts into describing or thinking about women, things get unintentionally hilarious. Like, I can see how he thinks he sounds suave with his she may be able to break my arm but she still has a mole above her nipple musings.
But really.
Listening to him describe women makes me think that if James were a real person, he'd be the kind of guy who doesn't understand that foreplay is a thing.
And yet!
He's not as big of a douchebag in Moonraker.
I was looking forward to more of his causal assholery and all I got was one uninvited kiss in the ocean. He actually kinda respected this gal in his own weird way.
Like Casino Royale the beginning of this book is all about a high-stakes bridge game.
I'm not a card player so none of the descriptions excited me. But the gist is that this rich dude, Sir Hugo Drax, is cheating at cards in this fancy club that M is a member of, and he wants Bond to beat him at his own game. The point of it is to warn him off cheating without causing a scandal because the guy is a national hero.
Why?
Well, he's funding this Moonraker rocket, which is going to be an integral part of England's defense system, out of his own pocket. His backstory is that he was badly scarred in the war and ended up with amnesia, yet still managed to pull himself up by his bootstraps and become a millionaire.
I realize that now you can't buy a block of generic cheese for less than 1.2 million, but it was a lot of money back in the day.
Before meeting him, Bond is as big a fan of Drax as everyone else, but after he sits down to cards he finds his manners and mannerisms to be thoroughly disgusting.
Spoilery things happen and he ends up undercover at the site of the Moonraker, trying to solve a murder and keep tabs on anything fishy that might be going on.
Let the spy games begin!
But not really because these books are nowhere near as cool and interesting as the movies.
The biggest takeaway for me was that this installment makes Bond seem like less of a complete chucklefuck, and the dialogue and characters are leaps and bounds less cringy than the last book.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but that actually makes me sad in a way. I've been thoroughly enjoying my romp with 007 simply because these books were a filterless look at the inner workings of a dude who gives zero shits about being a nice guy.
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Edition: Unabridged
Awards: Earphones Award
Bill Nighy - Narrator
April 8, 2018
The two thirty-eights roared simultaneously.
So begins Moonraker, the third novel by Ian Fleming. Published in 1955, it continues the exploits of British Secret Service agent James Bond following Casino Royale and Live and Let Die, with the long-running film series adhering to Fleming's bibliography neither in order or in story content. This smooth, spare spy thriller bares next door to zero similarity to the film released in 1979 and while I grew restless with the acrobatics of the back half, I loved the business in the front half, which takes readers through a day at the office with a gaming expert and modern male sophisticate occasionally called on to assassinate enemies of the state.
The novel starts with James Bond having a bad case of the Mondays, worked over in the basement firing range by his instructor (his sidearm is a Colt Detective Special) before going up to his eighth floor office of Secret Service headquarters, "Radio Tests Ltd" to any curious pedestrians in Regent Park. Bond, also known as Agent 007, might field an assignment two or three times a year that require his particular skills, but is typically tasked with the chores of a civil servant--reviewing dockets and files full of geopolitical or technological data--while playing cards or golf with a few close friends on the weekend.
A red phone on Bond's desk summons him to the ninth floor office of the head of the Secret Service, known as "M." Bond is caught off guard when his boss refers to him by his given name and asks for his opinion on Sir Hugo Drax, a British industrialist who cornered the market on a ore called Columbite, which has a very high melting point. Drax is nearing completion of a rocket called the Moonraker, which will have the range to strike any city in Europe, guaranteeing Britain's security. A member of the private card club Blades, M has come by information that Drax cheats at bridge. Seeking to avert a national scandal, M requests Bond join him at the club to investigate.
There are one or two other small refinements which contribute to the luxury of the place. Only brand-new currency notes and silver are paid out on the premises and, if a member is staying overnight, his notes and small change are taken away by the valet who brings the early morning tea and The Times and are replaced with new money. No newspaper comes to the reading room before it has been ironed. Floris provides the soaps and lotions in the lavatories and bedrooms; there is a direct wire to Ladbroke's from the porter's lodge; the club has the finest tents and boxes at the principal race-meetings, at Lord's, Henley, and Wimbledon, and members traveling abroad have automatic membership of the leading club in every foreign capital.
At the gaming table, Drax is a crass, larger than life man, with one side of his face shiny from scar tissue left over from the war, when he survived a bombing on a rear-liaison headquarters by German saboteurs known as The Werewolves that left many Allied soldiers killed or maimed. Put off by the man's bluster and sweat, Bond ascertains that Drax is using the reflection of his silver cigarette case to sneak a peek at the cards he deals. Partnering with M, Bond agrees to the high stakes Drax enjoys, ultimately switching a hand dealt by Drax with a stacked one Bond slips out of his pocket, gutting the obnoxious multimillionaire for £15,000 and M hopes, teaching him a lesson.
Nursing a hangover at work the next day, Bond barely has time to consider what he'll spend his winnings on when M calls him into his office, this time on business. Four days before the test launch of the Moonraker, two men have been killed at Drax's plant on the cliffs of Dover and Deal. An RAF security officer in charge of protecting the perimeter was shot by one of Drax's men, a German worker who was apparently jealous of the officer's relationship with Gala Brand, Drax's secretary, who unknown to the industrialist, is an agent of the Special Branch. Not wanting the launch delayed, the Cabinet has opted to replace the murdered security officer.
Bond reports to Drax Metals and is impressed by the multimillionaire. Drax's "dogsbody" Willy Krebs comes across as a sneak while Gala Brand refuses to partake in Bond's repartee. 007 uses his predecessor's files to discover that the man observed an object in the sea and was likely killed for it. Bond and Gala Brand are nearly buried during a walk on the beach when the cliffs above them are blown up. Brand discovers that Drax plans to strike London with the Moonraker. Her boss abducts her and reveals he is a German seeking revenge for his homeland. Bond gives chase in his Bentley but is captured. Taken to the plant with Gala, Bond receives a lecture by Drax but is no longer impressed.
"Yes," said Bond. He looked levelly at the great red face across the desk. "It's a remarkable case history. Galloping paranoia. Delusions of jealousy and persecution. Megalomaniac hatred and desire for revenge. Curiously enough," he went on conversationally, "it may have something to do with your teeth. Diastema, they call it. Comes from sucking your thumb when you're a child. Yes, I expect that's what the psychologists will say when they get you into the lunatic asylum. Ogre's teeth. Being bullied at school and so on. Extraordinary the effect it has on a child. Then Nazism helped to fan the flames and then came the crack on your ugly head. The crack you engineered yourself. I expect that settled it. From then on you were really mad. Same sort of thing for people who think they're God. Extraordinary, what tenacity they have. Absolute fanatics. You're almost a genius. Lombroso would have been delighted with you. As it is you're just a mad dog that'll have to be shot. Or else you'll commit suicide. Paranoiacs generally do. Too bad. Sad business."
Nearly all the wonderful things about Moonraker occur in the first half of the book. I found the details about James Bond's office space to be cheeky and fun. I can't remember seeing the 007 of film really doing anything but gambling, smoking, being briefed on his mission, seducing women and then blowing shit up. Does this man have an office? A secretary? (Miss Moneypenny is M's secretary) What are his work hours? What's his take home pay? Does he take the tube to work, or carpool? This material grounds the novel as it segues into an Esquire article on how to spot a card cheat or how to drink vodka (add pepper).
"It's a trick the Russians taught me that time you attached me to the Embassy in Moscow," apologized Bond. "There's often quite a lot of fusel oil on the surface of this stuff--at least there used to be when it was badly distilled. Poisonous. In Russia, where you get a lot of bath-tub liquor, it's an understood thing to sprinkle a little pepper in your glass. It takes the fusel oil to the bottom. I got to like the taste and now it's a habit. But I shouldn't have insulted the club Wolfschmidt," he added with a grin.
M grunted. "As long as you don't put pepper in Basildon's favorite champagne," he said drily.
The buildup to Bond and Drax's bridge duel is sophisticated, exciting and fun but climaxes everything that follows it. The goings-on of an arms factory aren't anywhere near as compelling as the action at Blades. While Gala Brand doesn't do the business with Bond (Ian Fleming being less chaste than Walt Disney but quite austere), she doesn't do much but earn 007'sprofessional respect. Fleming's comfort zone is clearly the snapshots of modern male living, with a little gambling and some pyrotechnics thrown in. I enjoyed the glimpses into 007's job and the novel's setting precludes the rampant racism of Live and Let Die, but neither the villains or Bond's straits are memorable.
So begins Moonraker, the third novel by Ian Fleming. Published in 1955, it continues the exploits of British Secret Service agent James Bond following Casino Royale and Live and Let Die, with the long-running film series adhering to Fleming's bibliography neither in order or in story content. This smooth, spare spy thriller bares next door to zero similarity to the film released in 1979 and while I grew restless with the acrobatics of the back half, I loved the business in the front half, which takes readers through a day at the office with a gaming expert and modern male sophisticate occasionally called on to assassinate enemies of the state.
The novel starts with James Bond having a bad case of the Mondays, worked over in the basement firing range by his instructor (his sidearm is a Colt Detective Special) before going up to his eighth floor office of Secret Service headquarters, "Radio Tests Ltd" to any curious pedestrians in Regent Park. Bond, also known as Agent 007, might field an assignment two or three times a year that require his particular skills, but is typically tasked with the chores of a civil servant--reviewing dockets and files full of geopolitical or technological data--while playing cards or golf with a few close friends on the weekend.
A red phone on Bond's desk summons him to the ninth floor office of the head of the Secret Service, known as "M." Bond is caught off guard when his boss refers to him by his given name and asks for his opinion on Sir Hugo Drax, a British industrialist who cornered the market on a ore called Columbite, which has a very high melting point. Drax is nearing completion of a rocket called the Moonraker, which will have the range to strike any city in Europe, guaranteeing Britain's security. A member of the private card club Blades, M has come by information that Drax cheats at bridge. Seeking to avert a national scandal, M requests Bond join him at the club to investigate.
There are one or two other small refinements which contribute to the luxury of the place. Only brand-new currency notes and silver are paid out on the premises and, if a member is staying overnight, his notes and small change are taken away by the valet who brings the early morning tea and The Times and are replaced with new money. No newspaper comes to the reading room before it has been ironed. Floris provides the soaps and lotions in the lavatories and bedrooms; there is a direct wire to Ladbroke's from the porter's lodge; the club has the finest tents and boxes at the principal race-meetings, at Lord's, Henley, and Wimbledon, and members traveling abroad have automatic membership of the leading club in every foreign capital.
At the gaming table, Drax is a crass, larger than life man, with one side of his face shiny from scar tissue left over from the war, when he survived a bombing on a rear-liaison headquarters by German saboteurs known as The Werewolves that left many Allied soldiers killed or maimed. Put off by the man's bluster and sweat, Bond ascertains that Drax is using the reflection of his silver cigarette case to sneak a peek at the cards he deals. Partnering with M, Bond agrees to the high stakes Drax enjoys, ultimately switching a hand dealt by Drax with a stacked one Bond slips out of his pocket, gutting the obnoxious multimillionaire for £15,000 and M hopes, teaching him a lesson.
Nursing a hangover at work the next day, Bond barely has time to consider what he'll spend his winnings on when M calls him into his office, this time on business. Four days before the test launch of the Moonraker, two men have been killed at Drax's plant on the cliffs of Dover and Deal. An RAF security officer in charge of protecting the perimeter was shot by one of Drax's men, a German worker who was apparently jealous of the officer's relationship with Gala Brand, Drax's secretary, who unknown to the industrialist, is an agent of the Special Branch. Not wanting the launch delayed, the Cabinet has opted to replace the murdered security officer.
Bond reports to Drax Metals and is impressed by the multimillionaire. Drax's "dogsbody" Willy Krebs comes across as a sneak while Gala Brand refuses to partake in Bond's repartee. 007 uses his predecessor's files to discover that the man observed an object in the sea and was likely killed for it. Bond and Gala Brand are nearly buried during a walk on the beach when the cliffs above them are blown up. Brand discovers that Drax plans to strike London with the Moonraker. Her boss abducts her and reveals he is a German seeking revenge for his homeland. Bond gives chase in his Bentley but is captured. Taken to the plant with Gala, Bond receives a lecture by Drax but is no longer impressed.
"Yes," said Bond. He looked levelly at the great red face across the desk. "It's a remarkable case history. Galloping paranoia. Delusions of jealousy and persecution. Megalomaniac hatred and desire for revenge. Curiously enough," he went on conversationally, "it may have something to do with your teeth. Diastema, they call it. Comes from sucking your thumb when you're a child. Yes, I expect that's what the psychologists will say when they get you into the lunatic asylum. Ogre's teeth. Being bullied at school and so on. Extraordinary the effect it has on a child. Then Nazism helped to fan the flames and then came the crack on your ugly head. The crack you engineered yourself. I expect that settled it. From then on you were really mad. Same sort of thing for people who think they're God. Extraordinary, what tenacity they have. Absolute fanatics. You're almost a genius. Lombroso would have been delighted with you. As it is you're just a mad dog that'll have to be shot. Or else you'll commit suicide. Paranoiacs generally do. Too bad. Sad business."
Nearly all the wonderful things about Moonraker occur in the first half of the book. I found the details about James Bond's office space to be cheeky and fun. I can't remember seeing the 007 of film really doing anything but gambling, smoking, being briefed on his mission, seducing women and then blowing shit up. Does this man have an office? A secretary? (Miss Moneypenny is M's secretary) What are his work hours? What's his take home pay? Does he take the tube to work, or carpool? This material grounds the novel as it segues into an Esquire article on how to spot a card cheat or how to drink vodka (add pepper).
"It's a trick the Russians taught me that time you attached me to the Embassy in Moscow," apologized Bond. "There's often quite a lot of fusel oil on the surface of this stuff--at least there used to be when it was badly distilled. Poisonous. In Russia, where you get a lot of bath-tub liquor, it's an understood thing to sprinkle a little pepper in your glass. It takes the fusel oil to the bottom. I got to like the taste and now it's a habit. But I shouldn't have insulted the club Wolfschmidt," he added with a grin.
M grunted. "As long as you don't put pepper in Basildon's favorite champagne," he said drily.
The buildup to Bond and Drax's bridge duel is sophisticated, exciting and fun but climaxes everything that follows it. The goings-on of an arms factory aren't anywhere near as compelling as the action at Blades. While Gala Brand doesn't do the business with Bond (Ian Fleming being less chaste than Walt Disney but quite austere), she doesn't do much but earn 007'sprofessional respect. Fleming's comfort zone is clearly the snapshots of modern male living, with a little gambling and some pyrotechnics thrown in. I enjoyed the glimpses into 007's job and the novel's setting precludes the rampant racism of Live and Let Die, but neither the villains or Bond's straits are memorable.
May 23, 2017
Moonraker gets fiendish with its plot and villains, making this the first of the James Bond books to feel like a James Bond movie.
Pure Cold War spy bliss, this book taps into our collective fear of mass annihilation after the successfully brutal bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A war hero has offered his vast fortune, ambition and knowledge to create and construct a missile supposedly capable of defending Britain in case of attack. A test of the missile is scheduled soon and Bond is put on security detail, because something just isn't quite right with the whole situation, so thinks he and his boss M.
Iam Fleming's own spycraft knowledge from having worked in intelligence during WWII is put to good use in these books. For a genre guy, he's also a decent writer. Doesn't it seem like all public-school-trained Englishmen know how to string along a decent sentence or two?
This is the first book in the series where we get a real decent in-depth look at M. It was a pleasant and unexpected treat to get to know M more intimately and see a little bit about what makes him tick. The book in general was fun, even if the bad guy and his righthand toady were a bit over-the-top...maybe it was fun because they were soooo dastardly!
Pure Cold War spy bliss, this book taps into our collective fear of mass annihilation after the successfully brutal bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A war hero has offered his vast fortune, ambition and knowledge to create and construct a missile supposedly capable of defending Britain in case of attack. A test of the missile is scheduled soon and Bond is put on security detail, because something just isn't quite right with the whole situation, so thinks he and his boss M.
Iam Fleming's own spycraft knowledge from having worked in intelligence during WWII is put to good use in these books. For a genre guy, he's also a decent writer. Doesn't it seem like all public-school-trained Englishmen know how to string along a decent sentence or two?
This is the first book in the series where we get a real decent in-depth look at M. It was a pleasant and unexpected treat to get to know M more intimately and see a little bit about what makes him tick. The book in general was fun, even if the bad guy and his righthand toady were a bit over-the-top...maybe it was fun because they were soooo dastardly!
April 29, 2015
For all of you who read my previous James Bond reviews (Casino Royale and Live & Let Die) this four-star review will be giving you quite a shock.
James Bond is going about his normal life as a Double 0 Operative. And I really mean normal! He reads boring reports and goes to the shooting range. Then, he's called into M's office. He and M discuss a man who's a current English celebrity: Sir Hugo Drax. A very rich man who has invested tons of money into creating a Moonraker, a large rocket/thing that will be launched into the sky, and from there able to defend England from foreign threats. A loud redhead with very bad teeth, lots of hair on his face and body ... and a huge scar on half his face from when he was found injured after WWII. He was so injured, in fact, that little is known about him. He doesn't even remember anything before the explosion. He got out the hospital and went to work making money, becoming a millionaire in 5 years. Everyone admires him and is grateful for his gift of the Moonraker to England. It's going to be tested in a few days.
Bond knows M isn't one to chew the fat, so he's waiting rather impatiently for M to get to the point. This is the point: Drax cheats at cards. M is worried about this for a few reasons. Why would such a wealthy man risk everything by cheating at some lowly card games? Also, if he gets caught cheating at the super-exclusive club he belongs to, he will disgrace himself and England. So, M invites Bond to the ritzy club to beat Drax at his own game, so to speak.
Bond elegantly and brutally reduces Drax to nothing, earning 15 thousand pounds in the process. Drax is angry and humiliated and threatens Bond.
That night, while Bond and Drax are playing at cards, two men in Drax's employ on Moonraker are killed in a murder-suicide. Allegedly over a beautiful woman who is also a secret agent: Gala Brand. (Her full name is Galatea, so Gala is pronounced Gah-lah.) M knows that blaming her for the murder-suicide is bullsh*t. She is a professional and an agent. Even Drax had hit on her repeatedly, and she always refused him, wearing an engagement ring. When he gets too aggressive, she's forced to defend herself physically, which she is able to do, being an agent.
Bond is assigned to take the dead man's place working for Drax. Right into the heart of enemy territory. What is in Drax's past? Why are all his men sporting shaved heads and mustaches? Why are they all German? Is the Moonraker mission going to be sabotaged?
....
This was a thrilling, engaging, edge-of-your seat mystery. Fleming leads you along with little tantalizing clues and glimpses of what's REALLY going on with the Moonraker, and you are right alongside Gala and Bond as they work together to figure it out before the impending launch.
James Bond definitely has a type: so far, every single "Bond girl" has been black-haired and blue-eyed.
Gala Brand is one of the best additions to the book and by far the best "Bond girl" yet. Fleming makes her an agent, and he doesn't hesitate to show us how smart, capable, strong, and determined she is. Unlike Vesper who was sulky and sullen, and Solitaire who was obedient, trusting and submissive to Bond, Gala really holds her own - even against England's most dangerous agent, 007. Fleming really hammers home this point by letting Gala narrate (3rd person) the story at numerous points. This was very exciting to me and also helped me relate to and sympathize with the character in a way I never could with other "Bond girls." I loved seeing the world through Gala's eyes, and seeing her spy, plan, and figure things out (often even before Bond!).
Bond himself is scads better regarding sexism in this book (I can't comment on racism since there are no people in this book except whites). I mean, he's no liberal woman's rights activist, and that's not what I'm asking - that's not what I expect him to be. ALL I ASK from James Bond is that he a.) sees the woman he's with as a person - not a toy or a stupid nuisance and b.) that he only engages in/fantasizes about consensual sex and doesn't hurt/want to hurt the "Bond girl." THAT'S IT. Those are my only requirements. I'm not even asking him to treat a woman as his equal - only asking that he consider her a human being with feelings and desires of her own. You'd think this wouldn't be too much to ask, but then again - it's James Bond.
ANYWAY. He is ALMOST perfect in this book. He really looks after Gala - he wants to protect her. When she's in danger he worries about her (instead of planning to let her die, as he so coldly did with Vesper in Casino Royale). He saves Gala's life numerous times, often shielding her body with his and taking most of the punishment: once during a landslide and once during an explosion. He does his best to protect her and save her and keep her from harm. He never made any snide, angry comments about how useless or weak she was (which he often did with Vesper). I was very proud of him.
And on Gala's part, she is amazing! Even Bond admits "she's got a great head for numbers." Gala impresses Bond with her bravery and intelligence again and again. She even comes up with the final plan to save England at the end. Bond is going to do something that would save England but kill a lot of people and she's tells him that he expects her to just take orders from him, but instead she's got a better plan. Bond listens to her. He trusts her. In the end it's her own plan that saves England.
The only times I was angry with Bond and this book didn't get 5 stars because of it. 1.) Stealing a kiss from Gala - even that I could forgive, if it had been the only infraction. 2.) And this is really my main problem - Bond wanting to kick Gala as a punishment for (get this) not flirting with him. o.O This kind of male entitlement annoys me to no end. And after the Isla Vista killings, I can't even stand reading about this kind of man who wants to hurt women simply because they are not sexually interested in him. If I didn't have enough to worry about from simply being born female, now in addition I find myself fretting over turning men down for dates. I can't even tell you how awful and scary it is to think that rejecting a guy will lead to him hurting/killing you. My friend asked me the other day, "How do I reject a guy in a way that he won't murder me?" and it just BROKE MY HEART. For these reasons, I could not forgive Bond for thinking this way, and if the Isla Vista killings had never happened this might not have affected me so strongly, but they are still fresh my mind and the minds of my friends/family.
Bond's relationship with M is explored more in this book and it's very touching. I was even going, "Awwwww" sometimes when Bond and M were talking to each other. Fleming really shows what a strong friendship the two of them have together.
Lastly, I feel like Fleming did a great job of showing Bond's humanity. He doubts himself, second-guesses himself - even berates himself for mistakes in this novel. He's human both mentally and physically - he takes quite a few beatings in this novel and Fleming does a great job (as usual) of showing a pretty realistic recovery period and how injuries would affect Bond's fighting abilities. I really appreciated this more human side of Bond's mind and body.
Overall, this is a great book. Bond really steps up and improves his behavior, Fleming provides us with our first capable love interest, and in addition we get a mystery that is fun to try and put together. I can only hope that other books in this series continue with these trends. I don't want to have to write a 1 star Bond review again - BUT I WILL IF I HAVE TO. Do you hear me, Fleming? ;)
UPDATE: Okay, I saw the 1979 film with Roger Moore. Um.
The only reason to watch this film is to see all the beautiful women in it. There are tons of gorgeous women in the movie.
However, if you're not attracted to women, or you actually want some kind of quality in your movie - there's nothing else. No cute men, no acting abilities, and zero plot. It's confusing, silly, and nonsensical. Almost a parody of a spy film. I do not find Roger Moore attractive in the least.
If you're choosing between the book and film, DEFINITELY pick the book. It's 100x better.
James Bond is going about his normal life as a Double 0 Operative. And I really mean normal! He reads boring reports and goes to the shooting range. Then, he's called into M's office. He and M discuss a man who's a current English celebrity: Sir Hugo Drax. A very rich man who has invested tons of money into creating a Moonraker, a large rocket/thing that will be launched into the sky, and from there able to defend England from foreign threats. A loud redhead with very bad teeth, lots of hair on his face and body ... and a huge scar on half his face from when he was found injured after WWII. He was so injured, in fact, that little is known about him. He doesn't even remember anything before the explosion. He got out the hospital and went to work making money, becoming a millionaire in 5 years. Everyone admires him and is grateful for his gift of the Moonraker to England. It's going to be tested in a few days.
Bond knows M isn't one to chew the fat, so he's waiting rather impatiently for M to get to the point. This is the point: Drax cheats at cards. M is worried about this for a few reasons. Why would such a wealthy man risk everything by cheating at some lowly card games? Also, if he gets caught cheating at the super-exclusive club he belongs to, he will disgrace himself and England. So, M invites Bond to the ritzy club to beat Drax at his own game, so to speak.
Bond elegantly and brutally reduces Drax to nothing, earning 15 thousand pounds in the process. Drax is angry and humiliated and threatens Bond.
That night, while Bond and Drax are playing at cards, two men in Drax's employ on Moonraker are killed in a murder-suicide. Allegedly over a beautiful woman who is also a secret agent: Gala Brand. (Her full name is Galatea, so Gala is pronounced Gah-lah.) M knows that blaming her for the murder-suicide is bullsh*t. She is a professional and an agent. Even Drax had hit on her repeatedly, and she always refused him, wearing an engagement ring. When he gets too aggressive, she's forced to defend herself physically, which she is able to do, being an agent.
Bond is assigned to take the dead man's place working for Drax. Right into the heart of enemy territory. What is in Drax's past? Why are all his men sporting shaved heads and mustaches? Why are they all German? Is the Moonraker mission going to be sabotaged?
....
This was a thrilling, engaging, edge-of-your seat mystery. Fleming leads you along with little tantalizing clues and glimpses of what's REALLY going on with the Moonraker, and you are right alongside Gala and Bond as they work together to figure it out before the impending launch.
James Bond definitely has a type: so far, every single "Bond girl" has been black-haired and blue-eyed.
Gala Brand is one of the best additions to the book and by far the best "Bond girl" yet. Fleming makes her an agent, and he doesn't hesitate to show us how smart, capable, strong, and determined she is. Unlike Vesper who was sulky and sullen, and Solitaire who was obedient, trusting and submissive to Bond, Gala really holds her own - even against England's most dangerous agent, 007. Fleming really hammers home this point by letting Gala narrate (3rd person) the story at numerous points. This was very exciting to me and also helped me relate to and sympathize with the character in a way I never could with other "Bond girls." I loved seeing the world through Gala's eyes, and seeing her spy, plan, and figure things out (often even before Bond!).
Bond himself is scads better regarding sexism in this book (I can't comment on racism since there are no people in this book except whites). I mean, he's no liberal woman's rights activist, and that's not what I'm asking - that's not what I expect him to be. ALL I ASK from James Bond is that he a.) sees the woman he's with as a person - not a toy or a stupid nuisance and b.) that he only engages in/fantasizes about consensual sex and doesn't hurt/want to hurt the "Bond girl." THAT'S IT. Those are my only requirements. I'm not even asking him to treat a woman as his equal - only asking that he consider her a human being with feelings and desires of her own. You'd think this wouldn't be too much to ask, but then again - it's James Bond.
ANYWAY. He is ALMOST perfect in this book. He really looks after Gala - he wants to protect her. When she's in danger he worries about her (instead of planning to let her die, as he so coldly did with Vesper in Casino Royale). He saves Gala's life numerous times, often shielding her body with his and taking most of the punishment: once during a landslide and once during an explosion. He does his best to protect her and save her and keep her from harm. He never made any snide, angry comments about how useless or weak she was (which he often did with Vesper). I was very proud of him.
And on Gala's part, she is amazing! Even Bond admits "she's got a great head for numbers." Gala impresses Bond with her bravery and intelligence again and again. She even comes up with the final plan to save England at the end. Bond is going to do something that would save England but kill a lot of people and she's tells him that he expects her to just take orders from him, but instead she's got a better plan. Bond listens to her. He trusts her. In the end it's her own plan that saves England.
The only times I was angry with Bond and this book didn't get 5 stars because of it. 1.) Stealing a kiss from Gala - even that I could forgive, if it had been the only infraction. 2.) And this is really my main problem - Bond wanting to kick Gala as a punishment for (get this) not flirting with him. o.O This kind of male entitlement annoys me to no end. And after the Isla Vista killings, I can't even stand reading about this kind of man who wants to hurt women simply because they are not sexually interested in him. If I didn't have enough to worry about from simply being born female, now in addition I find myself fretting over turning men down for dates. I can't even tell you how awful and scary it is to think that rejecting a guy will lead to him hurting/killing you. My friend asked me the other day, "How do I reject a guy in a way that he won't murder me?" and it just BROKE MY HEART. For these reasons, I could not forgive Bond for thinking this way, and if the Isla Vista killings had never happened this might not have affected me so strongly, but they are still fresh my mind and the minds of my friends/family.
Bond's relationship with M is explored more in this book and it's very touching. I was even going, "Awwwww" sometimes when Bond and M were talking to each other. Fleming really shows what a strong friendship the two of them have together.
Lastly, I feel like Fleming did a great job of showing Bond's humanity. He doubts himself, second-guesses himself - even berates himself for mistakes in this novel. He's human both mentally and physically - he takes quite a few beatings in this novel and Fleming does a great job (as usual) of showing a pretty realistic recovery period and how injuries would affect Bond's fighting abilities. I really appreciated this more human side of Bond's mind and body.
Overall, this is a great book. Bond really steps up and improves his behavior, Fleming provides us with our first capable love interest, and in addition we get a mystery that is fun to try and put together. I can only hope that other books in this series continue with these trends. I don't want to have to write a 1 star Bond review again - BUT I WILL IF I HAVE TO. Do you hear me, Fleming? ;)
UPDATE: Okay, I saw the 1979 film with Roger Moore. Um.
The only reason to watch this film is to see all the beautiful women in it. There are tons of gorgeous women in the movie.
However, if you're not attracted to women, or you actually want some kind of quality in your movie - there's nothing else. No cute men, no acting abilities, and zero plot. It's confusing, silly, and nonsensical. Almost a parody of a spy film. I do not find Roger Moore attractive in the least.
If you're choosing between the book and film, DEFINITELY pick the book. It's 100x better.
September 28, 2018
The third Bond I am reading, and in order. So after making ill-advised social commentary in his last book, Fleming begins to really get into the groove for which we know him best, fast action sequences. Bond battles against multi-millionaire and British national hero Sir Hugo Drax, who we discover is actually German, but these are the post war years, so almost all the villains in all the books that have villains are Germans. Fleming taps into our desires for wealth and luxury as we get into a card game at the world's most exclusive card club, where he of course bests Drax. In this, the third book, it's everything "exclusive": fine whiskey, martins, Bentleys/Alfa Romeos, Mercedes Benz, the finest weapons, all of it, and we want all of this vicariously through Bond.
And of course, fine women, here represented by Gala Brand, who is beautiful, of course, but also an accomplished scientist. It is almost as if Fleming were responding to early critiques of Bond as harshly misogynist, as he has Brand actually narrate a couple sections to articulate her resentment that Drax and the other men don't respect her as a scientist because she is a woman. And in the end, it is Brand that comes up with the scientific solution that saves the day. Oh, he's still a womanizer, and he gets the girl, but she also gets him, and while he's no feminist he at least is respectful of her mind.
So this story, with it's focus on a great and truly impressive missile launching, is about the sudden race to space in the fifties, Russia vs. . . well, in this case it is Britain instead of the US, but with the turn of the story it is also about fears about Germans turning those technological marvels into atomic bombs. 3.5, rounded up because he sticks to what he does best, fast action sequences, fast car chases, big, possibly ending-life-as-we-know-it explosions, high stake card games, escaping tight places with the girl. Fun. Now to see the movie again.
And of course, fine women, here represented by Gala Brand, who is beautiful, of course, but also an accomplished scientist. It is almost as if Fleming were responding to early critiques of Bond as harshly misogynist, as he has Brand actually narrate a couple sections to articulate her resentment that Drax and the other men don't respect her as a scientist because she is a woman. And in the end, it is Brand that comes up with the scientific solution that saves the day. Oh, he's still a womanizer, and he gets the girl, but she also gets him, and while he's no feminist he at least is respectful of her mind.
So this story, with it's focus on a great and truly impressive missile launching, is about the sudden race to space in the fifties, Russia vs. . . well, in this case it is Britain instead of the US, but with the turn of the story it is also about fears about Germans turning those technological marvels into atomic bombs. 3.5, rounded up because he sticks to what he does best, fast action sequences, fast car chases, big, possibly ending-life-as-we-know-it explosions, high stake card games, escaping tight places with the girl. Fun. Now to see the movie again.
June 28, 2014
Rating: 4* of five
Yes, again I'm rating the 1979 movie, not the 1954 book. Get over it.
The pre-credits sequence of this film is the absolute all-time best thrill ride in the Bondiverse. Seeing it again on the teensy netbook screen was just as thrilling and pulse-pounding as it was to see it in the theater 34 years ago. A parachuteless Bond flung from a plane, chasing a villain with a parachute, wresting the parachute from the villain, and death to baddie while Bond tiptoes lightly to earth.
It's WONDERFUL.
The plot's standard Bond piffle. Villain with all the money in the world manages to hide a space base in the jungles of Brazil, creates a supermegaultra whiter-than-white Master Race, blah blah you know the drill. What makes this fun to watch are the chase scenes in Venice...so beautiful, Venice!...Rio de Janeiro's cable cars, which had me whimpering in terror...and lastly, most campily, in outer space. That bit, the last half-hour or so, hasn't aged well.
I really love this film for its sheer, balls-to-the-wall speed of pace. Unlike many Bond films, the yip-yap seems to take less time than usual. This perception is helped along by the forgettableness of the yip-yap, I think.
Possibly the stupidest thing that happens in the film is the 7ft2in tall assassin, Jaws, who repeats from The Spy Who Loved Me, turns good because of the love of a (tiny, blonde) woman. Jeez. Possibly the best thing that happens, after the amazing opening sequence, is the launch of six space shuttles...filmed before even one had actually launched! It's quite impressive.
Shirley Bassey's back, singing "Moonraker", the last one she'd ever sing. Thank goodness. Apparently the producers asked her to do this after Kate Bush (!!) said no. The tune's just about what you'd accept in a 1959 film, not a 1979 film.
All there is to say con, I still give this one a pro rating.
Yes, again I'm rating the 1979 movie, not the 1954 book. Get over it.
The pre-credits sequence of this film is the absolute all-time best thrill ride in the Bondiverse. Seeing it again on the teensy netbook screen was just as thrilling and pulse-pounding as it was to see it in the theater 34 years ago. A parachuteless Bond flung from a plane, chasing a villain with a parachute, wresting the parachute from the villain, and death to baddie while Bond tiptoes lightly to earth.
It's WONDERFUL.
The plot's standard Bond piffle. Villain with all the money in the world manages to hide a space base in the jungles of Brazil, creates a supermegaultra whiter-than-white Master Race, blah blah you know the drill. What makes this fun to watch are the chase scenes in Venice...so beautiful, Venice!...Rio de Janeiro's cable cars, which had me whimpering in terror...and lastly, most campily, in outer space. That bit, the last half-hour or so, hasn't aged well.
I really love this film for its sheer, balls-to-the-wall speed of pace. Unlike many Bond films, the yip-yap seems to take less time than usual. This perception is helped along by the forgettableness of the yip-yap, I think.
Possibly the stupidest thing that happens in the film is the 7ft2in tall assassin, Jaws, who repeats from The Spy Who Loved Me, turns good because of the love of a (tiny, blonde) woman. Jeez. Possibly the best thing that happens, after the amazing opening sequence, is the launch of six space shuttles...filmed before even one had actually launched! It's quite impressive.
Shirley Bassey's back, singing "Moonraker", the last one she'd ever sing. Thank goodness. Apparently the producers asked her to do this after Kate Bush (!!) said no. The tune's just about what you'd accept in a 1959 film, not a 1979 film.
All there is to say con, I still give this one a pro rating.
June 2, 2020
So far in this series the stories have almost seemed a little far-fetched, they have a sense of make believe. However, Moonraker seems to encapsulate the worries in the minds of those living through the Cold War. After so recently experiencing WWII. With this realism in mind, I imagine the ending helped to give fresh hope to the public.
I really liked that M was explored more deeply in this novel. We saw a side of this mysterious character that has not been seen before.
This isn’t my favourite James Bond book so far, but it’s certainly a great read that filled me with tension.
I really liked that M was explored more deeply in this novel. We saw a side of this mysterious character that has not been seen before.
This isn’t my favourite James Bond book so far, but it’s certainly a great read that filled me with tension.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 14, 2021
The jet setting glamour we associate with secret agent James Bond is absent from Ian Fleming's third 007 novel, which is set entirely in England. However, there's still luxurious food & high stakes gambling & the setting delivers fascinating characters & a superb villain in the form of Hugo Drax.
Moonraker opens with Bond practising on a dimly lit firing range in the basement of London's Secret Service headquarters & Fleming describes this brilliantly. Setting this novel in England gave it an old fashioned atnmosphere, but I always find this 1955 novel far superior to the overblown comedy of the 1979 film version.
This novel has one of my favourite endings & the last few pages are worthy of something Graham Greene could have written. Ian Fleming has always been a much better writer than he's been given credit for & for those who dismiss his work as merely "pulp fiction" I respectfully submit that reading Moonraker might change their mind. If it doesn't it's still a hell of a good yarn.
Moonraker opens with Bond practising on a dimly lit firing range in the basement of London's Secret Service headquarters & Fleming describes this brilliantly. Setting this novel in England gave it an old fashioned atnmosphere, but I always find this 1955 novel far superior to the overblown comedy of the 1979 film version.
This novel has one of my favourite endings & the last few pages are worthy of something Graham Greene could have written. Ian Fleming has always been a much better writer than he's been given credit for & for those who dismiss his work as merely "pulp fiction" I respectfully submit that reading Moonraker might change their mind. If it doesn't it's still a hell of a good yarn.
April 20, 2025
I've been going about reading these books all wrong.
My big problem in reporting the entertainment value of these books is that I tend to compare them to the movies. I love the movies and that's the only reason I intend to read all the books. I've unintentionally become the inverse of every book reviewer I hate--and this doesn't equal love. How many twits have you met say something along the lines of 'I didn't like that movie/TV show because it strayed from the book'? I've always piped up with: 'you should be pleased that you are getting a varied experience. The show's/movie's writers wanted to surprise and entertain you in a way that offered you a new experience'. My last two reviews of Bond books have mostly seen me complaining about how the books aren't as good as the movies.
Moonraker the book is similar to the movie in namesake only. It is a much more grounded experience that starts out with a guy in a dry government job who eventually gets involved in car chases and conspiracies and is physically punished for those interactions. So, no, Jaws doesn't try biting through a gondola cable. Nor does the climax evolve into a spacesuit laser battle. All things you thought were awesome about the Moonraker movie didn't happen here. The Clint who started reading Moonraker would be annoyed, but by the end of the book I kind of had an appreciation for it. If I had read this before the James Bond movie franchise existed, I would measure this against other spy books and I would be pleased with the result.
As long as you go into this book series not expecting circular saws attached to helicopters or bad guys exploded by gas pellets or kite skiing between icebergs or sharks with frickin' laserbeams attached to their heads, I think you can find something else to enjoy from Ian Fleming's original vision. Just remember ... nobody does it better (than the movies).
My big problem in reporting the entertainment value of these books is that I tend to compare them to the movies. I love the movies and that's the only reason I intend to read all the books. I've unintentionally become the inverse of every book reviewer I hate--and this doesn't equal love. How many twits have you met say something along the lines of 'I didn't like that movie/TV show because it strayed from the book'? I've always piped up with: 'you should be pleased that you are getting a varied experience. The show's/movie's writers wanted to surprise and entertain you in a way that offered you a new experience'. My last two reviews of Bond books have mostly seen me complaining about how the books aren't as good as the movies.
Moonraker the book is similar to the movie in namesake only. It is a much more grounded experience that starts out with a guy in a dry government job who eventually gets involved in car chases and conspiracies and is physically punished for those interactions. So, no, Jaws doesn't try biting through a gondola cable. Nor does the climax evolve into a spacesuit laser battle. All things you thought were awesome about the Moonraker movie didn't happen here. The Clint who started reading Moonraker would be annoyed, but by the end of the book I kind of had an appreciation for it. If I had read this before the James Bond movie franchise existed, I would measure this against other spy books and I would be pleased with the result.
As long as you go into this book series not expecting circular saws attached to helicopters or bad guys exploded by gas pellets or kite skiing between icebergs or sharks with frickin' laserbeams attached to their heads, I think you can find something else to enjoy from Ian Fleming's original vision. Just remember ... nobody does it better (than the movies).
May 15, 2026
“Moonraker,” as a term in British parlance, has several meanings – most of which have absolutely nothing to do with the moon. A “moonraker” can be a small, square sail that is set above the skysail of a sailing ship. The term can refer to a resident of the county of Wiltshire in southwestern England. “Moonraker” can also mean “smuggler,” as the people of Wiltshire once had quite a reputation for smuggling. And, perhaps most famously (or notoriously), a moonraker can be a stupid fellow, a simpleton – “By heaven, you’ve no sense at all; you’re a true moonraker, if ever there was one.”
And yet the Moonraker that gives a title to the third of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels does have something to do, theoretically, with the moon – for in this 1955 novel, the Moonraker is a rocket capable of being fired into space. Fleming’s Moonraker reflects the hopes and the anxieties that people throughout the West felt as the world moved ever faster into a Space Age that promised the “conquest” of space even as it, potentially, threatened all life on Earth.
Fleming, a veteran of British Intelligence service from the Second World War, used his knowledge of spycraft to write a series of novels and stories in which MI-6 agent James Bond, whose “007” number reflects his status as one who is licenced to kill when duty requires it, meets and overcomes a series of nefarious threats to the peace and safety of Great Britain and the West generally – often whilst winning the love of a beautiful and initially distant woman.
The first novel in the series, Casino Royale (1953), sent Bond to France to neutralize a Frenchman working for the Soviet Union’s SMERSH counterintelligence service. Its immediate sequel, Live and Let Die (1954), placed Bond in the United States of America, where he once again faced a SMERSH operative – this time, an American who ran organized-crime activities in Harlem. For Moonraker, Bond stays at home in Great Britain. I found that difference interesting.
As the novel begins, there is excitement at all levels of Government over industrialist Hugo Drax’s development of the Moonraker, a highly advanced missile with which Great Britain should be able to defend itself against enemy attack. It makes sense that Fleming would be drawn to such a premise: the people of Great Britain, having endured strikes from Nazi Germany’s V-1 and V-2 rockets, had bitter experience of what rocket attacks could do. And while the development of nuclear missiles was still years away, the fear of a sudden nuclear attack was certainly a core anxiety of those Cold War times.
Drax is said to be a World War II veteran who was severely injured in the British service, and who has made a fortune in the postwar years. As is characteristic of most of the antagonists in the Bond novels, Drax has an unprepossessing physical appearance and a comparably off-putting personality. Drax is described as “a bullying, boorish, loud-mouthed vulgarian” with “shining puckered skin that covered most of the right half of his face”, along with “Other relics of plastic surgery” and “a naturally prognathous upper jaw and a marked protrusion of the upper row of teeth” that Bond refers to as “ogre’s teeth” (p. 47).
Bond’s first encounter with Drax takes the form of a high=stakes card game at the fashionable Blades gentlemen’s club. Drax is known to cheat at cards, and Bond has the task of out-cheating the cheater whilst getting an initial impression of Drax. I was rather surprised that Fleming introduced another high-stakes card game, just two years after making a card-game showdown a centerpiece of Casino Royale; but then I learned that Moonraker was originally written as a film screenplay, and that Fleming added this rather lengthy card-game sequence to the story in order to expand the story to novel length.
Once the card game at Blades is over, Bond has a chance to take the measure of Hugo Drax. Indeed, one of the pleasures of Fleming’s Bond novels is looking on as Bond analyzes a future opponent. Of Drax, Bond notes that
All the signs pointed to paranoia. Delusions of grandeur and, behind that, of persecution. The contempt in his face. The bullying voice. The expression of secret triumph with which he had met defeat after a moment of bitter collapse. The triumph of the maniac who knows that, whatever the facts may say, he is right. Whoever may try to thwart him, he can overcome. For him, there is no defeat because of his secret power. He knows how to make gold. He can fly like a bird. He is almighty – the man in the padded cell who is God. (p. 97)
Bond’s superior officer, M, informs Bond of some of the more curious doings at Drax’s missile site near the White Cliffs of Dover. For one thing, there are a great many German missile experts working on the project – “More or less all the guided missile experts the Russians didn’t get”, M notes glumly (p. 101). The British Government is concerned about the prospects for Soviet sabotage.
A further complication is a murder-suicide in a pub near the Moonraker complex. A deranged German employee, unhinged by his obsessive love for Drax’s administrative assistant Gala Brand, murdered a Ministry of Supply representative and then killed himself. Gala Brand, it turns out, is a police officer who is working undercover at the plant. M wants Bond to go into Drax’s rocket plant, on the pretext of being a new Ministry of Supply representative. “The new man,” M tells Bond, “must be bilingual in German, a sabotage expert, and have had plenty of experience of our Russian friends.” Agent 007 is not happy about getting this assignment from M – “Bond looked sharply, resentfully, into the grey, uncompromising eyes” (p. 109) – but in short order he is off to the Moonraker plant near Dover.
Initially, Bond finds Drax as disagreeable as before (unsurprisingly), and also finds that he is strongly attracted to the beautiful Gala Brand (unsurprisingly). What Bond doesn’t expect is how he will react the first time he actually sees the Moonraker: “[H]e was greeted by a scene of such splendour that for several minutes he stood speechless, his eyes dazzled by the terrible beauty of the greatest weapon on earth.” The Moonraker is described as “a pencil of glistening chromium, whose point, tapering to a needle-sharp antenna, seemed to graze the roof twenty feet above their heads.” It is “fifty feet of polished chrome steel”, a “shimmering projectile [that] rested on a blunt cone of latticed steel which rose from the floor between the tips of three severely back=swept delta fins that looked as sharp as surgeons’ scalpels.” Bond tells Drax that the Moonraker is “One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen,” and Drax “looked with pleasure at Bond’s rapt expression” (p. 133).
I sensed that Fleming was having great fun setting down this passage of Space Age description – and it made me think of the awe that all things related to space and rocketry used to excite within the general public.
Bond and Gala Brand investigate the plant and its workers, and find that some of the German employees are behaving very suspiciously. Their investigation also seems to have drawn attention to them, as Bond and Gala narrowly survive a murder attempt on the Dover beaches. Their narrow escape causes Bond to engage in some reflection:
In due course, many questions would have to be answered and many mysteries probed, but the basic facts seemed solid and unanswerable. This extraordinary millionaire had built this great weapon. The Ministry of Supply were pleased with it and considered it sound. The Prime Minister and Parliament thought so, too. The rocket was to be fired in less than thirty-six hours under full supervision, and the security arrangements were as strict as they could possibly be. Somebody, and probably several people, wanted him and the girl out of the way. Nerves were stretched down here. There was a lot of tension about. Perhaps there was jealousy. Perhaps some people actually suspected them of being saboteurs. But what would that matter as long as he and Gala kept their eyes open? Not much more than a day to go. They were right out in the open here, in May, in England, in peacetime. It was crazy to worry about a few lunatics so long as the Moonraker was out of danger. (p. 206)
I trust that no spoiler alert will be necessary if I mention that Sir Hugo Drax turns out not to be a patriotic Briton dedicated to protecting the United Kingdom through Moonraker technology – or if I add that he has his own nefarious uses to which he plans to put the rocket. Bond and Gala pool their talents in a last-ditch, last-minute attempt to prevent Drax from wielding a weapon of mass destruction against a vulnerable civilian target.
And when the mission is over, M says to Bond that “the atomic age has created the most deadly saboteur in the history of the world – the little man with the heavy suitcase” (p. 299). It is an eloquent recapitulation of humankind’s entry into the grim world of nuclear terror.
Reading this third James Bond adventure, I was struck by a couple of things. The prominent presence in the novel of German rocket scientists, including some singularly unsavoury individuals who had worked willingly and enthusiastically for the Nazi regime, made me think of all those “Fourth Reich” thrillers of the post-World War II era. There were movies like Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946) and Orson Welles’s The Stranger (1946); and there were novels like John Le Carre’s A Small Town in Germany (1968), Frederick Forsyth’s The Odessa File (1972), and Ira Levin’s The Boys from Brazil (1976). All of them offered variations on the scenario of post-World War II Germans refusing to accept the defeat of the Nazi regime, and seeking in one way or another to bring about a resurgence of the evil of Nazism – a prospect that was clearly an anxiety for many citizens of the Allied nations that had fought so hard and suffered so much to see Nazism destroyed. It was interesting to see Ian Fleming’s take on the “Fourth Reich” suspense story.
I was also impressed by the character of Gala Brand – the furthest thing imaginable from the stereotypical “Bond girl.” Gala is smart and ethical, and she is very good at police work. There are plenty of occasions in Moonraker when Bond would have had no chance at accomplishing his mission without Gala’s intelligence and courage. Perhaps Fleming wanted to signal to his readers that he wasn’t really as misogynistic as some reviewers of the Bond novels liked to claim.
And you have no doubt gathered that Moonraker the 1955 novel has virtually nothing to do with Moonraker the 1979 film, except for its title and the presence of a villain named Hugo Drax (well played by Michael Lonsdale). In those years after the release of the original Star Wars (1977), space fantasy was all the rage, and the makers of this particular Bond film seemed desperate to put together some plot, any plot, that would permit the movie to end with a climactic laser-gun battle in outer space.
The makers of the film might have done better simply to go back to Fleming’s original screenplay for Moonraker -- a characteristically lean and taut James Bond story. Fleming, who died in 1964, did not live to see the release of the film Moonraker; if he had, he might have gone back to one of the original meanings of the term “moonraker,” and called the filmmakers something like “a bloody bunch of moonrakers – the whole bloody lot of them.”
And yet the Moonraker that gives a title to the third of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels does have something to do, theoretically, with the moon – for in this 1955 novel, the Moonraker is a rocket capable of being fired into space. Fleming’s Moonraker reflects the hopes and the anxieties that people throughout the West felt as the world moved ever faster into a Space Age that promised the “conquest” of space even as it, potentially, threatened all life on Earth.
Fleming, a veteran of British Intelligence service from the Second World War, used his knowledge of spycraft to write a series of novels and stories in which MI-6 agent James Bond, whose “007” number reflects his status as one who is licenced to kill when duty requires it, meets and overcomes a series of nefarious threats to the peace and safety of Great Britain and the West generally – often whilst winning the love of a beautiful and initially distant woman.
The first novel in the series, Casino Royale (1953), sent Bond to France to neutralize a Frenchman working for the Soviet Union’s SMERSH counterintelligence service. Its immediate sequel, Live and Let Die (1954), placed Bond in the United States of America, where he once again faced a SMERSH operative – this time, an American who ran organized-crime activities in Harlem. For Moonraker, Bond stays at home in Great Britain. I found that difference interesting.
As the novel begins, there is excitement at all levels of Government over industrialist Hugo Drax’s development of the Moonraker, a highly advanced missile with which Great Britain should be able to defend itself against enemy attack. It makes sense that Fleming would be drawn to such a premise: the people of Great Britain, having endured strikes from Nazi Germany’s V-1 and V-2 rockets, had bitter experience of what rocket attacks could do. And while the development of nuclear missiles was still years away, the fear of a sudden nuclear attack was certainly a core anxiety of those Cold War times.
Drax is said to be a World War II veteran who was severely injured in the British service, and who has made a fortune in the postwar years. As is characteristic of most of the antagonists in the Bond novels, Drax has an unprepossessing physical appearance and a comparably off-putting personality. Drax is described as “a bullying, boorish, loud-mouthed vulgarian” with “shining puckered skin that covered most of the right half of his face”, along with “Other relics of plastic surgery” and “a naturally prognathous upper jaw and a marked protrusion of the upper row of teeth” that Bond refers to as “ogre’s teeth” (p. 47).
Bond’s first encounter with Drax takes the form of a high=stakes card game at the fashionable Blades gentlemen’s club. Drax is known to cheat at cards, and Bond has the task of out-cheating the cheater whilst getting an initial impression of Drax. I was rather surprised that Fleming introduced another high-stakes card game, just two years after making a card-game showdown a centerpiece of Casino Royale; but then I learned that Moonraker was originally written as a film screenplay, and that Fleming added this rather lengthy card-game sequence to the story in order to expand the story to novel length.
Once the card game at Blades is over, Bond has a chance to take the measure of Hugo Drax. Indeed, one of the pleasures of Fleming’s Bond novels is looking on as Bond analyzes a future opponent. Of Drax, Bond notes that
All the signs pointed to paranoia. Delusions of grandeur and, behind that, of persecution. The contempt in his face. The bullying voice. The expression of secret triumph with which he had met defeat after a moment of bitter collapse. The triumph of the maniac who knows that, whatever the facts may say, he is right. Whoever may try to thwart him, he can overcome. For him, there is no defeat because of his secret power. He knows how to make gold. He can fly like a bird. He is almighty – the man in the padded cell who is God. (p. 97)
Bond’s superior officer, M, informs Bond of some of the more curious doings at Drax’s missile site near the White Cliffs of Dover. For one thing, there are a great many German missile experts working on the project – “More or less all the guided missile experts the Russians didn’t get”, M notes glumly (p. 101). The British Government is concerned about the prospects for Soviet sabotage.
A further complication is a murder-suicide in a pub near the Moonraker complex. A deranged German employee, unhinged by his obsessive love for Drax’s administrative assistant Gala Brand, murdered a Ministry of Supply representative and then killed himself. Gala Brand, it turns out, is a police officer who is working undercover at the plant. M wants Bond to go into Drax’s rocket plant, on the pretext of being a new Ministry of Supply representative. “The new man,” M tells Bond, “must be bilingual in German, a sabotage expert, and have had plenty of experience of our Russian friends.” Agent 007 is not happy about getting this assignment from M – “Bond looked sharply, resentfully, into the grey, uncompromising eyes” (p. 109) – but in short order he is off to the Moonraker plant near Dover.
Initially, Bond finds Drax as disagreeable as before (unsurprisingly), and also finds that he is strongly attracted to the beautiful Gala Brand (unsurprisingly). What Bond doesn’t expect is how he will react the first time he actually sees the Moonraker: “[H]e was greeted by a scene of such splendour that for several minutes he stood speechless, his eyes dazzled by the terrible beauty of the greatest weapon on earth.” The Moonraker is described as “a pencil of glistening chromium, whose point, tapering to a needle-sharp antenna, seemed to graze the roof twenty feet above their heads.” It is “fifty feet of polished chrome steel”, a “shimmering projectile [that] rested on a blunt cone of latticed steel which rose from the floor between the tips of three severely back=swept delta fins that looked as sharp as surgeons’ scalpels.” Bond tells Drax that the Moonraker is “One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen,” and Drax “looked with pleasure at Bond’s rapt expression” (p. 133).
I sensed that Fleming was having great fun setting down this passage of Space Age description – and it made me think of the awe that all things related to space and rocketry used to excite within the general public.
Bond and Gala Brand investigate the plant and its workers, and find that some of the German employees are behaving very suspiciously. Their investigation also seems to have drawn attention to them, as Bond and Gala narrowly survive a murder attempt on the Dover beaches. Their narrow escape causes Bond to engage in some reflection:
In due course, many questions would have to be answered and many mysteries probed, but the basic facts seemed solid and unanswerable. This extraordinary millionaire had built this great weapon. The Ministry of Supply were pleased with it and considered it sound. The Prime Minister and Parliament thought so, too. The rocket was to be fired in less than thirty-six hours under full supervision, and the security arrangements were as strict as they could possibly be. Somebody, and probably several people, wanted him and the girl out of the way. Nerves were stretched down here. There was a lot of tension about. Perhaps there was jealousy. Perhaps some people actually suspected them of being saboteurs. But what would that matter as long as he and Gala kept their eyes open? Not much more than a day to go. They were right out in the open here, in May, in England, in peacetime. It was crazy to worry about a few lunatics so long as the Moonraker was out of danger. (p. 206)
I trust that no spoiler alert will be necessary if I mention that Sir Hugo Drax turns out not to be a patriotic Briton dedicated to protecting the United Kingdom through Moonraker technology – or if I add that he has his own nefarious uses to which he plans to put the rocket. Bond and Gala pool their talents in a last-ditch, last-minute attempt to prevent Drax from wielding a weapon of mass destruction against a vulnerable civilian target.
And when the mission is over, M says to Bond that “the atomic age has created the most deadly saboteur in the history of the world – the little man with the heavy suitcase” (p. 299). It is an eloquent recapitulation of humankind’s entry into the grim world of nuclear terror.
Reading this third James Bond adventure, I was struck by a couple of things. The prominent presence in the novel of German rocket scientists, including some singularly unsavoury individuals who had worked willingly and enthusiastically for the Nazi regime, made me think of all those “Fourth Reich” thrillers of the post-World War II era. There were movies like Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946) and Orson Welles’s The Stranger (1946); and there were novels like John Le Carre’s A Small Town in Germany (1968), Frederick Forsyth’s The Odessa File (1972), and Ira Levin’s The Boys from Brazil (1976). All of them offered variations on the scenario of post-World War II Germans refusing to accept the defeat of the Nazi regime, and seeking in one way or another to bring about a resurgence of the evil of Nazism – a prospect that was clearly an anxiety for many citizens of the Allied nations that had fought so hard and suffered so much to see Nazism destroyed. It was interesting to see Ian Fleming’s take on the “Fourth Reich” suspense story.
I was also impressed by the character of Gala Brand – the furthest thing imaginable from the stereotypical “Bond girl.” Gala is smart and ethical, and she is very good at police work. There are plenty of occasions in Moonraker when Bond would have had no chance at accomplishing his mission without Gala’s intelligence and courage. Perhaps Fleming wanted to signal to his readers that he wasn’t really as misogynistic as some reviewers of the Bond novels liked to claim.
And you have no doubt gathered that Moonraker the 1955 novel has virtually nothing to do with Moonraker the 1979 film, except for its title and the presence of a villain named Hugo Drax (well played by Michael Lonsdale). In those years after the release of the original Star Wars (1977), space fantasy was all the rage, and the makers of this particular Bond film seemed desperate to put together some plot, any plot, that would permit the movie to end with a climactic laser-gun battle in outer space.
The makers of the film might have done better simply to go back to Fleming’s original screenplay for Moonraker -- a characteristically lean and taut James Bond story. Fleming, who died in 1964, did not live to see the release of the film Moonraker; if he had, he might have gone back to one of the original meanings of the term “moonraker,” and called the filmmakers something like “a bloody bunch of moonrakers – the whole bloody lot of them.”
October 17, 2018
A good James Bond novel.
Ian Fleming first published Moonraker in 1955 and it is the third book featuring his master spy, 007. Oddly set in England (Bond is almost always sent out of country due to jurisdictional procedures) this features an erstwhile British rocket project with some loyalty issues. Bond takes a lead from M and then in classic Bond fashion gets in to a lot more than he bargained for.
I will need to revisit the 1979 Lewis Gilbert film starring Roger Moore as Bond, but I think that elements of the book were used to create the 1995 Bond film Goldeneye starring Pierce Brosnan.
Fleming’s villain this time around, Sir Hugo Drax, was very similar to Auric Goldfinger in that both are wildly successful tycoons who have a different measuring stick for winning. Fleming used the proximity to World War II and the ongoing Cold War weapons race to fuel some of the anxiety and paranoia central to the plot.
Ian Fleming first published Moonraker in 1955 and it is the third book featuring his master spy, 007. Oddly set in England (Bond is almost always sent out of country due to jurisdictional procedures) this features an erstwhile British rocket project with some loyalty issues. Bond takes a lead from M and then in classic Bond fashion gets in to a lot more than he bargained for.
I will need to revisit the 1979 Lewis Gilbert film starring Roger Moore as Bond, but I think that elements of the book were used to create the 1995 Bond film Goldeneye starring Pierce Brosnan.
Fleming’s villain this time around, Sir Hugo Drax, was very similar to Auric Goldfinger in that both are wildly successful tycoons who have a different measuring stick for winning. Fleming used the proximity to World War II and the ongoing Cold War weapons race to fuel some of the anxiety and paranoia central to the plot.
January 5, 2023
Book three in the James Bond series.
While these books are definitely products of their time, I must say I do find them easy reading, low concentration levels required.
There did seem to be far less problematic content in this entry compared to the first two books and it was great to see Bond blown out by a woman finally!
These books are a real eye opener for me, I was always under the impression that Bond was a super spy, intelligent, no one could fool Bond. However, he comes across as very ditzy to me, easily fooled and not particularly clever.
An easy read to start the year.
Three stars.
While these books are definitely products of their time, I must say I do find them easy reading, low concentration levels required.
There did seem to be far less problematic content in this entry compared to the first two books and it was great to see Bond blown out by a woman finally!
These books are a real eye opener for me, I was always under the impression that Bond was a super spy, intelligent, no one could fool Bond. However, he comes across as very ditzy to me, easily fooled and not particularly clever.
An easy read to start the year.
Three stars.
May 8, 2016
"Why do all the men wear moustaches?" asked Bond, ignoring Drax's question. Again he had the impression that his question had nettled the other man.
Drax gave one of his short barking laughs. "My idea," he said. "They're difficult to recognize in those white overalls and with their heads shaved. So I told them to all grow moustaches. The thing's become quite a fetish. Like in the RAF during the war. See anything wrong with it?"
"Of course not," said Bond. "Rather startling at first. I would have thought that large numbers on their suits with a different colour for each shift would have been more effective."
"Well," said Drax, turning away towards the door as if to end the conversation, "I decided on moustaches."
Moonraker, the third Bond novel, was an odd read.
The book has scenes that are very similar to Casino Royale, i.e Bond being pitched against a villain who cheats at cards. Yet, Bond seems to be a rather different character in Moonraker. He's not the condescending rake of the first two books, but comes across as quite the normal human being in this one - he has to do chores and paperwork and, like many of us, Bond doesn't like Mondays.
Of course, as in the previous books, part of the plot also has Bond in pursuit of the girl - in this case a smart, confident agent by the name of Gala Brand, who is one of my favourite female characters so far - not hard if we consider how little character Fleming has given to the ones in the first two books.
What is strange as well is that while Fleming spent more time fleshing out Bond and Gala in this one, he spent much less time on the villain of the piece - Sir Hugo Drax, who, by the way, looks nothing like his film counterpart.
"Drax gave the impression of being a little larger than life. He was physically big - about six foot tall, Bond guessed - and his shoulders were exceptionally broad. he had a square head and the tight reddish hair was parted in the middle. On either side of the parting the hair dipped down in a curve towards the temples with the object, Bond assumed, of hiding as much as possible of the tissue of shining puckered skin that covered most of the right half of his face. Other relics of plastic surgery could be detected in the man's right ear, which was not a perfect match with its companion on the left, and the right eye, which had been a surgical failure. It was considerably larger than the left eye, because of a contraction of the borrowed skin used to rebuild the upper and lower eyelids, and it looked painfully bloodshot."
Drax is a mere cliche, a comic book villain.
I can see that this might still have been an exciting idea in 1955, when the book was written, I really can. However, I've really grown tired of this plot line - so when this background was revealed in the book I was disappointed. I guess, one of my favourite aspects of the Bond books are the colourful villains. So, when the villain is a mere two dimensional character, my enjoyment of the book suffers because of it - and, as I dislike Bond, more page-time for Bond doesn't make up for that failure.
What was kind of interesting, was that Fleming based Drax's background story on a real event. However, it is unlikely that Fleming intended for any historical facts to spoil a good story, so he doesn't go into a lot of detail (and of course leaves out that the same tactic was employed by all parties).
Which brings me to my biggest gripe about the book: Fleming's shoddy research.
I had a good discussion with my reading buddy, Troy, about this very issue and I guess we dissected the life out is trying to find an explanation for Fleming's odd use of military address. All I can say is that, to my mind Fleming messed up. Big time.
Shoddy research.
Also, Drax's real name doesn't work. It seems grammatically erroneous to me, but I'm happy to be disproved on that point.
Anyway, rant over. This was not the best Bond novel ever, but not the worst either and probably quite enjoyable if you're into pulp fiction, comic books, or card games.
What it certainly was not, was a space adventure. The book's plot once again had nothing to do with the film, but how could it when it was written before the space age really began?
So, less "Bond in Spaaace" and more "Bond in a ventilator shaft" or "Bond for Die Hard Fans" or "Bond and Gala discuss the Ethics of Flower Picking".
Yeah, it doesn't have the same ring to it.
Bond smiled warmly at her. "I'm jealous," he said. "I had other plans for you tomorrow night."
She smiled back at him, grateful that the silence had been broken.
"What were they," she asked.
"I was going to take you off to a farmhouse in France," he said. "And after a wonderful dinner I was going to see if it's true what they say about the scream of a rose."
She laughed. "I'm sorry I can't oblige. But there are plenty of others waiting to be picked."
Drax gave one of his short barking laughs. "My idea," he said. "They're difficult to recognize in those white overalls and with their heads shaved. So I told them to all grow moustaches. The thing's become quite a fetish. Like in the RAF during the war. See anything wrong with it?"
"Of course not," said Bond. "Rather startling at first. I would have thought that large numbers on their suits with a different colour for each shift would have been more effective."
"Well," said Drax, turning away towards the door as if to end the conversation, "I decided on moustaches."
Moonraker, the third Bond novel, was an odd read.
The book has scenes that are very similar to Casino Royale, i.e Bond being pitched against a villain who cheats at cards. Yet, Bond seems to be a rather different character in Moonraker. He's not the condescending rake of the first two books, but comes across as quite the normal human being in this one - he has to do chores and paperwork and, like many of us, Bond doesn't like Mondays.
Of course, as in the previous books, part of the plot also has Bond in pursuit of the girl - in this case a smart, confident agent by the name of Gala Brand, who is one of my favourite female characters so far - not hard if we consider how little character Fleming has given to the ones in the first two books.
What is strange as well is that while Fleming spent more time fleshing out Bond and Gala in this one, he spent much less time on the villain of the piece - Sir Hugo Drax, who, by the way, looks nothing like his film counterpart.
"Drax gave the impression of being a little larger than life. He was physically big - about six foot tall, Bond guessed - and his shoulders were exceptionally broad. he had a square head and the tight reddish hair was parted in the middle. On either side of the parting the hair dipped down in a curve towards the temples with the object, Bond assumed, of hiding as much as possible of the tissue of shining puckered skin that covered most of the right half of his face. Other relics of plastic surgery could be detected in the man's right ear, which was not a perfect match with its companion on the left, and the right eye, which had been a surgical failure. It was considerably larger than the left eye, because of a contraction of the borrowed skin used to rebuild the upper and lower eyelids, and it looked painfully bloodshot."
Drax is a mere cliche, a comic book villain.
I can see that this might still have been an exciting idea in 1955, when the book was written, I really can. However, I've really grown tired of this plot line - so when this background was revealed in the book I was disappointed. I guess, one of my favourite aspects of the Bond books are the colourful villains. So, when the villain is a mere two dimensional character, my enjoyment of the book suffers because of it - and, as I dislike Bond, more page-time for Bond doesn't make up for that failure.
What was kind of interesting, was that Fleming based Drax's background story on a real event. However, it is unlikely that Fleming intended for any historical facts to spoil a good story, so he doesn't go into a lot of detail (and of course leaves out that the same tactic was employed by all parties).
Which brings me to my biggest gripe about the book: Fleming's shoddy research.
I had a good discussion with my reading buddy, Troy, about this very issue and I guess we dissected the life out is trying to find an explanation for Fleming's odd use of military address. All I can say is that, to my mind Fleming messed up. Big time.
Shoddy research.
Also, Drax's real name doesn't work. It seems grammatically erroneous to me, but I'm happy to be disproved on that point.
Anyway, rant over. This was not the best Bond novel ever, but not the worst either and probably quite enjoyable if you're into pulp fiction, comic books, or card games.
What it certainly was not, was a space adventure. The book's plot once again had nothing to do with the film, but how could it when it was written before the space age really began?
So, less "Bond in Spaaace" and more "Bond in a ventilator shaft" or "Bond for Die Hard Fans" or "Bond and Gala discuss the Ethics of Flower Picking".
Yeah, it doesn't have the same ring to it.
Bond smiled warmly at her. "I'm jealous," he said. "I had other plans for you tomorrow night."
She smiled back at him, grateful that the silence had been broken.
"What were they," she asked.
"I was going to take you off to a farmhouse in France," he said. "And after a wonderful dinner I was going to see if it's true what they say about the scream of a rose."
She laughed. "I'm sorry I can't oblige. But there are plenty of others waiting to be picked."
April 16, 2023
Moonraker by Ian Fleming is the third James Bond novel. Before reading this, anyone should take note that this was written in the 1950s with the sensibility of the day, where misogyny and strict gender roles were just beginning to change, as well as the increase of cold war era disdain for the Russians. If these concepts trigger you, then avoid reading Bond books. In some ways, there is an antiquated mindset pervasive throughout the books, but again if this is going to make you uncomfortable: avoid the book. There are some really magnificent touches in this novel. Agent 007 communicates that he is one of only three 00s currently active and double O eleven is one of his pals. After spending his morning on the gun range, he goes to the office to interact with the secretary of the 00s, review files, read and sign a file of new policies and procedures, and meet with M. The beginning is a view of pre-secret agenting that is so mundane that it provided a great deal of food for thought that I devoured. Then the major part of the story revolves on a wealthy British patriot looking to get a rocket into space and his suspicious ways. Hugo Drax is an intriguing and memorable character.
February 3, 2014
I have to say MOONRAKER didn’t have as much action as either of the two previous Bond novels. At least at the beginning anyway. Sure there was the consummate card game and torture scene, but neither hit as hard or as fast as what happened in CASINO ROYALE. But this was certainly an entertaining read, even though the female characters seemed to wilt at the first sign of trouble, or at least gave the distinct impression of the likelihood of such an occurrence.
I know it’s too much to ask (and it’s certainly not going to stop me from reading the rest of said novels), but just once I’d like to see a woman kick some serious butt in this series. I’d have to say the closest female so far has been Vesper Lynd, and even she had her flaws. Gala Brand held a certain amount of intrigue and promise, but I felt like the afterburner element was missing from her character.
Bond does show a bit of his human side in this one by not actually getting the girl (being just a mere mortal like the rest of us), which does make his character a bit more interesting, even if said girl (Gala) does notice his ample charm. And he, in turn, notices her abundant curves. Yes, these novels might be called fluff, but like Bond, these novels hold a sophisticated air and charm that isn’t easily quantifiable, and that’s what makes them so gosh darn entertaining.
Cross-posted at Robert's Reads
I know it’s too much to ask (and it’s certainly not going to stop me from reading the rest of said novels), but just once I’d like to see a woman kick some serious butt in this series. I’d have to say the closest female so far has been Vesper Lynd, and even she had her flaws. Gala Brand held a certain amount of intrigue and promise, but I felt like the afterburner element was missing from her character.
Bond does show a bit of his human side in this one by not actually getting the girl (being just a mere mortal like the rest of us), which does make his character a bit more interesting, even if said girl (Gala) does notice his ample charm. And he, in turn, notices her abundant curves. Yes, these novels might be called fluff, but like Bond, these novels hold a sophisticated air and charm that isn’t easily quantifiable, and that’s what makes them so gosh darn entertaining.
Cross-posted at Robert's Reads
October 14, 2018
So far I've given the Bond books I've reviewed 3 stars. They walk a sort of thin line. They seem to appeal to younger males, but have slightly adult content (though in todays market they might be thought a bit tamer than they were when published.) They are enjoyable, straight adventure yarns and may deserve a 3.5 at least one will get a 4. They're good books, just not as good as some others.
In this one James saves England's missile program, uncovers a spy and, oddly doesn't get the (a) girl. the only Bond novel where he doesn't have a romantic fling I believe....
Just updated this...I typed "there" for "they're"...sigh.
In this one James saves England's missile program, uncovers a spy and, oddly doesn't get the (a) girl. the only Bond novel where he doesn't have a romantic fling I believe....
Just updated this...I typed "there" for "they're"...sigh.
February 10, 2024
“These secret service people always seemed to have time for sex however important their jobs might be.”
After a couple of interesting but uneven entries, the James Bond series kicks it up a notch with the third book: Gambling! Methamphetamines! Intrigue! Sinister henchmen! Beautiful operatives! Megalomaniacal Bad Guy! Mustaches! World Politics! Car Chases! Remote Lairs! Rockets! Explosions! Submarines! And a race against time to save the world (or jolly ol' England anyway)! The plot won't contain many surprises for suspense/mystery readers but it's a blast just as well, and parts of the story don't turn out the way fans of the film series might expect. In fact, the Moonraker movie shared very few plot elements - almost none, in fact - with this book which was originally published in the wee hours of the Space Race, about two years before Sputnik fired the starting gun. And if you were wondering what M's name is...
"I thought M was a randomly assigned letter; I had no idea it stood for..."
Daniel Craig as James Bond in Casino Royale (2006)
After a couple of interesting but uneven entries, the James Bond series kicks it up a notch with the third book: Gambling! Methamphetamines! Intrigue! Sinister henchmen! Beautiful operatives! Megalomaniacal Bad Guy! Mustaches! World Politics! Car Chases! Remote Lairs! Rockets! Explosions! Submarines! And a race against time to save the world (or jolly ol' England anyway)! The plot won't contain many surprises for suspense/mystery readers but it's a blast just as well, and parts of the story don't turn out the way fans of the film series might expect. In fact, the Moonraker movie shared very few plot elements - almost none, in fact - with this book which was originally published in the wee hours of the Space Race, about two years before Sputnik fired the starting gun. And if you were wondering what M's name is...
"I thought M was a randomly assigned letter; I had no idea it stood for..."
Daniel Craig as James Bond in Casino Royale (2006)
January 7, 2025
The first great Bond novel. Once again, forget the silly (but enjoyable) 1979 Roger Moore film of the same name--no Dr. Holly Goodhead or Jaws here.
Casino Royal is a masterpiece of lean, bare-bones, near-poetic English thriller writing; Live and Let Die is Ian Fleming coming to grips with his new-found success as a writer and learning to write great prose. Moonraker is Fleming putting it all together in a story that is at once disappointing in its lack of exotic locales, yet experimental enough to expand Fleming's literary signature in significant ways.
The public disappointment was palpable in 1955, when MR became the first James Bond novel to take place solely in England. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. The Secret Service ran assignments outside England. Bond even states that his persona is too recognizable to be of use in-country.
But this lack of external locations serves to enhance Fleming's storytelling prowess. It forces him to make his story character-driven. Scenes of Bond at Target Practice and his excelling at cardsharp training cue the reader that MR is going to be different. Bond is unmasked as a boy playing at being a spy--albeit quite successfully. But he is also exposed as a talented and intelligent man of deception who cares more about succeeding at his job than his personal welfare--including his sexual appetites.
Gala (short for Galatea) Brand is a surprisingly deep "Bond" girl and earns her stripes alongside our hero despite his fixation with the mole on her right breast. She is a woman torn between traditional and modern roles and keeps the faith to both.
But the most impressive feather in Fleming's cap is his villain, Sir Hugo Drax. Where le Chiffre and Mr. Big were monstrously larger than life in their "cardboard" depravities, Drax is a fleshed-out man of such villainy that even Bond is taken in (despite all the evidence to the contrary--more than just his physical deformity) by his earnestness.
Gone is the clumsy flashback of M giving Bond his assignment. Indeed, the structure of the novel being separated into three parts is experimental for Fleming and greatly enchances his superlative narrative and tense dialog--which has a flare and rhythm all its own.
The story is a tad dated, and the impetus behind Drax's madness has been used enough to make his character seem passe, but Moonraker represents a high-water mark early in Ian Fleming's literary career.
Highly recommended for the James Bond enthusiast or anyone interested in Bond beyond the movies.
Casino Royal is a masterpiece of lean, bare-bones, near-poetic English thriller writing; Live and Let Die is Ian Fleming coming to grips with his new-found success as a writer and learning to write great prose. Moonraker is Fleming putting it all together in a story that is at once disappointing in its lack of exotic locales, yet experimental enough to expand Fleming's literary signature in significant ways.
The public disappointment was palpable in 1955, when MR became the first James Bond novel to take place solely in England. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. The Secret Service ran assignments outside England. Bond even states that his persona is too recognizable to be of use in-country.
But this lack of external locations serves to enhance Fleming's storytelling prowess. It forces him to make his story character-driven. Scenes of Bond at Target Practice and his excelling at cardsharp training cue the reader that MR is going to be different. Bond is unmasked as a boy playing at being a spy--albeit quite successfully. But he is also exposed as a talented and intelligent man of deception who cares more about succeeding at his job than his personal welfare--including his sexual appetites.
Gala (short for Galatea) Brand is a surprisingly deep "Bond" girl and earns her stripes alongside our hero despite his fixation with the mole on her right breast. She is a woman torn between traditional and modern roles and keeps the faith to both.
But the most impressive feather in Fleming's cap is his villain, Sir Hugo Drax. Where le Chiffre and Mr. Big were monstrously larger than life in their "cardboard" depravities, Drax is a fleshed-out man of such villainy that even Bond is taken in (despite all the evidence to the contrary--more than just his physical deformity) by his earnestness.
Gone is the clumsy flashback of M giving Bond his assignment. Indeed, the structure of the novel being separated into three parts is experimental for Fleming and greatly enchances his superlative narrative and tense dialog--which has a flare and rhythm all its own.
The story is a tad dated, and the impetus behind Drax's madness has been used enough to make his character seem passe, but Moonraker represents a high-water mark early in Ian Fleming's literary career.
Highly recommended for the James Bond enthusiast or anyone interested in Bond beyond the movies.
October 21, 2023
And, 70% into the third Bond novel, I'd say the Fleming formula is complete: a cartoonish supervillainous conspiracy to launch an atomic warhead at London inspired in the main by monomaniacal spite and vengeance, followed by Bond listening to the villain monologue his plan, and, upon this rant's completion, 007 taunting its author with a few cutting remarks with the object of making him lose his cool. Aaaaaand...SCENE.
For all the ludicrousness of the plot this book was definitely less problematic than its predecessor, and the downfall of the boorish Drax is of course quite satisfying in ways that the deaths of the odious Le Chiffre and supercilious Mr. Big didn't match.
For all the ludicrousness of the plot this book was definitely less problematic than its predecessor, and the downfall of the boorish Drax is of course quite satisfying in ways that the deaths of the odious Le Chiffre and supercilious Mr. Big didn't match.
March 11, 2023
So far, this is my favorite of the Bond books so far.
September 2, 2013
The movie Moonraker is the one I like to refer to as Bond! In! Spaaaaaace! or Star Wars: Attack of the Bond. I figured the book would be relatively similar, but you'd think I'm new at this project. Silly rabbit! The book was published in the mid-50s, the movie came out in the late 70s - the book's Moonraker referred to a nuclear weapon whereas the movie's Moonraker referred to a space shuttle. Clearly making a movie about spacelandia would be appealing to the masses following the release of Star Wars. Good job, masses - going and ruining it for the rest of us.
Again the trailer above shows very few things that appeared in the book, but it's my own fault for thinking one of these times there's going to be something more in common than simply the title and the James Bond character.
But, see... the book has this whole long beginning sequence involving a card game between James Bond and the one-who-turns-out-to-be-the-villain Hugo Drax. As fascinating as that can be in print, card games don't translate well to film - at least not until the later Bond movies like Casino Royale because Daniel Craig makes a hot-damn poker player. But I digress. Space, however, especially on the tail of Star Wars can be really exciting, even if rationally it makes no sense whatsoever.
The Bond girl in the movie is (hehe) Holly Goodhead, a much better name (to 14 year boys across the world) than Gala Brand of the book. And then there's this whole Nazi busy in the book and blah blah blah. But SPACE! And LASERS! And Jaws in space! These things are in the movie, so therefore the movie is better.
Clearly.
Theme song by (OMG NOT AGAIN) Shirley Bassey. I think so far she's had the most theme songs for Bond movies? It was great at first, but now it's like Share the love, Shirley, give someone else a chance, mmkay?
Not the best Bond book by any stretch of the imagination. Had there been a laser or two then maybe it'd be decent enough, but this was a bit ho-hum for my tastes. Movie was better. Implausible but better.
Next up... For Your Eyes Only.
Again the trailer above shows very few things that appeared in the book, but it's my own fault for thinking one of these times there's going to be something more in common than simply the title and the James Bond character.
But, see... the book has this whole long beginning sequence involving a card game between James Bond and the one-who-turns-out-to-be-the-villain Hugo Drax. As fascinating as that can be in print, card games don't translate well to film - at least not until the later Bond movies like Casino Royale because Daniel Craig makes a hot-damn poker player. But I digress. Space, however, especially on the tail of Star Wars can be really exciting, even if rationally it makes no sense whatsoever.
The Bond girl in the movie is (hehe) Holly Goodhead, a much better name (to 14 year boys across the world) than Gala Brand of the book. And then there's this whole Nazi busy in the book and blah blah blah. But SPACE! And LASERS! And Jaws in space! These things are in the movie, so therefore the movie is better.
Clearly.
Theme song by (OMG NOT AGAIN) Shirley Bassey. I think so far she's had the most theme songs for Bond movies? It was great at first, but now it's like Share the love, Shirley, give someone else a chance, mmkay?
Not the best Bond book by any stretch of the imagination. Had there been a laser or two then maybe it'd be decent enough, but this was a bit ho-hum for my tastes. Movie was better. Implausible but better.
Next up... For Your Eyes Only.
March 4, 2023
Given my enjoyment of all the James Bond movies over the last 30+ years, my mind has been repeatedly reminded that the movies are based on a character that was originally created by Ian Fleming. My intent to read a Fleming novel was reawakened with every movie, but I just did not get around to it, until now.
With Bond being such a dominate force in movies, the comparisons between book-Bond and movie-Bond spent a lot of time floating around in my mind. It turns out that book-Bond is this real person with a real job. When not on assignment, he goes to the office, does his paperwork, meets with "M," and typically has lunch in the employee’s cafeteria. He lives in a modest flat in London and his martinis do not necessarily need to be shaken, but they must have a slice of lemon peel in them. In comparison, movie-Bond is practically a superhero. He’s invincible with all of his gadgets, devices, and tricked-out sports cars. Movie-Bond is Batman in a suit and tie.
Moonraker, the novel, is not much more than a typical mystery-spy novel. It moves along through its chapters revealing itself bit-by-bit through Bond’s deductive reasoning and spying skills. The story capitalizes on the public’s fascination with the then-emerging science of rocketry and its marriage with nuclear weapons. The first successful test of an ICBM came about two years after Fleming’s depiction of the one described in this book.
Gender depictions in Moonraker were an interesting snapshot of the 1950’s. Fleming’s women were made to exhibit unassertive brilliance while maintaining their attractiveness to men. In hindsight, this is something of a stepping stone on the long path towards achieving equality with men in society. Men, in contrast, were depicted as the masters of society who required ten packs of cigarettes on any given day to cope with life’s pressures.
The relative mediocreness of the novel and the bland nature of the James Bond character indicate a situation where the movie franchise probably perpetuates Fleming’s novels. Without movie-Bond, Moonraker would probably be relegated to the countless other dime-store paperbacks that find themselves for sale on eBay for only a $1.
With Bond being such a dominate force in movies, the comparisons between book-Bond and movie-Bond spent a lot of time floating around in my mind. It turns out that book-Bond is this real person with a real job. When not on assignment, he goes to the office, does his paperwork, meets with "M," and typically has lunch in the employee’s cafeteria. He lives in a modest flat in London and his martinis do not necessarily need to be shaken, but they must have a slice of lemon peel in them. In comparison, movie-Bond is practically a superhero. He’s invincible with all of his gadgets, devices, and tricked-out sports cars. Movie-Bond is Batman in a suit and tie.
Moonraker, the novel, is not much more than a typical mystery-spy novel. It moves along through its chapters revealing itself bit-by-bit through Bond’s deductive reasoning and spying skills. The story capitalizes on the public’s fascination with the then-emerging science of rocketry and its marriage with nuclear weapons. The first successful test of an ICBM came about two years after Fleming’s depiction of the one described in this book.
Gender depictions in Moonraker were an interesting snapshot of the 1950’s. Fleming’s women were made to exhibit unassertive brilliance while maintaining their attractiveness to men. In hindsight, this is something of a stepping stone on the long path towards achieving equality with men in society. Men, in contrast, were depicted as the masters of society who required ten packs of cigarettes on any given day to cope with life’s pressures.
The relative mediocreness of the novel and the bland nature of the James Bond character indicate a situation where the movie franchise probably perpetuates Fleming’s novels. Without movie-Bond, Moonraker would probably be relegated to the countless other dime-store paperbacks that find themselves for sale on eBay for only a $1.
August 7, 2018
***2018 Summer of Spies***
The oddest so far in the James Bond series. I was about two thirds of the way through when I started to wonder when something of significance would happen! The last third, however, held all the action that I’d been asking for.
A very slow start, back to Bond & his card expertise. Having just read Tim Powers’ Last Call, which heavily involves poker and other games of chance, I was maybe a bit worn out with the card games! However, what I did find fascinating in the opening pages of the book was Fleming’s description of James Bond’s schedule:
This is Fleming, the now-married man, describing his life during his stint in naval intelligence! It could almost have been written by his biographer, Andrew Lycett.
The third book in the Bond series, this is first one in which Bond doesn’t get the girl. I found the last sentence to be a bit sad: “He touched her for the last time and then they turned away from each other and walked off into their different lives.” Fleming drew so much from his personal life for these books that it makes me wonder who he had in mind when he wrote such a melancholy final line.
The oddest so far in the James Bond series. I was about two thirds of the way through when I started to wonder when something of significance would happen! The last third, however, held all the action that I’d been asking for.
A very slow start, back to Bond & his card expertise. Having just read Tim Powers’ Last Call, which heavily involves poker and other games of chance, I was maybe a bit worn out with the card games! However, what I did find fascinating in the opening pages of the book was Fleming’s description of James Bond’s schedule:
”It was the beginning of a typical routine day for Bond. It was only two or three times a year that an assignment came along requiring his particular abilities. For the rest of the year he had the duties of an easy-going senior civil servant—elastic office hours from around ten to six; lunch, generally at the canteen; evenings spent playing cards in the company of a few close friends, or at Crockford’s; or making love, with rather cold passion, to one of three similarly disposed married women; weekends playing golf for high stakes at one of the clubs near London.”
This is Fleming, the now-married man, describing his life during his stint in naval intelligence! It could almost have been written by his biographer, Andrew Lycett.
The third book in the Bond series, this is first one in which Bond doesn’t get the girl. I found the last sentence to be a bit sad: “He touched her for the last time and then they turned away from each other and walked off into their different lives.” Fleming drew so much from his personal life for these books that it makes me wonder who he had in mind when he wrote such a melancholy final line.
February 1, 2025
Flat, linear and predictable, another proof that dear Mr. Fleming is one of the most overrated writers ever. The start (only the first twenty pages) is promising, but after these ones, the level decreases:
- bridge is a gentlemen's game, but here is described as shuffle between cheaters, not to mention those who don't know the rules and do understand almost nothing
- Drax is such a horrible guy, physically and mentally, which makes too obvious the fact that he's the villain
- the description of the rocket is dull and non-attractive at all
- I've never heard that a secretary, even a pretty one, deals with the scientific part of rocket-science!?!
- the final, foreseeable as hell, is boring, not to mention the most important fact: after all his trouble, Bond only gets a kiss or two.
Too little for him, too little for us...
- bridge is a gentlemen's game, but here is described as shuffle between cheaters, not to mention those who don't know the rules and do understand almost nothing
- Drax is such a horrible guy, physically and mentally, which makes too obvious the fact that he's the villain
- the description of the rocket is dull and non-attractive at all
- I've never heard that a secretary, even a pretty one, deals with the scientific part of rocket-science!?!
- the final, foreseeable as hell, is boring, not to mention the most important fact: after all his trouble, Bond only gets a kiss or two.
Too little for him, too little for us...
June 3, 2012
What is there that can possibly be left to be written about Britain’s favourite secret agent that hasn’t already been said a million times before, by feminists, by film reviewers, even by distinguished literary gents? While the cover art is calculated to have any teenage boy’s blood racing – girls! guns! rockets! – this book delivers on both the book and recent film versions of Casino Royale’s promise of a more appealing, albeit less charming, Bond.
What you know are to become key elements of the films already exist here. Bond’s love of gadgetry and the high life are evident, whether that is fine tailoring, his Ronson lighter for use on his own blend of cigarettes, or the little flat off the King’s Road. He drives a Bentley, rather than an Aston Martin, an older, classic model he takes pride in racing against foreign engineering, at least until he totals it.
Yet while aiming for effortlessness in all this acquisition, Bond is only one loss at cards away from ruin. We see him chafing at the daily routine and ploughing half-heartedly through the paperwork just like any other office worker, although in the privileged position afforded to a senior civil servant, he is no idle playboy. When away from London on operations, he has a Leica camera in one pocket and a Beretta in the other but perhaps more telling are the gadgets he lacks: having to drive to the next town to telephone allies in Scotland Yard or waiting for essential information to arrive by telegram.
Also lacking is any contact with anyone he isn’t working with or for. Perhaps this lack of companionship is compensated for by being surrounded by women, of course possessed of a beauty that mere mortals can only dream of. Whether it is the carefully selected waitresses of the gambling club M frequents, the steely Secret Service secretaries, or a ‘severely competent’ police woman, the lucky fellow rarely encounters a plain woman. Yet central female characters Gala Brand and Loelia Posonby – though crazily named – are also blessed with a quiet strength, essential to keeping the battered and broken Bond on his feet throughout the action.
Though Fleming laments that Posonby is approaching an age where:
'Unless she married soon, Bond thought for the hundredth time, or had a lover, her cool air of authority might easily become spinsterish and she would join the army of women who had married a career.'
Perhaps this is not the terrible fate he makes it out to be, and it is arguable if a quick tumble with 007 would be a better one, especially as he is facing a similar destiny. His own prospects for a long and happy retirement seem slim, after all. Although contemplating certain death with hopelessness after torture and near defeat, he never questions the rights and wrongs of the power the Service wields over his life. He is good at the essentials of his job, his boss is decent, that is enough. Bond is far more of a bastard than you remember, quite a lot rougher around the edges and unafraid to fight dirty if circumstances dictate. Able to pass with the Lord Basildons of this world, but not quite of them:
'Bond knew that there was something alien and un-English about himself. He knew that he was a difficult man to cover up. Particularly in England.'
Perhaps it is his misfortune that the exotic locations so fundamental to the films are passed over for this tale, which largely happens within sight of the White Cliffs of Dover in the usually sleepy South of England. Moonraker’s plot delivers such atomic age fears as a rogue scientists, cities laid waste by the most powerful rocket ever built and an unsettling yet impolitic mistrust of those who have gone from enemies to allies in the blink of an eye.
It is a cracking read, belting along at a great pace and lending a warmth and a human side to its characters that you would perhaps not believe existed if you had only watched the films. You may think you know all there is to know about James Bond, but you won’t until you experience him on the page.
What you know are to become key elements of the films already exist here. Bond’s love of gadgetry and the high life are evident, whether that is fine tailoring, his Ronson lighter for use on his own blend of cigarettes, or the little flat off the King’s Road. He drives a Bentley, rather than an Aston Martin, an older, classic model he takes pride in racing against foreign engineering, at least until he totals it.
Yet while aiming for effortlessness in all this acquisition, Bond is only one loss at cards away from ruin. We see him chafing at the daily routine and ploughing half-heartedly through the paperwork just like any other office worker, although in the privileged position afforded to a senior civil servant, he is no idle playboy. When away from London on operations, he has a Leica camera in one pocket and a Beretta in the other but perhaps more telling are the gadgets he lacks: having to drive to the next town to telephone allies in Scotland Yard or waiting for essential information to arrive by telegram.
Also lacking is any contact with anyone he isn’t working with or for. Perhaps this lack of companionship is compensated for by being surrounded by women, of course possessed of a beauty that mere mortals can only dream of. Whether it is the carefully selected waitresses of the gambling club M frequents, the steely Secret Service secretaries, or a ‘severely competent’ police woman, the lucky fellow rarely encounters a plain woman. Yet central female characters Gala Brand and Loelia Posonby – though crazily named – are also blessed with a quiet strength, essential to keeping the battered and broken Bond on his feet throughout the action.
Though Fleming laments that Posonby is approaching an age where:
'Unless she married soon, Bond thought for the hundredth time, or had a lover, her cool air of authority might easily become spinsterish and she would join the army of women who had married a career.'
Perhaps this is not the terrible fate he makes it out to be, and it is arguable if a quick tumble with 007 would be a better one, especially as he is facing a similar destiny. His own prospects for a long and happy retirement seem slim, after all. Although contemplating certain death with hopelessness after torture and near defeat, he never questions the rights and wrongs of the power the Service wields over his life. He is good at the essentials of his job, his boss is decent, that is enough. Bond is far more of a bastard than you remember, quite a lot rougher around the edges and unafraid to fight dirty if circumstances dictate. Able to pass with the Lord Basildons of this world, but not quite of them:
'Bond knew that there was something alien and un-English about himself. He knew that he was a difficult man to cover up. Particularly in England.'
Perhaps it is his misfortune that the exotic locations so fundamental to the films are passed over for this tale, which largely happens within sight of the White Cliffs of Dover in the usually sleepy South of England. Moonraker’s plot delivers such atomic age fears as a rogue scientists, cities laid waste by the most powerful rocket ever built and an unsettling yet impolitic mistrust of those who have gone from enemies to allies in the blink of an eye.
It is a cracking read, belting along at a great pace and lending a warmth and a human side to its characters that you would perhaps not believe existed if you had only watched the films. You may think you know all there is to know about James Bond, but you won’t until you experience him on the page.
March 10, 2012
Moonraker was the fourth of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, appearing in 1955. By that time Fleming had the formula well and truly nailed and the result is wonderful entertainment.
A mysterious businessman has announced plans to build a missile that will ensure Britain’s defences. He is prepared to finance the project himself as a kind of gift to the nation. The rocker, known as the Moonraker, will be able to reach any city in Europe (which in 1955 made it a super-weapon).
Sir Hugo Drax is very mysterious indeed. In fact no-one is absolutely certain of his identity. During the German breakthrough in the Ardennes in 1944 a British headquarters was destroyed, and a badly burned man was found among the wreckage claiming to have total amnesia. He was tentatively identified as a former dockworker from Liverpool. After the war this man made a fortune speculating on precious metals and by the early 50s he had been knighted and with the announcement of his Moonraker project had become a sort of national hero.
Sir Hugo Drax just happens to belong to the same club as M, the head of the British Secret Service, and M had noticed something peculiar and disturbing- Sir Hugo cheats at cards. It’s peculiar because he is so wealthy he has no need to do something so petty, and it’s disturbing because in 1955 being exposed a card cheat could still mean social ruin. So it has the potential to become a matter of national security and M asks James Bond as a personal favour to find out how he does it and find a way to cure him of this unfortunate habit before a scandal erupts.
This sets up the obligatory gambling scene without which no Bond novel would be complete. Fleming was fascinated by the dangerous glamour of high-stakes gambling and always liked to find a way not only to include such a scene but also to make it integral to the plot.
The very next day a double murder takes place at the headquarters of the Moonraker project and Bond finds himself working undercover as Drax’s chief of security. Naturally there’s a beautiful woman involved, in this case a policewoman from Special Branch also working undercover in Drax’s operation. Her name is Gala Brand. At this stage of course it is still assumed that Drax is a patriotic hero and that some outside group is trying to sabotage the Moonraker. Bond will soon discover there’s more to Sir Hugo Drax than meets the eye.
Fleming’s success with the Bond novels was based on making use the traditional ingredients of the spy thriller but adding extra sex and violence and most importantly, adding extra glamour. He more or less created the stereotypical secret agent as handsome, charming, sophisticated, witty, cultured and as an all-round bon vivant. Fleming loved to drop the names, not of famous people, but of famous and luxurious products. The pages of the Bond novels are littered with references to luxury products. He was sometimes mocked for this but on the whole it was a very effective technique. Spy thrillers are after all escapist fantasies so you might as well make the fantasy as exciting as possible.
Bond also differed from earlier heroes of this type such as Richard Hannay and Bulldog Drummond in being sexually amoral. Bond is as patriotic and as courageous as Hannay and Drummond but you can’t imagine those earlier spy heroes indulging in the sexual adventures that Bond gets up to.
Fleming’s Moonraker bears little resemblance to the outrageous 1979 Bond movie of the same name. By 1979 technology had moved on and the Moonraker rocket of the novel would have seemed very dated.
The novel is immense fun and if you’ve never sampled the delights of Fleming’s spy fiction it’s as good a place to start as anywhere since there’s no particular need to read the novels in sequence. Highly recommended.
A mysterious businessman has announced plans to build a missile that will ensure Britain’s defences. He is prepared to finance the project himself as a kind of gift to the nation. The rocker, known as the Moonraker, will be able to reach any city in Europe (which in 1955 made it a super-weapon).
Sir Hugo Drax is very mysterious indeed. In fact no-one is absolutely certain of his identity. During the German breakthrough in the Ardennes in 1944 a British headquarters was destroyed, and a badly burned man was found among the wreckage claiming to have total amnesia. He was tentatively identified as a former dockworker from Liverpool. After the war this man made a fortune speculating on precious metals and by the early 50s he had been knighted and with the announcement of his Moonraker project had become a sort of national hero.
Sir Hugo Drax just happens to belong to the same club as M, the head of the British Secret Service, and M had noticed something peculiar and disturbing- Sir Hugo cheats at cards. It’s peculiar because he is so wealthy he has no need to do something so petty, and it’s disturbing because in 1955 being exposed a card cheat could still mean social ruin. So it has the potential to become a matter of national security and M asks James Bond as a personal favour to find out how he does it and find a way to cure him of this unfortunate habit before a scandal erupts.
This sets up the obligatory gambling scene without which no Bond novel would be complete. Fleming was fascinated by the dangerous glamour of high-stakes gambling and always liked to find a way not only to include such a scene but also to make it integral to the plot.
The very next day a double murder takes place at the headquarters of the Moonraker project and Bond finds himself working undercover as Drax’s chief of security. Naturally there’s a beautiful woman involved, in this case a policewoman from Special Branch also working undercover in Drax’s operation. Her name is Gala Brand. At this stage of course it is still assumed that Drax is a patriotic hero and that some outside group is trying to sabotage the Moonraker. Bond will soon discover there’s more to Sir Hugo Drax than meets the eye.
Fleming’s success with the Bond novels was based on making use the traditional ingredients of the spy thriller but adding extra sex and violence and most importantly, adding extra glamour. He more or less created the stereotypical secret agent as handsome, charming, sophisticated, witty, cultured and as an all-round bon vivant. Fleming loved to drop the names, not of famous people, but of famous and luxurious products. The pages of the Bond novels are littered with references to luxury products. He was sometimes mocked for this but on the whole it was a very effective technique. Spy thrillers are after all escapist fantasies so you might as well make the fantasy as exciting as possible.
Bond also differed from earlier heroes of this type such as Richard Hannay and Bulldog Drummond in being sexually amoral. Bond is as patriotic and as courageous as Hannay and Drummond but you can’t imagine those earlier spy heroes indulging in the sexual adventures that Bond gets up to.
Fleming’s Moonraker bears little resemblance to the outrageous 1979 Bond movie of the same name. By 1979 technology had moved on and the Moonraker rocket of the novel would have seemed very dated.
The novel is immense fun and if you’ve never sampled the delights of Fleming’s spy fiction it’s as good a place to start as anywhere since there’s no particular need to read the novels in sequence. Highly recommended.
December 19, 2018
Exciting!
I think Ian Fleming finally got it right with number three in the James Bond series! I have almost no complaints about this novel as I have about the first two books in the series. After having read the first three novels in the Bond series in order, I believe modern readers maybe should read 'Moonraker' before 'Casino Royale' or 'Live and Let Die'. We all know Bond's backstory, and 'Moonraker' can be read as a standalone. It isn't, like, Great Literature, but it is fun, and James is more like the actors in the movies.
The book's plot is based on 1950's technology and post-World War II worries, but even so, 'Moonraker' is a solid three stars.
I think Ian Fleming finally got it right with number three in the James Bond series! I have almost no complaints about this novel as I have about the first two books in the series. After having read the first three novels in the Bond series in order, I believe modern readers maybe should read 'Moonraker' before 'Casino Royale' or 'Live and Let Die'. We all know Bond's backstory, and 'Moonraker' can be read as a standalone. It isn't, like, Great Literature, but it is fun, and James is more like the actors in the movies.
The book's plot is based on 1950's technology and post-World War II worries, but even so, 'Moonraker' is a solid three stars.
July 1, 2012
Moonraker has a good premise, a very human and quirky main villian who has an interesting background, but the pace of the book is really slow. James Bond doesn't even fire his gun the entire book. I don't expect Bond to shoot someone every page, but he doesn't even engage in combat. There is very little hand-to-hand combat, a couple car chases, and no gunfire. If there is only a little action, I expect deep and thoughtful espionage to substitute, but the book doesn't give you that either. There are some interesting chapters here-and-there, I like the card playing scenes, and the story Drax tells bond at the end, but the book is kind of non-eventful as a whole. I have read several of Ian Fleming's Bond books, this one is at the bottom of the list.
The most infuriating thing about this book is the middle third section which gets bogged down in pointless detail about rocket ships, missiles and physics. We also get more pointless details about food and drink in the casino scene and this obsession gets so dull that at one point, I almost put the book down for keeps. Should you decide to read Moonraker be warned that it gets EXCEEDINGLY boring at points and will require some perseverence and resolve to get through. Another negative for me was the formulaic quality of some of the scenes. They appear to be lifted straight from Casino Royale without the freshness and tension of that first novel - there's the casino stand-off, the night-time car chase, the kidnapping of the girl, the kidnapping of Bond and so on. It does appear that Fleming was struggling with ideas at this point and it shows.
The most infuriating thing about this book is the middle third section which gets bogged down in pointless detail about rocket ships, missiles and physics. We also get more pointless details about food and drink in the casino scene and this obsession gets so dull that at one point, I almost put the book down for keeps. Should you decide to read Moonraker be warned that it gets EXCEEDINGLY boring at points and will require some perseverence and resolve to get through. Another negative for me was the formulaic quality of some of the scenes. They appear to be lifted straight from Casino Royale without the freshness and tension of that first novel - there's the casino stand-off, the night-time car chase, the kidnapping of the girl, the kidnapping of Bond and so on. It does appear that Fleming was struggling with ideas at this point and it shows.
April 28, 2016
Much to my surprise, I quite enjoyed Moonraker. It's entirely set in England (and Fleming doesn't seem to have noticed the non-white population already here in 1955), so there's no scope for racism unless you count Germans. And the female lead has her own skills, qualities, ideas and, in the end, independent life, very much as if someone had sat Fleming down and had a word with him about the old misogyny.
I really liked seeing Bond in the cheating-at-cards-in-gentlemen's-clubs subplot which comprises the first third of the book -- a survival of the old Establishment which Bond and his ilk were in the process of supplanting, both politically in the real world and in the sphere of popular genre fiction.
It drags a bit in the middle, and Fleming writes himself into a corner a bit with Bond having to listen to the climax of events on the radio, but the rest of it was really fun to read. There's still sadism, snobbery and tedious drooling about fast cars, obviously, and the plot is grandiose and ludicrous and hinges on absurd coincidences (primarily Bond becoming involved in Drax's affairs for entirely unrelated reasons a week before his plans come to a head), but hey, it's Bond.
For the first time I can see why it was felt these novels were worth adapting as films, and how they ended up being the sorts of films they did.
I really liked seeing Bond in the cheating-at-cards-in-gentlemen's-clubs subplot which comprises the first third of the book -- a survival of the old Establishment which Bond and his ilk were in the process of supplanting, both politically in the real world and in the sphere of popular genre fiction.
It drags a bit in the middle, and Fleming writes himself into a corner a bit with Bond having to listen to the climax of events on the radio, but the rest of it was really fun to read. There's still sadism, snobbery and tedious drooling about fast cars, obviously, and the plot is grandiose and ludicrous and hinges on absurd coincidences (primarily Bond becoming involved in Drax's affairs for entirely unrelated reasons a week before his plans come to a head), but hey, it's Bond.
For the first time I can see why it was felt these novels were worth adapting as films, and how they ended up being the sorts of films they did.
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