It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
And I've finished watching it..... David Zaritsky, Calvin Dyson, Joe Darlington, and Roland Hulme discussed Fleming's "The Man With The Golden Gun", though I disagree with some of their points, it's still a nice watch.
Yeah, I also think it's intentional.
There's so many characters in Casino Royale that I want to see on screen (EON of course) and Fawcett is one of them, maybe he will turn up as Bond's ally in the future films.
Me, I just can't envision Le Chiffre looking like that one below.
Anyway, I'm currently at the page 31 (Chapter 6, Two Men In Straw Hats) of Casino Royale now.
When I'm tired, I'm having a 15 minute break 😅
Le Chiffre (Casino Royale)
Mr. BIG (Live And Let Die)
Hugo Drax (Moonraker)
Rosa Klebb (From Russia With Love)
Dr. No (Doctor No)
Auric Goldfinger (Goldfinger)
Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Thunderball)
Ernst Stavro Blofeld (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
Ernst Stavro Blofeld (You Only Live Twice)
Francisco Scaramanga (The Man With The Golden Gun)
That’s a fun thought, I’m going to adopt that one :)
It’s a neat idea but I can’t unsee Daniel Craig in a bad wig whenever I look at that Goldfinger one.
Live and Let Die and Moonraker were the only books I read before watching the films so that Drax is pretty spot on to how I imagined him but it’s getting harder to separate them. I still have a hard time not imagining Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre even though he’s physically so different to the book version.
Never seen those before. Very interesting, I love seeing illustrations of characters from the Fleming novels. Blofeld's a particularly hard character for me to imagine, although I really like how they've done him on those covers.
It’s a long while since I read it so I can’t actually remember the description in the book(!) but I do seem to remember Peter Lorre in the TV version seeming to be pretty much right for Le Chiffre.
It's great!
I felt like watching a TV Drama,
Fleming displays the grandiosity, luxury in his descriptions.
Full of descriptions, Fleming revealed Bond's lifestyle to us.
For me, the story, the plot, it's realistic.
It's different to the film.
Le Chiffre is a menacing and realistic villain, I got to learn more about from him, his connections, his backstory and his personality.
There's a tension while they are playing a baccarat, to be honest, I prefer it to the poker in the film. I really like that Bond was explaining his moves and plans on how he will beat Le Chiffre to Vesper.
Also the talk of good and evil, I wished they included that in the film.
I also liked the MI6, M and the Head of Station S scenes, I also get to learn more about their activities, how MI6 functions, how they are doing their duties and their battle against SMERSH, makes it a bit more realistic for me.
Also when Bond knew that the Muntz couple was spying on them, then Bond was thinking how he will beat Le Chiffre, and sending a girl on a mission then he said bitch, then repeated it and he shouted Bitch! (This attitude of Bond that you will never see in the films).
The romance between Vesper and Bond is believable, but their love scenes, especially towards the end is a bit creepy, Bond touches and grips her butt while kissing her, here's the passage from Fleming:
He slipped his hands down to her swelling
buttocks and gripped them fiercely, pressing the centres of their bodies
together
Speaking of Vesper, she's a great Bond girl, maybe ahead of her time, she's Bond's equal, when Bond asked her to marry him she said that he needs a slave and not a wife, she is a strong willed woman, she may not be on the level of Gala Brand, Tiffany Case or Vivienne Michel but she's one of the better Bond Girls.
My Favorite scene was the Camera Bombers, and when it's Mathis who carried him up.
Also, when Bond was driving his Bentley and cursing Vesper, and even M for sending him on that kind of mission.
The torture scene is really dark, more riveting than the film, where Bond can't really speak and he's also weak, and when he said he's thirsty because his lips are already dry, you really feel for him, he's not confident like in the film, there's no "you're scratching my balls" thing 😄, the man was nearly dying, if not for the arrival of SMERSH, but they carved a symbol on his hand. Poor Bond.
Felix Leiter is also there, and he's a bit fun, I really like his banter with Bond, he dresses like that of Frank Sinatra, a Texan,
I don't know why Fleming is fascinated with Texas, he will explore this further in Diamonds Are Forever.
Bond has some wits too, he has a line in the book "‘That’s a vulgar way of saying “we won’t split hairs”.
But he's always irritated, and a bit moody.
There's so many characters here, like the two camera bombers, the Muntz Couple, Head of Station S and Fawcett.
Bond here was disguised as a Jamaican Plantocrat.
And the ending, it's tragic, because I believed in their love and all of a sudden, it all turns out that she is a double agent, they are in a honeymoon, and she's shaking, in panic and fainting, poor Vesper, she can't tell it to Bond she was scared. Then that suicide happened, and Bond just said that line, I'n shocked but a bit sad at that.
I liked it.
It's long 128 pages, too many descriptions, but overall, I liked it, the story, the romance, it's a thrill ride for me.
To be honest, the book made me react to some of the scenes, the book made me hate Bond at some scenes, feel angry at Le Chiffre, feel sympathy for Vesper and also to Bond, laughed at some of their dialogues, I didn't react like that while I'm watching, entertained for sure, but I'm not that affected like when reading this book.
Based on Fleming's description, I envisioned Audrey Tautou as Vesper.
Mathis, well I can see is Jesper Christensen who acts like Jeffrey Wright 😅 (I even hear Jeffrey Wright's voice while reading his dialogues).
Then Le Chiffre, I don't know but I envisioned Gert Frobe with a shaved brunette hair.
Well, About Felix Leiter, I see the Felix Leiter created by the Dynamite Comics, if you read their Felix Leiter spin off comics, he is pretty much the Felix that Fleming described.
Then Bond, well none of the actors, at some scenes I see Fleming himself, but what I really see is a 50's man in a suit, like a young James Stewart.
Which is better: Book I have watched the Film, they added so much action, it doesn't feel like Bond more like Liam Neeson's Taken, and I didn't like the sinking house at the end, I enjoyed the film on its own, in fact I loved it, one of the best Bond Films, a Top 5 bond film for me.
The only thing that I liked much better in the film is Adolf Gettler, the actor who played him is great, prefer him than that Gettler one in the novel. But all in all, I prefer the book.
I'm planning to read the series out of order, (except the Blofeld Trilogy of course).
James Bond Novel Rankings:
1. Casino Royale
Of course since the film gives Bond a different origin for the two kills I'm glad the 'heroes and villains' speech is adapted into the conversation Bond has with Mathis in Quantum of Solace.
Incidentally I can't imagine anyone other than Giancarlo Giannini as Mathis and if I don't imagine Eva Green as Vesper it's the beautiful illustration of Vesper by Roseanne Serra and Richie Fahey from my copy of this edition that I coveted back in 2006.
No shade but since I'm reading them chronologically why did you decide to read them out of order?
Really wished I hadnt left it so long to read this. Its been a hugely enjoyable book! Amis really does capture the feel of a Fleming novel, though I dont think he quite has his detail of knowledge! He moves it along at a cracking pace, the Greek setting is well evoked with strong characters and set pieces. Maybe a little too rushed towards the end, but still most satisfying! I was planning to start Christopher Woods 'The Spy Who Loved Me!', but am impatient to get back to Ian Fleming, so have begun 'Thunderball'!
Yes, I will certainly be re reading it! Its a terrific Bond novel! Highly recommended!
Thanks @CharmianBond
I'm interested in reading them individually, I just want to see if these novels will work as standalone adventures without relying on the previous ones or the continuity.
I very much enjoyed your perceptive write-up. You've voiced many of my own feelings about the book, including the reasons why I prefer it to the film, fine as the latter was.
CR comes closest to presenting Bond as a cold antihero--as the head of Station S says: "He's a good-looking chap, but don't fall for him. I don't think he's got much heart." In the course of the book Bond threatens to gain a heart and stop being "a wonderful machine," but by the last line the machine has regained control.
Aside from the Blofeld trilogy and TMWTGG, the books can read out of order without missing much. If you read them in order you'll get a better sense of how Bond's character changes, but encountering the books out of order can be oddly exciting.
Thanks! @Revelator
@CharmianBond
I'm planning to continue reading the bond novels this holy week.
Dr No was the first Bond novel I read and I remember being intrigued by the references to earlier adventures with the girl he'd carried out of the sea. It would be a while before I tracked down LALD and found out about her!
For the most part I was pleasantly surprised. Because it bears a lot of similarities with Hurricane Gold I was expecting this to be a bit of damp squib to read but it was a much more even fight that I thought. There's of course the fact that Higson is standing on the shoulders of giants(quids), I found the assault course in Gold far more tense and thrilling than No's but Fleming's writing is engaging as ever and his descriptions of Jamaica in the beginning, you can feel the love he has for that place. Of course the flip side of this is that the non-Fleming Bond books are Fleming without the problematic idiosyncrasies that he brings. For as much as I like Quarrel in these books it is hard to get through his dialogue and actually I think Honeychile is well-served here, Bond paternalism is a different side to what we've seen before and that she outsmarts Dr No and rescues herself in the final act was nice.
It's a shame in a way that the film is so iconic because I did at times lapse into visualising Connery, et al. I would've loved to have read this without any knowledge of the film because what propels this book is the mystery of Doctor No. In fairness though, he is visually so different to the film and Fleming's wonderfully vivid description amps up his madness which I felt was lacking from El Huracán.
But this is very much Bond as the adventurer, the action hero properly for the first time. Which the Young Bond books had primed me for but while there is lip-service to the Cold-War with the missiles I can see now where cinematic Bond comes from. I had enjoyed the contrast between the more adventurer Young Bond and the gritty, Cold-War secret agent of "adult" Bond thus far though.
With the exception of Casino Royale I prefer all the books so far over their film counterparts, but out of just the books Dr No is second bottom. I liked it, I just liked others more.
So next this month is Higson's last Bond novel, By Royal Command. Like with Hurricane Gold for whatever reason I don't harbour as much fondness for this one as the first three, apart from the Hitler Jugend on the train I don't remember anything about this. It did come out a month before Quantum of Solace so it might've just got lost in the mix so I'm interested to see how it compares, especially now I've watched OHMSS.
@CharmianBond Great review!
You've watched OHMSS! It's one of my favorites.
Maybe, it's a good thing that I've only watched a few Bond films, and read the Bond novels first before seeing those, because they don't interfere in my mind when I'm reading.
I'm excited for your next review.
(Drum roll)......
Diamonds Are Forever.
Dr No was the first Bond novel I read, and my intro to Bond as I hadn't seen the films yet. I was in my early teens and I was hooked on the strangeness of it all, the assault course and the giant squid; I wonder sometimes if I'd have got into Bond if I'd started with one of the saner novels, like Casino Royale or Moonraker (both of which I love now).
Thank you, I'm having a great time writing them.
Yes after No Time to Die I decided I would finally watch all 24 (and a bit) movies and I watched Majesty's around Christmastime so I got the full effect, it was magical.
Yeah even now the card game scenes have a tendency to go over my head. But Casino was the first one I read as a kid, how I can't recall now. I mean I'd say I was a mature reader but baccarat, ill-fated romance and torture are not easy topics to understand at that age. But this was after Silverfin and Blood Fever but before the more cerebral Double or Die and it felt so different to those books and there was something intriguing to Casino because it was so beyond my realm of comprehension.
Something I didn't mention in my review but that I thought was funny when listening to Très Bond's podcast was how shocked they were with the sadism of Dr No's assault course and how Fleming writes about Bond's injuries because in the all of the Young Bond books and just in Hurricane Gold, he has to navigate a hurricane, he's bitten by insects and parasites, been beaten, cut and bruised, driven to the point of exhaustion numerous times all in the space of a few days and that's before the 14-year-old James has gotten anywhere near the deadly assault course. So it's interesting what you can and can't get away with writing.
https://www.mi6community.com/discussion/20820/bond-novel-meter-2022#latest