Casino Royale......Bond, James Bond

Completely outside of my comfort zone and my first real foray into the espionage genre, and what a place to begin.  No one can deny that this is one of Britain's more famous fictional characters and thanks to a massive fan base I am pretty sure there are very few people you will encounter that have not heard of James Bond.  I fancied something a bit different and I certainly got that.  I have obviously seen a lot of the rather cheesy Bond movies and I have also watched Casino Royale, which was by far my favourite of the franchise (and not just because of Daniel Craig being cast into the lead role).  I loved the raw, somewhat harsher Bond that Royale brought to the table, and as it turns out, this is a Bond we see in the novel as well.

As I am sure most of you are aware, this is the first of Fleming's novels about the famous James Bond.  Our introduction to Bond thrusts us into his world of indulgence and risk as he takes on the sinister Russian operative known as 'Le Chiffre'.  Bond's mission is to drive him to ruin at the baccarat table, forcing his employers to retire him for his lack of funding.  But of course, no one really plays fair and Bond must face his own confusing emotions over a dangerous female agent alongside the terrifying consequences of pushing 'Le Chiffre' too far.  We learn about what it takes to become a double 'O' as well and we get our first glimpses of 'M' Bond's elusive boss.

Now, we all know Bond from the films as a charming, ruthless spy with some cringe worthy one-liners and a penchant for martini (shaken not stirred).  The Bond in this novel is not what you would expect if you have only seen the films.  He is a cruel, cold man that drinks to excess, smokes far too much and has a huge love of gambling, not to mention of course his misogynistic thoughts about women.  Yep, that's right folks, the guy hates women and he cannot cope with the idea of having to work with one as his thoughts drift to unprofessional behaviour and weakness.  In spite of this Bond is of course a brilliantly drawn character that you can't help wanting to follow through the novel, his drive to focus on the job at hand coupled with his vices gives us a more believable characterisation of a human being, this is not someone who is perfect, and I liked this.  I also can't fault him for his love of vodka, a good choice in my opinion.

As for the narrative, just brilliant.  It's easy to follow whilst somehow remaining complex, as I am sure all good spy novels need to be.  It is also surprising, it's unpredictable, I was open mouthed when the two guys with bombs end up blowing themselves up in a botch job on Bond's life.  Flemming's description of said explosion is harrowing, even down to the detail of "an obscene smell of high explosive, of burning wood, and of, yes, that was it-roast mutton."  Gory stuff and a definite extreme of attention to detail.  I did not expect this from the novel at all so was still in a state of surprise when Bond gets tortured to the brink of insanity or death, whichever got to him first.  Incredibly gripping writing.

Perhaps the most dangerous part of the novel was Flemming's description of the game at hand, baccarat.  It is not the boring, tiresome explanation I was expecting (I had been forewarned).  Let's just say I now want to high tail it off to some fancy casino and play baccarat until I pass out from sleep deprivation or alcohol consumption, whichever hits me first.  The description is looped into Bond's playing of the game itself, and it's just brilliant.

It is said that Flemming wrote much of his own personality into Bond's character, and having browsed over his biography online I can well believe that.  Flemming was a talented writer but must have been a formidable man and it is sad that he only lived long enough to see two of his novels adapted for the silver screen.  It is safe to say he managed to create one of the most talked about and loved franchises of both British cinema and literature.  You can now add me to the list of fans, I thought this novel was a fantastic read and will be recommending it to anyone that has not yet picked up one of Flemming's novels (and 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' does not count).  I have already picked up a copy of Moonraker to delve further into the world of James Bond.

It is worth pointing out that if you are expecting the novel to be 'exactly' like the film, well, it ain't.  Both formats are highly worth indulging in for their own merits, so go get your Bond on.