Casino Royale by Ian Fleming


 This is the first James Bond novel in the series and the first James Bond novel I have ever read. My only encounter with 007 is through the two or three Bond film I've seen, and the books, if Casino Royale is representative, are quite different. First, there is a great deal less action. If one were to make the book into a movie (which has been done) and chose to do it literally, I don't think any special effect would be called for. 

Also, I seem to recall the Bond of the movies as a sort of charming rogue. In this book he's mostly just unpleasant. And I'm pretty sure that 007 is the only one who doesn't know that the femme fatale love interest who he considers marrying is, in fact, an agent of the bad guys, so maybe he's a bit thick. I'm not sure if Fleming intended his main character to be unpleasant and only ordinarily perceptive, but neither detracts from the tightly written yarn that the book is. 

I'll probably read another Bond somewhere down the line.

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