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 love this series!!!
Gets better and better...

It's my third James Bond novel.
And also, by the way a huge success at publication.

After having watched the film, let me say to you that the book is the real dope and not the movie!!!
No spoiler intended, so read it yourself...

But this one thing I want to say, Bond fighting a Nazi conspiracy is an instant classic!!!

Sir Hugo Drax has been supervising a bunch of German scientists who are building England’s first intercontinental ballistic missile. Drax has become something of a national hero and the first test is imminent. The problem is that Drax is suspected of cheating at cards at the elite gambling club he belongs to. Bond is brought in to tactfully expose the cheating and quietly get it to stop before scandal taints Drax and his project. So, the first third of the book ends up being about Bond figuring out how Drax cheats and then turning the tables on him.

On the same night as Bond is working to prevent a scandal, one of Drax’s German employees shoots the head of security for the Moonraker project then shoots himself. The coincidental timing is enough for higher echelons in the British government to decide Bond should lend a hand to the investigation. It was all a good thrill ride of a novel.

Bond, cards, drugs, bombs, girls, etc. Back on track again, this novel is more of a return to form.

I finished reading 'Moonraker' close to midnight last night. Loved it! Drax is as bad as can be, Gala Brand is tough and gorgeous and 007 is, well, the invincible "Bond, James Bond." This one has a bit of a slow start with a high-stakes game of bridge, but then the action picks up and blasts off just like the rocket, Moonraker. So if you're a James Bond fan, this is a must read.

A very fitting read after watching Oppenheimer. I give three stars since there was no point in the plot where I was hooked and fascinated. Maybe I am burnt out on James Bond for the moment???? Still enjoyed though.

The best Bond I’ve read so far. It’s best to think of it as two books, with the exciting book getting started about page 75. The first book is mainly for lovers of bridge and snobbery. But book two is a real adventure, with a refreshingly vulnerable Bond and a surprisingly capable female lead. Of course she’s hot, but even Bond realizes that’s not all she is. Plus, the villain is despicable, the world is saved, and this book has nothing to do with the movie. Good fun.

(A-) 84% | Very Good
Notes: James Bond, dispirited office worker, awaits assignment and considers the empty, material life his profession affords.

I have read some lists that put this at the top of the best Bond novels, but I wasn't really impressed. Compared to the pulp craziness that was Live and Let Die, this book was almost dull. The first half of the book is Bond eating (or watching M eat), thinking about his money, playing cards, and walking around. It picks up a bit after that but I was already just waiting for it to end by that point.

A good, straight forward Bond book. High stakes card games, fast cars, danger and Bonds well known charm. What more can you want?
Well, something a little more complex and plot twists that you don’t see coming would be nice, but you can have everything can you?

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...

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.