I was gonna give it four stars until the very end, which took me by surprise and made me love it. A really sweeping book. Ian Fleming manages to surprise me every time.

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.

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.

Easily in my top three Bond novels. Moonraker’s high point for me comes from a three chapter description of the most exciting game of bridge ever played.

Reading this fiction, “Moonraker” would be, I think, gradually thrilling and heart-throbbing due to, at least, its two godlike episodes as narrated in Chapter 6 'Cards With a Stranger' and Chapter 7 'The Quickness of the Hand' in which James Bond has to win to subdue Sir Hugo Drax from cheating; the other being in Chapter 23 'Zero Minus' that depicts how Bond has miraculously freed Gala Brand by biting at the torch using its flame to melt the copper strands bound around her arms.

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.

Multi-millionaire and war hero, Sir Hugo Drax, prepares to test the prototype of a missile the British Prime Minister hopes will bring far greater defense to the UK. However, when M, Bond’s superior at the secret service, suspects Drax of cheating at cards at a prestigious club, he asks Bond to confirm those suspicions and prevent an embarrassing scandal involving the mysterious businessman.

Not long after discovering that Drax was indeed cheating and setting up a “game” between Drax and Bond, a Ministry of Supply security member serving on Drax’s team is murdered after possibly witnessing a foreign submarine in the waters near the test site. M secures special permission for Bond to work on British soil to replace the dead man and make sure the Moonraker missile is not in danger of sabotage.

As the reader might expect, Bond, along with the beautiful undercover special services policewoman, Gala Brand, who is working as Drax’s secretary, discover Sir Hugo is not who people thought he was and Britain is in danger. Once again, it is up to Bond to restore order to the world.

If you only know Moonraker from the 11th Bond film (the 4th starring Roger Moore), you might be surprised to find the 1979 film is nothing like the novel. By this time, the films were becoming “cartoonish” and the Bond character nothing like the cold, hard, professional Bond of the Fleming novels.

Moonraker, the novel, was released in 1955 to good reviews, even though some people commented they missed the exotic locations. The book, however, still has the car chases, evil villain, and beautiful women. It still includes the “Fleming sweep” in which each chapter ends with a cliffhanger that propels the reader ahead.

Moonraker portrays English virtues of tradition, strength, refinement, and order while tapping into the people's fears of communism, the German V-2 rocket attacks of the previous decade, and the resurgence of fascism. It also soothed England and suggested it could regain its influence and power on the world stage.

Moonraker also allows Fleming to further develop the character of Bond, a man who seems more vulnerable and “human” than in the other novels. During the first half of the novel, Fleming presents Bond at home and in the routine,, and even drudgery, of work.

Drax, however, is unique in the Bond canon in that he has no woman who holds his attention. Instead, it is the missile that is his obsession:

The shimmering projectile 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. But otherwise nothing marred the silken sheen of the fifty feet of polished chrome steel except the spidery fingers of two light gantries which stood out from the walls and clasped the waist of the rocket between thick pads of foam-rubber.

The novel’s greatest flaw, however, lies within the novel’s origins. Fleming originally intended to write Moonraker as a screenplay, but after deciding to write the novel, found the story was too short. He, therefore, grafted a card game to the start of the plot. Possibly because of Fleming’s writing process, he did not notice that the two halves of the novel are not smoothly integrated. Fleming planned to write a Bond novel each year while spending two months at his vacation home, Goldeneye, in Jamaica. To meet this schedule, he said in an interview "I write for about three hours in the morning ... and I do another hour's work between six and seven in the evening. I never correct anything, and I never go back to see what I have written ... By following my formula, you write 2,000 words a day."

Today’s reader will likely take exception to Fleming’s treatment of women and minorities. Live and Let Die, for example, is clearly racist in tone. Though Moonraker is almost unique for its lack of sexual tension between Bond and the “Bond woman,” the male characters still frequently objectify women, attempt to seduce them, and use their power to handle them as they want. Once again, though, the modern reader can read this novel and better realize that misogyny and male power are deeply ingrained in our culture.

Despite its flaws, few people read a Bond novel because they want to think deeply or experience “great” literature. Instead, most of us read Fleming for pure enjoyment and escape. With that in mind, Moonraker is still a pleasant “adolescent” diversion from the routines of life.

Fleming published Moonraker, the third James Bond book, in 1955. Like the other 007 books, Bond is portrayed as a very competitive, resourceful, adventurous, dedicated, and violent British secret agent. Of course his love of fine cars (especially his Bentley) and beautiful women (in this case an undercover agent for Scotland Yard with whom he shares several life-threatening and a few sensuous hours). The book begins not with an official case, but with M asking Bond for a personal favor. He asked him to determine if a wealthy industrialist, Hugo Drax, was cheating at bridge in the renowned gentleman's club to which M belonged. Of course Bond accepts the challenge and uses his own considerably unsavory card skills, reminiscent of Casino Royale, to determine that Drax was definitely cheating and to take a large sum of money from Drax. In addition to cheating at cards, Drax was an extremely wealthy and internationally know industrialist who was helping the British government develop Moonraker, a missile that would almost guarantee the security of the nation. When the government security officer at the missile site is murdered, M surprisingly assigns Bond to the case. Normally, Secret Service agents work only outside the United Kingdom, but this assignment unfolds completely within England a few hours drive from London. Drax turns out to be a German spy who plans to used Moonraker to attack London. The technology described in this book was certainly not comparable to today's systems. It also does not equal the sophistication of the technology depicted in the 1979 Moonraker movie, which had a much different plot and included outer space. However, I found the technology to be satisfying. Overall, I found this Flemming tale to be exciting, suspenseful and very entertaining. It even showed Bond to be somewhat emotionally vulnerable at times especially in his relationship with his beautiful undercover colleague.

"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, a re-hash of the stereotypical Nazi surviving WW2 and trying to fight on.
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 - there really was an attempt by the SS to breach Allied lines by dressing up in Allied uniforms. 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.

While there are officers ranks in the US and British army that hold the title Captain, this is does not translate into German as "Kapitän" - at all. Nowhere near. Not possible. The only time the address of "Kapitän" would apply is with respect to a naval officer.
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.
It is unlikely that his name would be "von der Drache". It should be something like "von Drache" but the article "der" does not correspond with "Drache" in this case.

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."

There's a point in this book when a female operative has missed an appointment with Bond because she was kidnapped after discovering a madman's plot to basically destroy the world. M and Bond are discussing her no-show and M says something like, "she probably just had a fainting fit, but I guess we should go look for her to be on the safe side."

That's pretty typical of this book. It's unrepentantly misogynistic and xenophobic, but holy crap snacks is it fun. Can I please enjoy this book even though Ian Fleming was a major douche?

“There were three telephones on Bond’s desk. A black one for outside calls, a green office telephone, and a red one which went only to M. and his chief of staff. It was the familiar burr of the red one that broke the silence in the room.

It was M’s Chief of Staff.

“Can you come up?” asked the pleasant voice.

“M.?” asked Bond.

“Yes.”

“Any clue?”

“simply said if you were about, he’d like to see you.”

“Right,” said Bond, and put down the receiver.

He collected his coat, told his secretary he would be with M. and not to wait for him, left his office and walked along the corridor to the lift.

While he waited for it, he thought of those other times, when, in the middle of an empty day, the red telephone had suddenly broke the silence and taken him out of one world and set him down in another. He shrugged his shoulders – Monday! He might have expected trouble.

The lift came. “Ninth,” said Bond, and stepped in…

It ultimately took M a while to get to the point of what it was he wanted to speak to Bond about, and when he finally did speak, the subject matter surprised Bond, “Well now, you’ve heard of this man Sir Hugo Drax?”

“Of course, sir,” replies Bond.

“give me some facts about him then…as you see them. I’d like to know if your version tallies with mine.”

Bond takes a moment to consider his answer, then outlines his knowledge of the man.

“He’s a war hero of national proportions, he’s a multi-millionaire and his identity was shrouded in some mystery. Apparently, he’d been near an explosion during the war that left him with amnesia and with half his face blown away…”

Bond looked to M. to be sure he was still paying attention, then continued.

“His current identity was discovered when he and a member of the war office personnel when through the files. They came to a file of a man named Hugo Drax, and orphan who was working in the Liverpool docks before the war.

“Apparently, he showed interest when he saw this file and the physical description seemed to tally with what they thought he might have looked like before the explosion. Another man who served in the same unit as Drax was brought in and he claimed the patient before him was indeed the Hugo Drax he’d served with…”

“That seemed to settle it,” Bond explained further as M. listened, “especially considering that the advertising didn’t produce another Hugo Drax. He was finally discharged in 1945 in that name with back pay and full disability pension.”

Bond then seemed to recall something else…” He seemed to have disappeared about three years after the war…”

Bond then goes on to describe how Drax resurfaced in a most dramatic fashion…by cornering the market on a very valuable ore called Columbite. It was a metal with a very high melting point, one that would be integral in the manufacturing of jet engines.

Bond explained how it was later learned that Drax started by buying three tones of Columbite, the sold it for a profit, then bought futures in the ore before it was widely known. Drax had anticipated the needs of the Jet Age and cornered the market on its most vital component, in only three years.
“Now, anybody wanting Columbite was forced to purchase through Drax Metals,” Bond explained to his boss, “By 1950, he was a multimillionaire.”

The two men then discussed Drax’s latest venture involving the financing, out of his own pocket, a super atomic rocket, that he would donate to the people of Britain in order to protect them from any outside enemy.

It was called the Moonraker.

The queen conferred a knighthood on Drax for giving this technological wonder to his people…

M. then interjects, “All of that is fine, but Hugo Drax cheats at cards, a rumor he told Bond, but rumors from very reliable sources. He then suggests that if it got out that Drax was indeed cheating at cards, it would ruin his, “Hero of the Nation,” standing and embarrass the entire country.

“It might just turn out to be a fantastic run of luck,” M. admitted. Both men considered that for a moment, then M. broke the silence again, “He only plays bridge.” He then looked Bond in the eye, “What system do you suppose Drax has got?”

Bond was thoughtful, then replied, “Maybe he signals a partner…”

M. hen invites Bond to the club that evening. He suggests that he and Bond could play Drax and his partner and perhaps Bond could detect any cheating.

“I could start by indicating that I know he’s cheating,” Bond offers.

“Excellent!” M. replies, “This is important, after all, this man IS the Moonraker Project!”

So, that’s how things kick off. Bond is to observe a national hero to see if he’s a cheater, and if so, to warn him. It’s a casual assignment, but don’t let that fool you, everything that follows is most definitely not casual.

Among my favorite “story moments” in Moonraker include: Fleming's imagination in full flight when it comes to the technological wonder of Drax's Moonraker compound, the subtle clue such as a faint impression on a map that proves to be a critical clue, a Drax related double murder that frustrates James Bond, and Gala Brand the authoritative policewoman who practices jiu jitsu and takes a long time to warm up to 007.

And of course there are the high tech gadgets such as the "inspectoscope," an instrument for detecting contraband using flouroscope principles, a "shiner" cigarette case apparatus for cheating at cards, the columbite powered super engine that powered Moonraker, along with a impressive host of other devices provided by the British Secret Service Technical Devices Section. No Bond story would be complete with out them.

And underneath it all, quietly and forcefully brewing, like a seismic vibration beneath layers of bedrock, was the foreboding countdown to Moonraker's launch. An event hailed by the public as the work of a hero, but in reality, known to only a few...something quite different.

The book read quickly, almost a bit too much so, this intriguing story could've been 50 to 100 pages longer, but besides that, a brilliant showcasing of Ian Fleming's incredible storytelling prowess.

Once again I am pleasantly surprised by the pleasures of the Bond series. I read them all in high school but my memories are really based on the movies, which don't do the books justice. No gadgets here but lots of action, and a really splendid bridge match that must last for about an hour (the length of my commute today). Bill Nighy is so good as a reader, ironic yet sensitive. In the interview afterwards he talks about how unexpectedly good the writing is and how sensitively Fleming handles the romantic scenes. Bond doesn't get the girl--and Gala Brand is a great creation, clever and resourceful. Polished prose and vivid character descriptions, lots of action and some violence--but a great car chase--pageturning pace, gritty and intense tone. An immensely entertaining diversion. This is part of a series of audios from Blackstone, all read by celebrities (British actors of note).