Somehow better and more like an Ian Fleming story than the actual movie it’s based on; Moonraker.

Christopher Wood does a great job capturing the tone of a down to earth era world James Bond even if he’s going into space during this story.

First things first; I am a massive fan of all things Bond. Moonraker is - in my sincere opinion - the worst of the Eon produced Bond films by quite a way. Ian Fleming's book of the same name is actually one of the better Bond novels and is badly let down by a film that jumped on the bandwagon that was created by Star Wars. As with the previous Bond film - The Spy Who Loved Me - the film is so different from Fleming's novel that a film tie in was written. It does serve one really good function; it highlights just how bad Moonraker was that only the 1967 version of Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again are actually not as good.
What we have here is a poor book of a poor film that shares a title with a very good book. My honest opinion is that unless you are a massive Bond fan, stick to Fleming's novel and give this a miss.

Pretty good. Interesting how violent this is compared to the movie and how often Bond is beaten to a pulp or burned within an inch of his life. Also loved that Bond was terrified the entire time he was in space. I like the movie, the book was good, no major differences. We get a lot more Bond in the jungle than I remember in the movie. Worst omission is that this is no longer at the very end of the story.

*upon seeing live footage of Bond and Holly being intimate in zero gravity*
M: "What is Bond DOING?"
Q: "Attempting Re-Entry, sir"

Classic.

When I first discovered James Bond in the cinema the movie was called "Moonraker" and while it made me an immediate fan of Roger Moore as 007 I was somewhat puzzled as the Fleming "Moonraker" novel which I rate fairly high had very little in common with the book. Remember this was pre-internet era of globalization as we know it today.

Then I found this novelization by Christopher Wood and was pleased to read some more about James Bond as I already had read the Fleming and Markham novels various times, and something new is always welcome.

This book is closer to the movie with quite a few more Flemingesque moments written in the book as the movie has. Some of the big plot holes cannot be solved but are comfortable steered clear from. The story is more down to earth than the movie but of course we get into space which is somewhat different from the movie, I admit I liked the events of the movies less than the book offered. But it might have stretched the budget of 'Moonraker" too far.

It is a well written novel which together with 'The spy who loved me" is actually the best novelization written in the 007-verse. It does surpasses some continuation books easily as well. For a fun 007 adventure recognizable for movie fans you cannot go wrong. The so-called Fleming purist will pull up his nose in horror, but then there are fans and fans.

The story is the same as the movie, but Wood somehow makes it believable. Added bonus is the fact that the novel describes Bond as Fleming did, and not as Roger Moore.

Christopher Wood returns to write the novel adaptation of his screenplay. And continues the storyline of his ultimate villain creation JAWS.

I really did enjoy his first book "The Spy Who Loved Me" which I liked even better than Fleming's original book. However, his version of "The Moonraker" falls short by along shot. I realized while reading this the campy one-liners appear, and although I grind my teeth in the theater during the films, reading them makes it that much more depressing.

Fleming's original book, is actually still a much better Bond tale. I plan on continuing my reading of Bond - the next one being turned over to John Gardner. Although this is part of the Bond cannon now, I would not recommend it to even diehard 007 fans.

Overall rating of book series:
1 - Casino Royale / On Her Majesty' Secret Service
2 - Goldfinger
3 - From Russia with Love
4 - Live and Let Die
5 - Diamonds are Forever / Dr. No
6 - Moonraker
7 - Colonel Sun
8 - Thunderball
9 - James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me (Wood)
10 - You Only Live Twice
11 - For Your Eyes Only / Octopussy & The Living Daylights
12 - The Man with the Golden Gun
13 - The Spy Who Loved Me
14 - James Bond and Moonraker (Wood)

There came a point where the James Bond films, which had begun by being adaptations of the novels of Ian Fleming, began to simply take character names and maybe a couple of elements and create who new stories out of cloth from them. So much so that screenwriter Christopher Wood was able to novelize the two late 1970s Roger Moore Bond outings The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker with publishers simply putting “James Bond And...” at the front of the title to separate them from the earlier Fleming works. While Wood's novelization of The Spy Who Loved Me stands out as one of the better Bond novelizations, his adaptation of his own Moonraker script does not.

That is something that is due in large part to the lack of depth in this volume. One of the great things about Wood's The Spy Who Loved Me was that it delved into the backgrounds and back stories of many of the characters including villain Stromberg and the henchman Jaws (who readers discovered actually had a real name). Moonraker here lacks that depth with almost everyone involved being rather two dimensional and cardboard, not too different then the way they were written for the film. The one exception to that might be 007 himself though the characterization of him is almost schizophrenic at times with him being described like Fleming's original character and sometimes even coming across like him but spouting Roger Moore one liners and acting like Moore's Bond at other times. It's something that hampers the book considerably.

As does Wood's prose. With the previous novelization, Wood showed he was capable of doing some strong Bond writing and even pastiching Fleming himself at times. Here though the prose feels flat, workman like, often lacking in details. Worse, it often comes across as rushed and forced with lengthy paragraphs that feel like that might never stop. Far more than before, Wood feels like he is almost copying and pasting the script onto the page with little thought for filling things in for the reader. Neither of which is a good sign given that this runs a mere 220 pages.

Which isn't to say that it is one hundred percent identical to the film. Where Wood does makes changes, is when the novelization has moments of interest. If like me you've ever wondered why in the world a Space Shuttle was being loaned to the British government, Wood answers the question just a couple of chapters in which helps to fill in one of the big plot holes in the Bond franchise. In an interesting callback to the original (and essentially discarded) Moonraker novel, Hugo Drax here is described like Fleming's original character right down to the red hair, scarred face, and a couple of knowing moments where Wood hints at a potential Nazi background. The character of French pilot Corinne Dufour is replaced by a California blond named Trudi Parker in a callback to what Wood originally intended before practical considerations led to a change in character (plus a certain line of dialogue that Wood later rewrote for the final film is left intact here). Even during the final battle sequence, there is an entirely new sequence involving Bond which comes across rather well.

Perhaps the most notable thing about the novelization is its tone. While the one liners are by and large intact and characters like Jaws still make appearances, much of the more cringe-worthy elements of the film have been toned down. The Gondola chase in Venice for example is presented in and ends with a far more straightforward note for example, avoiding the ridiculousness of the film. The same is true throughout with Jaws appearing far later in the narrative then he did in the film and being presented in a more threatening light as well (though Wood can't make what the character does in the final act any more believable). Even the battle sequence at the end, being about as sci-fi as Bond has ever done, comes across far better than it did on screen. It's things like this and the changes he makes elsewhere that make this work as well as it does.

At the end of the day, James Bond And Moonraker feels like a bit of a letdown. It has moments of interest and difference that will make it of interest to the die-hard 007 fan. Yet comparing it even with Wood's other novelization, it feels like a flat and lifeless work much of the time. 007 may have gone out of this world but Wood's novelization feels like it never quite leaves the launchpad, something that feels like a shame given what might have been an even better version of that ill-regard Bond film outing.

Wood, definitely has writing skills and I think he could put them to better use by writing novels of his own invention. This is light beach fare and should not be taken as anything more.

This is another surprisingly good novelization, although it's unusual to have a novel based on a movie that's based on a novel, but the movie hardly followed the original Fleming novel.

Christopher Wood cuts out a lot of the silliness from the movie. Jaws falling in love with a bespectacled blonde is omitted, along with some other things that Bond fans have complained about the movie.

Wood does not portray Hugo Drax as he is in the movie, but, instead, borrows the Drax from the original Ian Fleming novel: Redheaded with a scarred face and a mustache. The back cover even says that Drax "cheats at cards", but that's in the original Fleming novel and appears nowhere in this novelization.

The battle on the space station is a bit hard to follow, but I presume that most people who read this will have seen the movie anyway.

Christopher Wood does fantastic job writing the story in Fleming's style. Bond is a man in the novel and not a super hero as he comes across in the movie.

Most of the cheese from the film is gone, which is a very welcome change.