I loved this book. Best Bond book yet...possibly the best one of all time, but we'll see.
...

We ended the last book (From Russia With Love) on a cliffhanger. Bond is kicked with a poisoned blade by the evil lady torturer Rosa Klebb.

Now, after months of medical treatment, he's ready to go back to work. The head doctor begs M. to take it easy on Bond, but M. doesn't believe in coddling agents! He sends Bond down to what he thinks will be a relatively easy job in Jamaica. Two Secret Service agents have disappeared, and for some strange reason M. and the Secret Service think that they've run off together. But the secret location is burnt down, I don't know why on earth they wouldn't suspect foul play. O.o Some spies they are! *rolls eyes

The really sad "break-up" scene in this novel is when Bond's told that his beloved Beretta .25 is not adequate and his "wife" of 15 years is taken away from him and replaced with a Walther PPK 7.65 mm and a Smith and Wesson Centennial Airweight Revolver .38 calibre. Bond is so sad to be separated from his true love - his gun. :( Really, you should hear how he goes on about it. I'm kind of worried about what goes on in that brain of his...

ANYWAY, we (the readers) know from the beginning that it's foul play - we witnessed the man and his female spy/secretary get murdered by "Chigroes" (black/Chinese) who then stole all the secrets and burnt the place up; all this is Chapter One.

Bond reunites with Quarrel, his old friend from his adventures in LIVE AND LET DIE. Both Bond and the readers rejoice in seeing this character again.

Evil Doctor No (a half-Chinese, half-German) has bought Crab Key island and rules it like his own private country. He has claws for hands and his eyes are glass!!! Dum, dum, dum! He plans on taking over the world!!! Bwahahahahahaha!

When Bond and Quarrel land on the island, they meet a "Girl Tarzan." one Honeychile Rider. Bond's upset to know that now she's part of this wretched thing, and she'll be in great danger, but he's going to do his utmost to protect her! Dum dum Dum!!!!!

The "girl" tells him there's a dragon on the island! A black and gold dragon with red eyes that breathes fire! Bond doesn't believe her...
...

Wow. This is such an amazing book. I was enjoying it so much! Ian Fleming is such a good author and he just draws you into this story. You can't escape! You don't want to escape! So much adventure! O.O

RACISM:
This book is expresses some racism, primarily against the Chinese but against blacks as well. But not even close to the amount expressed in books like LIVE AND LET DIE. But it definitely hasn't gone away.

QUARREL:
So good to see this character again, after having an adventure with him in LALD. Bond asks Quarrel to get him into shape like he did last time. Quarrel puts Bond in training, to make him hard and tough so that he can defeat Dr. No! Quarrel also tortures the photographer Miss Chung at Bond's request. This part was a bit scary as I feel Quarrel was enjoying torturing her just a bit too much, but luckily Bond steps in and puts a stop to it before there's too much damage. o.O And then there's of course the fact that  Quarrel gets flame-thrower-ed to death by Dr. No's men on Crab Key! The death of Quarrel. Bond uses his death as a motive to get revenge!

DOCTOR NO:
Great villain, crazy, rich, power-mad. Again disability is used as a mark of evil (Disabilities Studies 101) as Dr. No has two claws instead of hands and glass eyes (contacts, actually)! He also has a huge underground wall of glass, an "aquarium" of the sea itself...super-cool. Bond once again psychoanalyzes the villain out-loud to his face...a standard Bond practice. Of course Dr. No give us an amazing, in-depth, chapter-long villain speech that's loads of fun. His diabolical plans to "experiment" on Bond and Honeychile are creepy and scary. Especially since when he sees Honeychile he's like "Oh, I've been waiting for a white woman to experiment on" and you're like: Blergh, this guy is creepy to the max! And you are so afraid for Honeychile. And so is Bond.

HONEYCHILE RIDER:
I adored this Bond girl! Absolute best Bond girl so far...and there's been some good ones!

...DESCRIPTION
She is 20 with ash-blonde hair and blue eyes. Orphaned at age 5, raised by her black Nanny in the isolation of the jungle/island until her Nanny's death when Honey was 15.

Honey is best friend to all the animals! She loves animals and has been caring for them and playing with them her whole life. She knows SO MUCH stuff about animals and nature and fish and plants and trees. Bond actually LISTENS to her and takes her advice MULTIPLE TIMES in this novel. I was impressed! He must have read my last review of FRWL and decided to take my lecture to heart. Aw. Honey has no formal education, but was taught to read and write by her Nanny, and has read Encyclopedia Britannica Volumes A-T. She's smart, though formally uneducated. At first Bond really underestimates her and treats her like an ignorant child, but he quickly learns that she can teach him a thing or four about life on the islands. She saves his life more than once.

...ANOTHER RAPE SURVIVOR
Honey is a rape survivor. This is the 2nd Bond book in which the Bond girl is a rape survivor (the first was Tiffany Case from Diamonds are Forever). At age 16, trying to live on her own after her Nanny's death, she's always getting looked at/hit on by men. But she is always walking around with a snake on her neck and so is mostly left alone. Except for that one persistent creepy guy (there's always one - I mean, even in real life, believe me) who won't take 'no' for an answer and isn't intimidated by her animal friends. She fights him off like a madwoman but he knocks her out and rapes her repeatedly.

When she wakes up she gets a bunch of black widow spiders, walks to his hut, and pours them all over his naked body. It takes him a week to die.

...THE BROKEN NOSE
As a result of the rape, Honey has a badly broken nose that is very noticeable. She is deeply ashamed of it. She thinks it makes her ugly. So much so that when she first meets Bond, buck-naked, she covers up her "shameful, ugly" nose instead of her breasts.

Her nose becomes a rather recurring theme/subject in the novel. When Bond first sees it, he's shocked and appalled, thinking that she'd be "the most beautiful girl in Jamaica" if her nose wasn't so deformed. Later, after getting to know her better and learning about the rape, he's sure that she can get it fixed. It's an easy operation. Then she'll be perfect. (I'm quietly boiling inside during all of this.) Even later, he knows that she's convinced that she's "ugly" because of her nose, and there's a scene where he tries to convince her that she's beautiful.

BY THE END OF THE BOOK, Bond loves her broken nose and is actually sad to think she might still want it fixed. :) He likes (I don't want to say, "loves" here - because I don't think he's in love with her) her just the way she is and has come to see her nose as part of her and perfect for her. I liked seeing Fleming put Bond through the many steps and thought processes he has to go through to get to this conclusion. Very enjoyable and heart-warming. Especially since I fully expected Bond to keep on thinking he could "perfect her" with surgery, and was surprised and pleased at him coming to his own conclusions and realizing that she's already perfect. :)

...GIVING BOND A HARD TIME
Another reason I really adore Honeychile is her teasing nature with Bond. She is constantly teasing him, challenging him, and generally giving him a hard time. This is done in a loving way, you can tell she really likes him and wants to have sex with him... but she doesn't take any of his crap and she also teases him a lot when she knows she can get away with it.

I thought their back-and-forth banter was really adorable and I loved how cheeky Honey is. The other thing that melts my heart is that Bond lets her tease him. He doesn't blow up at her or lose his temper or "punish" her (God, remember the way he acted with Vesper? It was so disgusting) - instead, he accepts the teasing good-naturedly and teases her right back. He never has the urge to "punish" her or "put her in her place" that he's had in the past with women (most noticeably with Vesper Lynd). I don't know if it's because she's a rape survivor (Bond seems to tread carefully and proceed with caution around women he knows have been abused) or just because she's so much younger than him (she's 20, he's 34). But whatever the reason, he's pretty much the sweetness with her - in a James Bond way, I mean, he's still pretty rough with her in a lot of ways. Including in bed. Not that she was complaining, but I'm just saying ... don't think this means he's not James-Bond-y enough. Sweetness for James Bond is a lot different than sweetness from John Doe.

...BOND AVERTS HIS EYES
Most noticeably is how he avoids looking at her when she's naked (which, in this book, is A LOT). He's actually respectful (this was shocking to me) and he averts his eyes a lot. At one point, when they're in a room together and she's getting ready to take a bath, he actually covers up his eyes with his hands. None of this is because of prompting on Honey's part, it's just a super-rare case of Bond being a gentleman. Take a picture of this and frame it, folks, because I doubt we'll be getting this kind of behavior from him again.

Again, is this respectful, friendly, teasing, protective Bond - the Bond I love and rarely get to see - coming out to play because Honey is a rape survivor or because she's 14 years younger than him? I don't know. All I know is that I liked it and wished he'd be more like this with his other women.

...AGE DIFFERENCE
In case you're wondering, gentle reader, I have zero problem with the age difference. It doesn't bother me at all.

... "I WANT TO WORK AS A CALL GIRL"
Honeychile Rider tells Bond that she wants to become a call girl to make money. Bond's all like, "Excuse me, I don't think I heard you correctly...and I don't think that word means what you think it means..." When finding out that Honeychile really does indeed know what she's talking about, Bond gently and persuasively convinces her that she should use her brain instead of her body. Perhaps working in a Zoo or Museum. This is a touching scene and one that I really enjoyed. Bond impresses me sometimes.

...HONEY CAN TAKE CARE OF HERSELF
Over and over again in the novel, Honey proves to be smart, resourceful, and fierce. She is capable of fending for herself. Putting black widow spiders in her rapist's bed as revenge was just the beginning. No spoilers, but by the end of the book, you'll be super-impressed by how self-confident, capable, and kickass Honey is. She rocks. She saves both herself AND Bond at various times in the novel. You go, girl. :)

...HONEYCHILE RIDER SUMMARY
I guess, in the end, it's the fact that I really, genuinely believed that Bond had Honeychile's wellbeing and best interests at heart AT ALL TIMES. And it wasn't like he was in love with her... he wasn't. It's extremely clear that they are just going to have a few weeks together and then never see each other again. Despite that, Bond always acts in Honeychile's best interests. He goes above and beyond the call of duty to make sure she's not only physically safe, but to give her psychological security, hook her up with a good job doing something she loves that is non-exploitative, and seeing to her financial needs as well. As far as I was concerned, his only "duty" was her physical safety, so I was impressed and touched when he went the extra ten miles to take care of her in other ways. What a great guy. Many extra points to Mr. Bond for being such a mensch.

...
JAMES BOND AS A SERIAL MONOGAMIST
Bond (book version) is a one-woman; one-book kind of man. I know in the movies he's sleeping with a woman, and then her sister, and then 2 more women who show up before the end... but in the books he's really faithful. This is my 6th Bond book and he's never slept with more than one woman per book. So there. :p In the movies he's so promiscuous! In the movies he sleeps with 3-4 women per film.

...
NO SLUT-SHAMING
One of the best and most refreshing things about the Bond books is the absolute absence of slut-shaming. It's as if "sluts" and the concepts of "sluts" don't even exist. Women are just women, whether they've slept with twenty men or are virgins, Bond doesn't care and never comments on it. Nobody cares. It's a complete non-issue. No matter what a woman wears, who (or how many) she's slept with...it's very refreshing to live in a world where not only are women NOT judged for their sexual and wardrobe decisions, but it doesn't even OCCUR to anyone to be judgmental.

On the other hand, when I said "women are just women" this is unfortunately true - you definitely get the impression and message that women are "inferior" to men in a lot of ways. So I'm not in any way saying that the Bond books are feminist - quite the opposite - but I did notice this little ray of light and wanted to share it.

...
SIDE NOTES
- Amazing, well-written scene of Bond vs. centipede. Stupendous.
- Bond drinks both gin and tonics AND bourbon and sodas in addition to his usual martinis, shaken not stirred, in this novel. I want to make it clear, in the books he drinks A LOT and it's a variety of stuff. Not like in the films.
- Bond cries in this novel. And he cries in front of a woman. And he has no shame in doing it. Booyah!
- Oh, and Bond wears jeans for a good portion of this novel. JEANS. I liked that.

Tl;dr - Best Bond novel so far. Exciting, with a cute relationship, and a capable and fierce Bond girl. Wonderful, crazy, rich, villain with plans on taking over the world. Beautiful writing and descriptions. Adventure-packed with tons of fights and challenges. Bond is a real Billy Badass but actually treats his woman really well in this book. I'm relieved, and made sure to savor every moment because I don't think it'll be happening again any time soon.

UPDATE: 1962 FILM WITH SEAN CONNERY
This was a good movie. Not campy and stupid, but an actual exciting spy film.

Honey is not clever and capable like she is in the book. And her nose is definitely not broken and deformed! James Bond saves her over and over - unlike in the book where she saves herself and him numerous times.

Quarrel isn't the tough, efficient man that he is in the book. I was upset that for the whole second half of the film he's seen as a superstitious drunk. Very unkind of them to do.

Bond has sex with three women in the film - only one (Honey) in the book.

While I think Connery is one of the better Bonds, I am just not attracted to him. *shrug

Rating: 4* of five

Again rating the film from 1962. Cannot read the books, they haven't aged at all well.

And in so many ways, neither has the film. Ursula Andress, the most-remembered woman in the cast, plays Honey Ryder (!), and she is the last of three women to find 32-year-old Connery irresistible. (Well DUH.) But her role as eye candy for the straight boys is all she does. Her emergence from the sea in what was for the day a teensy bikini, but for today's audiences might as well be a burqa, led to the current Bond iteration's scene with Halle Berry splashing up out of the sea in, basically, nothin' much. How things have changed in 50 years.

I found myself drooling over the decor. (Hey, the story's ridiculous and the effects are risible, had to look at something!) Midcentury Modern for days! Gorgeous copper-plated doors and beautiful leather-upholstered walls! OOO AAAH. Bond driving that adorable Sunbeam convertible was fun for me too...and the tank with fins! Ha!

So yeah, I give it four camp-stars and enjoy it for what it now is: the birth of a cultural phenomenon, interesting more for what it says about our progress than for any intrinsic merits it has.

A fun return to the Caribbean with Commander Bond (RN) as he returns to active service following the shocking cliffhanger ending to From Russia With Love. This one features the local islanders using a lot of salty language but, for whatever reason, I guess publishers balked at printing F-bombs in the '50s so there are a lot of [blank]s and [blanking]s.


Exactly, Julius. We all know what was being said.

Two observations from this sixth installment: 1. for the first time we get Bond smirking at a "Bond Girl's" name, in this case Honeychile "Honey" Ryder. In the films this will be matter of course stuff culminating, metaphorically speaking, in Famke Janssen's Xenia Onatopp.


Yes I was tempted to include Alotta Fagina from Austin Powers but that would just be going too far...

2. This time we really do get the villain monologuing not just his Evil Plan but also his whole life story while holding 007 in his lair before putting him in an (ultimately) escapable Death Trap. It actually happened! Of course No thought that Bond would never survive it so he felt free to overshare, but still it really does set the template for Things Villains Should Avoid Doing at all Costs.

Shall I move on to the problematic things run-down?

Thanks, Jimmy.

Casino Royale - Misogyny
Live and Let Die - Racial pandering
Moonraker - Paranoia re: 'Enemies within', particularly post-War Germans and the Soviets
Diamonds are Forever - Homophobia
From Russia With Love - Sexual Harrassment
Doctor No - More Racial Pandering! but this time of the "Yellow Peril" variety. Dr. No's mixed heritage as well as that of his thuggish "chigro (mixed Black and Asian)" henchmen is presented as a dangerous thing leading them to reject loyalty to one culture or another and throw in with the vision of radical autonomy articulated by the self-described "maniac".

Well anyway I'm glad I've listened to it, and also glad that the girl isn't just a cipher but a person with an actual tragic, if somewhat fantastical backstory that includes a facial disfigurement caused by a horrible sexual assault in her past. Unattainable and cinematically objectified Ursula Andress she is not, with all due respect to the iconic scenes.


I said all due respect!

In 1956, two years before Dr No was published, Ian Fleming had written a screenplay called Commander Jamaica. It had nothing to do with James Bond, but when the idea was scrapped Fleming adapted it into 007's 6th literary outing.
This is one of my favourite Bond novels as it features a wonderful Jamaican setting, an excellent villain in the form of Dr Julius No & the return of the superb Cayman Islander Quarrel who first appeared in Live & Let Die. There are some implausible situations, but Fleming describes things in such wonderful detail that these are easily forgiven.
A classic Ian Fleming novel that became a classic James Bond film. What more can you ask for ?

Dr No was the sixth James Bond novel & the first Bond film. Actor Sean Connery turning 90 this month prompted me to revisit this classic once again.
I've read Dr No (& all of Fleming's Bond adventures) many time before. I've even listened to other audio versions of this (& all the other novels) by Joanna Lumley, Rufus Sewell, Richard E Grant & others.
This unabridged audio version, running almost eight hours, is very well read by Hugh Quarshie. He's an excellent choice as narrator, although I do have one small (& you may think rather pathetic!) complaint. When M talks to Bond early in the book Quarshie addresses him as "O O seven" when it should be "Double-O Seven." A very minor irriatation in an otherwise fine piece of reading.
This CD set also contains an excellent interview with Quarshie, in which he discusses the differences between the book & the film as well as the challenges of reading the story.
Superb writing from Ian Fleming & possibly the best narration of a James Bond novel that I've ever heard.

Ian Flemings's secret agent James Bond leaves behind the hail & icy sleet of London for the sun of Jamaica in his sixth adventure.
From the murder of Strangways in the opening chapter the reader is treated to a fast paced spy story full of fantastic characters & death defying situations.
I've been reading and rereading 007's adventures for 45 years & never tire of them. This outstanding novel is published in a new edition by the Folio Society & is enchanced with eight illustrations by Fay Dalton which compliment Fleming's story perfectly.
A very lovely Christmas present from my wife & a marvellous addition to my James Bond collection.

RIP, Sean Connery, aged 90, always the grinning James Bond in our hearts.

Dr. No is a film I have seen a couple times in my lifetime and recall enjoying for the sheer entertainment (i.e., Ursula Andress with Sean Connery),

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlYkn...

with Bond fighting spiders and squids to defeat the villain.

So the films are less offensive than the books. In the films Bond is charming, debonair, amusing, but in the books he is edgier, nastier. If you are going to get all picky about it, Fleming and Bond reveal in this book their typical misogyny, racism, colonialism and so on; sure, burn the books, but do that later; come on, let’s say what we like about the book, please! A little positivity here!

The (1958) story: Secret Agent Man James Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate two missing MI6 operatives, mainly a mysterious, reclusive, cruel German-Chinese trans-human, Dr. Julius No, making a fortune on a small (fictional) island, Crab Key, off Jamaica. His goal is to disrupt American missile launching at Cape Canaveral. Visiting the small island Bond meets a girl, Honeychile Rider who accompanies him. The assignment of course gets to be a stickier wicket than he anticipated, but don’t worry, things will work out for the couple, whew. I know you’re happily surprised and relieved to hear that no white beautiful people die in the making of this story.

Things I liked/found amusing/interesting:

*The story is pretty lively—it’s a thriller with fifties pulp foundations—silly, but at key points, especially 1) when we meet “the girl” and 2) when the action gets going, Fleming earns his money.

*Dr. No is one of the most formidable of Bond nemeses, smart and powerful. As with almost every Bond villain, he is sadistic. For some reason Fleming was particularly interested in torture of various kinds, but here he has Dr. No researching the limits of human capacity to withstand pain and fear. Here Bond and Honeychile face poison centipedes, tarantulas, a basket of poisoned fruit, and so on. Honey is staked naked on the beach, anticipating murderous crabs will slowly eat her alive; Bond is (for no reason other than “scientific inquiry”; why not just kill him?! But then it wouldn’t be an adventure story, would it) forced to go through an obstacle course of tortures in order to escape and conquer his foe.

*Dr. No gets rich from the (surprisingly) lucrative international market in Roseate-Spoonbill

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roseate...

guano (!).

*Dr. No may be sadistic because he was himself tortured. His hands were cut off when he was discovered stealing from his Chinese boss. He was shot in (apparently) the heart and left to die, but lucky for him, No was born with his heart on the right side, so he survived! ☺ No No? Yes!

*The ludicrously named Honeychile Rider (okay, it’s not as ludicrous as Pussy Galore, but close) is of course supermodel-beautiful, whom Bond finds, conveniently, almost completely naked (she’s wearing a belt with a knife attached) (in the 1962 film Andress is wearing an almost chaste—by today’s standards—bikini) on a deserted beach. Despite the fact that she had been raped years ago, she becomes almost instantly infatuated with Bond, and she becomes his eye candy for the rest of the adventure. Is this side-stepping Honeychile's trauma into the arms of a "sexual healer" Bond offensive? Of course it is, but read on.

Honeychile's naïve goal, she tells Bond early on, is to get rich in New York City some day as call girl. Lucky Bond, to have met her, eh? Naked girl on a beach, call girl "in training," James? But we also learn Honey killed the rapist by visiting his bed with a tarantula, so she seems to have some skills. And maybe she isn't as simple as I assumed above. Fleming otherwise depicts her as a female Robinson Crusoe, a nature child, a waif, a naïf. Precursor to sixties love child.

*This is Fleming’s second book set in his beloved tropical island, Jamaica. He wrote it at his Goldeneye estate there. The tone of Fleming’s Bond can be violent and nasty, but nowhere else is Fleming as lyrical in describing natural vistas as he is here, basically describing what he can see from his own window overlooking a cliff.

*Honeychile says she has seen and is afraid of dragons. What?! Well, in order to discourage visitors, the doctor's "dragon" is a flamethrowing, armored swamp buggy.

*Of course to defeat the notorious No, Bond must at the climax of the action wrestle a poisonous squid, and find a way to turn the doctor’s own guano machine on him: Yes, death by bird guano! Nice touch? As I have said before, Fleming’s best writing is in the action sequences: Bond Must. Find. The. Will. To. Survive! Yes! Yes! Yes! He’s alive!

Escapist fun on a tropical island with “exotic” (i.e., non-rich white Brit) elements. Ludicrous, silly, and occasionally a little offensive, but nevertheless (for me) pretty enjoyable. Oh, give me a little credit, it’s not just the scenes with Honeychile Rider! Am I that obvious? One of my favorites so far.

Mr. Incredible: I was wrong to treat you that way. I'm sorry...

Syndrome: See? Now you respect me, because I'm a threat. That's the way it works. Turns out there are lots of people, whole countries, that want respect, and will pay through the nose to get it. How do you think I got rich? I invented weapons, and now I have a weapon that only I can defeat, and when I unleash it...

[Mr. Incredible throws a log at Syndrome, who dodges it and traps Mr. Incredible with his zero-point energy ray]

Syndrome: Oh, ho ho! You sly dog! You got me monologuing! I can't believe it...

t- The Incredibles

Dr. Evil: Scott, I want you to meet daddy's nemesis, Austin Powers

Scott Evil: What? Are you feeding him? Why don't you just kill him?

Dr. Evil: I have an even better idea. I'm going to place him in an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death.

t- Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

Daryl Van Horne: You haven't seen any snowy egrets around here, have you?

Alexandra Medford: No.

Daryl Van Horne: Me either. Not that I'd know a snowy egret if I were pissing on one. You want some lunch?

Alexandra Medford: I think it's a little late in the season.

Daryl Van Horne: For lunch?

Alexandra Medford: No, pissing on birds.

t- The Witches of Eastwick

And so we come to Doctor No, Ian Fleming’s sixth James Bond novel, first published in 1958.

While this is another fun adventure with Bond. James Bond, the monologuing evil mastermind bit is taken to almost comic proportions. Doctor No was patterned on the Fu Man Chu stories, but Fleming’s description has no doubt been the source of inspiration, satirical and actual, ever since.

While these can all be read as stand alones, this one does make reference to Bond’s injuries in the prior book, From Russia With Love.

Maybe not one of his best (Fleming received much negative press when this came out) but it is still Bond. And so fun.

** - I went back and watched the 1962 Terence Young film starring Sean Connery and Ursula Andress. Great fun, surprised at many things: the low budget production that nonetheless holds up well, how beautiful was Andress and how young Connery. This was the film that started it all and no wonder it paved the way for so much success over the next few decades.

Doctor No (James Bond, #6), Ian Fleming

Dr. No is the sixth novel by the English author Ian Fleming to feature his British Secret Service agent James Bond.

Fleming wrote the novel in early 1957 at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica. First published in 1958.

The novel centers on Bond's investigation into the disappearance in Jamaica of two fellow MI6 operatives.

He establishes that they had been investigating Doctor No, a Chinese operator of a guano mine on the fictional Caribbean island of Crab Key.

Bond travels to the island and meets Honeychile Rider and later Doctor No.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال1976میلادی

عنوان: دکتر نو - جیمز باند کتاب ششم؛ نویسنده: یان (ایان) فلمینگ؛ مترجم: واحد گله داری؛ تهران، سازمان کتابهای جیبی؛ سال1345؛ در273ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده 20م

مجموعه سینمایی «باند» در سال1962میلادی، با فیلم «دکتر نو» آغاز شد، و «فلمینگ» را به اوج شهرت رساند؛ سالی که ایشان از دنیا رفتند، هر هفته حدود 112هزار نسخه، از کتاب‌های‌ ایشان به فروش می‌رسید؛

چکیده کوتاه: «جیمز باند» برای پژوهش درباره ی قتل یکی از ماموران سازمان جاسوسی «انگلستان»، به «جامائیکا» فرستاده می‌شود، در آنجا متوجه دخالت «دکتر نو»، مرد پرنفوذ، و ارتباط او با سازمان تبهکاری بین‌ المللی «اسپکتر» می‌شود؛ «باند» پس از جان به دربردن از چند سوء قصد، با دختری به نام «هانی» آشنا می‌شود؛ آن دو پس از منهدم کردن یکی از خودروهای زرهی «دکتر نو»، به دام می‌افتند و ...؛

فیلم این اثر را نیز بارها در سینماهای «تبریز» در سالهای دهه ی چهل از سده ی سیزده خورشیدی، تماشا کرده ام؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 02/12/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 29/08/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Dr. No happens to be one of my favorite James Bond movies, because it was the first; the Bond villain is Killer-Great. I did not realize that the movies were not in the same order as the books, but here as I read the sixth book, I was startled at some of the similarities and more importantly the differences in the book. I generally favor the book and here too, I find myself impressed with Fleming’s writing of this iconic character. There are of course triggers here. This story transpires in the cultural milieu of the 1950s where certain cultural sensitivities had not yet matured, especially regarding gender and race. If you believe that you might not be capable of reading something of this caliber, do not. There are many other things you might enjoy. Quarrel is a beloved character, but he is not always treated as such. A famous quote from the movie has Bond tell Quarrel, "Fetch my shoes." Good Lord! How freaking ridiculous, but I judge books within their historical milieu. So, I do not allow myself to get angry about it. Honeychile Rider is a great name for a Bond “girl,” and Bond clearly has a soft spot for her, but she too is not held up as a paragon of intellect. Still, I really like this book.

Bond.
James Bond.
When I first started reading the Bond books, I really wasn't impressed by his treatment of women or his skills as a secret agent.
But now?
Bond is not only the man, he's a whole different kind of man.



After reading Casino Royale I wondered if this was going to be a stagnant series of stories about a sexist spy that wasn't very good at his job. I'm glad to report that it really isn't.
In the first few books, James seemed to blunder around his assignments, grasping at the tits of whatever woman was closest without being terribly remarkable in any definable way.



I originally noticed in Diamonds Are Forever that there was a gentle shift in the character, but in Dr. No you can almost hear the gears clunking into place as he turns a corner.
Don't get me wrong, the book is still a product of its time. But for its time? Bond ain't so bad anymore.
There are some spoilers below, but this book is old and I just want to discuss it. You've been warned.



The skinny gist is that M has sent Bond on an easy assignment to get him back in the groove after almost dying in From Russia With Love, and James is a bit resentful because it hurt his pride. He's also getting over the loss of his beloved...gun.
Yes, M took his trusty Beretta and replaced it with Walther PPK.
There was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.



However.
What seems like a simple vacation to Jamacia turns into the start of what makes Bond movies so goddamn fun to watch.
THE DEATH CRAZY TRAP!
Ohmygod this one was a doozy. And Bond rose to the challenge in a truly nail-biting race against the clock to get out of a maze designed to kill him.
He had to pit his skills, determination, & wits against a genius villain in order to escape in time to save the girl.



Except he doesn't!
Yes, in a shocking twist of events, Honey Ryder saves herself. Well done, Mr. Fleming.
Another shocker was the way Honey was treated as a character.
She was a young orphan on her own who had her nose broken so badly it was disfigured during a brutal rape. Not only did she survive, but she then went back to the man's house and killed him. Bravo, I say!
However, it was Bond's eventual realization that her nose didn't make her less beautiful to him that took the story up a notch for me. He grew. HE GREW! You know they aren't destined to be a couple, but you can tell how much he cares for her as a human being by the close of the book. And that counts for a lot with me.



This was an excellent installment in the Bond series.
Highly Recommended.

If you're interested in this as an audiobook, I listened to Blackstone's audiobook version with Simon Vance as the narrator. Good stuff.

(A-) 84% | Very Good
Notes: James Bond teams with noble savages against aberrant hybrids: the trans-human recluse and his bi-racial henchmen.