Q:
Unfortunately, strict patterns of behaviour can be deadly if they are read by an enemy. (c)
Q:
We are making conversation. Instead, let us talk. Both of us, I am sure, prefer talk to conversation. (c)
Q:
Clausewitz’s first principle was to have a secure base. From there one proceeds to freedom of action. (c)
Q:
courage is a capital sum reduced by expenditure. (c)
Q:
But how to measure human endurance? How to plot a graph of the will to survive, the tolerance of pain, the conquest of fear? (c) Why? In Alteryx, of course.

It's a pretty fun book. I like James Bond. He's umm, a nice man and of course a lover. I'm a bit surprise to find out that he didn't actually like to kill people, he's actually a bit upset that he had to kill people. About the Bond Girl, Honeychile Ryder, I can't say if I like her or not. She's cute and pretty strong and street (?) smart but she's too childish sometimes. I don't know. Well to sum up it's a very fun book but I have to admit I skimmed a bit in the last part, oh, and for me perosnally the adventure is not that exciting. Oops.

A fun book

Drăguță, dar sub așteptări.
Problema cu englezii ăștia foști-agenți-secreți-deveniți-romancieri-de-succes (Fleming, Le Carre și Forsyth, să numesc doar câțiva) e că oamenii au povești de spus, dar nu le prea știu spune. Au oarecare substanță, dar nu reușesc nicicum să se intersecteze cu niscaiva stil.
Narează steril, 50% din glume se dezumflă prematur, personajele sunt stereotipice, dialogurile par ridicate direct din desene animate, iar tensiunea e second-hand.
Romanul se citește repede și asta e cea mai bună latură a sa. Bond e cam gol pe dinăuntru, Honey Rider aduce un pic de culoare scenelor. Scenele de sex și chimia dintre cei doi protagoniști e forțată. Bond continuă să fie un libidinos.
Doctorul omonim pare a fi ceva extraodinar la început dar face greșeala clasică de a se juca cu Bond în loc să îl împuște direct în frunte atunci când are ocazia și, sincer, chestia asta e extrem de enervantă. Iar după ce Fleming încearcă să îl vândă pe No drept un tactician de geniu, incapabil de a fi luat prin surprindere, Bond îl scoate din scenă în cel mai stupid și dezamăgitor mod posibil.
Puțin probabil să mă întorc la alte cărți din serie.

I read this book for a popular fiction subject at university and I'll admit that I'm probably not the target audience. Nevertheless, reading Dr No. just left me very confused as to why James Bond is such an enduring fictional character and why these books still continue to sell.

I know that the character has gone through various incarnations and the modern James Bond bears very little resemblance to Fleming's secret agent. In my opinion, this is probably a very good thing.

I mean, the character depicted in this book is pretty much a conceited, racist, misogynist creep. Futhermore, I didn't find the book very well written or plotted and the characterisation of anyone other than bond is pretty much limited to stereotypical depictions of race and gender.

For example:

Asian= cunning in an evil, deceitful kind of way
Black= rather stupid, either hired muscle or bumbling sidekick (Bond doesn't really seem to bat an eyelid when his supposed 'friend' is killed).
Female= Naive and needs a father figure to look after her
Mixed race or non-white female= just add the above traits together

I mean, that is pretty horrifying even for the period it was written.

I know it isn't meant to be particularly progressive or even great literature but for me it was barely readable.
Some things don't age well and I'm pretty sure this was never any good in the first place.
Compared to this, give me Daniel Craig coming out of the water any day.

it was ok..

* The sixth Bond book.

* Second appearance of Strangways and Quarrel.

* Terrific book, from the opening in which Bond must give up his "ladies' gun," his Baretta, and accept the new Walther PPK, through the wonderful last line kicker.

* Everything clicks. Quarrel (Bond's good-humored man Friday), Honey Rider (his naive yet resourceful damsel in distress), and Doctor No (his mad, creepy nemesis); the mystery and suspense of the first two-thirds, and the excitement of the climax; and the spice of Fleming's sure touch with humor throughout (Bond even aims a zinger in M's direction).

* Once again, ignore complaints of "misogyny" from people who don't appear to know what the word means and "racism" from people who must believe that political correctness is a virtue. The book is neither. In fact, in this book, a black man's intuition proves better than Bond's and a woman's knowledge, had Bond but possessed it, would have saved him a lot of anxiety. And these are just two examples. Another is this: one reason Bond never believes the theory subscribed to by M and other officials as to what happened to a man and a woman at the beginning of the book who have disappeared is because the woman, a professional, would not have acted in such a silly, emotional way.



* The first Bond movie (Sean Connery).

* Sticks generally to the plot, though a number of details are changed and others added, especially during the climax. The most notable addition is that of Felix Leiter. The best is a scene in which Bond cold-bloodedly kills one of Dr. No's cohorts.

* Honey Ryder (Rider in the book) is regrettably reduced to prop status. Dr. No is creepy enough, though; at least, he is when first introduced, in a scene where he is heard but not seen.

* Ok adaptation, but nothing spectacular certainly. The one undeniably great bit of adaptation is the signature Bond theme.

Entertaining book, if you can get by the casual of-its-era racism. Of all the Bond books I've read this one definitely made him seem the most vulnerable.

titular sentence:
p31: '...Calls himself Doctor No -- Doctor Julius No.'

cement:
p39: Tables were dotted about under the palms, and in the centre was a small deserted cement dance floor to one side of which a calypso trio in sequined scarlet shirts was softly improvising on 'Take her to Jamaica where the rum comes from'.

p117: Hands took hold of Bond and dragged him roughly out backwards on to a cement floor.

special characters:
p163: He said softly, ‘How would you like to earn ten thousand dollars, guaranteed, and a ticket to anywhere in the world?'

p177: As they swept over, the noise that had disturbed them reached Bond – the triple blast of a ship's siren that means it is ready to take on cargo.

p194: 'You’re quite sure of all this?'

p200: Pleydell-Smith had been summoned.

-Curiously, these just began to appear near the end of the book.

I'm a little unimpressed, considering the cliffhanger ending of the last volume. In any case, this seems to be somewhat of a turning point, or maybe milestone is a better word.

Pros:
* excellent reader
* cohesive, fun story
* lots of interior James Bond monologue
* batshit (birdshit?) bad guy with great lair
* GIANT SQUID

Cons:
* racist
* colonial
* guys, so racist

This is THE BEST reader so far - Hugh Quarshie does an amazing job all around. I had to look him up. His Jamaican accent is believable, his Chinese accent is done w/ a light touch and stays out of caricature. Thank god, because SO MUCH of this book is heavy-handedly racist with pro-colonial overtones. I was going to say "undertones" but that suggests a subtlety that is quite beyond Fleming, had he even attempted it. I still gave this 3 stars, because I'm grading these on a curve, but I'm conflicted about how much leeway I cut these books.

من قراءات الصبا

The original Dr. No novel diverges in some significant ways from the movie that kicked off the James Bond franchise.

Bond, still recovering from a brush with mortality in his previous adventure, heads to Jamaica to look into the disappearance of the Head of Station, an old friend. Many think the man has taken off with his lovely young assistant, but Bond’s suspicions lead him to a private island owned by the mysterious Dr. No. Bond encounters Honey Rider, a free spirited young beauty scavenging for seashells on the island. The pair winds up as Dr. No’s unwilling guests and Bond faces a lethal gauntlet he’s unsure he can navigate and emerge alive.

While Ian Fleming’s original story shares a similar plot structure to the iconic movie it spawned, on the page Dr. No feels quite different. The portrayal of Bond accounts for a lot of that. Unlike the breezy, carefree cinematic hero, the Bond of the page is a much darker creation. He’s quite troubled, beset with doubts and a fatalistic cynicism, while he sags under the burden of accumulated losses and near-death experiences that weigh heavily on him. This is a Bond that finds he needs to prove he’s still capable of doing his demanding job. Fleming puts the star of his novel through a lot more physical torment than his movie counterpart endures (at least in that first incarnation of the franchise; the recent Daniel Craig movies are much more in the spirit of the source material). To some extent, the differences amount to where the book and movie versions fall in their respective series. While the celluloid Dr. No was the shimmering launch to a big ticket movie franchise, its novel counterpart falls in the middle of the Bond series. And unlike the early movies, the Bond novels don’t hit “reset” at the end of each adventure. The wounds (physical and emotional) that Bond suffers in the books haunt him as he pushes forward.

The grittier, harder-edged and more careworn Bond might not be what fans of the old movies look for in the character. But the differences add up to a fascinating, long-term character portrait whose accumulated power grows with each installment of the series. The written Bond has a lot more depth than fans weaned on the movies might expect and provides readers with unexpected rewards.

For fans interested in period espionage fiction, the Bond novels remain a sure bet.