4 Stars. Get set for a thrilling ride and misogyny in spades, 1950s style. One never knows how to evaluate such works. The Bond on the page, this is the first of fourteen by Fleming, is different in many ways from Sean Connery and his followers. Of course the movies began a decade later and times were changing. Here he's tougher, less social, absolutely no nonsense, and holds views on women which make one cringe. Yet there are similarities, he's talented in many ways, charming, smart, and the best at neutralizing the enemies of the UK. Most of the time anyway. And he's comfortable in the world of expensive cars, glamourous hotels and casinos, and classy restaurants. He's been assigned the task of bankrupting a Soviet spy, Le Chiffre (which means number or digit) at baccarat at the casino in Royale les Eaux near Calais. His target is already in financial trouble with the Communist unions in France. The thought is, if his losses continue with Bond's help, Smersh will handle his disposal. Bond is offered the able assistance of Felix Leiter of the CIA and the beautiful Vesper Lynd of Station S of the British Secret Service. Hard to put down. (August 2020)

*Actually read the new released 2018 vintage edition with the white cover and with the introduction by anthony horowitz but that edition is not yet on goodreads and i will NOT add a book here on goodreads!*

Very entertaining, very different from the movies both old and new, and very outdated in many ways.

But very fun to read if you enjoy the slightly over the top spy stories.

Which i do.

The writing is really nice, detailed oriented -which i LOVE- and while it was relatively fast paced it still had this feeling of everything going slower as a lot of the books and movies around the 1950s have, if anyone else knows what i am talking about.

I honestly do NOT think that this book or series at leat the original Fleming books -if they are all written this way- are for everyone.

If you are someone that needs fast paced and lots of action, this is not the series for you.

If you can't read a book that was written in the 50s and see that while its certainly not okay to talk about women that way it was sadly the norm during that time but it bothers you endlessly, this book is not for you!

If you expect the book to be exactly as the movies are? Don't read this, it will disappoint you!

I actually really enjoyed the pacing -the slower not as fighting and over the top action, constantly firing of guns or getting into unnecessary fights- and i enjoyed the bit more reserved and darker Bond of the book.

I did find a lot of moments more humorous than i am sure they were supposed to be.
For example the amount of cigarets that you apparently needed to smoke and talk about.
Or how often it was mentioned that Bond loves his car. Or sleeps naked.
Or how much care he takes for details -all details, every detail!

Those were amusing to me more than annoying, but i can defiantly see how other people can easily see those moments as utterly annoying!

What i personally actually really enjoyed about this book was how little of a "ladies man" bond was, especially during the time he tried to do is job.
He was actually very professional and didn't want any distractions or having to worry about anyone else beside himself while he had to do his job.
I really enjoyed that about him, its so different form the "lady lover" they portray him in the movies.
And sure that was the last 20 or so pages that were all about the lovin' but it was nice that it was only added at the end!


I will defiantly continue won with the series and can't wait to see how each book is different to the movies, because so far this first book defiantly showed me why those books are so popular!

Really more like 3.5/5.0 stars for me. I’ve wanted for a while to read the original James Bond books. I can remember as a kid one of my uncles reading them and talking about it each time a new movie came out. I did enjoy it, although it really is dated in many ways and very different than the movies. I will continue and see how it improves (as I’ve seen some other reviews say they do). I listened to this one on audiobook and the narration was terrific.

2.5 stars.
Stars slow and doesn't really pick up much pace throughout, but it has some fun parts nonetheless. I liked the movie versions better (both Daniel Craig and Woody Allen, but obviously for different reasons).