While From Russia with Love included the classic elements that fans would want in a James Bond adventure, the novel’s structure gave it a somewhat different feel from other entries in the series.

The plot revolves around a Soviet conspiracy to murder Bond in a way that would serve a punishing and highly public blow to the British Secret Service. Rosa Klebb, the head of SMERSH, the Soviet murder bureau, puts an intricate plan into play. She lures Bond to Istanbul, with a beautiful would-be defector (Tatiana Romanova) and a Soviet cryptography machine as bait. Bond teams up with Anglo-Turkish agent Darko Kerim for some skirmishes with Soviet agents before boarding the famed Orient Express with Tatiana, whose growing feelings for Bond are giving her serious second thoughts about her mission. All the while, the brutal Red Grant, SMERSH’s top assassin, stalks the duo to a climactic final confrontation.

One of the most notable aspects of From Russia with Love is that the hero of the book doesn’t make an appearance until a third the way in. The first section instead focuses on the Soviet characters, providing a glimpse into Moscow life of that era. Author Ian Fleming spends time fleshing out Rosa, Tatiana and Red, among others, and shows how the plot against Bond comes together. It’s a slow burn approach that gives the story a different feel early on. The approach adds depth to Bond’s nemeses, making them more than just cardboard straw men for the super spy to knock down.

When Bond does enter the story, it kicks the plot into a higher gear. Fleming sketches some involving espionage action, making especially good use of the exotic Istanbul setting as the backdrop to the East vs. West spy games. Unlike the bon vivant image of the character often displayed in the famous movies, the written Bond comes across as a much darker figure. He grapples with existential malaise and the love affairs that come across as bits of froth onscreen cut him much deeper on the page. Bond doesn’t come across as perfect; indeed, Fleming hints at the fact that his hero is fundamentally unbalanced, but in a way that makes him an ideal fit for his job.

Among the newer characters, Kerim is a vivid force of nature, a good partner for Bond, even if at times he slips into an Ottoman pulp caricature. Klebb is among the best villains of the series, ruthless and complex, while the ambivalent Tatiana, torn between duty and her feelings for Bond, is a sympathetic mix of love interest and enemy. Fleming spends a lot of time building up Red, possibly a little too much time. In the end, Red’s more a bit of villainous color who doesn’t have the layers of Rosa or Tatiana.

As always, the pre-PC sensibility of the Bond novels won’t be a good fit for all sensibilities. Some passages could be shocking for modern readers unused to the period’s different standards. But for espionage drama fans with an open mind, the Bond series remains a compelling and worthwhile ride.

Who knew a random werewolf persona would appear in a James Bond novel? That was literally the highlight of the novel for me.

But I can't leave out Turkish Rico Suave, aka Darko Kerim, who I actually need more of, and the gypsy clan of Instanbul, who is also fighting the Russian mob, who are being spied on through a rat and bat-infested underground tunnel that will likely "lead to the next plague." Still, we need it for spying purposes, so who cares about the future?

The romance was so terrible and misogynistic that it was hilarious.

Once you get past being offended by Ian Fleming's depiction of panty-dropping women and turn it into comedy, this series is gold.

SMERSH is also always interesting, even if their purpose is usually immensely vague, kind of like Mr. Claw's mission in an Inspector Gadget episode. They must eliminate BOND, but then what?

The leading lady in this one was so extra, I guess, to assuage Bond's broken heart when he was somewhat rejected in the last novel. Tatiana Romanov is supposedly in love with him, even though he has never met her. And so Bond is like, well, I am quite awesome, so it must be true, let's try it. She is found in his bed with a ribbon around her neck and asks him to beat her if she ever gets fat while she plans to spend her life with him.

But wait, there's MORE! A dominatrix bisexual leader who reminded me of the sex dungeon in Amsterdam in the movie Eurotrip with the crazy "safeword" (probably dating myself a bit here as this came out in 2004).

There's even a jaunt on the Orient Express!

And this hilarious quote which I am going to start taking to heart... or stomach
"I do not cross my heart. That is being too serious. But I cross my stomach."

There's so much going on in this one, including comedy/spy thriller gold. At this point, I can't help but love the comic relief, intended or not. All of this happens in less than 300 pages. Never a dull moment

4.5 Stars rounded up.

If this is love then I’d hate to see the Russian idea of hate.

The Soviets have suffered several espionage losses so they decide to run an elaborate operation in which they’ll kill British agent James Bond in such a way that will embarrass all of English intelligence. The two big pieces of cheese in this mousetrap are a code machine used by the Russians and a beautiful code clerk named Tatiana Romanova who doesn’t realize what kind of pawn she actually is. Will Bond take the bait? Well, he is James Bond, and did I mention that that Tatiana is a beautiful woman? Yeah, take a guess how this goes.

I’m a big fan of Bond on film and generally like those a lot more than the Fleming novels I’ve tried. With this one being the basis for one of the best Bond movies I didn’t find anything to change my mind about that. Bond is usually a bastard in both forms, but there’s something even worse and apt to make me roll my eyes in the way that he’s even more of a privileged sexist bigot on the page then any time on screen.

Plus, the structure of this novel is just weird. It’s only 191 pages, but Bond doesn’t show up until halfway through it. Instead we spend a lot of time getting all the details about how the Soviets came up with this plan. Even when Bond finally appears we get a long segment about how he’s been bored at the office and what his domestic life is like when he's not killing people or having sex. Another problem is that since we’ve been told in detail exactly what trap awaits Bond there’s not a lot of mystery for the reader even when 007 is trying to figure it out.

Although to be fair, the movie also lays out the plan, but there it’s done much more quickly so that Bond gets involved much sooner. In fact, the basic plot beats from the book are used in the film, but the film did a better job of pacing and adding action to the mix. Since I do like the movie a lot I guess that means the basic plot works as long as it moves briskly.

Still, it is one of the classic Bond stories, and there is some charm to this including some spy vs. spy games in Turkey. It also has a top notch thug in the form of Red Grant, a psychopath from the United Kingdom who defected to Russia and became their chief executioner. If there was more of him in here I think I would have liked it more.

This comes the closest so far to making 5 stars for a Bond novel. The book is full of plots and counter plots, nice sneaky planning pretty well done. Only a few problems... you'll find yourself wondering if Grant might not have profited from hearing about the evil overlord's list. Since this book predates the list Grant may be one of the insperations as his talking to Bond before killing him and over confidence are so classic. Bond doesn't even show up till fairly late in this book and appears to get killed at the end. But he manages to recover in time to save England and of course the free world again.

n  ***2018 Summer of Spies***n

”At 7:30 on the morning of Thursday, August 12th, Bond awoke in his comfortable flat in the plane-tree’d square off the King’s Road and was disgusted to find that he was thoroughly bored with the prospect of the day ahead.”

Having just recently finished Lycett’s biography of Ian Fleming, the above passage sent me flipping through my notes about that author, where I found this quotation that I had noted:

”After his death his widow Ann put it in much the same way. “You must realize that Ian was entirely egocentric. His aim as long as I knew him was to avoid the dull, the humdrum, the everyday demands of life that afflict ordinary people. He stood for working out a way of life that was not boring and he went where that led him. It ended with Bond.”

The conjunction of the two books made me smile. I’ve also recently finished reading Somerset Maugham’s spy novel, Ashenden. It also features a beautiful Russian woman—the protagonist spends a week with her to confirm their compatibility and instead finds her boring and demanding.

”But Ashenden saw himself eating scrambled eggs every morning for the rest of his life. When he had put her in a cab, he called another for himself, went to the Cunard office, and took a berth on the first ship that was going to America. No immigrant, eager for freedom and a new life, ever looked upon the statue of Liberty with more heartfelt thankfulness that did Ashenden, when on that bright and sunny morning his ship steamed into the harbour of New York.”

A wildly different response to the care and attention that Bond expends on Tatiana Romanova.

And wow, the first cliff hanger ending of the Bond series, showing how uncertain Fleming was about whether he would continue to write these adventures. Partly because of the criticism of conservative reviewers and the sniping of his wife’s circle of friends (which included Maugham). Ian became quite testy about his wife’s friends for this very reason. I think he would be pleased to know that Bond is still “a thing” even now in the 21st century.

Wow what a deeply garbage book. I read this for my group's Once Upon a Crime challenge which makes you read books that are, supposeldly, some of the best crime/mysetery books ever written. How this book could be on any list other than "worst books ever" shocks me to my core. From the sloppy writing and off-putting details to the racism and the misogyny I can't understand how anyone could have enjoyed this book. I wanted to stop within the wildly creepy first chapter. Took me over a week to get past the first 40 pages. I literally only powered through because I needed this for challenges.

Sometimes I read a book that I dislike and think "well, parts of this are good. I'll give the author one more book." I would rather never read again than pick up another Fleming novel.

Full review to come.

Fun read and I can only imagine how influential this was during the time of its release. Pulling back the iron curtain and giving the West a glimpse of the world of Soviet spies, the story is enjoyable and memorable.

When you read any of Fleming's books you need to remember you are seeing a snapshot of distant place and time. This is post war Europe where men are Men and women are decorative. You may be exposed to what today would be described as straight up racism, sexism and bigotry. Whether it is an absolute unquestionable hatred for the communists or a more subtle British private school disdain for the people of the continent.

If you have seen the movie From Russia with Love you will be happily retreading a familiar path. If not it may seem strange that the beginning of the book has absolutely nothing to do with James Bond, but instead you are taken behind the scenes at the Kremlin and into the workings of SMERSH. Soon Bond appears and learns of a Russian lovely who wants to defect in order to be with her dream date, Bond of course, to sweeten the deal she is going to bring the Soviet version of the Enigma machine to hand MI6 all of the Soviet codes.

This sends Bond to Istanbul to meet the girl, get the machine and outsmart the pesky Ruskies. But SMERSH has its fingers all over this plan and Bond is being set up. A trip on the Orient Express will have more dead bodies than Agatha Christie's version of the ride. And the book ends in a cliff hanger will Bond survive.

Forget ever James Bond movie you ever saw when you read the books. These are much more a mystery/adventure story. Recommended

NO SPOILERS

SMERSH wants to damage England. What better way than to destroy their secret agent hero, James Bond? SMERSH hatches a plan. They pick out their prettiest worker and send her to Bond. To sweeten the already honeyed deal, she's carrying a Russian encryption machine. Bond is initially suspicious of this beautiful Russian spy who's defecting to England, but his suspicions are gone once he beds her (moron!). But SMERSH has big plans for Bond, and surprisingly they are not plans to give him endless orgasms...
...

My stomach clenched painfully at the thought of reading this book again. I couldn't remember exactly why, but I knew it was going to be bad. In fact, I put off reading this for a day or two, trying to mentally prepare myself for what was coming. It didn't work.

Fleming starts off strong, with what is perhaps the best opening chapter I have ever read. He paints a very ideal, normal scene but laces it with dark and sinister undertones, and he does so beautifully. There's no doubt that Fleming is a great writer.

Bond doesn't even appear in this book until the halfway point. Instead, Fleming uses his first 10 chapters to introduce us to the inner workings of SMERSH (Death to Spies) the Russian counter-espionage organization.

We meet Donovan Grant, a psychopath who was born in Ireland. A serial killer, young Grant starts by killing animals but quickly finds that's not enough for him. After he starts killing humans (always on the night of the full moon) he runs into a bit of trouble. He becomes very interested in working for the Russians, which I guess he sees as an all-you-can-eat buffet of killing and torturing. I thought Fleming did a good job showing how someone like Grant, a killer who enjoys killing and has absolutely no morals works hard to please his Russian masters and actually has to undergo things he doesn't like (school and learning) in order to get where he wants to be (SMERSH's #1 killer).

We meet Rosa Klebb, evil lady torturer. Described as disgusting and "sexually neutral," Klebb is a short, toady, ugly woman who is always described in the most disgusting terms possible so that the reader develops revulsion for her not only based on her actions, but her physical self. Fleming also uses bisexuality to induce "fear and disgust" in the reader, showing that Klebb is a "pervert" who will satisfy her sexual urges with either men or women.

Lastly, we have Tatiana Romanov,(24, brown hair, blue eyes, Bond will be her 4th lover) a stunningly beautiful and innocent and goodhearted member of SMERSH (WTF?). She is just so innocent and fresh and sweet. Even though she works for one of the most evil organizations ever, she's just a good girl who could never hurt anyone.

Tatiana is called up by Klebb and given the good news: she will sleep with James Bond. No matter that she has no idea who Bond is, or the small issue of deciding for herself when and with whom to have sex - she is told:

"You will seduce him. In this matter you will have no silly compunctions. Your body belongs to the State. Since your birth, the State has nourished it. Now your body must work for the State. Is that understood?"

Well, Tatiana (who I feel is not very bright) can't argue with that logic!

Now comes a very hard part for me to read: Tatiana being examined naked. Tatiana being forced to give SMERSH her lovers' names so that they can be interviewed about her sexual talents (or lack thereof) and her subsequent training on how to please a man in bed. I'm shuddering in revulsion even writing this down. It's sick. I hate it. It's degrading and humiliating and disgusting. Especially since Fleming keeps stressing Tatiana's innocent and sweet nature and how she is now looked on as a whore and men just leer at her and joke about her all the time. Vomit-inducing.
...

Okay. Now Bond. La, la la, Bond's going soft. Where's the war? Where's the mission? He hasn't been on assignment in a year. He's so bored. Tiffany Case left him and moved back to America (extra points to Fleming for mentioning a past Bond girl and not just "disappearing" her).

Then Bond gets a call from M.

...the bell of the red telephone had been the signal that fired him, like a loaded projectile, across the world towards some distant target of M's choosing. ... M. gestured to the chair opposite him across the red leather desk. Bond sat down and looked across into the tranquil, lined sailor's face that he loved, honored and obeyed.

Bond is told that a young, beautiful spy from Russia who works in the filing office has developed a huge crush on him. From reading his file. The British Secret Service actually buys this load of hogwash, because they can't pass up the opportunity to get their hands on the encryption machine.

Bond is told on no uncertain terms that he is to seduce Tatiana. Please her in bed. Make her fall in love with him. Do whatever he has to do to get that encryption machine! Now, let's examine this a bit:

ANALYSIS:
It's very interesting what Fleming has done here. Both Bond and Tatiana are told to whore themselves for the governments' benefit.

But Fleming shows the differences in the organizations' approaches. SMERSH doesn't give Tatiana a choice. She's told: your body belongs to us. She's cruelly interrogated about her sex life in detail. Her lovers are hunted down and also forced to go into excruciating details about her skills in bed. Then she is physically assessed and given "hands-on" training in how to give men pleasure.

Bond, on the other hand, is first asked by M. if he's still with Tiffany. M. doesn't want to involve Bond in this if he's involved with a woman. Once it's established that Bond is single, he's given a choice. Would he like this mission? Bond agrees, after having a discussion in depth with M. about the dangers, what the mission will involve, etc. etc. (Contrasting with Tatiana who is completely in the dark and also being lied to.) While James Bond is told verbally to make Tatiana happy, seduce her, and make her fall in love with him, he is certainly not stripped naked and forced to have sex with multiple women in order to assess his orgasm-giving skills. None of his ex-lovers are questioned.

In this way, while Bond and Tatiana are kind of in the same situation, Fleming is showing us that England = good and Russia = evil. And women = should be treated like objects, and men = have agency and can be trusted to make their own choices.
...

VOMIT INDUCING #2: When Bond first meets Tatiana, he's buck-naked and she's in bed wearing only a ribbon around her neck and some stockings. They have some cute banter and then have sex.

My problem? Two male SMERSH operatives are taping the whole thing through the huge mirror wall. It's also implied that they are really aroused and possibly masturbating while doing this.
...

James Bond makes a good friend in Turkey. A friend named Kerim. This charming individual is a rapist and a racist. I despise him.

Here are some excepts:

By good luck, I had taken a few minutes off to relax on the couch over there with a young Rumanian girl who still believes that a man will tell secrets in exchange for love. The bomb went off at a vital moment. I refused to be disturbed, but I fear the experience was too much for the girl. When I released her, she had hysterics.

Here's a dose of his views on Turks:

That is the only way to treat these damned people. They love to be cursed and kicked. It is all they understand. It is in the blood. All this pretence of democracy is killing them. They want some sultans and wars and rape and fun. Poor brutes...

Wow. Are you ready for this one?

All women want to be swept off their feet. In their dreams they long to be slung over a man's shoulder and taken into a cave and raped.

Or the time he kidnaps that woman, strips her naked, chains her to his table, feeding her scraps and making sure that she knows "who is master." When released (Kerim is slightly embarrassed his mother finds out he's got a naked slave-woman chained in his kitchen) she won't leave him and has fallen in love with him. I'm not joking, this whole scenario really happens in the book.

He also has the wonderful idea of taking Bond to visit his Gypsy friends. There, two women are fighting each other to the death over the chief's son.

Of course, there's lots of rending of clothes and bared breasts and biting and stuff. All the men look on hungrily.

Unfortunately, this delightful spectacle is cut short by an attack. After it's all over and the smoke is cleared, the Gypsy chief is like, "Bond. You could be useful to us. Why don't you come live here to kill for me and tame my women?" Bond graciously declines and makes a request that both women who fought be allowed to live. He'd hate to see one die! The gypsy king is like, "That's an annoying request, but okay." He also makes it clear that the women "belong" to Bond and that if he ever gets the urge to just pop on by, they will be always sexually available to him for as long as they live. Actually, the exact terms were "until their breasts sag." Charming.

The women aren't consulted at all on their thoughts on this matter. Actually, I don't think they even speak in this book.
...
"You won't let me get too fat, James. You won't let me get so fat that I am no use for making love? You will have to be careful, or I shall eat all day long and sleep. You will beat me if I eat too much?"

"Certainly I will beat you."

- Charming.
...

Last point: This is the 4th (FOURTH!!!) time in the series that a "Bond girl" tells Bond, "This man/situation is dangerous. You should be careful/suspicious." And this is the 4th (FOURTH!!!) time that Bond just pats the girl on the head and says, "Oh you silly woman. Don't think so much! Ha, ha, ha. So cute." And then promptly gets attacked. You'd think, being a spy and all, he'd FINALLY learn after the 4th (FOURTH!!!) time this has happened that maybe... just maybe... it's worth at least CONSIDERING a woman's opinion when she says, "You gonna die." Grow a brain, Bond!
...

Tl; dr - An EXTREMELY TO THE MAX chauvinistic piece of trash with tons of rape, sexual humiliation, women as animals, women as sexual objects, racism, and women as stupid.

UPDATE: THE 1963 FILM WITH SEAN CONNERY.

Wow, this is actually a good movie. When did these James Bond films stop being good spy movies and start becoming campy jokes like Moonraker and Live and Let Die?

Some notes:

1.) What was with Connery smacking Tania around? Unnecessary, unattractive, and not in the book.

2.) In the movies, Bond always has sex with three or four different women. In the books, it's one book: one woman. He's much more promiscuous in the films. In this film he has sex with Sylvia at the beginning, BOTH the gypsy women (in the book he turned them down when their chief offered them to Bond), and Tania.

3.) I think the movie was pretty faithful to the plot and spirit of the book, minus the whole SPECTRE/Blofeld thing. What the heck was all that about?

Debo decir, en primer lugar, que yo no escogí leer este libro sino que fue fruto de un reto literario de escritura al que me he unido hace ya unas cuantas temporadas: El concurso El tintero de oro. Creo que nunca lo hubiera leído de no ser por esta razón. Y, en segundo lugar, diré que le puse 3 estrellas porque el final me pareció excelente, si no lo hubiera dejado solo en 2 estrellas.

A ver, es un libro que forma parte de una serie de novelas acerca de un conocidísimo espía, lo sé, y también su fama mundial a través de las películas, espectaculares todas ellas. Tenía expectación acerca del libro antes de comenzar la lectura por esta misma razón y, la verdad, me ha costado terminar la novela. Si no hubiera sido por el reto puede que no lo hubiera logrado.

Hay muchos puntos, a mi modo de ver, que me hacen tener esa opinión desfavorable. Los más importantes son un comienzo tedioso donde se expone toda la relación de agencias rusas y su manera de operar que duran, si no recuerdo mal, unas cien páginas más o menos. Ese punto anticuado, no sé bien si de machismo o misoginia que se cierne sobre toda la trama. Una trama demasiado ingenua, o incluso infantil, que sostiene la novela. Una manera de hacer descripciones excesivamente adjetivada, he contado en multitud de ocasiones al menos tres adjetivos para un mismo sustantivo, y cuando se refiere a personajes son tan exhaustivas que hacen salir de la trama pareciendo casi la típica ficha de personaje, puede que sea otro punto anticuado. Y el protagonista, James Bond, tarda demasiado en aparecer, como un tercio de libro.

Como puntos a su favor, hay que decir que a pesar de todo lo anterior y salvando esos tramos tediosos, se lee fácil, es entretenida, tiene buenos personajes y un comienzo y un final espectaculares. Como muestra, esas primeras líneas, pues el final queda para quien lea la novela:

«El hombre desnudo que yacía boca abajo, junto a la piscina, podría estar muerto.

Podría ser un ahogado acabado de rescatar de la piscina y tendido sobre la hierba para que se secara mientras llamaban a la policía o a sus familiares. Incluso los objetos del pequeño montón que había en la hierba, junto a su cabeza, podrían haber sido los efectos personales del hombre, cuidadosamente reunidos a plena vista de modo que nadie pensara que sus rescatadores habían robado algo.»

Además, muestra el modus operandi ruso, que no ha cambiado para nada desde la Guerra Fría, y es bastante esclarecedor de las políticas y la idiosincrasia del pueblo ruso en la actualidad. Hay cosas que nunca cambian. Y también nos da una idea de su odio ancestral hacia occidente.

En resumen, me ha parecido una novela maltratada por el tiempo, con una trama simplista e infantiloide, dirigida totalmente al público masculino, con un desarrollo irregular —partes tediosas y/o excesivamente adjetivadas alternadas con otras buenas de verdad— y que no me ha llamado a seguir leyendo nada del autor. Hasta la portada es fea.

Para más detalles puedes ir a la reseña de mi blog:
https://eleeabooks.blogspot.com/2023/...

Deutsch [English review below]:

Ich kannte bisher nur die James Bond Filme und dies war mein erster (und voraussichtlich letzter) Versuch, eins der zugrunde liegenden Bücher zu lesen. Leider hat mich dieses Buch komplett enttäuscht.
Da die Bücher in den 50er Jahren erschienen sind, war mir bewusst, dass sich gewisse Vorstellungen von den heutigen unterscheiden. Männer sind nur auf Sex aus, Frauen sind hübsch und sonst nichts etc. Allerdings hat mich das Ausmaß an Rassismus, Sexismus, Homophobie und Stereotype bezüglich psychischer Erkrankungen wirklich erschreckt. Dass die Russen in diesen Büchern nicht besonders gut wegkommen, war ja klar. Allerdings bekommen hier auch Türken und "Zigeuner" ihr Fett weg. Die einen sind faul, dreckig und servieren zweifelhaftes Essen, die anderen sind zügellose Wilde, mit denen man sich eben abgibt, weil es nützlich sein kann. Die Kombination von Asexualität und einer manisch-depressiven Störung macht einen Mann zum perfekten Killer. Und natürlich wünschen sich alle Frauen insgeheim, in eine Höhle geschleppt und vergewaltigt zu werden. Die letzte Aussage stammt von einem Mann, den Bond für einen wirklichen netten Kerl hält, und der dann erklärt, er habe ziemlich genau das mit einer seiner Frauen gemacht. Wie gesagt, weiß ich, dass die Wertvorstellung etwas anders waren, aber ich habe mich stellenweise wirklich schwer getan, weiter zu lesen.

Neben diesen furchtbaren Vorurteilen hatte ich allerdings auf eine unterhaltsame, spannende Handlung gehofft. Aber weit gefehlt! Ich habe mich über weite Teile zu Tode gelangweilt. James Bond taucht in diesem Buch erst nach etwa 100 Seiten auf. Zuvor erfährt man ein paar Dinge über den russischen Geheimdienst, wobei sich viele detailierte Beschreibungen von Personen, die nie wieder auftauchen, und Räumlichkeiten aneinanderreihen. Auch als Bond schließlich in Erscheinung tritt, geschieht zunächst nichts von Bedeutung. Erst die letzten 50-60 Seiten werden einigermaßen spannend. Das ist mir für einen angeblichen Agententhriller aber schlichtweg zu wenig.

Ich konnte diesem Buch leider absolut nichts abgewinnen und werde mich in Zukunft einfach an die Filme halten.

English:

I only knew the James Bond movies, so this was my first (and possibly last) look at the novels. Unfortunately, this was a complete disappointment for me.

As the books were published in the 1950s, I knew that some of the attitudes and values would be quite different from today's views. Men only want sex, women are nothing but beautiful accessoires etc. But the extent of racism, sexism, homophobia and ableist stereotypes was truly shocking. It is clear that the Russians wouldn't look too good in these books. However, also Turks and "gypsies" are portrayed in a pretty negative way. While the former are seen as lazy, dirty, and fond of questionable food, the latter are described as ruthless savages whose behaviour is tolerated since they can be useful. The combination of asexuality and a manic-depressive disorder makes a man the perfect killer, apparently. And obviously all women secretly want to be dragged into a cave and raped. This last statement comes from a man that Bond sees as a really nice fellow, and who then explains that he did basically that to one of his wives. As I said, I knew that the values were slightly different, but some parts were really hard for me to read.

Besides these horrible stereotypes, I hoped for a thrilling plot. Maybe not award-winning literature, but at least some fast-paced action. But boy, was I wrong! I was bored to death for most of the novel. James Bond does not appear until about 100 pages into the book. Before that we learn a few things about the Russian secret service with many detailed descriptions of characters who then never appear again and the various rooms they are in. When Bond finally arrives, nothing significant happens. Only the last 50-60 pages are somewhat exciting. But for something that calls iteself a spy thriller it simply not enough.

I could not find anything appeling about this book and will stick to the movies in the future.