As great as the Bond movies were, the original espionage novels by Fleming offer us a different lens through which to view Bond. Where the movies always made him seem cool, calm, and collected, the character in the novels is a more complex man. It is a man who is bored awaiting assignments in London and mooning over a lover who left him a d returned to the States. He is emotionally connected to his spy partners and sad when they meet their demise. Despite his license to kill, he is uncomfortable with killing. When confronted with Tatiana Romanov, the irresistible beautiful Russian spy, he has difficulty being objective and really wants to trust her. And, Bond here is all too humanly fallible, making errors in a business that allows no slack for errors and has consequences that are permanent.

You also get more of a sense in the novel what’s going on in the minds of the Russians. Indeed, there are a couple of chapters of Russian spy activity, particularly concerning SMERSH, the killing squads, both domestically and internationally, that precedes the introduction of Bond into this novel. We are in fact introduced to a number of characters on the other side where we get to see what motivates them and their multitude of dimensions.

The plot itself concerns the assassination of England’s most esteemed agent, Bond, as a poke at the espionage agencies of the West. The idea is to lure him in with the embrace of a supposedly turncoat Russian ballerina who is stationed in Istanbul and has access to a code breaking machine. Word is put out that she has come across his fine and is hopelessly smitten with his photograph. What follows is a kind of cat and mouse game between them as to whether to trust each other. It might have been simpler just to shoot Bond, but the complex plot offered espionage with sex appeal, which would make the Bond franchise famous worldwide.

Преди да прочета тази книга, често съм се чудила какви ли са книгите за Джеймс Бонд. Дали наистина има множество фатални жени, яки джаджи и непосилни каскади. След като прочетох “От Русия с любов” вече знам, че отговорът е да.

Като сюжет, интрига, красота на изказа, романът на Флеминг е доста повърхностен. В него няма неочаквани обрати, по-скоро дадени пасажи са сякаш зашити с бели конци. Самата история е толкова странна, че до последно си задавах въпросите - “какво става и какъв е капана?”

За бъдещите читатели е редно да отбележа, че същинската част и появата на Бонд се разкриват едва в средата на книгата. Интересен, но и очакван момент е описанието на Изтока и представато на англичаните за българите. Отново сме представени като хора, вършещи черна работа, имаме украински имена и сме доста руси. Жените в романа са предмети, с почти никакъв здрав разум. След като прочетох книгата, изгледах филма и честно казано, с изключение на Спектър частта, той е едно към едно с романа, включително определени диалози. Беше любопитно да ги сравня. Също така прочетох някои факти за самия Флеминг и доколкото разбирам случките в романите му са базирани на неосъществени негови планове от Втората световна война, когато е работил в британското разузнаване.


Нямам представа защо “От Русия с любов” е в класацията на Кенеди за най-велики книги, но се радвам, че я прочетох. Така знам, че и мъжете имат своите чиклити, в които са герои, а дамите просто падат в краката им.

4 Stars. You've seen the movie. Now read the novel. Probably the best of the original series of novels and short stories by Ian Fleming. These early thrillers are much less complicated than today's. The movies too. They're shorter for one thing. I yearn. You can't help but see Sean Connery as "Bond, James Bond" in the book. But it is hard to see how anyone who is not a fan of the early Bond movies could come back for a second look at one of the author's cold-war chases. They are dated, yet they are classics, the books and the movies. Ian Fleming popularized a new type of adventure thriller with beautiful locations, beautiful women and some dangerous ones too, implacable enemies invariably much bigger than life, international criminal organizations, and an indestructible hero. In "Russia," our man with a licence to kill, 007, is off to Istanbul to meet the beautiful Tatiana and acquire a Soviet cryptograph machine. We meet Ali Kerim Bey and Rosa Klebb and her lethal shoes, ride the Orient Express, and finish it off with a lovely time in Venice. I smile. (May 2017)

My biggest complaint with FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE—aside from the usual male chauvinism and innocent women who need a real man—I was well into this novel (over a third of the way) before Bond made his appearance. Did I really need to know that much about Mother Russia? I think not. I’d have been happier with much less, frankly, and I would have kept a few more sanity points.

I even debated skipping ahead, but since I’ve approached my task of reading the entire Bond series the way one might approach a calculus exam, I trudged onward, even if there were times in the beginning where my unhappiness reached a near monumental level.

And then Bond showed up in all of his male glory and all was right with the world. Or at least I thought so…until two tribal women in loincloths fight each other to the death, one with a massive bosom and the other a little less endowed, as the sun glistens off their naked, perfect bodies. Excuse me…what? Son of a Walther PPK! My inner goddess just cursed a red, white, and blue streak. And I probably fainted from a heatstroke.

At this point, I might have actually cheered for a buxom beauty the size of a tank to haul off and repeatedly whack Bond with a knotted rope while his pants are around his ankles and a group of Russian women stare on in equal parts delight and horror. Turnabout is fair play, right?

Other than being young and nubile and having looks that could kill, I was not particularly impressed with Tatiana Romanova. She might have had a certain amount of innocence, but I wasn’t buying it.

This supposed thriller left with me few thrills, except for the one I received when I finished it.

Side bar – I’ve started watching Mad Men. The reason I mention this is between reading the Bond novels and watching that AMC show—which end up being somewhat enjoyable for entirely different reasons and equally aggravating for the rampant, raging sexism—I feel like I’m next in line for lung cancer, even though I’ve never smoked a day in my life.

Cross-posted at Robert's Reads

""'You are very handsome,' she said. She searched for a comparison that would give him pleasure. 'You are like an American film star.'
She was startled by his reaction. 'For God's sake! That's the worst insult you can pay a man!'"

Indeed. Bond, who quite cares about his image, certainly wouldn't be thrilled when compared to, say, Leonardo DiCaprio. From Russia, with Love (1957) is the fifth installment in Ian Fleming's Bond series. In Author's Note Mr. Fleming ensures the reader about the accuracy of the background to the novel, and in particular about the authenticity of the SMERSH ("Death to Spies") organization in Russia. Well, we now know better. Nevertheless, the author offers quite an interesting story that happens in mid-1950s, a tense period during the Cold War.

The reader first meets the chief executioner for SMERSH, a man who is on a fast career path because of severe shortage of executioners when there are so many millions of people in the Soviet Union that urgently need killing. We also meet the formidable and monstrous Rosa Klebb, the head of Department II, whose favorite pastime is partaking in torture of prisoners and closely watching their faces:

"[...] she would watch the eyes in the face a few inches away from hers and breathe in the screams as if they were perfume."

Colonel Klebb authorizes an elaborate plan to kill Bond ("Shems Bond") with the use of Tatiana Romanova, an extremely beautiful clerical employee of SMERSH. And then, of course, we have Bond himself, much more human than in the movies, regardless of who played him on film.

I have also enjoyed the vividly painted character of Darko Kerim, perhaps the most interesting person in the novel, a man who wants to have "This Man Died from Living Too Much" on his tombstone. But then, the introduction of Kerim to the plot leads to two completely gratuitous scenes - fight to death between two Gypsy women and then the attack of the Bulgars - that markedly cheapen the overall stylish tone of the novel.

The reader may enjoy the extended plot sequence that happens on the Orient Express and a delightful and cinematic passage of one of the bad guys coming to his well-deserved death through Marilyn Monroe's lips (yes, through her lips). I quite like the ending, a little ambiguous and somewhat surprising. Readers with some knowledge of Russian will appreciate cool puns on names: Rosa Klebb and Mr. Nash. I also had to smile when I was reading Mr. Fleming's footnote in which he refers to his correct prediction of twists the Burgess and Maclean cases.

Overall, From Russia is quite a nice read. Yes, it is very dated (almost as old as this reviewer), but if one were to delete the idiotic Gypsy and Bulgar scenes, it would be a solid three-star old-style thriller. I will read some more Fleming.

Two-and-three-quarter-stars.

Ian Fleming should get more credit than he does for writing fast-paced tightly-plotted thrillers. A little improbable at times? Sure, but the James Bond of the books is nothing like the superhero of the movies. This is adventure fiction that stays within the bounds of reason, and it's full of (almost) believable heroes and villains and not nearly as many outrageous gadgets as in the movies either. (Bond is actually given a cynanide pill dispenser in this book; he laughs and washes them down the drain.)

The plot is basically "Get Bond!" SMERSH wants to kill a prominent rival agent to send a message to all the other intelligence agencies, intimidate double agents, and impress the Kremlin. We get lots of Russian political machinations and the background of all the villains (and the love interest, Tatiana Romanova) before Bond is even introduced. Then to the story: SMERSH lures Bond to Turkey in what's an obvious trap, baited with Romanova and a Russian decoding device, but MI6 sends Bond anyway because the potential payoff is too good to pass up. Bond meets Romanova, is completely taken in by her, and makes several other blunders that will surprise anyone who's used to the cold, flawless cinematic Bond, before he confronts the real enemy, a psychopathic Irish defector who is now SMERSH's top assassin.

I like the original Bond stories; they're still fun despite being so dated. The literary 007 is a much more interesting character than he ever was on-screen. He's still a sexist pig, though, and he's usually one of the less misogynistic characters. Fleming was writing before Political Correctness was a blip on anyone's radar, so the books are chock-full of cringe-inducingly racist and sexist stereotypes. But if you can embrace them as the guilty pleasure they are, I think they are well worth reading, and From Russia with Love is a taut little thriller where the early chapters before Bond even appears are some of the most interesting. (But you'll want to read the rest for the naked gypsy catfight, the lesbian Soviet interrogation specialist and her poisoned knitting needles, the asexual pseudo-lycanthropic serial killer, the Istanbul dungeon crawl, and the Turkish spice merchant who tells Bond how he used his harem to raise his own personal spy ring.)

This book is very special to me for one particular reason...it was the first book I had bought with my own money when I was a child. It was, of course, the cover that compelled me to purchase it, I think most of us are guilty of judging a book in this manner. I used to while away the hours in a local bookshop. I would walk up and down the isles dreaming of all the wonderous adventures each tome held within. Then, I saw the spy section of the shop. The covers, the titles, all left me in awe of what the life of a fictional spy might be like. It had to be exciting to be a spy; each cover told me so, how could they be wrong.

I didn't have the money so I explained my dilemma to the shopkeep and asked him what I could do to own one of these great spy thrillers. He saw my plight and, as he had a kind heart, he suggested that I help him for the day to earn a copy of the Bond of my choice. I swept and dusted. I washed racks and windows. I even unpacked boxes of new and used books while he placed them on the shelves. Finally, at the end of the day my reward had come; all I had to do was choose...

From Russia with Love. It had to be this one. There was just something about the cover (of course, I read the back to see what it was about). It was a wonderous adventure and I scrimped and saved and worked as a child to get them all.

It is still my favorite from the entire Bond/Fleming collection.


Devlin

Fascinante y malísima a la vez. No sé que decir con esta novela, una de las novelas más aclamadas de James Bond. No hay duda de que la fuerza del personaje es tremenda, casi un mito moderno, pero la trama es tan absurda que hay pocos asideros a que agarrarse. Pero alguno hay, y el final resulta trepidante y emocionante.

Spoilers: De entrada James Bond no aparece por la novela hasta el primer tercio. Antes, los soviéticos, mega malos, más rígidos que un palo, todos en un estado de terror estalinista y de odio al enemigo que parece una caricatura. Conocemos a Donovan Grant, un asesino irlandés y peludo a sueldo de los rusos, tan cachas como asexuado, un tipo que en las noches de luna llena sufre una transformación psíquica y siente deseos de matar a alguien. El tipo es llamado a una reunión con los jefes soviéticos, unos malos idiotas que piensan que para aterrorizar a occidente lo mejor es cargarse a su agente secreto estrella. También pululan por ahí un maestro de ajedrez, un campeón ruso que es llamado al Kremlin en mitad de una partida por el campeonato de Moscú... el tipo es un valiente y decide acabar la partida, y casi es enviado a Siberia por ello. Y una joven bellísima, Tatiana Romanova (toma nombre ruso donde los haya) y designada a seducir y enamorar a Bond siguiendo las técnicas de la escuela rusa de seducción, entrenada por una tipa que disfruta haciendo torturar a la gente. Más adelante, asistiremos también a una asombrosa lucha de dos hermosísimas gitanas peleando a muerte por el favor de un macho turco. Y conocemos a un agente británico en Estambul, Karim, un tipo con una historia familiar curiosa, y que dice cosas como que la única forma de tratar a los turcos locales es a patadas, está en su sangre, es lo que entienden, quieren sultanes, guerra, violaciones y diversión... Al final viajamos en el Orient Express, donde Poirot hubiera tenido mucho trabajo.

Me entretuvo pensar en las diferencias del Bond del cine con el de Ian Fleming. Este Bond original es más un soldado obediente y respetuoso con su jefe M que en las películas. Un caballero, por supuesto. Un Bond también más humano, enamoradizo incluso, confiado, que comete errores de bulto, que se preocupa y que sin duda tiene mucha suerte que los rusos sean tan merluzos. Sin duda también sorprende el final, un genuino WTF que te deja boquiabierto.

With 'From Russia With Love' I thought I'd reached a book which would be close to the film. As such I was somewhat surprised by the first 100 or so Bond-less pages. And yet, that opening worked very well. Fleming has spent the last four books building up the character of James Bond, and so can take time away to show the rest of his universe. Besides, much like Harry Lime in the film of 'The Third Man', the fact he's constantly being talked about means he's actually always there.

This is the best of the Bonds I've read so far, a thriller that captures time and place and still manages to be unceasingly thrilling. Eventually the book did start to match my memory of the film, but it became no less exciting. In fact I prefered the Bond in this to Connery. He is wearier, more bruised and I thought - with Tiffany Case having left him, and Tatiana Romanova arriving in his bed - that he is almost ready to fall in love.

Two things:

Is there anything to be read into the fact that Red Grant is reading 'The Little Nugget' by P.G. Wodehouse, while Bond is reading 'The Mask of Dimitrios' by Eric Ambler?

A story I heard was that in the early 80s Lotte Lenya - who played Rosa Klebb in the film - spied Sean Connery on a New York street, and without a word walked up and kicked him as hard as she could in the shin.

This is the most movie James Bond of the books I've read so far.

There's all the cliches. I think half of Austin Powers's characters were based on the ones from this installment.

Fleming flexes his descriptive prose when he takes us to Istanbul for this outing, with Bond and Co even boarding the Orient Express at one stage.

The ending was very unexpected and made me wonder what was going on with Fleming in real life (again, I really need to read more about him).

Toby Stephens (aka Maggie Smith's son) was the narrator this time and I really liked him but maybe only 3 out of 5 for this one.

An oh-so-innocent Russian cipher clerk is recruited into a SMERSH plot, being told that she would feed England false information after "defecting". Little does she know that the actual plan is to humiliate MI6 by staging a murder-suicide between her and her escort, James Bond.

This is technically a review of the Simon Vance audiobook, but it's an unabridged reading.

The Good:

Action scenes: Fleming writes them so well. That penultimate scene with the top SMERSH killer is my favorite scene in the book.

Feel: It has that compulsively-readable, fast-paced, insubstantial, not-probable-but-not-quite-absurd, spy thriller feel.

Villians: Red Grant and Rosa Klebb do rank up there. I must admit that Grant, with the exception of his absurd full moon urges, is one of the most menacing villians I've read.

The Bad:

Bond Acts Like A Tool: From reading Casino Royale, I knew that there was a certain quality of fatalism to Bond. However, in this book he acts with such little care. Although a lot of his risky actions were justifiable, there were some points where it is obvious that Fleming needed to keep the plot going. The biggest example of this was when Bond, despite escorting a defector and some extremely valuable cargo, decides to complete a train ride which he knows has a trap somewhere, because he, by his own admission, is perversely curious to see what it is. Nice way to put England first, James.

The Bizarre:

Misogyny and Racism: Fleming was very much a product of his time. One of his characters casually mentions that the Turks are unfit for civilization and that they are only happy when they have a Sultan around to rule them. And then he goes on about how he once tamed a wild girl by chaining her naked to his table. Perhaps if I was Turkish or a woman, I would find this all offensive, but I am neither, so I just find it funny as hell.

That Gypsy Women Semi-Naked Duel To The Death Scene: Did that scene have any (non-erotic) reason for being written? Any at all?

All in all, it's not perfect, but I think it was worth the read. I recommend it to fans of fast-paced thrillers.

Quintessential Bond - This is the best one yet!

The Soviet CIA group known has SMERSH hatch a plan to assassinate Bond by using young Tatiana Romanova as bait.

The first third of the novel just focuses on the group and their motivations for picking Bond.
I felt that it gave such a fascinating extra layer to the story.

Apart from a brief recap of the past 4 adventures, this book easily standalone and would be a perfect introductory point for someone wanting to try one of Fleming’s novels.