My chronological journey through the world of the original James Bond novels continues with the fifth novel to be written and published, and widely held as the beginning of the best part of the entire series. In this one, Russia is tired of continually losing the battle in the grand spy game and has decided to assassinate one of the West’s most prestigious spies. After considering several countries’ intelligence programs to target, they settle on Britain’s MI-6 and who better than the famous James Bond.

The first 1/3rd of the novel and perhaps a bit more is all build-up, from the Russian’s point of view, their leadership, their assassins, etc. Mr. Bond himself does not enter the novel until almost half-way through. But it’s a fun ride to watch Bond fall into the trap they have set for him and try to get out.

Historical note: Up to this point, Ian Fleming and his publishers had been disappointed in the sales for the first four Bond books and they had failed to crack the all-important American market. Fleming was reportedly ready to throw in the towel completely (and had even thought to go so far as to kill off his main character) but he would give it one last try. He really put his all into it with much re-writing and re-thinking, resulting in this fifth novel which shows a definite step up in quality. It’s also the longest Bond novel and the resulting best seller status that resulted launched the golden period of Bond novels to come, including the following novel, James Bond: Dr. No.

For fans of spy fiction, these novels are must-reads.

i love the structure of this 007 novel.

efficient and effective, fleming sets up each character one chapter at a time, stacking, building, and then letting the story naturally climax in a genuinely tense finale.

one of the better bond books + film adaptations.

I feel guilty reading these books for a variety of reasons. One, they are sinfully good. Two, they are undeniably racist and sexist. Three, I think I'm reading a first edition (the real owner of these books stole/borrowed them from a distant relative) and they are disintegrating in my hands as I read them. Every time I turn the page it comes away from the binding. Is it sacrilege to destroy a 1st edition Bond book?

The most surprising thing about these books is Fleming's prose. His descriptions evoke a wonderful sense of place and character as you read. Lines such as "...Bond recognized them as the eyes of furious dissipation" and "...pale, thick chicken's skin that scragged in little folds under the eyes" were some of my favorites. Or perhaps, "The tricoteuse of the French Revolution must have had faces like hers, decided Kronsteen."

I was disappointed with the end however, and I thought that Fleming's portrayal of the female spy was not believable. I think he does better with the femme fatal characters rather than puppy love. Must read more.

A little slow in the beginning. The ending is top notch. What a cliffhanger.

""'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.

Book Review – From Russia with Love – Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming's “From Russia with Love” novel turns out to be one of the most heralded of the Fleming books and films. This book is not the typical James Bond film where Bond is the swaggering, infallible, womanizing spy. Simply put, the book, brings readers closer to the James Bond-style fans are familiar with. Even though still a few years away from the big screen version, Bond is finally developed with the personality that Sean Connery would later refine and make his own in the movies. Interestingly though, in the book, Bond is overshadowed in the story by Ali Karim Bey – the head of the British Secret Service’s ‘Station T’ in Istanbul, Turkey. Bey is the largest personality in the book, and Fleming had a lot of pleasure developing his character. Furthermore, this is the first-time readers get to spend time with the villains without Bond being in the picture. Bond doesn't really get any character time until chapter 11, leaving room for Fleming to show readers how things are done behind closed doors at the international criminal organization – SMERSH, which introduced characters that would later be translated more accurately for the film. The only major difference is that the film has these characters defecting from SMERSH to operate with SPECTRE, another global criminal organization that doesn't appear later in the books until “Thunderball.” It was once kidded that Bond was the worst secret agent ever because everyone knew everything about him. And this may be the book that inadvertently set that stereotype into motion. This time SMERSH is out for vengeance, seeking to murder 007 and his reputation. The plotline is a bit hard to swallow, but the story is told with such enthusiasm, readers won’t care once things are set into motion. That enthusiasm changed everything, and it could have been because Fleming’s character development of the villains made for a better story. He also spent a lot of time on a complex plot that may be one of the most complex plots of the Bond series. It is certainly a realistic Bond narrative and an exciting espionage tale set in the Cold War period. Fleming’s craft was on full display in this novel because he put together a great narrative, with memorable characters, wonderful dialogue, and mixed great interchanges with actionable movement. He also had strong character descriptions, and excellent scene imageries. Fleming’s writing ramped up the suspense throughout the book and he produced a well-varied and well-paced read. I enjoyed the book and although with some minor differences, absolutely loved the movie with Sean Connery as James Bond, 007.

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?

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.

4 stars - English pocket

Schrijvers lijken op hun best in periodes van neerslachtigheid. Dat gold blijkbaar ook voor Fleming, want het boek is een van zijn allerbeste boeken geworden.

In deze vijfde titel duikt Bond pas na een derde van het boek op. De lezer heeft dan al kennis gemaakt met een brute krachtpatser die van SMERSH - een zeer beangstigende Russische moordorganisatie - de opdracht krijgt om Bond van kant te maken. Bond moet hiertoe eerst in een val worden gelokt, bestaande uit een knappe Russin en een door de Britten gewild decodeerapparaat. De Britse geheime dienst vermoedt een valstrik, maar kan de kans op het in handen krijgen van het apparaat niet laten glippen en stuurt zijn beste agent op pad. James Bond begint aan een spannende en indrukwekkende reis over de wereld die uiteindelijk zijn dood lijkt te worden.


De schrijver bewijst voor mij dat de beste boeken goed geschreven moeten zijn, maar vooral een sterk verhaal te vertellen moeten hebben.

Het plan van SMERSH, de locaties en de personages zijn geloofwaardig, levendig en krachtig beschreven. James Bond is menselijker dan hij tot dan toe was, Rosa Klebb van SMERSH is ongetwijfeld de beste lesbische slechterik ooit bedacht en de knappe Russin is het prototype van de welgevallige femme fatale die uiteindelijk valt voor de charmes van Bond.

Veel eigen ervaringen in zijn boeken. Dit maakt de soms wel erg fantasievolle gebeurtenissen toch realistisch.

En Sean Connery in de hoofdrol in de verfilming van het boek. Voor mij de beste 007.

I think I was about seven. We had a copy of this book lying around the house, and Mom told me not to read it, it was totally dumb, but of course I did anyway. I thought it was kind of cool, especially how they had the grandmaster plan the honey trap. Really I wanted it to work, and I was a bit annoyed that Bond got away again.

That weekend, Mom had invited a lesbian couple over for dinner (we were living in the Bay Area at the time). I spent the whole evening staring at their shoes. In the end, one of them asked me why, and I said...

No, it's just too embarrassing. Don't let your daughters read this book until they're old enough to have acquired some sense.

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.

James Bond is lured into thinking that a beautiful Russian agent, Tatiana Romanova, loves him and wants to defect with a code machine, but she's a trap set by SMERSH. Red Grant, the USSR's top executioner, is on a collision course to meet and kill Bond on the Orient Express. Bond kills Grant but appears to succumb to poison in the final moments, delivering a killer cliffhanger that doesn't exist in the movie.

Yet another great spy thriller by Ian Fleming, whose writing style and mastery of the tradecraft of the period constantly impresses me. It was the 1950's, so yes, Fleming writes women as you would expect someone writing a macho novel of the time would. But overlooking that instead of viewing it as though it were written today, the characters are detailed and interesting, the action is excellent, and the book delivers a deeper story than the movie (which I've seen about ten times).