Casino Royale is the first book in the James Bond series. I've seen the movie -- the new and the old version -- many times, but this is the first time I've actually read the book. James Bond is a much more complex character than the way he is portrayed in the movies. Yes, he travels to exotic places to kill people and he has more than his share of liaisons with beautiful women....but the books include his thoughts on his job, his fear and apprehension during missions, and his considerations of retirement, settling down, forming a more lasting relationship with a woman, etc. The complexity of the character just doesn't come through in the movies. The movies are pretty much just action-packed fight scenes separated by drinking martinis and having sex.

In Casino Royale, Bond infiltrates a high stakes baccarat game in order to bankrupt and ultimately ruin a Russian operative, Le Chiffre. With some help from an American CIA agent, Felix Leiter, and another British Agent, the beautiful Vesper Lynd, Bond manages to win a record amount of money at the baccarat table. But Le Chiffre is determined not to be ruined. He kidnaps Bond and Vesper Lynd, setting in motion events that might be the end of Bond.

This book contains one of the most gruesome torture scenes I have ever experienced in a book. The movie starring Daniel Craig depicted the basics of the torture, but left out much of the psychological brutality of the entire scene. I thought the movie version was traumatic....but the book's description is so much more gruesome. It's an important scene that's integral to the plot of the book. It's not overdone and there is absolutely no detailed description of the event or in the injuries to Bond. The horror comes in the matter of fact manner in which Le Chiffre explains what he is doing and why, and the description of how he goes about it. The coldness, the violence, the unfeeling nature of a very evil man.....and the brutality yet simplistic nature of his attack on Bond. In the movie, a knotted rope is used for the attack. But in the book it's a simple household tool, a carpet beater. Le Chiffre comments that it is easy to cause extreme pain and suffering to a man with the simplest of tools if one knows just how to do it. The entire scene sent chills down my spine. It is definitely not for the feint of heart.

The book has 3 distinct sections -- the baccarat game at the casino, the kidnapping and torture, and the aftermath. I didn't much care for the first section of the book. I have absolutely no interest in gambling and there is a lot of explanation about the game, the odds, what cards they are playing, etc. Plus Fleming uses a lot of French, German and Russian words and phrases sprinkled throughout. While that does help create atmosphere, after awhile it just gets old, especially when it's gourmet food, wines, liquors and other details I felt weren't all that important. For me, it was just a bit overdone. After the baccarat game, the action revved up considerably and the story became much more interesting for me. The ending is a bit abrupt, but it makes sense that it ends the way it does.

After reading this first Bond book, I have a better understanding of the character and why he is the way he is. I want to read through the entire Bond series this year as part of my goal to read more books that I've always wanted to read, but never actually took the time. I'm glad I finally read Casino Royale. The book is so much more detailed than the movie.

I listened to the audiobook version of Casino Royale from Audible. I'm glad I chose to listen to the audiobook as as I don't speak French, German or Russian and would have completely flubbed my way through a lot of wine, food, character and place names throughout the entire novel. At just over 5 hours long, it was a relatively quick listen. Dan Stevens narrates. Stevens reads at a nice even pace, and did an excellent job with all different accents and voices of characters. I have hearing loss but was easily able to understand and enjoy this audiobook.

Every legend has a beginning. For Agent 007, that came in Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel Casino Royale.



Now, I’ve been a fan of the various Bond movies for years, but I’d never tackled one of the novels until now. Casino Royale is the first of 14 Bond novels and story collections that Fleming produced, and it’s a little rough around the edges (as one might expect from a rookie novelist). The prose is not bad by any means, but it’s nothing fancy. More puzzling is the structure. I remember watching the movie version of this story and wondering why it was put together the way it was; as it turns out, the movie was pretty faithful to its source material. In a nutshell, the action in the casino and the faceoff with the villain all take place in the second third of the book, leaving the final third to a rather meandering final act that felt a bit anticlimactic. I didn’t hate this, but it definitely felt a little “off,” and I can easily see it bothering some readers. Speaking of bothering readers, it will be no surprise to most that James is not a card-carrying member of NOW, but the 1950s version takes things uncomfortably far:

“These blithering women who thought they could do a man’s work. Why the hell couldn’t they stay at home and mind their pots and pans and stick to their frocks and gossip and leave men’s work to the men?”

Say it ain’t so, James. So, with all of this nitpicking, why the four-star grade?

In one word: style. I thought this book was as cool as a chilled martini, and found it great fun to read. The clothes…the booze…the cars…the caviar…all fantastic. It reminded me a bit of the show Mad Men in this respect. The scenes at the baccarat table were suspenseful and well crafted, and Fleming does a great job of explaining what for many readers will be an obscure game (in the film, they changed it to Texas Hold ‘Em) so the action at the table is easy to follow. Le Chiffre is a good, sinister villain, and Bond (ice cold in his original incarnation) is a compelling hero.

Overall this was a very fun spy thriller with some great moments. At under 200 pages this is a quick breezy read, and fans of the movies will be interested to see how 007 was portrayed 60 years ago when he first hit the scene. As I noted above (and other reviewers have pointed out before me), this is a cold, almost cruel 007, from his pontifications on the role of the modern woman to the book’s gut-punch of a final line: "The bitch is dead now" Oof. Maybe not the man you’d want dating your sister, but he’s a hell of a lot of fun to read about. 4 stars, recommended!

Ian Fleming has some poetry in his veins! I would never have guessed that. much of the prose in this spy thriller is basic and almost ostentatiously declarative. prose from and for a man's man, I suppose. but every so often, we have lines like:

n  In his mind he fingered the necklace of the days to come.

The moonlight shone through the half-closed shutters and lapped at the secret shadows in the snow of her body...

Bond awoke in his own room at dawn and for a time he lay and stroked his memories.n

so Bond is the man, a man's man. he's not a nice man, nor an empathetic one, but he get's the job done. Don Draper Bond? Walter White Bond? if the shoe fits. but he's more than a compelling anti-hero. he's a broken vessel, one who has convinced himself that he's whole. poor Bond. he just needs love. and until he finds it, he's going to convince himself that that's exactly what he doesn't need.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I was really surprised at how much this book is about how Bond relates to women. it is practically a romance novel for anti-romantic men, one that also includes a lot of gambling and enjoyment of the finer things in life. by the end of the novel, Bond - who has been experiencing some existential angst and is questioning whether or not he wants to continue with his chosen profession - decides to stick with his job as a secret agent because he has had his heart broken.

so here's what we know:

- Bond is an old school sort, and has strong chauvinistic tendencies in his professional work. he is unsurprisingly a gender essentialist. I'm not sure if I'd call him a misogynist.

- he's a caveman in his outlook on romance. he wants to have rough, rapey ("rapey" not actual rape) sex with a woman who wants to be ravished.

- at one point in his life, a relationship ended badly for him. maybe more than one relationship. love died but the relationship lingered on, the results of which have made him tell himself repeatedly throughout the novel that romance is not for him. he just wants to hit it and quit it. or so he says.

- he sees himself as a cold, brutal sort. the key part of that phrase for me is he sees himself as. there's a lot in this book that implies that Bond is creating the man he wants to be, that he's purposely hardening himself to the world - and specifically to women - but he's not quite there yet.

- Bond meets one Vesper Lynd and is immediately attracted to her. his feelings towards her are an interesting stew of irritation at having to deal with a colleague who is a woman, basic sexual attraction, and admiration for her cool composure combined with an equally cool supportiveness towards Bond.

- Bond is captured, tortured, freed. during his lengthy convalescence he experiences a lot of existential doubt about "heroes" and "villains" and how the two roles are interchangeable. a colleague mocks him when he brings this up. Vesper visits him and treats him with kindness and empathy, and no mockery. he slowly falls for her. it was a genuinely moving thing to read.

- Bond and Vesper go off on a romantic vacation together. Bond is a walking hard-on when he thinks about what's to come:

n  She was thoughtful and full of consideration without being slavish and without compromising her arrogant spirit. And now he knew that she was profoundly, excitingly sensual, but that the conquest of her body, because of the central privacy in her, would each time have the sweet tang of rape. Loving her physically would each time be a thrilling voyage without the anticlimax of arrival. She would surrender herself avidly, he thought, and greedily enjoy all the intimacies of the bed without ever allowing herself to be possessed.n

- on the first night of their romantic getaway, Bond and Vesper finally hit it. it is just as amazing as he imagined it would be. Bond and Vesper are in love.

- something weird and ambiguous comes between them and Bond becomes increasingly confused and depressed. he doesn't understand how and why the love of his life has become so strange and distant. he remains a gentleman throughout but assumes this affair will end like his past relationships... with a feeling of emptiness.

- Vesper and Bond have a wonderful last night together full of drinks, lovemaking, and tears. she writes him a letter that describes how she is a double agent who has fallen in love with him. she kills herself.

- Bond goes into a state of shock. then Bond goes into Efficient Agent Mode. Bond decides that he will remain a secret agent so he can destroy SMERSH (the agency that drove Vesper to kill herself). Bond cannot (or will not) process Vesper's complicated back story and the effect she has had on him, so he destroys the memory of his love for her. or at least he attempts to...

Bond may be fooling himself but he hasn't fooled me. Vesper is a defining person in Bond's life, no matter how much he may want to discard his memory of her. the last sentence of the book is reserved for her, as is the actual last word... bitch. and so Bond degrades his memory of Vesper and compartmentalizes her away, and is one big step closer to becoming that cold, brutal man he's always envisioned himself to be. I guess that's what losing the love of your life can do to a person.

this was an absorbing, surprising introduction into the world of 007. I'm not sure what I expected, but it certainly wasn't this.

Bond, James Bond. Over the years I have enjoyed watching the action movies starring England's favorite 007 spy, yet, until now, I had not read any of Ian Fleming's classic books explaining Bond's origins. In Casino Royale, a tale of stealth, lust, and treachery, we see where Bond's 007 career begins.

It is the years following World War II, and the Cold War has emerged from the ashes of Europe. The Russian intelligence agency SMERSH with backing of Arabian oil money has become a threat to take over the west. Spies and double agents abound, and newly minted 00 agent James Bond is sent to the Casino Royale to track agent Le Chiffre back to SMERSH and foil the Russian's plot. What ensues is high jinx and high money stakes that are sure to leave one on the edge of their seat.

Alongside supposed ally Vesper Lynd and foreign friends Mathis and Leiter, Bond takes the case. Because this is Fleming's first Bond story, the novel is more about Bond's background in the service and less about chasing the villains across the globe, as fans of the movies are familiar with. We discover how Bond earned his 00 stripes, his role in the Service during the war, and that he is never without a drink or cigarette. The Bond in Fleming's novel is the same Bond who has appeared on the silver screen all these years and is a thrilling to read about.

In the end there abound chases, girls, and double agents. Bond saves the world from the spread of communism, and his career as a 00 agent lives to see another day. There will be further tales of high jinx espionage, which Fleming gleaned from his own years in the British service. In a documentary, it has been revealed that the character James Bond was created as a composite of people Fleming came across while serving during the war; however, the real James Bond still remains shrouded in mystery.

Casino Royale was a fun read for a gloomy Sunday afternoon. Knowing the cast of characters, it was fun to read about them in print form. I am looking forward to reading more of Ian Fleming's classic Bond tales to see if the films hold as true to them as they have this first one. James Bond will indeed be back, as I rate this introductory story a solid 4 stars.

James Bond is as much of a weapon as his Beretta 418, although he’s more of an agent by chance than by choice, a weapon as sleek as his 1933 Bentley convertible. He has his vices: gambling, martinis, cigarettes, and sex. Ian Fleming may not have painted women in the most favorable light, may have used a different writing style for a thriller than I’m accustomed to—the agency brief, plenty of inner dialogue and thoughts, and only a dusting of intense action sequences—but this was an enjoyable read for me from the first page to the last.

Having watched and enjoyed all the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig James Bond films, along with a few other films from previous James Bond actors, I wanted to look at the man behind the mask, and I must say I’m rather glad I did. This was a quick read, although I wouldn’t necessarily call it light, and while I won’t rush to read the rest of the Ian Fleming novels, I do want to see how both his main character and writing style develop.

Cross-posted at Robert's Reads

Overlooking some classic of-the-era sexism, this was a good Bond book. Easy to see why this became the phenomenon it did,

Pure James Bond.
Smoke, alcohol, women, guns - everything you'd expect from this book is there.

I finally got to read a Bond novel...

Yes, so far I had not read any of his books, but had religiously seen almost all the movies (especially the ones released during the late seventies and the early eighties - my teens and twenties). I enjoyed the movies for their goofy speed, silly plots, the imperturbability of Bond and all those lovely ladies (MMMMM!). But somehow, I never got around to the material where these films took off from.

And now I realise that I am too late. There is absolutely no suspense: one has seen it all. The Soviet Union is long since defunct, so its demonisation is not even objectionable now, only laughable (especially when one considers what the "good guys" are doing nowadays). And Bond's attitude to women should have been objectionable even in those days - he is only interested in how to get them to bed. In fact, he is interested in finishing the mission quickly so as to get down to the serious business of sexually exploiting the pretty girls in the story.

In this book, Bond comes as surprisingly naive. His only positive contribution is his luck at Baccarat (Ian Fleming somehow attributes it to his gambling prowess, but I failed to see the connection). He does not win a single fight, and lets himself be captured by acting like the hero of a third rate melodrama. In fact, the story moves on despite Bond, not because of him.

However, I liked the human face of the character. James Bond is not the cool and super-efficient murderous automaton of the movies here - he is very human and vulnerable (too vulnerable where ladies are involved). Also, the novel is not entirely black and white with regard to heroes and villains: and the violence is graphic and the sex explicit for a book written in the fifties, which bespeaks boldness on part of the author.

I have decided to read all the original stories one by one, if only to see how the movies compare with the written word.

3 Stars *Spoilers if not seen the film*

The Bond vs Le Chiffre part of Casino Royal only lasted 50% of Casino Royale and I felt that so much more could have been added.

There was a lot of gambling and casino jargon which I did not understand but after reading about it a few times I came to understand how their high stakes game came to work.

I can definitely tell that Casino Royale was written half a centenary ago Bond himself was quite sexist to fellow spy and Bond girl Vesta. He called her bitch several times and expressed how she should be working in a kitchen and not doing a mans job. This and the fact he couldn't make up his mind between not liking her and wanting to have sex with her did irritate me and made that part of Casino Royale rather unenjoyable.

Personally I prefer and will stick to the Daniel Craig films.

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)

Hovering between 3.5 and 3.75, and weighing in at 181 pages, Casino Royale is the first installment of the 14-book James Bond series. The Bond of this novel will probably come across as a bit of a surprise to some readers who are familiar with his larger-than-life, superspy cinema persona, which oozes sexiness, indestructibility, confidence, and machismo. Here he comes across as more of a misogynistic, flawed individual, prone to self doubt and a bit of introspection at times -- more human than the often over-the-top movie portrayals have led us to believe.

Casino Royale begins rather slowly, with Bond on assignment to take down Monsieur Le Chiffre, a man with adopted name whose aliases include "variations on the words 'cypher' or 'number'." He is a Soviet agent (remember -- this was written in 1953 and the Cold War is already on fire) entrusted with fifty million francs to finance a Communist-controlled trade union in France, a group which could prove troublesome as a "fifth column" in case of war with the USSR. Le Chiffre, it seems, has parlayed the trade union funds into several incredibly bad investments and is currently on the edge of financial disaster. Bond's masters believe the only way to bring him down and destroy his standing with the Soviets is to bankrupt him entirely; but to do this they need someone who can outdo him at cards -- it seems that the enigmatic Monsieur Le Chiffre has come up short and is using his skills at baccarat to try to make up his losses. Bond is the perfect man for the job; he is sent to the casino at Royale-Les-Eaux to watch Le Chiffre and then take him on at cards. One serious complication has arisen: agents from SMERSH, an acronym for Smyert Shpionam, "death to spies," have caught wind of Le Chiffre's activities and are on his tail, unbeknownst to Le Chiffre. Bond's going to need some help -- along with Mathis, a French intelligence agent, and Felix Leiter of the CIA, London sends Vesper Lynd, a sultry, sexy woman whose involvement is at first resented by Bond. This is not going to be easy -- it isn't long until there's an assassination attempt, and that's only the beginning of Bond's problems.

I must say I was a bit surprised to find a more human, fallible Bond characterized here, one whose take on women is that

"women are for recreation. On a job, they got in the way and fogged things up with sex and hurt feelings and all the emotional baggage they carried around."

This Bond also is capable of questioning the rightness of what he does, capable of reflection in a world where "the villains heroes get all mixed up." As he notes,

"...the country-right-or wrong business is getting a little out-of-date. Today we are fighting Communism. Okay. If I'd been alive fifty years ago, the brand of Conservatism we have today would have been damn near called Communism and we should have been told to go and fight that. History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts."

At the same time, this Bond becomes the sum of his experience -- I won't say why or how, but he evolves from a man who loses himself in love into a hardhearted, cold, licensed-to-kill 007 with a single-minded mission, to "go after the threat behind the spies, the threat that made them spy."

The events in Casino Royale seem to set the foundation for Bond's long career and if you're looking for something lighter, it's actually quite a good read. It starts rather slow, but picks up quickly. In today's vast array of high-tech spy fiction, this novel may seem a bit old fashioned with little action, but more interesting here is Bond's character.

I'll also mention that a large number of reviewers were somewhat disgusted with Bond's attitudes toward women and the very apparent sexism that runs throughout the book, but hold on. This book was published in 1953, not 2013; it's highly unfair to judge the mores (read mor-ays) of a particular time or of the writer and hold them to today's standards. IMHO (which is indeed humble), giving a book a 1 or 2 star rating on the basis of its treatment of women some 60 years ago is just wrong.

The whole time I was reading this book, I was amazed at how this short little novel morphed into the action-packed thriller it became in 2006. If you're a spy fiction person, like I am, it's a definite no-miss; if you've seen the movies and want to know how it all started, this is a great resource.

Not part of 2023's James Bond movie/book project, but I've decided to read all of Fleming's Bond books anyway.

For the sake of completeness in all things, here's... Oh, that video isn't available in my country because it "contains content from SESAC." Sea sack? What is that, a sperm whale scrotum? Well, since I can't give you Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name," which is the theme song to Daniel Craig's Casino Royale, here's HD Film Tribute's The Look of Love by Dusty Springfield which is nowhere near as good as the Cornell song, but whatcha gonna do? (There was another Casino Royale movie from 1967 starring David Niven as Bond, but it was a spoof put out by some other production company that wasn't EON, so it's not considered canon.)

Preread note:

I've seen Casino Royale once, and I'm pretty sure it was in the theater. I remember an impressive parkour opening, a card game that went on for approximately three years that bored me to catatonia, a ball busting scene, and Bond convalescing on a beach. Not bad for something I haven't seen in 18 years.

Postread review:

You know, Bond isn't a very good agent in this, but it was just his first book. Seriously, alarm bells should've been going off in his head in multiple situations. Some don't even ping on his radar, and he ignores those that do and blindly walks through them. He only comes out of this alive through sheer, dumb luck! That doesn't mean he doesn't have the skills to be a double-0; he handled himself well in a couple of scenes, but...

n  n

Thankfully he gets better at his job in subsequent novels.

I kind of wish I'd read this book first so I could watch Bond grow because there is character development as the series goes along, but coulda, shoulda, woulda. As for this book, eh... It was okay. I've never been a fan of the big climax happening in the middle of the book. The main action is over at page 124, but the book is 181 pages long. That leaves an entire third of the book to serve as denouement, mostly. A couple more things happen, but they're not action packed. In fact, they're not all that active at all, and that's primarily what I want out of a James Bond spy story. The last section is a bit of sex, recuperation, a chapter or two of philosophy junk, and like I said, eh...

I looked up the plot for the movie since I didn't remember it, and while there were plenty of departures, some major elements from this were used. There was a long-ass card game, though I think it was longer in the movie.

n  n

You and me both, buddy. There's also the convalescence on a beach. Vesper Lynd, the Bond girl, has a similar story in both, but it's more involved and nuanced in the film. And speaking of Bond recuperating and dealing with Vesper, wow. He is a straight up sexist dog, though I confess that's one of the things that makes him fun to read about. Don't misunderstand; I'm not condoning his behavior or attitudes, and I don't behave that way myself, nor would I encourage anyone else to, but it certainly is entertaining.

Case in point: The ball busting scene happens in the book also. Bond is torn up down under for a while, but the doctor assures him he will make a full recovery. He purposefully doesn't let Vesper visit him until he thinks he's better in man-land. Why? He wants to see if he can pop a hardon the first time he sees her... Yep. He doesn't care that she's apparently distraught at what happened to him, he just wants to make sure he's gotten the zippity back in his doo-dah and doesn't want a boner to rip apart everything that's just stitched itself back together. Priorities.

If you're planning to read the entire series, I'd suggest starting here since it was the first book. (Reading them in movie order like I did gets confusing, not to mention it spoils the hell out of some of the stories). If you want to cherry pick a few Bonds, you can skip this one.