Product Description

Moonraker, Britain's new ICBM-based national defense system, is ready for testing, but something's not quite right. At M's request, Bond begins his investigation with Sir Hugo Drax, the leading card shark at M's club, who is also the head of the Moonraker project. But once Bond delves deeper into the goings-on at the Moonraker base, he discovers that both the project and its leader are something other than they appear to be.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31094 in Books
• Published on: 2002-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780142002063
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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About the Author
Ian Fleming (1908-1964), creator of the world's best-known secret agent, was the author of fourteen James Bond adventures.

Customer Reviews

Crackling suspense in an entertaining thriller novel
Bond author Ian Fleming was advised by friends to write his second Bond nove LIVE AND LET DIE before he had even tested the waters with his first 007 thriller CASINO ROYALE. Fleming's friends impressed on him that if the first novel failed he would be less inclined to write a second one. His friends need not have worried as is proved by this third 1955 entry into the James Bond literary series.
After some shaky elements in his first two novels Fleming and his characteristic Fleming-sweep, really hits its stride here and he delivers a thriller which is not only consistently ranked as one of the best by fans, but also a personal favorite of mine.
One of the great strengths of this book (as was the case with the subsequent 1979 movie adaptation) is the main villain Hugo Drax. A leading member of British society with a somewhat mysterious background, Drax is ostensibly building a weapon to help protect Britain, but all is not as it seems.
Bond's first encounter with Drax is at the behest of his superior M who is convinced the industrialist is cheating at cards at M's gentleman's club Blades. Bond uncovers the method behind Drax's remarkable winning streak but also effectively turns the tables on him.
In this novel Bond is not the superhero of the movie that would follow over two decades later. This is no clearly more evident than in his rejected advances towards Gala Brand, an undercover policewoman at Drax's plant. Brand is actually one of my favorite leading ladies of the Bond literary series, she is both independent and intelligent and one of the better drawn female characters of the Fleming books.
The plot is low-key enough, the villain suitably overblown and the so heroine irresistable as to make this compelling reading. Drax's monlogue towards the end is so well done and Fleming keeps the twists and turns coming at a fast enough pace that the reader can easily overlook the improbabilities and plot holes and simply enjoy the book.
Well recommended, not just for Bond fans but all people who enjoy a good solid thriller.

Underrated . . .
Moonraker, the third entry in the James Bond saga, tends to be overlooked by those unfamiliar with Ian Fleming's original novels, largely because almost none of it has made it to the big screen. Practically the only thing it shares with the laughably bad 1979 movie (arguably the worst Bond flick ever) is the title. And the book is even a bit of an anomaly within the series, but nevertheless it's an important book in the Bond canon.

In the first Bond Novel, Casino Royale, Fleming was clearly just starting out both as a novelist and as a chronicler of Bond's adventures. The second Bond book, Live and Let Die, is much more solid and action-packed, and gives us both a Bond and a Bondiverse that are more fully developed. But it's in Moonraker that Fleming really delves into Bond's personality, his background, and his day-to-day life in England. Then, just as we're developing a feel for the daily grind of a 00 agent, Sir Hugo Drax enters the scene . . .

Drax is the most human of all of the bond villains. Mr. Big, Dr. No, the Spangs, and of course Blofeld, often come off as larger-than life megalomaniacs or set-piece villains. But Drax--though he's certainly villainous--is a very down-to-earth one, being lecherous, nasty, tough, smart, and boorish. He, like Bond, is a three-dimensional character, and as such has no villain-equal in the series, except for perhaps Auric Goldfinger.

The plot, too, is more life-sized than those of the later canon. Escapism? Yes, put of an almost-believable kind, especially when set against the backdrop of the postwar U.K. (this is the only Bond novel to take place entirely in England) and the tensions of Cold War Europe. About the plot I won't reveal more, but Moonraker is the most life-sized Bond books and still well worth reading.

A stay-at-home Bond
This volume is unlike the preceding volumes, as well as those that followed, due to the fact that all the action takes place within London and the English seaside. It's an interesting installment, especially in this day and age, given the fear expressed within it about the crazy man who can fit an atomic bomb within a suitcase. We also see Bond as the spy that Fleming was probably most familiar with: deskwork, paperwork, target practice, etc. It's not until midway through that Bond realizes he's involved in more than just a case of a card-cheat and instead involved in a case of a man who is trying to wipe out London. And, so unlike the movies which followed, Bond is quite human, both in terms of getting beaten about by thugs, but also in not exactly having his way with his female counterpart. A fun, well-paced read -- one of Fleming's most exciting plotlines -- and probably one of the most relevant Bond books fifty years after it was written.