Thunderball (James Bond Novels) by Ian Fleming
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Book Reviews of Thunderball (James Bond Novels)
Book Review: how to steal a nuclear bomb in 1 easy lesson
Summary: 4 Stars
Many people are familiar with the films about James Bond, the British spy with the `license to kill' running around in a world of glamour and high tech toys but in reading the books you enter a whole new world. The books bring to life the times and culture of the 50's and 60's that has since faded and also have the virtue of giving the reader insight into the mind of Bond, The doubts, fears and self recriminations that film can never capture.
Both book and film start with Bond being sent to Shrublands health Clinic for a detox' program. The film makes it look like a spa. In the book the reader feels the hunger pangs of people living on a grapefruit and carrot juice diet and a small feud with a former Chinese Tong member only serves to keep Bond's wits sharp. Then the criminal organization SPECTRE plans to steal 2 nuclear weapons from the RAF and then blackmail the world into paying them $100 million dollars. On only the thinnest of leads, M send his best man to the Bahamas with the hope he can find the bombs before the deadline is reached to pay up or else.
The book and movie follow almost parallel threads with a couple of significant differences. The movie has more violence and less reason for Bond to take an interest in the villain. In the movie he has an attractive mistress and is really a creepy guy. In the book Bond has more developed reasons for looking into Emil Largo and deeper issues with why Bond can't just shoot him and go home. Reader know that Largo is the bad guy but bond doesn't and he also has to deal with the fact he might be wrong and chasing a false lead.
The book also goes into detail of the wonderful scenery of the Bahamas in the early 1960's, the land of yachts and private beaches and nightclubs that you wish you could visit today. There are also well written scenes of scuba diving and a lecture from Bond's CIA contact to a cheating bartender on the proper way to mix a drink that is sterling.
Fleming truly knew the espionage business and his books, written during the cold war, reflect this, the dark gritty world of professional thugs just behind the glittering world of jet setting millionaires and estate houses. The film has more sex and violence the book, more color and atmosphere. The film may let you see the girls in bikinis on the beach, the book with let you feel the heat of the sun and the cool of the drinks while you watch them.
Book Review: James Bond #9: Thunderball
Summary: 4 Stars
Published in 1961, THUNDERBALL hit the bookshelves a year before Sean Connery debuted in the first film, DR. NO.
The Bond novels have always been very fluid and visual but THUNDERBALL reads as the most cinematic of the stories up to this point. That's for a very good reason: the project began as a screenplay between Ian Fleming and a producer, Kevin McClory, along with a screenwriter, Jack Whittingham. After finishing the short story collection of FOR YOUR EYES ONLY and suffering some health problems that would increase until his death, Fleming wasn't sure what to do with James Bond, especially after trying to kill him off in FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE several books before.
The THUNDERBALL film project appeared to be stuck in development hell, so Fleming took the script and wrote a novel from it. Which promptly put him in court with McClory for the next several years. Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, the producing team who eventually did put 007 on the silver screen, had wanted to make THUNDERBALL their first film but as the court case continued, they moved ahead with DR. NO. The case was eventually settled but probably not to many of the participant's liking since Fleming had to share the rights to THUNDERBALL and another producer outside of Broccoli & Saltzman could legally use the character (which led to the "renegade Bond film" of 1983, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN).
The novel is fun to read because it has so many elements of what made the Sixties Bond films so much fun. A plot that involves saving the free world. The master villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld is introduced. The setting is incredibly exotic and beautiful. Domino is one of the more livelier Bond girls of the novels.
It's nice to have Felix Leiter along but...his condition after being fed to sharks in LIVE AND LET DIE stretches an already-strained believability to almost Austin Powers levels. I could accept him working for Pinkertons in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER but to get back into the CIA for THUNDERBALL...a bit much.
From reading Fleming's biography, I thought it was interesting that he would create SPECTRE about this time, the terrorist organization introduced here. In reality, he was bored with making the Russians his baddies all the time and--I thought this was funny--Fleming believed that the Cold War would be over before he could finish writing FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE!
Book Review: He Strikes Like Thunderball
Summary: 4 Stars
Finished Ian Fleming's "Thunderball" during my lunch break earlier today. Got the above Centenary Edition hardback with the painted cover. This novel is one of Fleming's most action-packed with Bond going after Emilio Largo who was planning to blow up Miami with an atomic weapon. It is also the first part of the "Blofeld Trilogy" featuring SPECTRE. Bond doesn't really run into Blofeld in this novel but his defeat of Largo is a prelude to their epic struggles in later stories such as "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "You Only Live Twice". Bond again teamed up with the American Felix Leiter and romanced the lovely Domino, who was cruelly tortured by Largo towards the end of the book. The main draw of the book is definitely the underwater fights. Fleming was obsessed with diving at this point and the prose descriptions of the underwater wonders are among the most breathtaking in the English language. There were two movie adaptations of "Thunderball" both starring Sean Connery (the second one was "Never Say Never Again"). Of the two movie adaptations, the earlier one is far more accurate and is still a joy to watch after all these years. The latter one is a total piece of crap - imagine Bond and Largo playing video games, Domino doing aerobics, etc.
Book Review: Super Reader
Summary: 4 Stars
M has received Bond's medical report. Basically it says two packs a day smoking ain't good. He sends him to a health farm to get himself back together. He comes across a man from a Macao tong, who is also working for Blofeld, head of SPECTRE. A confrontation between the two is violent, and Bond is helped out by a nurse. He gets some of his own back.
Bond ends up in the Bahamas, and working with Leiter again, now back in the CIA. Emilio Largo is working there with his bombshell woman, Domino, and he is Blofeld's top man.
SPECTRE had hired Domino's brother to nick a couple of warheads, having access as a military officer to at transport flight. Then they offed him.
When Bond tells Domino this information, he turns her and uses her to his advantage. The book ends with a confrontation between Bond and babe vs Largo, and an American submarine vs Largo's crew.
Book Review: Cliche today, but still exciting
Summary: 4 Stars
The subject of this book (steal two atomic bombs and hold the world hostage) would be considered cliche these days, but only because this was the first book to use that formula.
Fleming wrote a pretty good one here, but it seemed to end in a hurry. You really don't get to know what happened with the SPECTRE operatives in full detail. The character of Domino was only seen briefly, and you don't get to see her tortured by Largo (thank God, though) but she's described well enough to be a "real" person. The beginning was a little slow. On the whole I'm really glad these novels aren't too long, they're exactly the length they need to be.
And those two points are the only complaints I have...it was otherwise a great book, certainly a classic James Bond, with enough excitement and detail to make it real. And I like the sexy covers on the new editions :)