Casino Royale: James Bond, Book 1

If you came here to Casino Royale (James Bond (Original Series) Book 1) Kindle Edition by Ian Fleming expecting the slick movie gimcrack glitz and glamor. That is the stuff of most of the movies. The earliest James Bond Movies tended to be rather like the books and Danial Craig is almost the original Bond. For the rest, Fleming hated what had been done to his books and only licensed the titles after Goldfinger. This is the original James Bond. Unencumbered with hi tech gadgets, nursing along his 20 odd year old supercharged 1930 Bentley coupe. This is a Bond soured on being a double O and aware that survival in this job is a matter of odds, and sooner or later the odds are against.In some respects, Fleming’s James Bond begins in the same mental space as John Le Carre’s Alec Leamas from that author’s first spy novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Both are Cold War undercover operatives. Neither is fully convinced that their side is all that perfect and that the typical operative is hardly better than a cold-blooded calculating human for hire. Their jobs leave them exposed, expendable and on borrowed time.The end of chapter 1 of Casino Royal has James Bond seriously considering his job, his motives and his life. He does however take this assignment. Seek out an over extended, profligate Russian Spy, and ruin him financially. The Russian, Le Chiffreis, a man of some importance to Russian operations, but he is dipping into the company till to fund brothels. Changes in French law has him on the verge of bankruptcy. Knowing he will place his last money on high stakes Baccarat at the French casino in Royale-les-Eaux the stage is set to publicly ruin Moscow’s Man in France.Bond is extended a large line of credit, and dispatched to literally beat the Russian at hisown game. Along the way Fleming introduces allied operatives from the French Deuxième Bureau (French Secret Service) American CIA Operative Felix Lighter and, intended to be friendly arm candy, a relatively low ranking British secret service employee, Vesper.Bond feels the weight of the various risks he is taking . Professional standing and life threatening, he is aware that luck, when it comes, it comes in runs and ends with very little clue. It is Bond’s sensitivity to those clues that has placed him into this job. For him the woman is a distraction and something to add to his job of figuring the odds.Is it a spoiler alert to remind you that this is book one of a series? We should dispatch our concern over how this will end, and focus on how we get there. On this there are a few points. Ian Fleming had experience in espionage. He had been an Officer in British Naval Intelligence during World War II. He had insider knowledge of operations and people that would appear as fiction in his books. While the basic plot of Casino Royal is thin and unlikely, it was inspired by a high stakes Baccarat games involving Nazi money, that Fleming observed. The Bond character is an amalgam of several people Fleming knew or knew of, including the so-called Ace of Spies, Sidney Reilly, and Serbian double agent, Dusko Popov. There are several books and some made for television material on, or based on both.The Bond books follow a tradition of hard-boiled detectives and various secret agent stories. To Fleming must go the credit for introducing the modern, human secret agent. However slick on the outside, the inner man is one with whom any man can identify. As for his only in the movie’s reputation as a ladies’ man; the Bond OF Casino Royal never makes assumptions about Vesper as an entertainment object. He rejects some of her offers, and against his better judgement develops sincere feeling for her. In this case, who seduces who?As will be in all the James Bond Books, Casino Royal is short. I find the writing much above the assumed hack work automatically associated with action figure novels. Later when Fleming speaks of his much beloved Jamaica, his writing can be lyrical. In this book, he tends to be tense, focused and very successful in matching descriptions to the mood and mind of his protagonist. This is at least my second read of this book. How many or how soon I will get back to this shelf, well stay tuned. Fleming wrote them one a year, maybe I will read them at that rate.

Casino Royale has had many printings. It's worth noting that the Kindle edition is not complete. Some editions had some appendices, such as a lengthy explanation of the card game from the climax, which are quite rare today. People blowing through these editions might not even notice, but the listing is straight-up incorrect when it says this edition is complete.Other than that, this is a great book. This book has some white-knuckle thrills. I don't even like to gamble, and my heart still raced during the betting scenes. The writing is quite good.And just a quick side note which is covered in the book but often missed by international readers. The name "James Bond" is a generic-sounding name. The idea is that this agent is an everyman, made special not as much from his own constitution as for his dedication to his service. British agents - as later books detail - were famously underpaid compared to their foreign counterparts. Britain relied on their people's sense of honor for loyalty, rather than buying them off. James Bond is only allotted lavish money on his missions, when he must appear as a famous debutante in order to lure information out of suspects. He regularly arranges that his winnings will go back to the service, so for the most part he lives a fairly normal life - punctuated by his dangerous missions.Any concerns that this book would be too dated are ignoring the book's own contents. James Bond is still driving a 1930 "Blower" Bentley, when this book is set more or less current to its publishing in 1953. James himself remarks on ways in which his vehicle is ancient and cumbersome. Many cultural items are just as interesting today as they would have been in that era, even if for different reasons. You find out that when money is no object and James wants to impress a lady, he orders a dessert of... wait for it... avacado. Gnoshing on avacados is still a bit of a status symbol today, even if it's not as exotic as it once was. The new cultural context actually makes this scene quite funny, as you can imagine James trying to look sophisticated and in modern times he'd be having some avacado toast. You may need an internet connection nearby to look up some of the French phrases, or long-retired cigarette and alcohol brands, but then again plenty of people at the time of publishing would have needed some help too. That's the point of an exotic, globe-spanning adventure. This story pushes your own boundaries with a dizzying array of foods, fashions, cars, and who knows what else.Much is made of this book being offensive to modern sensibilities. I think a lot of people miss ways in which the Bond books are more progressive at their core than people tend to want to give credit for. Bond is today held up as a bastion of rampant misogyny for his treatment of women, and not unjustly. But when you read the text, he specifically calls out that what he's really worried about is his own weakness. He's (rightly) afraid he'd fall in love with a woman in the line of duty, and any ties to love or family could easily get him killed. The survival rate of 00 agents is already quite poor, so Bond is mortally fearful and lashes out in severe ways. The author wasn't just hating women, he was trying to drive home points about fear and vulnerability - even if he sometimes chose poor avenues to do so.Overall, Casino Royale is a treat. There's thrill, there's a vast array of cultural artifacts waiting to reveal themselves to you, and above all there's some truly excellent writing. Ian Fleming's works are a treat, and I hope the dated morality doesn't keep people from enjoying an otherwise amazing book.

Book Review – Casino Royale – Ian FlemingThe James Bond franchise begins with this story, “Casino Royale.” The lavish Bond lifestyle, thrilling car chases, sex and romance, and secret agent spy espionage is all on full display in this initial Bond novel by Ian Fleming. Compared to the recent Casino Royale movie, the book is also a treat! It is a great introduction to the Bond series and thanks to the recent film with Daniel Craig as 007 James Bond, the classic version of the Bond mystic is exactly spot on. It took some getting used to in the book with Bond using a Beretta instead of the Walther PPK, or driving a Bentley instead of the Aston Martin, but the core of everything else that is James Bond starts here and evolves into what readers come to know and love throughout the series. Fleming's incredible detail brought this story to life at every level and made this book a very enjoyable read. From Bond's scoping the room for signs of intrusion, to the food and drink, to the casino gambling, to the torture sequences, and more; Fleming’s narrative made the story pure. And that's what separates Bond from all the other knockoffs and wanna-be copycats. Setting the standard of all that's come before and all that will come afterwards in the action/spy genre - whether in books or films - there's only one name that’s probably the most familiar name in the spy espionage business and that name is Bond, James Bond.

Queria comparar com a edição em português e com o filme. Fiquei totalmente satisfeito

Irónicamente prefiero en mucho aspectos la adaptación del 2005, aunque eso no desmerita ni de lejo el logro de este libro. Es una magnífica novela inicial, que deja desendo al lector con ganas de más. Buen inicio para la literatura de James Bond.

I was surprised at how readable this book was, the simple writing flowed, conveyed the sense of action and is an impressive piece of writing which exceeded my expectation. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the novels now.

イアンフレミングのボンド作品の処女作です。　ボンド作品の出発点として　感慨深いです。　　悪役たちの凄みが　のちの作品と比べると　低い気はしますが　合格点です。

El libro llegó justo en el tiempo mencionado, me puse en contacto con el vendedor un par de ocasiones y respondió rápido y super amable.El libro es simple y sencillamente una obra maestra, ideal para todo fan de 007 o cualquiera que guste de leer sobre espías.