A lot of discussion about the movies so I am curious what people on the forum think about the books. Feel free to rank them if you want. I’ve read all of Fleming’s stories plus two adaptations by Anthony Horowitz that were published in recent years. The latter only because I really like Horowitz. I have not read any of the other Bond books that other authors published after Fleming died. Maybe I should…
My favorite of all the Fleming books is Moonraker. I think everything about it from the mission Bond is on, the cunning twisted sophistication of the villain, the Cold War tropes with a WW2 backstory, the enigmatic side characters, and the twists and turns along the way as things unravel make it the Bond I enjoyed the most. There is a real seriousness and greyness about it. It’s actually the complete lack of those things that make the Moonraker movie the one I dislike the most of all the movies.
I would place Casino Royale and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as 2 and 3 respectively with those two adding a more exotic and personal side to Bond. The movie versions of those two were very loyal to the books and they made two of the best movies in my view. This may come as a surprise mention but I also really enjoyed the book version of The Spy Who Loved Me even though Bond doesn’t feature until quite a long way in. I understand they will never adapt that story into a movie because you can’t have 007 not appear on screen until an hour in but the way Fleming wrote that story was unique and it transitions from a slow-burning atmospheric thriller to fast-moving action thriller very well.
I think Thunderball is my favorite. It has a high-stakes premise (stolen nuclear weapons), but depicted in a more “realistic” manner than the movie.
Fleming’s description of SPECTRE is fairly plausible: not a world-spanning conspiracy, but a gang of about a dozen people, and maybe a few hired goons. They don’t replace the air force pilot with a surgically-altered doppelganger, they simply find a corruptible pilot and bribe him.
Largo’s yacht is as high-tech as a tycoon in the 1960s could hope for, but not the over-the-top thing in the movie.
The final battle, between SPECTRE and the Navy divers, is much more down-to-earth than the movie.
I’ve read that many people’s favourite Bond film is Goldfinger. It’s actually my second-favourite.
I have a soft spot for Dr. No (which in print, occurs after From Russia With Love. It’s the first Bond film (the Climax! episode notwithstanding), and has a charm from its relatively low budget. Also, Bond isn’t a smirking, gadget-laden superhero. He’s just a spy.
Goldfinger. One of the flaws in the books was the impracticality of stealing much gold from Ft. Knox. For the movie the goal was to nuke the place (although the mobsters didn’t know that). They also did the gassing differently. One of the rare cases where the movie did something better than the novel.
Dr. No. His adventures on the island were reasonably tense.
You Only Live Twice. Good presentation of mood. There’s a deeper “feel” to the book.
From Russia With Love. Sort of conflicted on this one. Lots of grittiness. (Which the movie does well.) But more of a classic spy noir thing rather than a “Bond” book.
5/6. Thunderball/Casino Royale. Decent but nothing really notable.
The others are somewhat forgettable.
Once is happenstance, twice is a remake, three times is just being lazy.
I think I agree, also due to the fact that Moonraker is the one novel where Bond doesn’t get the girl, giving her the space to be more clearly acknowledged as competent and self-reliant in her own right than the average Bond heroine.
Least favorites would be The Spy Who Loved Me (the writing of the female first-person narrator does no favors for either her or her author) and Goldfinger (arguably the most racist and sexist of all the Bond books, although boy there is a lot of competition on both counts).
Don’t get me wrong, even though I think Bond as a character is highly dislikeable I find all the books enjoyable reading and multiple re-reading. But the ones that seem less firmly mired in a certain kind of post-WWII British classist white male bitterness are more refreshing.
I would go with Moonraker, From Russia With Love and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as my favourites, which doesn’t seem too far away from what people have said above.
Moonraker’s bridge scene alone gets it in the top 3, but I also like the way Bond has to put things together when investigating in Kent.
FRWL doesn’t even introduce Bond until, what, a third of the way through? I love the whole ‘Plan’ section of the book, with the various nefarious generals all scheming against both Bond and each other.
And as for OHMSS, well do I need to say more than the ending, the most gut wrenching of all the books?