Moonraker

Moonraker by Ian Fleming, 256 pages

Moonraker is the third James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming. Fleming works hard to incorporate both of his previous books into Moonraker. He mentions the dark tan/sunburn Bond got in Live and Let Die, along with Bonds famous card playing skills from Casino Royale. The book is divided into two main parts each involving a popular millionaire name Sir Hugo Drax.

 In the first part Bond is called upon to investigate a claim of cheating in a bridge game at the elitist gambling club Blades. Much like Fleming did in Casino Royale with the baccarat game, he walks you through the playing of the hands. Despite my minute knowledge on the playing of bridge Fleming manages to make the walk through not only interesting but in a way thrilling. Unlike my learning of baccarat from Fleming in Casino Royale I still have no idea how to play bridge. Bond quickly learns how the culprit is cheating and repays him in kind.

The second part of the novel involves Britain’s first attempt at making a nuclear missile capable of reaching most of Europe’s capital cities. When the head of security for the project is killed at a bar under mysterious circumstances Bond is brought in to make sure the project is not in danger. Bond being Bond quickly finds himself drawn to the attractive Gala Brand and with her help they uncover a plot that could change the world.

Moonraker is the first novel that has given us a deeper understanding of how Bond spends his time. Fleming describes everything from target practice, to chatting with secretaries, and even mundane paperwork at the office. While it was mentioned previously that there are only three double-oh agents at a time, Fleming reveals that the current three are 007, 008, and 0011. It is also mentioned that Bond only makes £2000 a year which seemed very low to me until research showed that in today’s values it would be closer to £300,000.

Overall Moonraker is a good book but is slightly off the pace of Flemings first two. While deduction and skill were heavily relied upon in the first two, this one seems to rely entirely on luck and a blind eye from the government. This didn't make the story less thrilling, just less believable.