Casino Royale

This was my first James Bond novel, having only ever seen the character on the big screen. Originally published back in 1953 Casino Royale still has the obligatory guns, sex, violence and car chases making it a fairly attention-grabbing thriller 62 years later.

I won't outline the plot here but what first struck me about the book is how little Bond really does. Events happen to him, for example the mission itself is just a game of chance and when Bond is rescued later in the book it's just because of pure luck. Also, two sections in the book dragged for me: the first related to the tedious explanations in the casino; what each hand of cards means and how the game itself was played. The second was the last quarter of the novel which takes place after the main story has ended. Fifty pages just to get to a fairly obvious final “unexpected” twist.

There was also a distinct lack of any action, apart for a few scenes here and there. The second half of the story is about the relationship between Bond and Vesper Lynd and investigates what Bond is thinking and feeling as opposed to who he is punching, shooting or which gadget he is using (spoiler: he doesn't use any)

So what's left?

I feel that in Casino Royale what Fleming attempted to do was to develop Bond as a character; he is portrayed as a victim of circumstance: a flawed human being and he is definitely not the indestructible superhero we are used to seeing. He mistrusts his own decisions and makes mistakes. You genuinely believe at times that he won't succeed. He isn't convinced of the righteousness of his mission and is more aggressive, cruel and ruthless that you are used to seeing, with an amplified dislike of women going so far as to describing one encounter as having:

the sweet tang of rape.

It's not difficult to get a double-o number if you're prepared to kill people. That's all the meaning it has. It's nothing to be particularly proud of.