Casino Royale

I've seen most of the Bond movies over the years, so I decided to take a look through the books that created such a phenomenon. I don't really care much for the movies, but I will admit that the more recent movie with Daniel Craig I found pretty good so, how's the book?

Things are described in detail, always. You get a vivid picture of what the scene looks, smells and tastes like. It is a story of cavalier hard men engaging in dangerous games with one another. I can see how this story (and more in the series if it continues in the same vein) would be greatly appealing to teenage and young men that are looking for something to emulate. Bond has skills, panache, and knowledge of how to act in both dangerous and classy situations. At middle age, this story doesn't hit the same so whatever.

It has some stuff that would be considered fairly racist these days and how Bond views women and how the female character acts in this seems wildly misogynist, and I don't consider a playboy secret agent bedding women left and right as particularly bad. They are portrayed as vapid objects of entertainment or horrible distractions to the dangerous game that is being played.

I give this a few stars because it really was gritty spy business and I thought the story was well done. I dock stars for treatment of women in ways that I think are kinda shitty, even for the time.