Dr No

My project to read all the original Bond novels continues! Dr No is the sixth literary appearance for Ian Fleming's James Bond. Published in 1958 it is very much of its time in terms of its attitudes and the threats faced by the world. But it is an amusing tale that still manages to hold up well today.

Making my way through the original novels I'm always interested to see just how each movie mirrors the corresponding book. This is especially true of this novel as Dr No was the first one to make it onto the big screen in 1962. The one noticeable omission in the film version of Dr No is that in the book he is involved in the guano industry (guano is bird poop) and spoiler he ends up buried under 20 tons of the stuff at the end. Perhaps Eon thought that cinema going audiences wouldn't find this demise all that palatable and switched the films plot to Dr No meeting his doom in an atomic energy plant instead? But the movie does actually mirror the book in most other respects.

I always thought that Dr No was one of the more memorable Bond villains as by this point Fleming had refined the now cheesy Bond formula. I'm finding that slowly but surely the wafer thin plausibility of the early novels is being eroded away. For example, the evil villain using outlandish ways to kill Bond. Why murder use a gun when you can use a poisonous centipedes and a giant squid? It's only a matter of time before robot sharks with lasers on their heads will make an appearance!

A lot of reviews of Fleming's books have commented on:

- his use of lazy stereotypes,
- poorly written parts for females,
- racist and sexist language, and
- other terms which we would now find derogatory.

But how else would an upper-class white male of that era write? What would his experiences, background and cultural norms be? Sure, it's unacceptable by today's standards and while there is something here to offend almost everyone Bond has to be set into the context of the 1950s.

Yet saying that I'll admit that Honeychile Rider is probably Fleming's most transparent female character to date. While other females have tended to have other roles: secret agents or an involvement in diamond rackets or something else, Honeychile Rider is a woman who lives wild on beaches, doesn't wear much and just looks great.

It's also fascinating to see Bond evolve through the books, he is progressively becoming a top-notch spy. Also he is developing as a character with some emotional depth. For example, he feels genuinely sad when Quarrel is flambéed. Flemings writing also evolves between each book too. I thought that Dr No flowed much better than his previous novels. I like the continuity between each Bond book too. Some characters make repeat appearances; it was good to see Quarrel again, having made his first appearance in Live and Let Die. Also, events from previous books are referred to making the reader feel that they are part of Bonds inner circle. I wonder what the movies would have been like if the were filmed in same order as the books?

So, in summary while the prose is somewhat dated Dr No still managed to captivate me as a reader. There is all the usual Bond drama, action and romance which I love so I can't fail to recommend it!