1.74k reviews for:

Casino Royale

Ian Fleming

3.37 AVERAGE

adventurous mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I have watched and enjoyed every James Bond film since watching them with my grandad as a kid but until now I had never read a book. I actually enjoyed it. It was a quick and easy read. Is this problematic, yes. Is it the Bond we know it’ll be for the era it was written, yes. We know that Bond is a womaniser. We know he’s an alcoholic. But with Bond you know what you’re getting. We do get to see another side of him. An enjoyable spy classic that introduces an iconic character.
adventurous sad fast-paced
adventurous tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This is the first of the Bond novels and it is by far the one I've most enjoyed as although Bond is his usual womanizing over-indulging self, this book offers something in the way of explanation with a revealing twist at the end just when things begin to look as though they'll be settling down for the 00. Written with Fleming's usual flare and eye for detail this is a pretty good read and is far superior to the film versions which seem to lose a lot in translation from page to screen.
tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
adventurous challenging mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

James Bond is a secret agent with a license to kill. For his latest mission, Bond poses as a rich gambler in the high class gambling mecca of Casino Royale. Tasked with sabotaging the plans of a Soviet double agent.

If you’ve seen the Daniel Craig movie this is very similar. I was shocked to find the torture scene was actually book accurate. I did not expect that from a book written in the 50’s. It almost seemed laughable, how much time was dedicated to his recovery from said torture. Not that it wouldn’t be painful, but most of the last 3rd of the book is spent on his convalescence.

While I enjoyed this story, be warned that you may be lost if you don’t know anything about the game of baccarat or speak/understand a bit of French.

I found myself having to look up the many French words that were used. I didn’t mind it but it was jarring at first. And I’ve watched enough Bond movies to be familiar with baccarat so that wasn’t an issue for me.

Overall it took a couple chapters to get going but I couldn’t put the book down once the main plot kicked in.