A review by jcpdiesel21
Doctor No by Ian Fleming

3.0

Not bad. The pacing is off, as the book starts strongly but slows down considerably once Bond and Honeychile Rider are captured by Dr. No, which is when I expected everything to pick up speed to the end. Dr. No is a creepy villain with an intriguing backstory, but disappointingly dull in his interactions with Bond as he has a habit of being overly blabby. Bond has memorable encounters with two creatures here: first a tense overnight visit by a centipede and later an exciting fight with a giant squid that he awesomely defeats by using improvised and stolen items made into weapons. I certainly didn't predict that guano would feature so largely into the book's overall plot, which is an odd choice of Fleming's that isn't featured in the film adaptation.