The beginning of this book through the end of the card game is awesome. He takes a game I knew nothing about and makes it clear and suspenseful and tense. The last part of the book, the bits about Vesper, are pretty much worthless. The ending is obvious and the Bond character falls flat. So just read the book til the card game is over, then stop. It really was just ok, and one of the few instances where I loved the movie and was meh about the book. ( )

Not exactly what I expected, but an interesting glimpse into the male psyche from the early 1950's.

http://ktleyed.blogspot.com/2009/10/c... ( )

I read this in two sittings in a doctors waiting room and on a park bench in the Czech Republic. Really enjoyed it to. I think if you've grown up watching the James Bond films every bank holiday monday you might be in for a bit extra from the books. There's something cruel, even psychotic about the character that you get from the books but you don't really get from the films. I guess the exception is the two recent reincarnations, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, where the character has a cold streak that you get from the books. I'm not sure how well these have aged with the non-pc language but that's sort of interesting in itself - this pretty normal stuff in it's day but now looks misogynistic and racist in places. Interesting how social attitudes change.

Most interesting for me was the moral debate about the nature of good and evil being just different perspectives. Sort of deep for a thriller that fits in your back pocket. ( )

I've tried to write this review four times and have erased all of them. What it boils down to is that this book is boring. Too much talk and not enough action. It's a short novel, easily read in one sitting and yet I fell asleep twice while reading it. I am so glad that I had previously read (and enjoyed) Moonraker and Dr. No else this book would have put me off Fleming entirely. ( )

It's difficult to read a James Bond without comparing it to the movies and I was astounded by the differences! Bond as a misogynistic, fallible, emotional (under that tough exterior) man was a discovery! I was also surprised by the lack of action, basic story line and character development but great attention to aesthetic details. In general I enjoyed the book and this other side of Bond but it was definitely not what I was expecting. ( )

I knew that the James Bond of Ian Fleming’s novels wouldn’t be the James Bond of the films, not even the thuggish Daniel Craig version from the last two installments of the franchise. The spare writing and plotting in Casino Royale are superb. But the Ian Fleming version in Casino Royale under-ceeded anything I thought it might be. I’m coining the word "under-ceeded" in case someone else hasn’t already done so. Bond’s characterization is beyond misogynist, and both he and "Bond girl" Vesper Lynd, fail to make much sense in relation to each other. I won’t be going out of my way to read any more James Bond novels.

Full review at my blog: http://reading.kingrat.biz/reviews/ca... ( )

Surprisingly good! Know this - Bond is a bastard. He's cruel, he's emotionally unavailable, he's a bit... distant from it all. On the other hand, the book's good bits are just as exciting as the movies. I was tense as the bets stacked up in the casino and worried as recovery led to love led to misery.

Sure, the thinking is archaic, the treatment of fashion and sexism are laughable, but that's true of all ancient literature. Bond's from the past.

Another reason to read this book is for the great last line, which tells a whole story in itself. ( )

"Bond - James Bond", one of the most well-known quotes in the Western world spoken by one of the most well-known characters to ever grace the pages and screens. Casino Royale is Sir Ian Fleming's introduction to the character of Bond, and sets the stage for the many successful and popular sequels to follow.

James Bond - Agent 007 - must play a high-stakes game of Baccarat against a Russian named Le Chiffre, and must prevent him from winning roughly 50 million francs. Bond's sole objective is to prevent Le Chiffre from obtaining that money, which would result in a fate worse for Le Chiffre than merely death.

It seems difficult to make a game of Baccarat interesting, yet Fleming did just that and more, adding a great deal of suspense and action, as well as a woman typical of the Bond franchise. The books offer a different glimpse into the life of Bond than the movies, in that the reader is able to understand the thought process of Bond, rather than just witness his actions. This provides a compelling tale of the most famous secret agent in the world, and Casino Royale provides a glimpse into what turns him into the womanizing man he is famous for - especially the chilling last line of the novel. ( )

Brisk, terse and surprisingly engaging - far better and more interesting and suspenseful than any film versions (yes, I'm looking at YOU Daniel Craig). The baccarat showdown (no, not Texas Hold 'Em) is exciting and the strategic details of baccarat are laid out with elegant simplicity. Although lacking in depth, this Bond is, nonetheless, an interesting - if violent - epicurean. ( )

http://spwebdesign.livejournal.com/60... ( )

Ian Fleming's first outing with James Bond. The text here is lean but filled with details about clothes, food and card playing technique. Bond is a shmuck and a male chauvinist, but that should come as no surprise. A guilty pleasure. ( )

This is a surprisingly good book. ( )

I was encouraged to step into the Bond series by my wife, so I picked up with the first in the series. Casino Royale was my favorite bond movie and while there are quite a number of differences from the book (as with all of the books/movies in the series) there was a remarkably similar feel between the two.

What I came to enjoy the most was not even the story, which in and of itself is well told, but the perspective and manner of speaking used to tell the story. Hearing the thoughts and emotions that swirl around in Bond's head was a very different experience from the movie adaptations. I was also impressed by the size of the book. Fleming's writing is extremely compact and to the point and I did enjoy that a lot. It made for a fast, exciting, and enjoyable read. I look forward to the rest of the books. ( )

This is the first book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. Two summers ago I read all the James Bond books in sequence. While we're not exactly talking literature here, it was an absolute hoot! As usual, there are differences between the books and the movies. Some of the movies in this case were possibly better than the books. But there are important differences. The Bond character develops as the books follow in proper sequence. Bond falls in love, his love turns out to be a double spy who kills herself; Bond rejects his love for her and calls her a "bitch," establishing his character as a man whose country comes first. Then in a later novel Bond visits her grave. None of this comes through in the movies. On the other hand, The Spy Who Loved Me, may be the worst novel ever written. The paperback editions to buy are the ones with artwork by Richie Fahey (I think that's his name, but I'll check back later if correction is needed.) These paperbacks were approved by the Ian Fleming Estate. Other paperbacks may contain changes to the texts by the politically correct police. (I'm not kidding.) In one book there's a chapter heading "Eighth Avenue." but that's not what you'll find in the original. I found that when I read the books, the music from the movies popped into my head as I read the exciting parts. Enjoy. ( )

Very well written. Bond makes a much more interesting character in a book than on film. It has the same grim tone as the recent movie; I'm curious to see if that keeps up through the rest of the series (hard to imagine with titles like "Moonraker"). ( )

First James Bond Book ( )

I remember reading some of the Bond novels when I was still at school, but I'm not sure that this was one of them. Having seen both film versions I was impressed at how close the 2006 adaptation stayed tob the plot. Fleming is often accused of being a misogynist and a racist, unfortunately his novels reflects the attitudes of the time - remember this book was first published in 1953. Setting that aside this was an entertaining read. Fleming's prose is spare and economic which keeps the pace crackling along. ( )

Posing as a Jamaican millionaire, James Bond is sent to France to ruin Le Chiffre, a high-ranking enemy agent, at the gambling tables of Casino Royale, while a female agent - Vesper Lynd - is assigned as cover, much to his annoyance.

The first in the series. We learn what the "00" designation signifies, something of Bond's character, and meet some of the characters who will recur in later books - although not the famed gadgets of later books. Bond doesn't kill anyone, or escape, or rescue the girl - in fact most of the actual work is done by others while he gets to swan around indulging his expensive tastes and barely avoids being killed and bankrupted himself.

His attitude towards the female agent is pretty appalling throughout - she's an irritating distraction before the gambling, but his expected 'reward' afterwards, and while pursuing her kidnappers he's busy coming up with excuses to absolve himself of her demise for his reports... Later, after miraculously recovering from sadistic torture, his only concern is to bed her to prove that he can still 'perform', and while he suddenly starts calling her 'my love' and 'darling' and thinks of marrying her, there's no indication that he actually cares for anyone other than himself. Some hero!

No, I'm not a fan of James Bond (movie or book version) or Ian Flemming, but I got the first few books free from The Times, so I'll probably read the rest at some point. ( )

Fiction, Thriller, Espionage, James Bond series, Secret agent 007, First Bond adventure, Spy stories, LeChiffre, the paymaster of a SMERSH-controlled trade union, has borrowed money (50 million francs) from the SMERSH. He sets out to win the money at the extreme Baccarat table. Bond is sent to Casino Royale with orders to bankrupt LeChiffre and ensure his death. First Published: April 13, 1953, by Jonathan Cape, London, 218 pp.; First Italian edition, Guanda editore, 1953, under the title: "Casinò Royale", translated by Massimo Bocchiola; First US edition retitled: "You Asked For It (Casino Royale", by Popular Library, New York, April 1955, 128 pp., published by arrangement with The Macmillan company; Film TV: 21 October 1954, CBS Television, Climax! series, directed by William H. Brown Jr., starring: Barry Nelson as James Bond, Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre (Herr Ziffer), Linda Christian as Valerie Mathis; Film version 1967, a surrealistic satire, directed by Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, Val Guest, Music by Burt Bacharach, starring: David Niven: Sir James Bond, Peter Sellers: Evelyn Tremble (James Bond-007), Ursula Andress: Vesper Lynd, Orson Welles: Le Chiffre, Joanna Pettet: Mata Bond, Daliah Lavi: The Detainer, Woody Allen: Jimmy Bond (Dr. Noah), Deborah Kerr: Agent Mimi, William Holden: Ransome, Charles Boyer: Legrand, John Huston: McTarry, Jean-Paul Belmondo: French Legionnaire, Barbara Bouchet: Miss Moneypenny, Jacqueline Bisset: Miss Goodthighs, George Raft: Himself, Stirling Moss: Driver, Peter O'Toole: Piper; Film version 2006, "Casino Royale", directed by Martin Campbell, starring: Daniel Craig as James Bond, Eva Green: Vesper Lynd, Mads Mikkelsen: Le Chiffre, Jeffrey Wright: Felix Leiter, Giancarlo Giannini: Rene Mathis, Judi Dench: M, Simon Abkarian: Dimitrios ( )

Ian Fleming introduced 007 in this crisply written thriller. Good stuff. ( )

Here's where it all began in 1953. This is the first James Bond novel.

Bond is sent by M to the casino in Royale-les-Eaux to challenge a gambling trade union leader and suspected Soviet spy across the gambling tables and deprive the Communists of money for their evil schemes. An astonishingly unlikely premise by the standards of a thriller of any era.

Over the course of the first 160 pages, Bond narrowly escapes a bomb, plays baccarat against the bad guy and is tortured by him after he kidnaps Bond's glamorous assistant Vesper Lynd. Fleming handles these set pieces competently enough, but the novel then has an oddly anti-climactic coda as Bond falls for Vesper, only for a very predictable twist to round things off.

Compared to most of his screen incarnations (and I haven't seen the Daniel Craig version of this story), the book Bond is surprisingly moody - indeed, his onscreen persona is all surface and no depth, so for him to have any kind of interior life is something of a surprise. The pain of his torture clearly traumatises him.

The other surprise is that Bond initially views Vesper as a distraction from the job in hand. Inevitably, this novel looks very sexist to modern eyes as Bond grumbles to himself about this. Getting behind the wheel of his Bentley (no Aston Martin for this rather more genteel Bond) after several glasses of champagne and smoking 70 cigarettes a day also date it.

It also shows all the signs of Fleming's famously speedy approach - each Bond novel was typically written in about 6 weeks. The language is sometimes clunky and interior monologues ill thought through.

On the whole I suspect this book is held in the regard that it is (this is a Penguin Modern Classic) because of what it spawned rather than what it is. ( )

The writing started with promise, but Fleming began to repeat himself about halfway through the book. I had higher expectations of the love story, but the female character was even more two dimensional than most of the era. Buck Rogers did it better. ( )

Picked this bad boy up and read through it in early '08 as a break from my usual and pretentious postmodern reading schedule. I was looking for something fun. Something fun and badly written. All the Bond books get mixed reviews from fans, so imagine my surprise at Casino Royale not only being a hell load of fun, but to feature swell, sexy writing from Fleming. Those folks who say they can read Fleming's descriptions of household items like refrigerators and boxes full of cheese all day aren't kidding. His descriptive passages are a spectacle, baby.

I loved the Bond films as a kid, but in all honestly can't remember beans of them these days. The last time I tried watching one as I became a teenager, I was bored silly. The only one I vaguely recall is GoldenEye, and only because of the N64 game I had recently played through twice in a row (finally beat it all on 007 Agent! FINALLY!). Not having any clue what is going to happen during any scene in any Bond book (since they're all spread out between movies) is a...nice thing. Duh. The only thing I remember from the films are those lines: "Bond, James Bond" and "shaken, not stirred," and of those only the former has appeared once so far in Moonraker, and said by M. At least as far as I know.

Yes, this book contains hardly any action. The least of any Bond novel. James goes on an epic journey to Royale-Les-Eaux to try to take as much of SMERSH operative Le Chiffre's money as he can. Most of the book is spent in very intense baccarat games with Le Chiffre, and even if you don't have any idea how to play baccarat, or what it even is, or even how to pronounce the word, they'll still have you sweating. You'll find yourself randomly saying "suivi" without a clue as to what it means for weeks afterward before you finally run a Google search.

After reading the first three Bond novels so far, Casino Royale has remained my favorite. I do have one big complaint: the last 20 pages. The villain gets defeated pretty early (ohhhhh, spoiler spoiler--jerk) on, and the last twenty pages (if you have the hep 144-page '60s copy like I do) are Bond and Vesper talking of love to one another. It felt severely out of place in relation to the rest of the novel.

Flemings novels are classy, let me tell you. Being published from 1953-1966 (including those published posthumously) by a high class Brit born in 1908, of course they're going to contain some words folks today would find offensive. Lots of sexist and racist beliefs (I'm looking at you, Live and Let Die) by Bond and company. And, uh, I like that side of the book(s). It makes the experience so darn campy. Just wait for Bond's little internal soliloquy on how women are only meant for the pleasure of men and nothing more, the constant condescending attitude towards any woman, and cetera. It's great. Chuckles will be had by all.

If you're looking for some fun, give Fleming a try! Twelve novels, two collections, most between one hundred forty and one hundred ninety pages long (again, if you own the '60s copies; font-size seems to have doubled in modern $20 trade paperbacks). Do it.

F.V.: 80%

[review: 1,173:: reading: 950-something -- and I swore I'd only write reviews for neglected books for no reason at all...] ( )

Ah, we meet again, Mr. Bond.

I remember reading nearly all the James Bond books back in my early teens. Even then I knew it was important to go beyond the movies, I guess. (And to escape the mugging of Roger Moore.)

Ian Fleming is a better writer than I remembered. Quite a few economical descriptions and turns of phrase in Casino Royale really struck me as skillful. Like 007, he's better with things than people. The only really round character in the book is Bond himself -- who's a lot more interesting and human here than he is in most of the movies.

The Bond we meet here is (at first) a heartless killing machine. After all, if he paused to feel and reflect, he would quickly end up dead. That's what almost happens when he meets Vesper Lynde, falls in love, decides to get married, thinks of quitting the service, and even makes a little speech about the shifting morality of his calling: "Today we are fighting communism. Okay. If I'd been alive fifty years ago, the brand of concervatism we have today would have been damn near called communism, and we should have been told to go and fight that...the heroes and villains keep on changing parts."

Then of course Vesper turns out to be a double agent, and Bond reverts to type. Fleming was a cold warrior, after all...and a domesticated Bond would have never appeared in another novel.

The first 007 story set in the times of the Cold War and post war austerity. As the title suggests largly about casinos and gambling. The soviet and East German agents are trying to raise money through manipulating the games. James Bond gets graphically tortured but all ends well in the end. As a committed foodie the meals described are bizarre - avocado pear followed by steak followed by wild strawberries , maybe that was the epitome of sophistication and decadence at the time (the cholesterol and fat !) ( )