Thunderball

Like a lot of Bond novels, this one has a somewhat daffy pre-adventure. You know the films always start with him, like, skiing to recover tapes in Antarctica, or rappelling down dams? Thunderball begins with M sending Bond to do a cleanse at a health clinic. It's connected to the main plot of the book by the thinnest of threads, a thread so thin Bond even calls it out as being a ridiculous coincidence from a poorly written thriller! Still there are some good jokes; Bond suddenly has a comedy Scottish housekeeper I don't remember from previous books, but she's a delight. Bond, it turns out, despises tea ("that flat, soft, time-wasting opium of the masses") and desires spaghetti bolognese more than any other food.

The actual plot is one of show more Fleming's best, I reckon. It's interesting how different the kind of things book Bond does are to what film Bond does. Book Bond is an investigator, a man who works subtly and slowly. The world is being blackmailed by stolen nuclear warheads, and still Bond has to check out a potential suspect slowly and subtly, verifying his suspicions by posing as a would-be property buyer before calling in the big guns. But Fleming excels at this kind of detail work; it plays to his strength as a writer, which is to use minutiae to be utterly convincing. This is the reason SPECTRE (finally introduced in this book, though Bond doesn't meet Blofeld, or even know he exists) works; their operations are depicted with such thought and precision that they seem plausible even in their absurdity.

As always, Bond is kind of obnoxious. There's a bit where he and Felix complain about overpriced food and watered-down drinks and they're total snobs. There's another bit where Bond ruminates on what makes female drivers so bad. But that leads into the fact that this female driver drives like a man, and Fleming is so good at this kind of thing that you instantly understand how sexy that makes her. Just from the way she drives a car, and short but meticulous description of her outfit, and Fleming reels you in.

If you think about it, not a lot actually happens, but it happens carefully and suspensefully (as always the fight scenes are physical and engrossing; this one has a particularly good final showdown) and the gambling scenes put you on the edge of your seat, and that's the hallmark of an excellent James Bond novel. show less

This was a fun, overtly British suspense novel; and just happens to be my first James Bond novel. If it weren't for the last film starring Daniel Craig, my perception of Bond would have been challenged. He is moody, sexist, cruel, childish, and human. He is not a flat persona as he has appeared in the movies, and that in of itself makes it all the more interesting.

"This is a silly plan. This is the sort of melodramatic nonsense people write about in thrillers." and that criticism straight out of the mouth of the "bond girl" in this installment is probably one of my favourite lines in the series so far. Whoever said they were all shallow?!

I must have watched Thunderball about a gazillion times since I was a kid and I still couldn't say what the film was about. Reading it, the story is still a bit tepid - bad guys steal nuclear war heads and threaten the world - however, the descriptions in the book of everything that surrounds the plot - i.e. the development of characters, the depiction of fight scenes, the dialogues, the sea life are just great.

Of course, Bond is still Bond, and the sexist, show more chauvinist comments are there (in abundance) throughout the book, but one wouldn't set out to read a Bond novel without a bucket of salt at hand. show less

This is the novel that Ian Fleming wrote with Kevin McCrory and you can see some very different influences with regards to the plotting and the nature of the threat that faces 007. He’s first foray into alternative medicine in a rather quack like clinic in Sussex varies between tense and at times amusing. This might be the first time that literary James Bond actually uses humour. The Bahamas sections and in particular the development of Emile Largo and Domino never feels quite as fleshed out as normal. Stavro Blofeld is more of the ultimate villain. This is of course the start of the so-called Blofeld trilogy. Highly recommended.

No complaints about this book. I would have prefered some clever quips, more than one location, and some of Q with his gadgets, but this is a fund Bond story, despite lacking all that. It DID introduce Blofeld and SPECTRE, had a lovely but deadly exotic Bond girl, teaming up with Felix Leiter, shaming the villain at the casino, meaningful wordplay, a huge evil plot that could kill millions, and yet another underwater battle in the Carribean (I think we're at 3 or 4 of these up to now in the original books).

Well, the cool thing about this is that when I was young, I didn't like the movie based on this, and I never read it, because of that. But, reading it now, I realize that this is a pretty good story! Bond is back, and trying to stop the bad guys who have stolen two nuclear warheads! The locale = Bahamas. The bad guy = Emilio Largo. The gal = Domino. And Felix is in this one, metal hook and all! But the best thing about this book is that it introduces SPECTRE, and it's #2 (in this book Largo is #1), Ernst Stavro Blofeld! Woot woot! And I guess I never had know what SPECTRE stood for, which is SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion! Quite the mouthful! Good story, good fun, and good bad guys! I show more especially enjoyed the final paragraph! show less

This is not the best Bond book. (#9)

I have enjoyed seeing Fleming's maturity as a writer from book 1 to now. In several stories, I've noticed Fleming trying different styles with his writing. Thunderball seems to be an attempt to create a real love interest and more of a romantic instead of just sexual relationship. In attempting this, the normal James Bond story is pushed to the side, all the action saved for the end and much of the story boring.