{"id":3473,"date":"2006-12-07T01:45:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-07T06:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/?p=3473"},"modified":"2010-04-20T22:02:54","modified_gmt":"2010-04-21T03:02:54","slug":"book-report-thunderball-by-ian-fleming-1961","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2006\/12\/07\/book-report-thunderball-by-ian-fleming-1961\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Report: Thunderball by Ian Fleming (1961)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Steyn has been talking about the old James Bond books<\/a> and a new book about James Bond books<\/a>, so I was inspired to draw this old paperback from my shelf. It had been a while (at least two years, since there are no book reports) since I read the first three Signet paperbacks in my library (Live and Let Die<\/i>, The Spy Who Loved Me<\/i>, and Diamonds Are Forever<\/i>), but I liked them enough to buy a couple more when I found them at garage sales.<\/p>\n

Thunderball<\/i> is based on the screenplay of the same name, so it’s not a straight James Bond novel, I suspect. Still, the author has a lot of fun making cracks about the plot being like a B movie plot, so Fleming didn’t take it too seriously. Much like the movie Never Say Never Again<\/i> didn’t take it too seriously when they remade it.<\/p>\n

The story, for those of you who don’t know and probably don’t care, is that SPECTRE (not Spectra, that was Battle of the Planets<\/i>, silly!) has stolen a plane with a couple of nukes on it and they’re going to blow them unless they get ransom. The West looks for SPECTRE and thinks about paying, but Britain sends James Bond to Bermuda just in case it’s there. It is.<\/p>\n

A quick read (188 pages) and, apparently, a piece of British history. Shorter and more engaging than a Clancy, anyway.<\/p>\n

Books mentioned in this review:<\/b><\/p>\n