The gain to the winner is always less than the loss to the loser (Moonraker - Ian Fleming)

Member Name: tommy7

Product:	Moonraker - Ian Fleming
Date:	12/06/09 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Another good read from Fleming

Disadvantages: Peaks in the first half

'Moonraker' is the third book in the James Bond series by Ian Fleming. After the first two books, establishing the evil network of SMERSH, I expected further developments in that storyline however this is more of a standalone, one-off story.

This story picks up with Bond's boss, M, asks Bond for a favour. He is a member of a gentlemans' club and suspects that one of the members is cheating at the card table. This member is winning every time he plays which makes M assume that he is cheating in some way. Knowing that Bond is an expert card player he hopes that he will be able to spot the method of cheating and teach the member a severe financial lesson. The issue is complicated by who the member is. The mysterious Sir Hugo Drax is a multi-millionaire who is adored by the British public and government alike. He is a former World War II soldier who returned from combat injured and with amnesia. M cannot risk Drax's reputation being tarnished and has a delicate situation on his hands as Drax is currently working on a nuclear missle which he is donating to British defence. This missile will ensure that none of the enemies of the time will consider attacking Britain. M is desperate to stop the cheating without exposing it. This battle at the card table forms a distinct part one to the book. The second part of the book finds Bond taking the place of a recently murdered undercover agent who was working on the Moonraker project. Bond must find out who was behind the murder and ensure that no-one can sabotage the very public test launch.

As mentioned above the story has two distinct parts, although the book is split in three parts. The first at the card table is engrossing. The battle of wits and wills between the two men is captured brilliantly by Fleming and you really feel like you are experiencing the game. However, my only complaint with this part of the book was that I felt you needed a fairly good knowledge of Bridge to fully appreciate what was going on. When Fleming wrote Casino Royale he gave a crash course on Baccarat through the story so that when it came to the game you knew exactly what was going on. Here there is no explanation of even the basic rules so I was lost. It was a real shame as one page even goes as far as showing you all the cards each player has and I imagine a good Bridge player could have seen what was coming. Unfortunately I was clueless and even once the hand played out I couldn't see why it had. Perhaps Bridge was a lot more popular in the 50s when this was written and Fleming's audience of the time would have followed it but I definitely felt I had missed out on a fairly important piece of this part of the book. Having said that this part was definitely my favourite.

The second part of the story was very readable but wasn't up to the very high standards of the first. There isn't a huge amount in this part other than the fairly natural conclusion of the story. There is a bit of a mystery around who is sabotaging the Moonraker project but I think the answer was fairly obvious so this element perhaps was a little disappointing. The second part plays out quite well and once again we see Bond, the man, exactly as that. He is fallible again. This is the consistent thing from reading the early books. He makes mistakes, relies on others and has to encounter painful lessons. All these things make the story far more complete.

This book was a little dated but a lot less than you would expect bearing in mind it is over 50 years old. Indeed there were elements in it which are still relevant today. For example the evil doers investing in a stock market and currency fall prior to the launch was exactly the plot used at the beginning of the Casino Royale movie a few years ago.

Another interesting aspect is that the ballistic nuclear missile would have been futuristic in the 50s and a weaker story would have relied on the fascination with the technology. However, the story still works today even though such things are now very much part of our current times.

What I also liked in this was the way that the attention to detail was so complete. The story and reasoning behind Drax's men's extravagant moustaches was extremely clever and made a lot of sense. Small things like this made me enjoy the story a lot more.

The last page of the book, for the second time in three novels, was absolutely brilliant and unexpected. It wasn't a major twist in the story, more a brilliant insight into Bond's character and his assumptions and was totally unexpected. It left me with a smile on my face and showed that Fleming wasn't infatuated with Bond in the way that a lot of authors are with their lead character.

I am finding that as I read more of these novels you get more and more into them in terms of not noticing how set in the past they are. It's like you become immersed in the time and I think you get more from them if you can read them as a collection, rather than as one-off books. As a one-off you would inevitable be reading with Connery, Moore or Craig in mind where I now disassociate the literary character with any of these actors.

It would also be an expensive business buying them individually. This book is £5.49 on Amazon but I bought it as part of the James Bond collection when it was available from www.thebookpeople.co.uk for £14.99. I have also seen it in Tesco for the same price. My copy came in a boxed set and each book has an introduction from a fellow author. In this case it's Michael Dibdin.

James Bond returns in Diamonds are Forever.

ISBN 978-0-141-02833-0

Summary: Enjoyable read