Casino Royale, the book - Falcon's Blog

Casino Royale, the book

Greetings, Casino Royale is the first James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming, himself. It should be noted that the book is quite old and therefore some of its views, as well as technology are now considered outdated.  One aspect I couldn’t help but notice was the lack of action. I didn’t really expect that from a Bond adventure however, I imagine that Fleming wanted to focus more so on the centre character, James and his development through his experiences rather than create a fast paced thrill.  As far as I remember the agent only disarms an assassin and does not actually kill anyone during the plot.

The story line itself is much less complicated than the film and is reasonably short. The villain, LeChiffre was a member of a soviet organisation called SMERSH, which was established to kill Western spies and continue the spread of communism. LeChiffre lost a large amount of SMERSH’s money before the events of the novel, as such the institute branded him a traitor and hence he would receive the death penalty. A frightened LeChiffre begins gambling to pay off his debts, in Casino Royale which is situated in France.

Therefore M, head of MI6 has sent 007 to beat LeChiffre at the card game Baccarat to remove his winnings and gain more money for the West. It would also mean the villain would be hunted by his former employers. James is helped in his mission by Mathis of the Deuxieme, Vesper Lynd and Felix of the CIA. The story is also heavily embedded with the game Baccarat which is explained in detail and featured heavily in some chapters. Despite attempts to instruct the reader of how it is played, I didn’t understand and was left reading through several chapters having to guess what was going on.  That isn’t too important as the winner is clearly announced.

Casino Royale is a reasonable novel, which seems to have shaped Bond into the 007 known in the cinema but I can’t confirm that until I read the next book. It is certainly more entertaining than the film which seemed to have added scenes and distort the plot to the point of confusing the viewers. The fourth chapter of Unforgotten Rivalry is up at Warehouse 17.

Plot=7/10

Characters=8/10

Wording=7/10

Overall=7/10

Quote of the day

Replicants are like any other machine. They're either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not my problem.

Decker

Blade Runner

Written by Falcon, Thursday 4 August 2011

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Aaron  14 year(s) ago (165 months)

I still think Daniel Craig as Bond is a horrible choice.

 
Joh  14 year(s) ago (165 months)

Yeah, I enjoyed Quantum of Solace. Not quite a Bond film - but a good watch never the less. :]

 
Falcon  14 year(s) ago (165 months)

Casino Royale, the film, was awful but at least it's successor Quantum of Solace was better and made sense. :D

 
Aaron  14 year(s) ago (165 months)

Glad you found it better than the movie, which I personally thought was terribly boring; may have to try reading Ian Flemming's novels, see if the novels are anything like the movies at all (although, I believe they aren't really). ;]

 
Joh  14 year(s) ago (165 months)

I've never read any Bond Books either, but really enjoy the movies - except the Casino Royale movie which was pretty bad. Nice summary. :]

 
Brisingr  14 year(s) ago (165 months)

sounds ok, I've never really tried reading the James Bond books to be honest. Certainly sounds a lot less confusing than that dreadful film... still no idea what happened in it :S