Moonraker

Moonraker
by Ian Fleming
read: 2013

So the novel Moonraker doesn't have Roger Moore in space, but it is still a bit silly. Hugo Drax is a classic Bond villain, and the scope of his villainy - the destruction of London!- is the sort that Dr. Evil mocked in the Austin Powers movies. Somehow the characters seem in less immediate danger than in Casino Royale or Live and Let Die, which gives things a Moore-ian feel.

Through three novels, I'm struck by Bond's relationship to the women in the stories. He's presented as a promiscuous playboy and a commitment-phobe, but he develops real feelings for the women he encounters. That has never really come through in the films for me, other than maybe the Daniel Craig Casino Royale.