Book Review: From Russia with Love, by Ian Fleming

One-line summary: SMERSH wants James Bond dead, and baits a honeytrap with a hot decoding device and a hot cipher clerk.



Published in 1957, 256 pages

Every major foreign government organization has a file on British secret agent James Bond. Now, Russia's lethal SMERSH organization has targeted him for elimination. SMERSH is the Soviet organ of vengeance, interrogation, torture, and death. James Bond is dedicated to the destruction of its agents wherever he finds them.

Far away in Moscow, SMERSH has laid a death-trap for Bond with an enticing lure: the irresistible Tatiana Romanova, who lures 007 to Istanbul promising the top-secret Spektor cipher machine. But when Bond walks willingly into the trap, a game of cross and double-cross ensues -- with Bond both the stakes and the prize.

( 007 novels are not high literature, but they aren't as trashy as you think. Okay, they are pretty trashy. But they're not bad. )

Verdict: If you like James Bond films, you should read the books, because they're just as fun and have better stories. If you think the Bond films are misogynistic tripe, well, the books aren't any better. From Russia with Love is a quick and entertaining Cold War spy story, and while it's the fifth Bond novel, there's no need to read the previous ones; Bond is as unchanging as Superman.

See also my review of Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories.

Book Review: From Russia with Love, by Ian Fleming

One-line summary: SMERSH wants James Bond dead, and baits a honeytrap with a hot decoding device and a hot cipher clerk.



Published in 1957, 256 pages

Every major foreign government organization has a file on British secret agent James Bond. Now, Russia's lethal SMERSH organization has targeted him for elimination. SMERSH is the Soviet organ of vengeance, interrogation, torture, and death. James Bond is dedicated to the destruction of its agents wherever he finds them.

Far away in Moscow, SMERSH has laid a death-trap for Bond with an enticing lure: the irresistible Tatiana Romanova, who lures 007 to Istanbul promising the top-secret Spektor cipher machine. But when Bond walks willingly into the trap, a game of cross and double-cross ensues -- with Bond both the stakes and the prize.

( 007 novels are not high literature, but they aren't as trashy as you think. Okay, they are pretty trashy. But they're not bad. )

Verdict: If you like James Bond films, you should read the books, because they're just as fun and have better stories. If you think the Bond films are misogynistic tripe, well, the books aren't any better. From Russia with Love is a quick and entertaining Cold War spy story, and while it's the fifth Bond novel, there's no need to read the previous ones; Bond is as unchanging as Superman.

See also my review of Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories.