Moonraker

After reading “Live and Let Die”, with the sexism and racism really over the top, I wasn’t sure I would continue reading these novels. But, I do really enjoy Fleming as a writer, so figured I’d give it another shot. These are things that come with these novels, that one has to know going in. I was pleasantly surprised that “Moonraker” had very little sexism/racism, yay progress!

I’ve seen all the Bond movies, so I know what the synopsis is going into each book. I won’t give spoilers, but this book was basically entirely new, very different from the movie, which was great!

It was interesting seeing Bond go about his daily life. Getting his butt kicked in the shooting range, doing paperwork, interactions with other staff in his office. This sounds boring, but it was a welcome change from the other books, to see a different side that you especially never see in the movies (that would be boring).

Overall, “Moonraker” was a very enjoyable book and of the first three, I found myself not being able to put the book down towards the end more so than the other books.

In Moonraker, Fleming builds a better Bond. After the taut action and jingoistic stories of his first two adventures (practically novellas) we are treated to a longer work that shows Commander Bond at work and play around London. We find a Bond grappling with the risks and loneliness inherent in his chosen profession. We also find a Bond girl that, though still a bit dreamy and fickle, stands against the overbearing charms of the good commander and ultimately cracks the plot herself.
Furthermore the novel takes aim at Nazis as the prime antagonist and has no real opportunity for its dated worldview to strike too dissonant a chord. Instead we find the kinetic storytelling and inventive dilemmas of his previous works fleshed out with more depth and consideration for the characters.

Unlike the Bond movie that shares its name (but little else) Moonraker (the book) is a first class story with a strong plot and perhaps the best character development of any Fleming title. The story is set in the 1950’s and centers around an offer by millionaire Hugo Drax to develop for Great Britain a limited range missile capable of delivering a nuclear payload against the Soviet Union. As is typical in a Bond book much of the early action takes place at a card game. Bond’s boss “M” is suspicious that Drax is cheating at Bridge and is doing so at an exclusive club where “M” is a member. The matter must be handled privately because Drax is a national hero but there is a larger concern: can a man who has been given the power Drax has been given to develop such a weapon be trusted if he exhibits such a character flaw? Knowing Bond’s card skill “M” privately invites him into a game to find the truth and quietly confront Drax if he turns out to be a cheater. The card table confrontation is one of the best in the Bond series but the action only intensifies when the investigation moves to Drax’s missile site near Dover. The action that unfolds there provides in literary form the most gripping Bond movie never made. If you are a Bond fan (movies or books) you will enjoy this exciting adventure.

Its an obvious fact that the early Bond movies more closely resembled their namesake novels, probably because they had the advantage of being made not long after the novels themselves were published. Since Moonraker, the third novel in the Bond series, was published in 1955 but its subsequent film was not released until 1979, the two entities share only two elements in common: their titles and main protagonists. But even those two elements are common in name only. While the Moonraker in the film was one of a group of identical shuttles provided by Drax for the space program, the Moonraker in the novel was a one-stage rocket with an operational range of about 4,000 miles, bringing every European capital within reach of England. The Hugo Drax in the film, played by Michael Lonsdale, was a rich, cultured, well-mannered entrepreneur with a wry wit and a God-like hidden agenda to re-populate the Earth with perfect humans of his own choosing, causing him to steal and kill to fulfill that end. In the novel Hugo Drax is a man of unknown origins found injured during World War II. He is a red-haired, broad-shouldered, disfigured, self-made multi-millionaire who through his work in metals has discovered Columbite and produced a rocket to protect England, making the philanthropist a national hero with a knighthood. He is also a loud, boorish, bullying man who bites his nails and, to the chagrin of M, cheats at cards at Ms club Blades where they are both members. Roger Moore, portraying Bond for his third time, looks nothing like the Bond in the novel who is in his middle thirties with grey-blue eyes, a scar on his right cheek and the comma of black hair above his right eyebrow.
What Im trying to say is that no matter how ridiculous or over-the-top one dismissively considers the movie version of Moonraker with its emphasis on outer space that even includes a fight sequence in orbit reminiscent of the one in You Only Live Twice, one finds that the novel Moonraker, while a spy novel or thriller, fits in neatly behind its predecessors for one big reason that I love. The book takes the time to flesh out the details of Bonds world and all of its British spycraft intricacies. James Bond lives in a flat off the Kings Road. He drives a 1930 Bentley with a .45 Colt in the glove box. His office, which he shares with two 00s, is on the eighth floor, one below M, of Universal Export Co. His secretary is named Loelia Ponsonby. He actually reads reports that are pertinent to his duties at his desk, not in some high-ceilinged, echoing room surrounded by every 00 available. He has two or three missions a year and, at the time of the book, is eight years from being removed from the 00 list. He smokes Macedonian blend cigarettes with three gold rings from Morlands of Grosvenor Street which he lights with his Ronson lighter.
In the film Bond gets briefed once. In the novel Bond gets briefed before the mission by Assistant Commissioner Vallance of the Special Branch, physicist Professor Train and the Ministry of Supply. His contact working undercover as Drax’s secretary is Gala Brand, a member of the Special Branch of Scotland Yard, not Holly Goodhead working for the CIA. In the film Drax Industries and its subsidiaries are scattered around the globe. In the novel Draxs complex is located in one place the coast of England near the white cliffs of Dover.
Though a work of spy fiction, I believe Moonraker, along with the other novels, provides a wealth of detail into the life of James Bond, rooting him closer to reality than the films do. At his flat and in his office, James life seems more mundane and routine, filled with tedious tasks that require his attention. Once on a mission, though, he is thrown into extraordinary circumstances and fantastic situations which may be less believable but are all the more exciting for the contrast they provide.
By the way, Drax’s plan in the film is revealed early on to the audience and more gradually to Bond as he investigates. In the novel, revealed in a well-written plot twist, Drax’s plan, while not as far-reaching as the one in the film, is no less diabolical considering his standing among the people of Britain.
I look forward to re-reading and re-discovering Flemings world of Bond as I continue through the series.
Whether you like the films or not, I hope you will keep an open mind and give the novels a chance. I know, people complain about Bond being chauvinistic and misogynistic but, remember, these novels were written in the 1950s and ’60s. Despite the cancel culture of today, those eras existed and are history, warts and all.

Forget the 1979 film made in haste to jump on the space bandwagon that Star Wars started rolling… the only thing that shares with this book is its title and the name of the villain. The book is vastly different to the film, and is – as the title of this review says – the archetypal Bond story, encapsulating perfectly the best bits of 007: a despicable yet believable villain; a stylish hero with superb cerebral acuity; msaterful building of suspense; moments of hard-hitting action; a genuinely gripping story; and, yes, a wonderful card sequence (an outstanding achievement: who could have thought a game of Bridge could be so exciting and easy to follow for a reader who understands nothing about it?!).

Having read all of Fleming’s Bond, this stands out at the top of the pile – just edging it ahead of From Russia With Love and The Blofeld Trilogy.

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