Russia discovers Bond's kryptonite: sexy women! And yes, it basically works. 90 pages! Over 90 pages before we're finally introduced to our titular hero. That's how long we spend in Russia, developing the plan to humiliate Britain and James Bond for the humiliations suffered in previous installments. That's how much groundwork is put into setting up the suspense for this plot. Ian Feming really bats for the fences as he sets up all the inevitable subplots and traps that Bond will fall into. An English assassin psychopath triggered by the moon. A sexy young cipher clerk trained to fall in love with him. A tempting Spektor decoding device, wired to explode. The full force and brilliance of the Soviet spy force SMERSH directed at discrediting and embarrassing Bond in an international incident aboard the exotic Orient Express. And this is effectively the prologue. Bond is bored, when we finally catch up to him, killing time between adventures. Word comes that a young Soviet girl named Tatiana Romanova (does it get any more Russian?) has fallen in love with him and wants to defect and deliver the Spektor. Everyone assumes it's a trap. They just can't put their finger on it, and they figure, hey, it's James Bond, it could happen. Women love that guy. He'll be fine. Besides, they just want that darn Spektor so much, they'll take the chance. There's only one way Romanova will defect, however, and that's by dramatic irony and exciting set pieces: Bond must be the one to collect her in Istanbul and he must only transport her to England by the Orient Express (you'd think there was only just that one train in all of Europe). You can guess the rest. Bond teams up with a gypsy partner in Turkey, and they have a quick gypsy side adventure killing criminals. Of course Bond is suspicious when he meets Tatiana, but sleeping with her seems to solve that (they couldn't fake it in the fifties I guess). She can't be a spy if she's a good lay, and wouldn't ya know it, she starts to actually fall in love with him! Bond's gypsy pal gets killed ridding the train of Soviet secret agents and back-up arrives seemingly from MI-6, but the back-up turns out to be the assassin we haven't seen since the start. He poisons them both but Bond outsmarts him in the end and he manages not only to get the girl home but make an honest defector out of her, and warn the scientists of the bomb in the Spektor. All is well until he unexpectedly comes face to face with the architect of his demise, an old woman who outsmarted everyone, and she stabs him with a poison knife in her shoe and Bond goes down for the count and... "Breathing became difficult. Bond sighed to the depth of his lungs. He clenched his jaws and half closed his eyes, as people do when they want to hide their drunkenness. ... He prised his eyes open. ... Now he had to gasp for breath. Again his hand moved up towards his cold face. Bond felt his knees begin to buckle, pivoted slowly on his heel and crashed head-long to the wine-red floor." ...wait a minute? That's the end? That's the last line of the novel? Did Bond just die? The Death of James Bond. Turns out Ian Fleming was getting bored with Bond and this really was the death of our beloved playboy. The movies didn't catch on for another couple years, and Fleming thought he might move onto other stuff (check out Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, no I'm not joking.) So for about a year, this was the end of the series and the end of Bond. Until it wasn't. Dr. No came next, and then that got made into a movie with Sean Connery and Bond has pretty much been immortal ever since. Conclusion: 3.5 out of 5 stars. From Russia with Love is a mixed bag. On the one hand I love Fleming's return to experimental story structure. This is only the fifth novel and Fleming has already deconstructed his own formula about as often as he's adhered to it. The first 90 pages are like their own separate short story prequel to the real novel. Half the setups teased in it are never referenced again until their payoff, showing great restraint from the writer and greater confidence in the reader to remember all the clues in time for them to count. The details omitted are even more ominous than the threats we know about, and even though we're given so much behind the scenes planning from the outset, we're also denied whole swathes of secret scheming. It's the illusion of dramatic irony. We only think we know what's going on. The Fleming-Sweep is in full effect, building to some great page-turners at the end of exciting chapters. But there are also some long, slow slogs that make a better fifth installment for the franchise than a first. What I mean is that it's probly most rewarding for recurring readers who think they know what to expect. I wouldn't start with this one. There are also some ridiculous and somewhat sexist cliches, including a topless gypsy catfight, the old Soviet S&M lady, and almost everything about Tatiana who basically begs to be in an abusive relationship. Pulp fiction doesn't get any pulpier than this, and it has as many pros as cons. The villain walks around naked and has to kill during the full moons. Gypsies operate like a secret society. The Russians are cold and brilliant but mad and petty. All the ups and downs of the Bond franchise are on full display, from the trick gadgets and the product placements, to the villainous monologue and sleeping with the sexy defector (for the good of your country!). It's actually a pretty good installment in the series, but only if you've been tracking with it so far and you can tune out its more dated social norms. Better than Diamonds are Forever, at least, which leads me to my current rankings: 1. Moonraker 2. Casino Royale 3. Live and Let Die 4. From Russia with Love 5. Diamonds are Forever What are yours?
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