It’s a Man’s World: Dr. No

              

             During last week’s episode of Faulk’s on Fiction when he talked about James Bond novels I became rather intrigued. I have seen my fair share of 007 movies, and my fair share of James Bonds; Sean Connery is my all time favorite, but I have never bothered to pick up the novels. The program gave me the idea about James Bond as a fictional character unlike the action hero we have come to know and love. So I went over to my local library, yes I actually go to the library A LOT. I read books rather quickly and I usually do not want to buy all the books I am interested in so the library comes in handy. I picked up a copy of Ian Fleming’s Dr. No and went home to read it. First off I realized within the first 10 pages that this was on the first 007 novel, damn, there were ones before this but this didn’t stop me from continuing to read the novel. I was a bit confused by certain things and events in the beginning probably due to the fact I did not read the novel previous to this one, the feeling passed by page 20.

               I have to say with full confidence that this is a total guy book; it is full of male ego, testosterone, guns, secret agent things and of course action. I knew this was a guy’s novel before I even opened the book, the cover had a half-naked beautiful woman wrapped in a bed sheet, yep a guy’s novel. The story itself is very good; full of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing to what was going to happen next. There are similarities and differences from the 007 novels and the 007 movies; first off there are less women in the novels and you do not get the underlining idea that James Bond is a womanizer, or at least not from this novel. 007 was more concerned with the mission put in front of him, instead of the beautiful woman but do not worry he did worry about the woman plenty but not to the same degree as the movies. Also the novels have less of action scenes then the movies; there a bit more clever thinking and strategy then fancy gadgets. James is a very intelligent man and the novels prove him to be smarter than we would have thought him to be.  

               I enjoyed reading this novel and gained a better perspective to the 007 world; the novels deal with more of the strategy, intelligence, and cleverness of 007 then the gadgets and gorgeous woman. It was entertaining and allowed the reader to experience a fly on the wall novel; you do feel like you are there with him. I look forward to reading more of the 007 novels, when I have the time to pick some up. Plus ladies I am sure you can impress some fellow book nerds saying how much you enjoyed reading Fleming. So if you are thinking about getting more involved with the 007 obsessed society we live in then you should look into reading some of these books, they are a nice, quick, exciting read. You would not regret it.