Thunderball: Library Edition (James Bond 007 (Blackstone))

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Summary: Bond battles SPECTRE in the thrilling "Thunderball."
Review: "Thunderball" introduces us to SPECTRE and its leader, Ernst Stavros Blofeld. Blofeld would become Bond's archenemy for a while, and he is certainly one of the five greatest villains James Bond has faced in his 35-year literary career. When SPECTRE steals two nuclear warheads, Her Majesty's Secret Service assigns every agent to tracking them down. Based on a personal hunch, M sends his best man (Bond, of course) to Nassau. Bond, fresh from a disastrous stay at the Shrublands health clinic, flies to Nassau to sort things out. Along with his American buddy Felix Leiter, making a most welcome return, Bond traces the danger to its source: Emilio Largo, second only to Blofeld himself in the organization SPECTRE. Bond girl Domino plays an integral role in the dissolution of SPECTRE's scheme. "Thunderball" is one of Fleming's finest novels, and it kicks off the Blofeld Trilogy, which continues in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "You Only Live Twice." Top-notch work.

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Summary: Action filled...what else would you expect from James Bond?
Review: A thrilling story with James Bond finally meeting the sinister orginization, SPECTRE. From the meeting in the Shrublands Health Facility to the final underwater battle against Largo, there is action, suspence, and thrills that no one can do better than James Bond. One of the best novels in the series. Content is thought out to the last detail, leaving little to question. Bond, as always, is smooth, suave, the debonair 007 we know and love. Even the villians live up to their name. Cunning, ruthless, everything that makes a villian. The locations in the book are some of the best on earth, and Fleming describes them to a "T". If you never read a Bond novel before, this would be a great place to start

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Summary: Introducing SPECTRE...
Review: For fans of the literary James Bond, Thunderball is one of the most pivotal works of the series. It was in Thunderball that Bond creator Ian Fleming first introduced the world to perhaps the ultimate Bond villian -- Ernest Stavro Blofeld. Though Bond and Blofeld never actually meet in Thunderball, it is in this book that Bond first battles the schemes of SPECTRE, Blofeld's criminal organization.

The plot of the book (which, as with most of Fleming's best work, is disturbing plausible) deals with SPECTRE's theft of two nuclear missiles and their attempt to blackmail the world with atomic destruction. On little more than a hunch, M (Bond's superior, as gruffly humorous as ever) sends Bond down to the Bahamas to search for the missiles. (It is made clear that other intelligence agents are combing other locations as well. One thing that sets the book apart from the film is the portrayal of James Bond as not the absolute best secret agent in the world but instead as just a hardworking professional who, often times, resents the intrusion of work on his private life.) While in the Bahamas, Bond meets the book's main villian, Emilio Largo (well characterized as an almost likeable rogue), Largo's mistress Domino (who has a nicely vulnerable speech in which she analyzes a picture on a pack of cigarettes), and old allies like Felix Leiter. Along with the usual nonstop action and the vivid descriptions that Fleming was known for, Thunderball contains some of Fleming's most memorable characterizations. While little new is revealed of Bond, Largo and Domino grab hold of the reader's imagination and linger after the end of the book.

Famously, this book was inspired by Fleming and producer Kevin McClory's attempts to launch a pre-Connery James Bond film series. The plot was invented for the movies and occasionally, the book suffers for it. The final battle between Largo and the military, for instance, reads a bit flat and doesn't carry the same charge as the earlier, less epic scenes. Surprising as it may be to some of Fleming's detractors, the writer main strength was always his ability to create compelling one-on-one scenes between Bond and the various eccentrics populating his world. And it is here that Thunderball really shines. It's too often ignored that Fleming was a witty writer whose Bond books often carried a comedy-of-manners feel. This is certainly true in the first part of the book in which Bond finds himself sent to a health salon to recover from a life of hard living. Bond's attempts to quit smoking and drinking are hilariously lampooned by Fleming, who makes little secret that he's mocking the critics who complained that his books were immoral. (Indeed, when we are first introduced to Blofeld, we are quickly informed that this man doesn't smoke, drink, rarely eats, and is apparently a virgin. In short, he lacks all of Bond's vices and, Fleming seems to suggest, turns to the business of international villiany mostly because he doesn't have much else to do.) By the time this book came out, Fleming had certainly grown as a writer from the first Bond books. Gone are the occasional awkward passages that occasionally pop up in Casino Royale. Every character speaks in his own individual voice as opposed to everyone speaking like an upper class English gentleman. In short, Thunderball is an excellent adventure that should thrill Bond fans and non-Bond fans alike.

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Summary: James Bond saves the world from nuclear disaster
Review: Secret Agent 007 first encounters SPECTRE in this exciting tropical adventure. This spy novel reads like a mystery as Bond gradually puts together the pieces of SPECTRE's plot to hold the world hostage. As always, the tale takes place in exotic locations and is filled with beautiful women and thrilling action. Fleming includes another tension-filled casino showdown, too. In addition, the titles in the James Bond Classic Library are inexpensive but very nice-looking hardcover volumes

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Summary: Another great novel.
Review: This novel is a great edition to the 007 series and contains the introduction to SPECTRE and its leader, Blofeld.

After a NATO bomber armed with two nuclear warheads vanishes, the world is soon held for ransom by the evil organization SPECTRE. James Bond is assigned to Nassau and works with his old friend Felix Leiter as they find themselves on the trail of the missing bombs.

A very entertaining book and ranks pretty highly among From Russia With Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

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Summary: An Interesting Novel
Review: THUNDERBALL is a very interesting Ian Fleming James Bond novel. I found the first two thirds of the novel very well written. The final third of the novel seems to lose all its steam and sinks into literary mediocrity and that's what really interests me. The first third of this novel contains some of the best prose that Fleming ever put on paper. It is rich in detail and thoroughly engrossing. It is a true delight to read and savor. As the novel enters the second the third it still remains engrossing but seems to lack some of Fleming's usual drive and coherency. The final third falls below what could even be considered commonplaceness for Fleming. Fleming seems to have just given up on this project at some point and just finished it out to get it into publication. Yet THUNDERBALL remains one of my favorite Fleming novels. The first third truly is brilliant and I enjoy reading it and examining at what point Fleming became disinterested.