Well, I didn’t expect to be here this week! I was getting ready to do a review of a few Poul Anderson stories, when I sat down and cracked open Casino Royale. Now, I was a little underwhelmed by Diamonds Are Forever a few weeks ago, and Casino Royale was one of a few suggestions I got from comments, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
But I was actually shocked by how good this book was.
First off, I may as well mention that this book is the first Bond novel, from 1953. It’s another relatively short book, a little over 200 pages.
However, compared to Diamonds, this one is way more eloquently written. It makes me wonder if, when Fleming was writing Diamonds, whether his editors told him to dumb it down so this one could sell in America. In Diamonds, Fleming did a good job with a limited vocabulary, but Casino Royale is very well-written, and uses a wide vocabulary, including a lot of foreign words.
Once again, I was expecting more bombastic action scenes, but in fact I got the opposite, and was still happy. Casino Royale is a masterful slow burn, starting you off at the lowest possible tension and ratcheting it up continually throughout the book. It’s slower than Diamonds but the tension makes up for it. The tension was so high by the middle of the book that I found myself having to close the book at chapter ends and walk around a bit.
In Diamonds, I said that Bond seemed like a very malleable character, flitting between different tones and mindsets with very little warning. However, in Casino Royale, he’s not exactly and open book but we get a good look into his thoughts and reasoning. The tone is solid, and when something changes, it’s usually very well-justified. He has a more conventional arc in this book, and his character changes are pretty well-explained, too.
The other characters are also stronger than in Diamonds, with more realistic behavior and more seeming to be bubbling under the surface. Vesper Lynd is more complex than Tiffany Case, and both she and Bond have to struggle with their desires to do their jobs and to deal with their growing relationship.
We also get a first look at Felix Leiter, who is far more serious in this book, and doesn’t act in ways that would absolutely break his and Bond’s cover. Mathis, a liaison from the French Secret Service, is a little less complex but still fun, with a great little introduction scene where he shows Bond his sense of humor.
There are two major action scenes, one near the beginning of the book, and one near the end, and in both I was impressed by the nuances of the situations and how Fleming handled them. Both action scenes are quite effective.
The most important part of the book isn’t even an action scene; it’s a tense and cutthroat duel between Bond and Le Chiffre, the villain, at Baccarat. This isn’t American-style Baccarat, where the gambler bets on either the Player or the Banker and the casino plays the game; it’s a different style where Bond is the Player and Le Chiffre is the Banker, somewhere between American-style Baccarat and Blackjack. Fleming dedicates a chunk of the book to explaining the rules and the basics of strategy, and he does a good job of making the game and its stakes make sense.
The plot involves Bond trying to bleed Le Chiffre dry so that the French authorities can deal with him. It’s a relatively small-scale operation that actually feels like something a Secret Service organization could expect a lone agent to do. The story develops believably, except for the slight bit of main character syndrome that affects both Bond and Le Chiffre: both expect to win at the Casino Royale, on net.
The ending is a beautiful and shocking double twist, in which one is hinted and the other hit me like a ton of bricks.
In short, while I was unsure what to say about Diamonds Are Forever, I can wholeheartedly recommend Casino Royale to anyone who likes tense, slow-burning spy stories. Since it’s the first book in the series, it’s also a perfect place to jump into reading Bond books. I’m no longer surprised that the series has the popularity it’s gained, and I can totally see demand for a sequel.
As always, check the video for the Spoiler Section from 21:21 through 37:35. If you want to avoid spoilers, jump over that chunk.
If you want to read the book yourself, you can grab a copy here or wherever you like to pick up your books.
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