Casino Royale- Ian Fleming 1953

Major Characters:
James Bond- Bond is introduced to the reader for the first time. He is a member of MI6's Double-O section, meaning he has a license to kill. He also displays his love of fast cars and women, and his excellent gambling skills.
Le Chiffre- An agent of SMERSH, Le Chiffre is a short, pale, toad-faced man a womanizer and a chain smoker. He spent SMERSH funds and must gamble to win enough money to cover his debt.
Vesper Lynd- Bond's help from Station S, Vesper tis Bond's romantic interest. She is being forced to work for SMERSH, and ultimately kills herself rather than allow harm to come to Bond.
Rene Mathis- Head of the French secret intelligence, the Deuxieme Bureau, Mathis provides help for Bond. (Coopertaion of the Deuxieme Bureau was also necessary, since the operation was taking place in France.)
Felix Leiter- A former regular in the marine corps, the C.I.A. agent is tough but easy-going. He provides financial support for Bond's mission and becomes Bond's friend. They would work together on many subsequent cases.
M.- Head of MI6, M. is a cold but fair man. He has great faith in Bond, though he might not tell him so.

Summary-  In Casino Royale, the reader is introduced to James Bond for the first time. At the beginning of the book, Bond is at the Royale-les-Eaux, an out of the way Casino just noorth of Dieppe in France. Bond must out gamble Le Chiffre, a member of SMERSH.
     Le Chiffre was entrusted with the equivalent of fifty million pounds of SMERSH's money. Le Chiffre blew the money when he invested in a chain of brothels that were shutdown when the French government passed anti-prostitution laws. Now Le Chiffre has to make back fifty million dollars before SMERSH catches up with him. SMERSH is a special division of the Soviet secret services, which gets its name from "Smyert Shpionam" which is Russian for "death to spies". It is SMERSH's job to eliminate spies, including their own, who are considered traitors or threats to the Soviet government. Now SMERSH is going to kill Le Chiffre unless he makes back the money.
     Le Chiffre plans to win back the money at the Royale Casino. The French government gets wind of this, and asks M. for help. M. sends Bond to out gamble Le Chiffre, thus ensuring Le Chiffre's demise. After getting some extra capital from Leiter, Bond ends up bankrupting Le Chiffre, despite an attempt by one of Le Chiffre's men to use a silenced gun hidden in a cane to force Bond to remove his bet. It seems as if the mission is over, but Le Chiffre's men kidnap Vesper Lynd, Bond's temporary partner from Station S (the branch of MI6 specifically interested in Soviet activities.) Bond goes after Vesper, but is caught himself and tortured by Le Chiffre. Just as Bond is about to crack, SMERSH shows up and kills Le Chiffre, freeing Bond in the process.
     Bond wakes up in a hospital and meets up with Vesper, who helps Bond through his healing process. The two seem to be falling in love, but things go awry. Vesper is really a double agent for the Soviet's, and she kills herself rather than let anything happen to Bond. The novel ends with Bond vowing to hunt down SMERSH.

My Grade-  A   The Bond of Fleming's novels is very different than the Bond from the movies. I still like the Bond from the movies, but the Bond from the novels is very compelling. The reader can see aspects of Bond that the movie seldom shows. Bond has to put up with the crap of everyday life. Bond gets scared. At one point when he is nearly killed he almost vomits. He considers resigning when he gets hung up on the philosophy of good and evil. He has to accept the fact that at one point he is powerless to get away from Le Chiffre. He has women (or rather woman) trouble. One might think that this makes Bond less of a man, but we see that Bond survives it all, and does it with confidence and style. To quote Timothy Dalton "[James Bond] isn't a superman, he's a man, and in many ways a tarnished man...you can identify with a man."

Best Moment-  One probably wouldn't expect a card game to be the definitive point of a novel, but the Baccarat game between Bond and Le Chiffre is very compelling. The descriptions of the shoe, the cards, the actions of the croupier are all so vivid and authentic that one feels that as he is reading he is really sitting at that table, hands resting on the green felt, watching the two men gamble over immense stakes. It is wonderful to see these two minds, in some ways very alike and some ways very different, face off in a battle of true wits and luck.

Also Notable-  *The introduction of James Bond is great. One can almost immediately identify with this man, even thought their circumstances are very different.
*When Bond finds out that Vesper is dead and was a double agent, he slowly walks over to the window of his room and "looked out toward the quiet sea, then cursed aloud, one harsh obscenity." This is a classic example of how James Bond is a feeling, caring man, but is also loyal to MI6, and must not allow his feelings to get the better of him.

Quotable-
"He thinks you are a prodigy, and so do I." Mathis to Bond
"But don't let me down and become human yourself. We would lose such a wonderful machine." Mathis to Bond