Maherj1,
While I understand your point, I don't agree it is Fleming's main weakness. There are plenty of others. jetsetwilly has pointed out the lack of really credible females and there are usually at least two big plot holes in every book. But since you mention the villains, and I did read all the novels recently back to back, I think it is worth remembering that the explanation of the villain's plan is not just a device to explain what is happening (a lot of the time we know already) it is Fleming's device to explain WHY the villain is how he is, what makes his mind tick and motivates his lusts.
In that respect, he is almost trying to perform a minor psychoanalyisis.
Most of the bad guys are not even on the pages for very long.
The ones who are are often the least interesting.
In my summary, I suggested only 3 villains were great examples, GF, DN and the 4 baddies in FRWL.
To explain:
FRWL features General G, Kronsteen, Klebb and Grant. All these are introduced individually and given a credible back story and a believable persona. They feel like real characters, and are cold and calculating, unlike the genial Kerim, the seductive Tatiana and the conservative M & 007. The contrats are what makes them such a success.
DN meanwhile is only in the novel for 3 chapters and during this time Fleming explains how a clearly deranged mind has come to abandon the world. Like Stromberg in the films, he despises real life and has chosen to examin it. He's a little like a Nazi scientist experimenting on Jews and Romas. The toppling of missiles is a mere afterthought. He is also spectacularly memorable with his movements like a giant venomous worm and his eyes like revolver barrels.
GF is the most genial of the lot; he owes much to Fleming's earlier creation Drax, and its his vanity and greed that ultimately (3 times in fact) is his undoing with Bond. GF, even more so than Drax, is Fleming's attack on New Money, on the Nouveau Riche who were beginning to take over the establishments he held so dear. That GF has Bond's measure early on does not prevent him from keeping him alive. He recognises that it is better to have your enemies closer. Bond's foiling of the Fort Knox robbery is highly fortuitous.
Of the other bad guys, I agree not all are a success, Drax, the Spangs, Largo and Scaramanga are all under developed. They come across as spoilt children or bullies and they don't cut the mustard.
In CR, Le Chiffre, as his name suggests, says very little and does less. His torture of Bond is the novel's highlight, but Fleming isn't so interested in Le Chiffre's story as he is in Bond's pain.
Equally, while Mr Big appears early in LALD, and his shadow hangs over the novel, he poses a demonic threat rather than an overtly physical one. Unlike the other bad guys, Mr Big doesn't ever really explain himself, perhaps because he doesn't feel he has to. Interestingly, these two villains (and the later Scaramanga) are all revealed to us via M's dossiers. A rather obtuse way of developing your adversary.
Blofeld is also an slightly underwritten character, but not without his strengths. Fleming is regurgetating ideas here. In TB Blofeld is the General G of SPECTRE, while in OHMSS and YOLT he is a pseudo-DrNo, choosing to hide himself away. By YOLT he has become obsessed with watching people die. That in itself is macarbe and horrific; very Edgar Allen Poe I thought.
Well, I don't know if that clears anything up, or muddies the water more. I juat wanted to add my several tuppences to the table of debate.
