I've Read "Thunderball".
Colonel Shatner
Chavtastic Bristol, BritainPosts: 574MI6 Agent
I've finally gotten round to reading to reading Thunderball, the nuclear warhead caper that nearly sank the Bond movie franchise and helped push an already unhealthy Fleming into a comparatively early grave. 
It features the world threatening crime syndicate SPECTRE as the principle antagonists, although unlike in the Connery movies they're a relatively more grounded group of criminals and spies who came in from other intelligence/crime organizations, their global headquarters more like a law firm instead of a hollowed out volcano.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld is quite different to the several movie Blofeld's and in my mind the literary Blofeld resembles UK actor Alfred Molina, with no bald head and no Persian cat, perhaps a mildly cultivated and intelligent thug along the lines of Josef Stalin or Martin Bormann.
As with Dr. No more of Fleming's childish racism and misogyny shines through like a lighthouse (with charming lines like "Negro pride" and "Italian superstition"), although not quite as brightly. The villain's plan is just like in the movie, although it is insinuated SPECTRE's goal was never world domination with the theft of the RAF warhead being a final heist that would make SPECTRE's members for life. Largo seems more impressive in the book than he was in the movie.
Then we are introduced to Felix and the CIA, with a US Navy nuclear submarine (the USS Manta) being the cavalry, although I'm puzzled why the Manta's crew were not armed with harpoon guns like their SPECTRE opposition from the Disco (Largo's boat was also more eloquent in the book to what we got on screen).
And Kevin McClory, despite his genuinely sad fate, was a prat.
It features the world threatening crime syndicate SPECTRE as the principle antagonists, although unlike in the Connery movies they're a relatively more grounded group of criminals and spies who came in from other intelligence/crime organizations, their global headquarters more like a law firm instead of a hollowed out volcano.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld is quite different to the several movie Blofeld's and in my mind the literary Blofeld resembles UK actor Alfred Molina, with no bald head and no Persian cat, perhaps a mildly cultivated and intelligent thug along the lines of Josef Stalin or Martin Bormann.
As with Dr. No more of Fleming's childish racism and misogyny shines through like a lighthouse (with charming lines like "Negro pride" and "Italian superstition"), although not quite as brightly. The villain's plan is just like in the movie, although it is insinuated SPECTRE's goal was never world domination with the theft of the RAF warhead being a final heist that would make SPECTRE's members for life. Largo seems more impressive in the book than he was in the movie.
Then we are introduced to Felix and the CIA, with a US Navy nuclear submarine (the USS Manta) being the cavalry, although I'm puzzled why the Manta's crew were not armed with harpoon guns like their SPECTRE opposition from the Disco (Largo's boat was also more eloquent in the book to what we got on screen).
And Kevin McClory, despite his genuinely sad fate, was a prat.
'Alright guard, begin the unnecessarily slow moving dipping mechanism...'
Comments
That's the genius of the novels. You really feel like SPECTRE is a shadow orginization compromised of very real criminal and spy syndicates, like the mafia and SMERSH. Technically, this is SPECTRE's only appearance, at least in full form.
Yeah, Blofeld is alot less flamboyant in this novel. I always envision Orson Welles with a crew cut. He slowlly becomes more bizarre in his next two appearances.
I am not going to get to much into this because it's a very touchy subject. I don't think Fleming was racist, he just had his POV of people and places. Some his social commentary can be quite provocative, like in Goldfinger when he said that men and woman were becoming increasingly confused about their sexualities. I also remember him making a few cracks at the British as well, mostly about their weak position in world power.
Same here. Largo had an impressive physique here.
I disagree I think You Only Live Twice sank the Bond movie franchise not Thunderball the whole thing just went south when director Terence Young left the franchise.
"I admire your luck, Mister?..." "Bond, James Bond."
It is a pivotal novel though as the action influences most of the remaining Bond novels with the exception of The Man with the Golden Gun. One could argue that the entire series of novels took a major turn with Thunderball .
Bond’s Beretta
The Handguns of Ian Fleming's James Bond
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I think the spy film bust is also the culprit. People just got sick of spy films by the late 60's hence the camp direction the series took during the 70's.
I don't think You Only Live Twice movie sunk the franchise per se, it was iconic hokum, but it marked a turning point for the franchise and not necessarily for the better. However Mike Myers heavily took the p*ss out of Goldfinger as well.
I don't blame Thunderball as a book or movie, I'm talking more about the incessant and unnecessary legal battle that flared up behind the scenes.
I feel that the GOLDFINGER movie improves on the first half of the book, everything before Bond's capture in Geneva, but fails in the secound half. Still, it's my favorite Bond film.
however as I recall, TB is something of a crossroads for Fleming. He did all that pre-novel work trying to concoct a screenplay with McClory and although I think he sees the potential in the idea, he doesn't really know where to go with it.
The action was rather slow and he seems to be borrowing ideas from his previous books.
The machinations of the plot creak badly:
M has a bizarre hunch about the missing plane and sends 007 to the Bahamas with zero intel.
Bond spends a few hours searching for anyone "odd" who has recently arrived in Nassau and hears about a group of "treasure hunters"
That's lame even by Fleming's standards.
Meanwhile the lost warhead idea is very good and still holds up well today.
I'll fill in the rest of the details when I finish reading and reviewing later this month
The story for Thunderball was well set out, the treasure hunting cover up was not the best thing for a spy novel, but it was only a fake cover up. Through out the whole story, Bond makes points on how good it works.
"You see Mr Bond. You can't kill my dreams. But my dreams can kill you!"
"Time to face destiny."
-Gaustav Graves in Die Another Day-