ospalh reviewed From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming
Review of 'From Russia with Love' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
With this being the KGB¹ vs. MI6, the Soviet’s plan made much more sense than Spectre’s in the film.
It also gets explained better, with the villan doing the villan thing of explaining everything before just killing the boy², to wit: “‘Old man, the story’s got everything. Orient Express. Beautiful Russian spy murdered in Simplon tunnel. Filthy pictures. Secret cipher machine. Handsome British spy with career ruined murders her and commits suicide. Sex, spies, luxury train, Mr. and Mrs. Somerset … ! Old man, it’ll run for months!’”.
The sexism is really bad, tho. And i mean, to a large extend, the writing stile. It’s always Bond did this, Bond did that, and then the girl this, the girl that, never Romanova this Romanova that. Other kinds of bigotry, too, obviously.
Anyway, i liked the bit with the Spektor. Not only is it, obviously not the real thing, but booby-trapped. …
With this being the KGB¹ vs. MI6, the Soviet’s plan made much more sense than Spectre’s in the film.
It also gets explained better, with the villan doing the villan thing of explaining everything before just killing the boy², to wit: “‘Old man, the story’s got everything. Orient Express. Beautiful Russian spy murdered in Simplon tunnel. Filthy pictures. Secret cipher machine. Handsome British spy with career ruined murders her and commits suicide. Sex, spies, luxury train, Mr. and Mrs. Somerset … ! Old man, it’ll run for months!’”.
The sexism is really bad, tho. And i mean, to a large extend, the writing stile. It’s always Bond did this, Bond did that, and then the girl this, the girl that, never Romanova this Romanova that. Other kinds of bigotry, too, obviously.
Anyway, i liked the bit with the Spektor. Not only is it, obviously not the real thing, but booby-trapped. Literally full of explosives.
¹calld SmerSh and MGB, because Fleming wasn’t up to date
²When he calls Comrade Romanova “the girl”, i’l call Bond “the boy”.