Thunderball - Ian Fleming

As regular readers of this blog know, I am currently reading my way through Ian Fleming's James Bond books. A few days ago, I finished Thunderball.

The copyright page of the book explains that the book is based on a film treatment written by Fleming and a couple of others. This was not a good start to the reading because it gave me the impression that the novel is a kind of hand me down story. Well, it may have been, but it was a good one nonetheless.

Thunderball does suffer a little from being written for the big screen. All of a sudden we learn that SMERSH has been dismantled (by Krushchev) and M's secretary, Miss Moneypenny, gets the scene that used to go to Bond's own secretary, Miss Ponsonby. There's nothing wrong with either, but the abrupt manner in which both occurred was disappointing. (NB: Did you know that SMERSH was a real life organisation but that it was actually closed down after the end of the Second World War?).

The story is most notable for the introduction of Bond's arch-enemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of the criminal super-organisation, SPECTRE. (Here is another in parenthesis fact, Blofeld was named after Tom Blofeld, a friend of Fleming's. Tom Blofeld was the father of cricket commentator, Henry Blofeld). SPECTRE has carried out various acts of extortion and terrorism, but its latest job - also meant as its last - is the big one: the theft of two British nuclear bombs (the thunderballs of the title) and holding of the West to ransom.

The search for the bombs begins and it is concentrated in the big cities one or two of which Blofeld has threatened to destroy in a few days if his ransom is not paid. Yet, that is not where Bond goes. M has a hunch that they might be found in the Bahamas and sends Bond to check out his theory for him. Bond is not too happy about this for as far as he is concerned, he is being sent to nowhere while the action unfolds elsewhere. Another person who is displeased is Felix Leiter, who has come to help him.

Of course, M's hunch turns out to be correct and so the race is on to capture the bombs before they can be sent to their final destination. This race - underwater - is the dramatic finale to the book.

Bond's girl in Thunderball is Italian Dominetta 'Domino' Vitali. She is not a wholly memorable character being very similar in temperament to the likes of Honeychile Rider and Tiffany Case. Her entrance, though, is dramatic, at the wheel of a very fast car. Otherwise, I think I might most remember her as the girl who Bond made love to before telling her that her beloved brother had been killed. Cruel but very like Bond.

Leiter is, however, great. Fleming does well to make him work even though he lacks various limbs. Blofeld is a suitably menacing villain (the way he deals with dissent in the boardroom is beautifully nasty) but the bad end is kept up by the unemotional powerhouse that is Emilio Largo. He is not unlike Red Donovan in his character but is well served by both his character and the story.

The best scene in the book is right at the end. Largo is dead, the bombs have been found. Bond is in hospital recovering from his injuries. Despite being too ill to move, he staggers into Domino's room to check on her. Having done so, he then collapses in her arms. It is a wonderfully gentle and vulnerable moment.