A Review of Ian Fleming’s Thunderball
HUNGOVER AND OUT OF CONDITION
When Thunderball opens, James Bond is hungover and seriously out of condition. His body and health creak under the strain of sixty cigarettes and half a bottle of hard spirits a day. It’s a good start to the ninth book in the series because Bond is vulnerable and human. Even better is his irritation at M’s insistence that he takes himself off to a new-age, homeopathic health spa.
While there, he finds himself stretched almost to breaking point because Count Lippe, a member of a criminal organisation, dials up the setting on his orthopaedic rack. To get revenge, Bond locks Lippe inside a sauna machine and leaves him to fry.
Back in London, Bond feels healthier than he has in years. His concentration is much improved and he orders his housekeeper May to prepare healthy meals. That doesn’t last long. He soon asks for four fried eggs and four rashers of bacon for breakfast. “Plenty of time to watch the calories when one goes to heaven,” he tells her.
SPECTRE’S DASTARDLY PLOT
When Bond leaves the spa, M gives him a mission. A criminal organisation called SPECTRE has stolen two nuclear weapons and is blackmailing the USA and UK to to prevent the bombs from being detonated. Every secret agent in both countries is working to stop it from happening. To his disgust, Bond is sent to the backwater Bahamas to find out what he can while everyone else is doing the real work in more realistic locations. As always, Fleming depicts the setting well, no doubt because of his personal experience.
There, he teams up with his old, shark-mauled friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter. He finds out about a mysterious treasure hunter called Emilio Largo, who is working for SPECTRE. Largo is on a yacht, and has hidden the two bombs underwater. Recruiting Largo’s sort-of girlfriend Domino Vitali to help, Bond and Leiter set out to foil Largo’s plan
This long set-up leads to an inevitable gambling scene between Bond and Largo and some thrilling underwater battle sequences.
SOMETHING OF A ROMANTIC
Of course, Bond makes love to Domino. He’s really quite taken with her, especially her slight limp, which he finds endearing. One thing that has surprised me throughout the novels is that Bond is by no means the womaniser depicted in the films. Certainly, he is confident and assured around women, but he is also something of a romantic and seems to leave a little piece of his heart with each “Bond girl” he meets. That said, he doesn’t seem unduly concerned about putting Domino’s life in danger during the climax. Not that he needs to be. Domino turns out to be one of the most kickass of all the women he’s met on his missions.
STILL SEXIST, MR BOND?
Perhaps because Fleming himself liked and respected the character he had created in Domino, his sexism, while still apparent (particularly in Bond’s views on women drivers) was dialled down. Indeed, Felix Leiter says at one point, “I’ll never call a girl “frail” again – not an Italian girl, anyway.”
The worst sexism came when one of the villains reflected on how to seduce a woman (basically, drive fast).
THE PUPPETEERS
Thunderball is enriched by two authority figures on opposite ends of the – ahem – SPECTRE(M): M, with his sudden health fad, and Blofeld, SPECTRE’s ruthless, shadowy leader. Neither Bond nor M know who Blofeld is (yet), but the reader is left under the impression that this is not the last we’ve heard of him.
FINAL VERDICT
I enjoyed Thunderball. The tropical setting is evocatively described, but so is the spa at the beginning. The glimpses of Bond the human are very well done, and there is a general sense, especially at the start, that he’s starting to get too old for this s*£%. The action was well-written and pacy, and Bond’s relationship with Felix is always entertaining.
Rating: 80%
IF YOU LIKE THIS…
If you enjoy stories set in exotic locations, you might like my short story Life in Shadows—a romantic tale of secrets and second chances set in a luxury Bangkok hotel. It’s available now on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.
Or if travel fiction and suspense is more your thing, check out my novel Do Not Keep Silent (set in Hong Kong).
EXCLUSIVE: If you prefer gritty crime in locations closer to home, read this teaser for No Way To Live, out this September.
Leave a Reply