Every October 5th, millions of people around the world mix up a martini, throw on a bowtie, or practice some deplorable puns in a Scottish accent, all while spinning some John Barry records. For diehard fans of precisely made drinks and glamorous action adventure, Global James Bond Day is celebrated every year on October 5th, because in 1962, that’s the day the very first Eon Productions James Bond film, Dr. No, hit theaters. But, while Dr. No was the first “official” James Bond movie in 1962, the phenomenon of Bond was already nearly a decade old by that point. The beginning of Agent 007’s career didn’t start with films but with books.
While the James Bond films are immortal and popular in the extreme, the true beginning of Bond wasn’t October 5th, but arguably, April 13, 1953, the moment the publisher Johnathan Cape released Ian Fleming’s first 007 novel, Casino Royale into the world. After that moment, Ian Fleming wrote, on average, one book every year, until his death in 1964, just after the release of the film version of Goldfinger. But, just as Fleming’s death didn’t prevent the film franchise from continuing into a bewitching global phenomenon, James Bond books didn’t stop with his death, either.
For many mystery and thriller lovers, James Bond novels — written by Fleming or not — are sometimes written off the way armchair music critics dismiss Ringo Starr’s drumming; competent but nothing special. And yet, nothing could be further from the truth. The literary world of James Bond is richer and more complex than any of the twenty-five official films. To prove it, here are 007 books in the James Bond canon, that are all way better than any of the films.
When a rocket-obsessed mogul promises to protect Britain with a nuclear missile deterrent called “Moonraker,” Bond’s boss, M gets worried because he happens to know that this 1950s tech bro, Hugo Drax, cheats at cards. Soon Bond is dispatched to the idyllic seaside county of Kent, where Drax is actually building his rockets. This novel pairs Bond with undercover police officer Gala Brand, a Bond heroine who has never been adapted into any of the films.
Bond’s affection for brilliant and competent Brand is one half of what makes this novel tick, the other half is discovering Drax’s true intentions with his rocket. In 1954, The Spectator review read, “It’s all utterly disgraceful and highly enjoyable.” This novel also has an ending line that gives Hemingway a run for his money.
- Carte Blanche (2011) by Jeffery Deaver
An utter reboot of James Bond for the modern age, but no, it’s not Daniel Craig. Written by thriller-king Jeffery Deaver, Carte Blanche, this potboiler puts a harder edge on Bond with one crucial limitation: While undercover in this novel, 007 almost never breaks the law. While ostensibly on a mission to determine if a waste disposal company — Green Way International — is really a cover for terrorist operations, James Bond is utterly reborn as a new, 21st-century character. The title “Carte Blanche” refers to a whiskey drink Bond concocts during the story, but this idea also serves as a clever counterpoint to the reality of his actual life; the more freedom Bond has, the more isolated he becomes.
But, the best bits in the book are almost certainly the subplot, one in which Bond is trying to figure out who killed his parents, and whether or not one of them was actually a spy just like him.
In 2023, with her novel Double or Nothing, Kim Sherwood gave the world a new crop of Double O agents. Set in the present day, Sherwood’s current series barely features James Bond at all, except in a few flashbacks. And, while Double or Nothing set-up this new universe of MI-6 — in which Moneypenny is in charge of the agents and not M — the second book in the series, A Spy Like Me, is probably the best proof of why Sherwood was given this provocative assignment by the Fleming estate to begin with.
Switching between the points of view of three agents, 003 Johanna Hardwood, 004 Joseph Dryden, and 000 Conrad Harthrop-Vane, A Spy Like Me is written in an incendiary present-tense clip, which forces you to think in cinematic terms. But, the literary roots of Sherwood’s universe run deep; this book not only features the return of Japanese spymaster Tiger Tanaka but also James Bond’s father-in-law, Marc-Ange Draco. Does Bond finally appear in this novel? That would be telling.
After the success of his Goldfinger sequel, Trigger Mortis, Anthony Horowitz decided to create a historically accurate origin story for Fleming’s original James Bond. Using techniques similar to his Sherlock Holmes novels, Horowitz mines Fleming’s original text to determine just how and when a slightly younger 007 took on his very first mission.
There’s a lot of hanging around on boats and extremely exquisite meals in this novel, not to mention an utterly despicable villain who you can’t wait for Bond to best. On top of all of this, Horowitz gives us a foil for Bond in the form of a well-connected, mysterious woman named Sixteen. Like many Bond books, the romance novel aspect of this story is nearly as good as the mystery.
- Solo (2013) by William Boyd
The celebrated novelist of such brilliant (and widely different books) as Trio or Any Human Heart, delivers a tender, and smart Bond novel in his one and only 007 novel, Solo. Like Horowitz, Boyd’s novel attempts to fill in the Bond literary chronology, using the Fleming books as the true canon. But, here, Boyd puts Bond in 1969, much later in his career and his life than any of the original novels depicted.
The mission also sends Bond to West Africa for most of the book. Boyd himself lived in Nigeria as a young child, making much of the flavor of Solo utterly personal. The story also has a smart amount of metafiction, as we’re invited to wonder if the literary Bond can possibly stay relevant in the impending 1970s. Boyd doesn’t bother to think of Bond as a film character from the 1960s, but instead, as a man who served in WWII, and became a spy in the 1950s. This movement through time matters and Boyd’s mastery of place and history are both top-notch.
- Colonel Sun (1968) by Kingsley Amis
A close friend of Ian Fleming, legendary author Kingsley Amis wrote the very first Bond continuation novel under the nom de plume “Robert Markham.” Amis attempted to emulate Fleming’s fast-paced, sometimes clipped style, but couldn’t help adding in his own ideas. Decades before the films The World is Not Enough and Skyfall would find Bond trying to protect M from kidnapping (or worse) the essential plot of Colonel Sun is all about Bond going on a rescue mission to find his boss.
The tagline, “This time, it’s personal,” isn’t mentioned on the jacket copy for the original book, but it very well could have been. The states in this book reflect some of Fleming’s best Bond musings, beginning with a revealing golf game between Bond and longtime office buddy Bill Tanner, in which Bond utterly reveals he’s having second thoughts about the job. This kind of thing — in which Bond considers quitting the secret service gig — is more common in the original novels than you might think. But with this book, Amis incorporates that angst into the story in a legitimate and huge way.
If you’ve never read a Bond novel, nearly every one of Ian Fleming’s original novels has something in there that will pleasantly surprise you. And for those who think Fleming couldn’t write or was somehow a privileged hack, Thunderball will convince you otherwise. This is the novel where Bond quips “I’m the world’s authority on giving up smoking. I do it constantly.” There’s sarcasm in this one but of an especially crisp variety. The plot, like the movie, is about Bond trying to locate some stolen nuclear weapons, which leads to a lot of swimming and boating in the Bahamas. But, what makes the novel so fascinating is an obsession with personal health. The book begins when M decides Bond has a horrible lifestyle, and sends him to a mandatory dayspa called Shrublands to detox. Bond’s boredom with this place is captured by the immortal non-description of his temporary digs, which Fleming renders with more weird, menacing humor: “It was a room-shaped room with furniture-shaped furniture and dainty curtains.” Fleming could write beautiful passages, but with this line in Thunderball, he lets the readers in on his secret: If you’re bored with your own room-shaped room, Bond is too. The difference is simple: Bond’s trip to the gym will lead to an intricate mystery, but the setting feels grounded.
This, beyond anything that is true of great Bond books, remains the trick: The normal and the commonplace become tickets to adventure, which the reader feels is just around the corner. If only we were looking in the right place.
