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Available
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Genres
Publication
Pan, pp234
Description
Fiction. Suspense. HTML: Ernst Stavro Blofeld, leader of the terrorist organization SPECTRE, has hijacked an American plane loaded with atomic weapons. Unless his demands are met, he will destroy one of the world's major cities. With only one week to locate the missing bombs, James Bond goes to the Bahamas, where he encounters Blofeld's right-hand man, Emilio Largo, and his mistress, Domino. With time running out, Bond learns that sharks are not the only killers in the Caribbean Sea. This audiobook includes an exclusive bonus interview with Jason Isaacs..
User reviews
LibraryThing member Stevil2001
Like a lot of Bond novels, this one has a somewhat daffy pre-adventure. You know the films always start with him, like, skiing to recover tapes in Antarctica, or rappelling down dams? Thunderball begins with M sending Bond to do a cleanse at a health clinic. It's connected to the main plot of the
The actual plot is one of Fleming's best, I reckon. It's interesting how different the kind of things book Bond does are to what film Bond does. Book Bond is an investigator, a man who works subtly and slowly. The world is being blackmailed by stolen nuclear warheads, and still Bond has to check out a potential suspect slowly and subtly, verifying his suspicions by posing as a would-be property buyer before calling in the big guns. But Fleming excels at this kind of detail work; it plays to his strength as a writer, which is to use minutiae to be utterly convincing. This is the reason SPECTRE (finally introduced in this book, though Bond doesn't meet Blofeld, or even know he exists) works; their operations are depicted with such thought and precision that they seem plausible even in their absurdity.
As always, Bond is kind of obnoxious. There's a bit where he and Felix complain about overpriced food and watered-down drinks and they're total snobs. There's another bit where Bond ruminates on what makes female drivers so bad. But that leads into the fact that this female driver drives like a man, and Fleming is so good at this kind of thing that you instantly understand how sexy that makes her. Just from the way she drives a car, and short but meticulous description of her outfit, and Fleming reels you in.
If you think about it, not a lot actually happens, but it happens carefully and suspensefully (as always the fight scenes are physical and engrossing (this one has a particularly good final showdown) and the gambling scenes put you on the edge of your seat, and that's the hallmark of an excellent James Bond novel.
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book by the thinnest of threads, a thread so thin Bond even calls it out as being a ridiculous coincidence from a poorly written thriller! Still there are some good jokes; Bond suddenly has a comedy Scottish housekeeper I don't remember from previous books, but she's a delight. Bond, it turns out, despises tea ("that flat, soft, time-wasting opium of the masses") and desires spaghetti bolognese more than any other food.The actual plot is one of Fleming's best, I reckon. It's interesting how different the kind of things book Bond does are to what film Bond does. Book Bond is an investigator, a man who works subtly and slowly. The world is being blackmailed by stolen nuclear warheads, and still Bond has to check out a potential suspect slowly and subtly, verifying his suspicions by posing as a would-be property buyer before calling in the big guns. But Fleming excels at this kind of detail work; it plays to his strength as a writer, which is to use minutiae to be utterly convincing. This is the reason SPECTRE (finally introduced in this book, though Bond doesn't meet Blofeld, or even know he exists) works; their operations are depicted with such thought and precision that they seem plausible even in their absurdity.
As always, Bond is kind of obnoxious. There's a bit where he and Felix complain about overpriced food and watered-down drinks and they're total snobs. There's another bit where Bond ruminates on what makes female drivers so bad. But that leads into the fact that this female driver drives like a man, and Fleming is so good at this kind of thing that you instantly understand how sexy that makes her. Just from the way she drives a car, and short but meticulous description of her outfit, and Fleming reels you in.
If you think about it, not a lot actually happens, but it happens carefully and suspensefully (as always the fight scenes are physical and engrossing (this one has a particularly good final showdown) and the gambling scenes put you on the edge of your seat, and that's the hallmark of an excellent James Bond novel.
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LibraryThing member Bridgey
Thunderball - Ian Fleming ****
Ian Fleming's 9th Bond novel, and interestingly the one that I feel the film scriptwriters altered the least for big screen.
What starts as an order to attend a health farm by M, soon escalates into the search for missing atomic bombs and a ransom for $100,000,000. We
As usual for a Bond book it contains plenty of action, beautiful women and a cleverly written plot. But for me, and it seems as if I am alone in this, it just didn't live up the previous novels (with the exception of Casino Royale which I didn't like). There just wasn't enough Bond in the book and too much time going into other characters backgrounds, especially those that would be killed of in as many pages as it took to introduce them. I did enjoy the book and Blofeld is an amazingly written baddy, even if most of the coverage is given to Largo.
All in all not a bad weapon the Bond arsenal, just not the best.
Ian Fleming's 9th Bond novel, and interestingly the one that I feel the film scriptwriters altered the least for big screen.
What starts as an order to attend a health farm by M, soon escalates into the search for missing atomic bombs and a ransom for $100,000,000. We
Show More
are introduced to the mastermind Ernst Stavros Blofeld and the terrorist group SPECTRE..As usual for a Bond book it contains plenty of action, beautiful women and a cleverly written plot. But for me, and it seems as if I am alone in this, it just didn't live up the previous novels (with the exception of Casino Royale which I didn't like). There just wasn't enough Bond in the book and too much time going into other characters backgrounds, especially those that would be killed of in as many pages as it took to introduce them. I did enjoy the book and Blofeld is an amazingly written baddy, even if most of the coverage is given to Largo.
All in all not a bad weapon the Bond arsenal, just not the best.
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LibraryThing member Tanya-dogearedcopy
James Bond, 007, spy in Her Majesty's Secret Service, is sent into the Bahamas to vet M.'s hunch that the island area is the site where a military aircraft and it's cargo of two nuclear missiles has disappeared to. Thunderball introduces listenership to S.P.E.C.T.R.E. (Special Executive for Counter
Ian Fleming wrote contemporary novels which reflected the values and fears of Post-War men and women. After two atomic weapons had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Atomic Age was ushered in with all it's possibilities and terrors. The promise of atomic energy was that it would be the driving force behind the manifest industrialism of the Western world; but security concerns and the threat of Communism were equally prevalent. While many view Bond's adventures as fantastic, Thunderball is less so in creating a scenario that even today is not impossible: a NATO plane is high jacked and a terrorist organization seeks to blackmail the Western world with the threat of detonating the bombs unless its demands are met.
Thunderball is the ninth title in the James Bond series and if you've read the preceding eight titles, there are certain things you may find familiar and welcome: the casino card games, the setting in the Caribbean Community, the underwater tableaux and, of course a Bond Girl. What's great about Bond novels though, is that despite these recognizable features, you still don't know what to expect! Instead of being formulaic in his plotting, Fleming uses the familiar as metaphorical touchstones in unfamiliar territory.
Inasmuch as Fleming write of his times, listeners may rise an eyebrow at certain expressions that have fallen out of favor or meant something completely different in 1961 than they do now. To wit, there are frequent references to "nigger heads" which is a term that was used to describe certain kinds of coral and; there is a chapter called "How to Eat a Woman" which is not the sexually explicit reference in the context provided!
Simon Vance is the British narrator for Thunderball and voices the multi-national raft of characters with astuteness, making discernment of the characters easy. If some accents are more challenging for Vance, such as American or the Island Patois, after eight Bond novels he has definitely settled into a comfort zone that accommodates and ameliorates those challenges. It's also worth noting that Fleming didn't throw a figurative curve ball in characters in Thunderball either: no white Anglo colonial daughter raised by a Jamaican nanny (cf. Doctor No)!
Redacted from the original blog review at dog eared copy, Thunderball; 04/19/2012
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Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion), the successor organization to SMERSH in the Bond canon; to Blofeld, the mastermind behind the criminal organization and, to Bond Girl, Dominette "Domino" Vitali.Ian Fleming wrote contemporary novels which reflected the values and fears of Post-War men and women. After two atomic weapons had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Atomic Age was ushered in with all it's possibilities and terrors. The promise of atomic energy was that it would be the driving force behind the manifest industrialism of the Western world; but security concerns and the threat of Communism were equally prevalent. While many view Bond's adventures as fantastic, Thunderball is less so in creating a scenario that even today is not impossible: a NATO plane is high jacked and a terrorist organization seeks to blackmail the Western world with the threat of detonating the bombs unless its demands are met.
Thunderball is the ninth title in the James Bond series and if you've read the preceding eight titles, there are certain things you may find familiar and welcome: the casino card games, the setting in the Caribbean Community, the underwater tableaux and, of course a Bond Girl. What's great about Bond novels though, is that despite these recognizable features, you still don't know what to expect! Instead of being formulaic in his plotting, Fleming uses the familiar as metaphorical touchstones in unfamiliar territory.
Inasmuch as Fleming write of his times, listeners may rise an eyebrow at certain expressions that have fallen out of favor or meant something completely different in 1961 than they do now. To wit, there are frequent references to "nigger heads" which is a term that was used to describe certain kinds of coral and; there is a chapter called "How to Eat a Woman" which is not the sexually explicit reference in the context provided!
Simon Vance is the British narrator for Thunderball and voices the multi-national raft of characters with astuteness, making discernment of the characters easy. If some accents are more challenging for Vance, such as American or the Island Patois, after eight Bond novels he has definitely settled into a comfort zone that accommodates and ameliorates those challenges. It's also worth noting that Fleming didn't throw a figurative curve ball in characters in Thunderball either: no white Anglo colonial daughter raised by a Jamaican nanny (cf. Doctor No)!
Redacted from the original blog review at dog eared copy, Thunderball; 04/19/2012
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LibraryThing member bardsfingertips
This was a fun, overtly British suspense novel; and just happens to be my first James Bond novel. If it weren't for the last film starring Daniel Craig, my perception of Bond would have been challenged. He is moody, sexist, cruel, childish, and human. He is not a flat persona as he has appeared in
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the movies, and that in of itself makes it all the more interesting. Show Less
LibraryThing member drneutron
One of my favorite Bond books. SPECTRE, Blofeld, stolen atomic weapons...classic Bond!
LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
Hmmm. James Bond is one of the finest creations in the history of the spy genre. Everybody knows his name - he's probably as famous as Coca Cola (though I have tendency to exaggerate). Thunderball, one of his most famous adventures, was made twice, once officially, and once in an unofficial kind of
So, what about the book? Well, imagine that Bond the phenomenon never happened. Imagine that, really, he was a bit of a simpleton, who had good hunches but didn't really act on them without permission from at least one other person, and that generally he was just an average joe.
Okay, I can hear you say, so what? So Fleming wanted to show us his hero in a new light? Well, not really. The plot, too, starts off interesting, when we get to it - the opening chapters at an English health spa are painful - but suddenly goes stupid. Blofeld's introduction is marvellous, and the highlight of the book, but to think that a group of mercenary terrorists, having stolen two nukes, would use a treasure hunt in the Bahamas as a cover is pretty silly, and the denouement just weak.
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rip-off film that resurrected Sean Connery as Bond when it really shouldn't have.So, what about the book? Well, imagine that Bond the phenomenon never happened. Imagine that, really, he was a bit of a simpleton, who had good hunches but didn't really act on them without permission from at least one other person, and that generally he was just an average joe.
Okay, I can hear you say, so what? So Fleming wanted to show us his hero in a new light? Well, not really. The plot, too, starts off interesting, when we get to it - the opening chapters at an English health spa are painful - but suddenly goes stupid. Blofeld's introduction is marvellous, and the highlight of the book, but to think that a group of mercenary terrorists, having stolen two nukes, would use a treasure hunt in the Bahamas as a cover is pretty silly, and the denouement just weak.
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LibraryThing member marek2009
A long Bond novel, & though nothing much happens for a longish period the mood is kept tense & the climax is a classic set piece that fits perfectly.
LibraryThing member tyroeternal
Thunderball got off to an excellent start on the whole. The world is in danger, M has a hunch, Bond is off to save the world. In this novel Bond is not as clever or as interesting as many of the others. The storyline flows from piece to piece with little surprise or excitement and does seem to draw
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out a bit longer than needed. At the end of the story I found myself impatiently waiting for the telling of the tale to catch up to the ending I already knew would arrive. Show Less
LibraryThing member elliepotten
The ninth of the classic James Bond novels, I was looking forward to this one after being completely gripped by 'Moonraker' and 'Live and Let Die' when I read them a few years ago. This one... wasn't so good. It was interesting and detailed, and it had a well thought-out plot and some well-timed
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humour. It had all the utter chauvinism one expects of 007, all simpering secretaries and bourbon-swigging machismo - which is sort of part of the charm of these old stories. But 'Thunderball' just lacked the building suspense, the deadly peril, and the nerve-wracking finale of the other Bond stories I've read - all the things that really set the books apart from the cheesy action of the movies - and that really disappointed me. There were a couple of thrilling moments, but nothing to make me sit back and think, 'wow'. I'll still be reading more of 007's adventures, but I won't be hanging onto this one to read again. Show Less
LibraryThing member polarbear123
Back to a normal full length Bond story here Fleming is on fine form. The story rattles along at a good old pace, but how much does Bond actually do in this adventure? Not a lot really I think. There is also a tendency for Fleming to dwell on some technological or mundane aspect a little too long
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for my liking at times. Even so I couldn't really put this book down until the end...... Show Less
LibraryThing member cwflatt
Never finished it. The movies are better than the books in my opinion.
LibraryThing member TheMadTurtle
I listened to this as an audiobook, narrated by Simon Vance. The narration was good. The book was a little slow, though, to be honest. I can see why they took some liberties with the story for the sake of the film - to make it a bit more exciting. Bond is almost a periphery character at times in
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this book. Still, it's hard not to like a 007 story. Show Less
LibraryThing member comfypants
There's not enough story here for a novel, and Fleming's attempts at stretching it out are boring.
LibraryThing member Denverbook
I ordered four of the original James Bond thrillers to have a matched set replacing old worn out paperbacks. The books are much more exciting and believable than the gadget filled overglossy charactered movies. The story lines are more subtle. Those that prefer the movies cannot be true readers.
LibraryThing member Traveller1
Short review: not that well written, silly. This will most likely be my last Bond novel.
LibraryThing member tjsjohanna
This was my first James Bond novel and while it was entertaining, it wasn't captivating - and the story just sort of ended. James, reflecting the time period in which this was written, is kind of obnoxious about women, and isn't nearly the debonair character that I have known in movies. Still, not
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a bad read. Show Less
LibraryThing member antiquary
This book contains the notice that it was based on a screenplay, by Fleming and others --part of the transformation of Bond into more a movie than a book character. Bond is sent for a rest cure and during a massage notices a fellow patient wearing what Bond learns is a Tong sign --this leads into
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contact with SPECTRE, an international crime organization run by Ernst Blofeld, whom Bond pursues for 3 books. Blofeld is a freelance, not a Soviet agent --he is in it for his own profit. In this book, he has gotten 2 atomic bombs and is using the to blackmail the UK and UK,. Show Less
LibraryThing member benuathanasia
Well the first third of it was "James Bond takes a spa trip because he's getting out of shape." Not exactly the dashing womanizer we all know and love. It got much better once the nukes were nabbed.
Most of the action was sub-aquatic, which made it a bit awkward (the narrator admits that their
Felix Leiter played a large role in the book, and I rather like Leiter, so I'm happy with that :)
Most of the action was sub-aquatic, which made it a bit awkward (the narrator admits that their
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fighting was anything but orthodox and I image the force probably wasn't the wham, bam, thank-you-ma'am we're used to with James). Felix Leiter played a large role in the book, and I rather like Leiter, so I'm happy with that :)
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LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco
Well, the cool thing about this is that when I was young, I didn't like the movie based on this, and I never read it, because of that. But, reading it now, I realize that this is a pretty good story! Bond is back, and trying to stop the bad guys who have stolen two nuclear warheads! The locale =
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Bahamas. The bad guy = Emilio Largo. The gal = Domino. And Felix is in this one, metal hook and all! But the best thing about this book is that it introduces SPECTRE, and it's #2 (in this book Largo is #1), Ernst Stavro Blofeld! Woot woot! And I guess I never had know what SPECTRE stood for, which is SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion! Quite the mouthful! Good story, good fun, and good bad guys! I especially enjoyed the final paragraph! Show Less
LibraryThing member BrokenTune
"This is a silly plan. This is the sort of melodramatic nonsense people write about in thrillers." and that criticism straight out of the mouth of the "bond girl" in this installment is probably one of my favourite lines in the series so far. Whoever said they were all shallow?!
I must have watched
Of course, Bond is still Bond, and the sexist, chauvinist comments are there (in abundance) throughout the book, but one wouldn't set out to read a Bond novel without a bucket of salt at hand.
I must have watched
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Thunderball about a gazillion times since I was a kid and I still couldn't say what the film was about. Reading it, the story is still a bit tepid - bad guys steal nuclear war heads and threaten the world - however, the descriptions in the book of everything that surrounds the plot - i.e. the development of characters, the depiction of fight scenes, the dialogues, the sea life are just great. Of course, Bond is still Bond, and the sexist, chauvinist comments are there (in abundance) throughout the book, but one wouldn't set out to read a Bond novel without a bucket of salt at hand.
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LibraryThing member shaunesay
I loved listening to Jason Isaacs read this. Bond is a bit different in the books than the movies. I loved his experience and attitude about the health resort, that was pretty funny!
LibraryThing member TomDonaghey
Thunderball (1961) (Bond #9) by Ian Fleming. This book has nothing to do with the Thunderball mentioned in Live And Let Die, although most of the locations are near to the sights used in the previous book. This time Bond and Felix Leiter are after stolen atomic bombs around the Bahamas. There is no
Given just a week to come up with the $100,000,000 ransom, the U.S. and Great Britain are at a loss. Bond knows his assignment is a wild goose chase but he follows orders anyway. And then he meets Domino with her saucy gondolier’s hat and things start to tumble together.
This is yet another in the brilliant line of espionage books penned by Fleming. Bond is his usual stubborn self, unwilling to disobey all his orders, but able to sniff out the unusual where others might not. Largo is the fiend running the operation, and the plan it so well designed that even when Bond knows what is to happen, there is not one shred of proof that Largo, and the ship Disco Volante are not what they claim to be, merely hunting a lost pirate treasure.
Things get dire very rapidly, Bond and Leiter almost give up hope, but, being who and what they are, they persevere.
An exciting and riveting story from the master. Do not skip over this lightly.
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hope of finding the damned things as the group responsible the the theft of the plane carrying them is S.P.E.C.T.R.E. This is a new collection of the most evil of men headed by Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the worst, or most brilliant, of the lot. Blofeld’s plan has the world’s security services mystified as to where the stolen plane, and the bombs, have ended up and where the latter items are to be used.Given just a week to come up with the $100,000,000 ransom, the U.S. and Great Britain are at a loss. Bond knows his assignment is a wild goose chase but he follows orders anyway. And then he meets Domino with her saucy gondolier’s hat and things start to tumble together.
This is yet another in the brilliant line of espionage books penned by Fleming. Bond is his usual stubborn self, unwilling to disobey all his orders, but able to sniff out the unusual where others might not. Largo is the fiend running the operation, and the plan it so well designed that even when Bond knows what is to happen, there is not one shred of proof that Largo, and the ship Disco Volante are not what they claim to be, merely hunting a lost pirate treasure.
Things get dire very rapidly, Bond and Leiter almost give up hope, but, being who and what they are, they persevere.
An exciting and riveting story from the master. Do not skip over this lightly.
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LibraryThing member aadyer
This is the novel that Ian Fleming wrote with Kevin McCrory and you can see some very different influences with regards to the plotting and the nature of the threat that faces 007. He’s first foray into alternative medicine in a rather quack like clinic in Sussex varies between tense and at times
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amusing. This might be the first time that literary James Bond actually uses humour. The Bahamas sections and in particular the development of Emile Largo and Domino never feels quite as fleshed out as normal. Stavro Blofeld is more of the ultimate villain. This is of course the start of the so-called Blofeld trilogy. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member Birdo82
With the usual machismo and misogyny that one can expect from a 007 novel, Thunderball is hardly the most entertaining of the series, despite setting a new direction and introducing some staple Bond elements.
LibraryThing member cinesnail88
In my ninth excursion into the world of 007 I was very quickly intrigued - the last couple have been a bit disappointing, but this one makes up for the slump. Domino was quite the character, and I loved the idea of SPECTRE, probably because I loved the idea of SMERSH so much.
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1961