General Information
===================
 Title:                  Moonraker
 Author:                 Ian Fleming
 Read By:                David Rintoul
 Copyright:              1955
 Audiobook Copyright:    1986
 Genre:                  Thriller
 Publisher:              Chivers Audio Books
 Series Name:            Bond
 Position in Series:     03
 Abridged:               No

Original Media Information
==========================
 Media:                  Tape
 Source:                 Library
 Condition:              Good

File Information
================
 Number of MP3s:         12
 Total Duration:         7:13:54
 Total MP3 Size:         198.68 MB
 Parity Archive:         No
 Ripped By:              Nemo
 Files Created on:       03-Mar-2004  18:29:04
 Ripped With:            Audiolab4
 Encoded With:           FhG
 Encoded At:             CBR 64 kbit/s 44 KHz Joint Stereo
 Normalize:              Peak Normalization
 Noise Reduction:        Denoiser
 ID3 Tags:               Set, v1.1
 NFO Created:            03-Mar-2004  19:28:57
 NFO/SFV/PAR created by: Mp3BookHelper http://mp3bookhelper.sourceforge.net/
 

 
Book Description
================
Remarks: Lack of suspense, but stronger in character development; best glimpse 
of Bond's London life

Synopsis
The club where James Bond is asked to settle a dispute over ungentlemanly behaviour is embarrassed. The accused is the unimpeachable Sir Hugo Drax, head of the multi-million-pound Moonraker missile programme on which Britain's future depends.

It should go without saying, but I'll mention it anyway, the book has zero relation to the film other than title. That established, the third 007 novel is the first of the series where the stakes are truly high (nuclear annihilation), however it's unlike virtually any other Bond story in that it takes place entirely in England (basically London and Dover). Like the CIA (in theory anyway...), the British Secret Service is not allowed to operate in its homeland, and thus Bond is seconded to the Special Branch in order to get him in the mix. But before this happens, the story begins with Bond being asked to do M a favor and try and determine if a popular industrialist is cheating at London's most exclusive private cards club. (By the way, an inside joke in the latest Bond flick is that the fencing club where Bond and the villain fight is given the same name —The Blades Club—as the card club from this novel.)

The industrialist Drax's heroic story is told through Bond's admiring mouth. His unconscious, and later amnesiac, body was recovered from an explosion site in Germany during the war (WWII) and eventually was determined to be an MIA British private named Hugo Drax. Over the subsequent decade he became a self-made international metals broker, notably through columbite (yes, it is a real mineral). He has recently returned to England and spent lavishly on charities, but more notably, on privately financing and building an ICBM capable of delivering an atomic warhead anywhere in Europe. The intriguing mystery is why such a popular patriot would stoop to cheating at cards, recalling that at the time of the writing some fifty years ago, as M puts it: "It's about the only way a man can ruin himself!" Most readers will, at this early stage, have already smelt a huge rat, and picked up on the the obvious clue Fleming not-so-subtly weaves in, and will have figured out what's really happening. This is the books major weakness, since from there on, one is waiting for Bond to catch up, and thus the villain's final monologue, in which All Is Revealed, is more than a little anticlimactic.

In any event, Bond's appearance at the club and a nerve-racking high-stakes bridge game against the fabulously wealthy Hugo Drax starts the ball rolling. It's a nice bit of tension-building, however those (like myself) who are unfamiliar with the game of bridge will probably not get as much out of it. Still, it's a nice set-piece, and also serves to remind one how puny Bond's salary is as a glorified civil servant when the stakes rise to ten times his annual salary! From here the book proceeds rather slowly, as a suspicious murder-suicide allows Bond to join the Moonraker missile team as security officer. He and a voluptuous undercover cop work to try and figure out what's so fishy about the whole project.

-------------------------------------
The Bond Novels of
Ian Fleming, 
-------------------------------------
01 - Casino Royale (1953)
02 - Live and Let Die (1954) 
03 - Moonraker (1955) 
04 - Diamonds Are Forever (1956)
05 - From Russia, With Love (1957) 
06 - Doctor No (1958)
07 - Goldfinger (1959) 
08 - For Your Eyes Only (1960) 
09 - Thunderball (1961) 
10 - The Spy Who Loved Me (1962)
11 - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963)  ( request please )
12 - You Only Live Twice  (1964)
13 - The Man With the Golden Gun (1965)
14 - Octopussy and the Living Daylights (1966)  : Short Stories


