Moonraker – Ian Fleming, 1955 ★★

No Nukes, No Nookie

Which makes the bigger splash in a James Bond story: A nuclear explosion or a Bond girl that just says no to sex with 007? Moonraker gives you the chance to find out.

As a reading experience, Ian Fleming delivers some marvelous prose; the early glimpses of Bond’s everyday life deepen my appreciation for the character and his world. As a novel, it is one of the weakest Fleming Bond stories; a ridiculous scheme, contrivances galore, and a sloppy, rushed ending.

In other words, a fine Bond novel once you ignore the plot.

Moonraker does give us the classic capsule portrait of Bond:

Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way. That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones. But there was something a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold. Were they grey or blue?

Hoagy Carmichael was a famous pop singer during much of the first half of the 20th century. He also wrote the music for such pop standards as "Georgia On My Mind" and "Stardust." This photo is from 1947. Image from https://www.wusf.usf.edu/jazz/program/all_night_jazz_mike_cornette_%E2%80%9Cskylark%E2%80%9D_hoagy_carmichael.

There are many moody moments and narrative sidetrips that make Moonraker a pleasure to read and read again. Fleming by now had developed a wry, elliptical style for himself. But the story…

The title of the novel refers to a nuclear missile which investments tycoon Sir Hugo Drax is building for Great Britain, but for much of the story this rocket is hardly mentioned at all. Drax attracts Bond’s notice instead because he is suspected of cheating at cards at Blades, the exclusive London club where Bond’s boss M is a member.

Bond marvels not only at Drax’s elementary form of cheating, using a carefully-placed cigarette lighter as a mirror, but the way Drax openly crows about his winnings. “He seems to put so much passion into his cards – as if it wasn’t a game at all, but some sort of trial of strength,” Bond tells M.

That line proves a little too on the nose, but it sets us up to anticipate a high-stakes adventure, which for all its flaws, Moonraker does deliver.

Boodle's, founded in 1762, was one of three venerable men's clubs in London to which Ian Fleming belonged and which is believed to have inspired the fictional Blades featured in Moonraker. The rich leathery interior is certainly similar. Image from http://londonhotelsinsight.com/2011/02/11/the-secret-world-of-londons-private-clubs/.

Catching Drax out is one of the novel’s highlights. Bond sets a trap using a stacked deck and his knowledge Drax sees the cards in advance. Fleming delivers this sequence masterfully; not pausing to explain the intricacies of bridge, just allowing the reader to feel the tension. The Blades setting is pretty cool, too:

There might be cheats or possible cheats amongst them, men who beat their wives, men with perverse instincts, greedy men, cowardly men, lying men; but the elegance of the room invested each one with a kind of aristocracy.

Drax himself is a less vibrant Bond villain. His face is scarred from wartime injuries; a hideous red mustache lends him an imposing expression. It is especially imposing after Bond springs his trap at the bridge table, taking Drax for a mint. “I should spend the money quickly, Commander Bond,” Sir Hugo warns in parting.

Otherwise, Drax is dull. Except that he’s building this rocket that is going to make Britain a nuclear superpower, and M, in a rare lapse of taste, assigns Bond to watch over the Moonraker project the morning after he unleashed Bond against Drax at the club.

When first published as a paperback in the United States in 1956, Moonraker did so under a different name: Too Hot To Handle. It was published a year after Bond made his American television debut. Image from https://spywhothrills.com/moonrakerfleming, which also features a terrific review.

I found the whole Moonraker concept odd; at a time when the country was socializing medicine, it is simultaneously privatizing national defense by letting this hot-tempered Daddy Warbucks build them an A-bomb. The country lets Drax recruit his own force of 50 German scientists and technicians, giving him a base along the Dover cliffs with only a single British security officer on site.

Drax is only building a nuclear bomb. No need to get uptight, old boy.

When the British security officer is mysteriously murdered by one of Drax’s crew, Bond is selected as his replacement. Why? Forget the Blades encounter; Bond’s espionage jobs are typically offensive operations, carried out overseas; not watchdog assignments at home.

The logic flow of Moonraker gets even worse once Bond finds himself on Drax’s base, poking around. Bond already knows Drax is a nasty card cheat, so he improbably lets down his guard by developing an odd admiration for Drax from seeing him in his element, barking orders and reviewing engineering drafts:

How could he ever have been put off by Drax’s childish behaviour at the card-table? Even the greatest men have their weaknesses. Drax must need an outlet for the tension of the fantastic responsibility he was carrying.

Hugo Drax, as played in the 1979 James Bond movie version of Moonraker by Michael Lonsdale. Like the book, the movie version is an odd duck that divides fans. Londale is quite good as Drax, though nothing like the character in the book. Actually, I like his version better. Image from https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/james-bond-moonraker, which dubs it "the silliest of all Bond movies - and the guiltiest of pleasures."

Bond also makes the acquaintance of Gala Brand, Drax’s private secretary, whom he already knows is a plant from Scotland Yard. Much of the criticism directed at Moonraker over the years centers on her.

Both as Bond’s principal ally and love interest, Gala doesn’t deliver the goods. She keeps her distance from Bond much of the time, and her observations about Drax at work are even more admiring than Bond’s. Physically, we are told she is quite the beauty, with auburn hair, blue eyes, 38-26-38, and a mole on her upper right breast. Bond never gets past first base with her, though.

Fleming does make this distance work for the novel more than I might have expected. Back in Chapter 1, we are given a rundown on Bond’s private life, including loveless assignations with three different married women. He has no time for relationships, and feels their lack.

Much of Bond's time in Moonraker is spent brooding about on the beaches below the White Cliffs of Dover, until the bloody things cave in on him and Gala. It's about the only way he manages to share an intimate physical moment with her. Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Cliffs_of_Dover.

Gala Brand brings this home for Bond. He desires her, but respects that she does not feel the same for him. This is unusual territory for Bond and for Fleming, handled well:

There must be no regrets. No false sentiment. He must play the role which she expected of him. The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette.

If only the plot of Moonraker had been developed with similar care or thoughtfulness. According to a Wikipedia article, the novel brought together two fictional pieces Fleming had been working on separately for years: a short story about a card-cheating scandal at a men’s club, and a screenplay for an adventure film about a nuclear rocket. Neither alone amounted to enough to make into a book, so Fleming jammed them together and threw in Bond, a proven commodity by then from the success of Casino Royale and the pending publication of Live And Let Die.

Seams show. The first 70 pages, regarding the showdown with Drax at the club, are splendidly atmospheric but do creep by. We see Fleming sketching a vivid portrait of a fast-fading way of life, with his celebrated eye for detail. As prelude material, though, it goes on too long.

V-2 rockets being prepared for launch by Germany against England during World War II. This same technical know-how is put to use by the British in Moonraker when they accept Drax's offer to build a rocket for them. To be fair, NASA wound up doing much the same thing. Image from https://wolfenstein.fandom.com/wiki/V-2_Rocket.

Once we get to the Moonraker part of the story, the writing becomes more rushed and less successful. Bond becomes and stays remarkably idiotic throughout this part of the novel, not only for how he takes to Drax but the manner in which he conducts his surveillance: sneaking aimlessly through corridors at night, taking a beach walk with Gala, relaying suspicions directly with Sir Hugo.

Fleming tells us 007 wants to draw attention in order to flush out the enemy, but his disregard of elementary precaution is frustrating. You just know 150 pages in it will end up with Bond and the girl tied up and getting their Dr. Evil lecture. Guess what?

As a Bond novel, Moonraker is as different from Live And Let Die as both are from Casino Royale. Give Fleming points for doing unusual things, like keeping Bond in England and out of the pants of his co-star. But you do miss the formula.

White Cliffs Cottage, at St. Margaret's in Cliffe, where Fleming lived from 1951 to 1957 and took much of his scenic inspirations of the Kentish countryside for Moonraker. Image from http://www.007magazine.co.uk/fleming/kentish01.htm.

The biggest weakness in the book requires a SPOILER WARNING, so here it is: Drax is an ex-Nazi who is building his rocket along with a cadre of fellow ex-stormtroopers not for the U. K. but rather the U. S. S. R., which plans to use them to destroy London.

Apparently, Drax is still miffed about the final outcome of World War II some ten years before:

“I loathe and despise you all. You swine! Useless, idle, decadent fools, hiding behind your bloody white cliffs while other people fight your battles. Too weak to defend your colonies, toadying to America with your hats in your hands.”

A Russian attack submarine, much like this Zulu-class model from the 1950s, puts in an appearance late in Moonraker. It does not go well for anyone. Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu-class_submarine.

If Drax is so hot to avenge the defeat of Nazi Germany, why would he align himself with the Soviet Union? And what do the Russians get from the bargain? They go so far as to provide Drax with a working warhead and even send him a sub to carry him and his Hitlerites to safety in Moscow, so clearly they are all in. But what is their motive for wanting to start World War III? Fleming leaves this unexplained.

The way the attack is averted is especially contrived, with Bond sneaking into the rocket’s crude avionics system when no one happens to be looking and resetting its gyros to land on the very spot where Drax’s sub will pass under. The ensuing explosion kills not only Drax and his team, but hundreds of innocent bystanders. Bond does save London, but at a terribly high human cost which the novel shrugs off.

For a Bond fan like me, Moonraker is fascinating even when it is not very good. Fleming was still tinkering with his character and hadn’t quite settled in on what kind of stories he wanted to tell. While never as formulaic as their more famous film adaptations, Fleming’s Bond books did follow certain rules which are not in place yet here. What does come through is atmosphere, which does go a surprisingly long way. Like I said, it’s a fun read once you manage to ignore the story.