Ian Fleming’s ‘Moonraker’ (1955) at 70: James Bond Novel Review — 007 Day

I recently read for the very first time, Ian Fleming’s debut Bond novel, Casino Royale, and gave my thoughts here. I skipped the second book Live and Let Die for now, so I could celebrate what many consider literary Bond’s finest outing, Moonraker, in its seventieth year.

Published in 1955, Moonraker presents a western society frighteningly not far removed from the one we know in 2025. Today, with the last World War seventy more years in our rear view mirror, we’re vulnerable as ever, and still threatened by authoritarian narcissists (or solipsists), the re-emergence of Nazis, and nuclear war. Does Fleming’s third Bond adventure provide enough breezy, sexy escapism to offset this pitch-black dark cloud?

Moonraker finds 007 tending to a personal favor for his superior, M, calling upon his own well-documented card-playing skills. Multi-millionaire businessman Sir Hugo Drax is suspected of cheating, following an impossibly lucrative winning streak at the Blades Club bridge table. M asks Bond to come determine how he’s cheating, and get him to stop. You see, it isn’t as simple as catching and revealing a crook — Drax is not only wealthy, but England’s newly minted national…