 If you've seen the previous Reading 007 episode, you may be aware that I wasn't the biggest fan of Diamond Software Ever upon revisiting it. I did remember liking Fleming's fifth novel from Russia With Love a lot though and I honestly couldn't wait to delve back into that one again to see if it still held up the fond memories I've had of it last Reading it around 2017. And of course, as is well known within Bond fandom, this was among President John F. Kennedy's favorite books. If it's good enough for the president, it's good enough for me. Upon starting your Read into From Russia With Love, you are greeted with a disclaimer by Fleming himself that reads the following. Author's note. Not that it matters, but a great deal of the background to this story is accurate. Smersh, a contraction of smirtspionam, death to spies, exists and remains today the most secret department of the Soviet government. At the beginning of 1956, when this book was written, the strength of Smersh at home and abroad was about forty thousand, and General Grubotso Boychikov was its chief. My description of his appearance is correct. Today the headquarters of Smersh are where in chapter four I have placed them at number thirteen Sretenka Ulitsa, Moscow. The conference room is faithfully described, and the intelligence chiefs who meet around the table are real officials who are frequently summoned to that room for purposes similar to those I have recounted. Now I don't know about you, but I find that so intriguing, knowing that what you are about to read isn't fully rooted within fiction, but knowing there was real life accuracy to the places and characters Fleming will describe in the story based on his real life experiences, and it already tells you right from the get go that you're in for something special here. And indeed, from Russia with love is structured uniquely too, it's divided into two parts. Part one, which takes up the first third of the book, is all about Smersh devising their master plan to lure James Bond into a perfectly designed trap. The book really takes its time to have all the aspects explained, how the Soviets come up with the plan, how they are carefully selecting which Western intelligence agency they should target, even considering Mathis of the French Doshan Bureau for a moment. They eventually settle upon James Bond, or James Bond as they pronounce it, as he was responsible for stopping three of their Smersh agents, Leshev in Royale Eau, Mr Big in the Caribbean, and Drax with the Moonraker Affair, all welcomed continuity for all the readers that have read the previous 007 novels. The bait of the trap is to be the Spectre decoding machine, there's Fleming's fascination for the word Spectre again, along with a beautiful Russian woman in Tatyana Romanova, who the Soviets want Bond to believe seemingly fell in love with Bond, overseeing a file photo of him and wants to defect to the West. When the trap is set in place, we go into the second part of the novel where Bond has to travel to Istanbul for the Spectre and for Tatyana Romanova. Throw in Smersh chief executioner Donald Grant, the hideous Smersh colonel Rosa Klap, a thrill ride back to the West on board of the Orient Express, and you have one of the greatest crafted spy thrillers ever put to paper by Fleming. So James Bond himself doesn't appear in person until a third into the book, a brave move by Fleming that still manages to completely engage the reader in the long absence of Bond. Surprisingly, former Bond girl Tiffany Case is mentioned and M asks Bond about their relationship they had since their Diamonds of Forever adventure. It's not a really nice bit of continuity, I wish they featured in the films. Past Bond girls are pretty much always forgotten there, and Bond is portrayed somewhat lonely and bored and he hasn't been on a mission for a year, stunted with paperwork. This is also the book that introduces Bond's Scottish housekeeper, May, that never appeared in any of the movies. She's quite an amusing character even when she only appears in one chapter. When Bond finally receives his mission, he is completely stumped when M tells him he's been contacted by the head of station T Turkey that apparently a Russian cyber clerked has fallen madly in love with Bond from reading his file and wants to defect. Though originally Bond does think this must be some sort of trap, M seems more convinced that women simply can be like this and the story could hold some truth. And I really like Bond's own description of this mission in the airplane flying to Istanbul. He has to go pimping for England. Great stuff. Bond does none of the underestimating he did constantly in the previous novel either. The feel Bond is intrigued and excited by this mission and he's slowly trying to figure out whether this is a trap or a true story. He knows he's picking up a girl with a very valuable device from the east and he's perfectly aware of the dangers in this novel. And even in the parts where not a lot of stuff is happening, you are always aware of this tension and danger lurking in every corner. Because Flemming doesn't introduce Bond until the second section of the book, it does allow the reader to inhabit the minds of the villains, who Flemming really took the time and care for to make them more three-dimensional as they are all introduced, unlike the cardboard cutouts of villains that were featured in Diamonds of Forever. And this definitely is the Flemming novel in which the Soviet Smurfs organization is featured in detail the most. As the first chapters introduce us to General G, the head of Smurfs, who Flemming spends a lot of time on as the important members discuss their plans to target the British Secret Service into their master plan. Their authority and intimidation can really be felt as the public dare not to even speak about them and even the Smurfs underlings fear the death penalty when not obeying the orders. And though that may sound sinisterly in a cartoony sense, knowing Smurfs was once a real-life Russian counterintelligence agency and knowing Flemming wrote about them using his real-life experiences, it gives this novel a very real feel. The conspiracy, or as Smurfs calls it, the conspiracy. To lure Bond into a trap is further devised by the brilliant Russian chess champion Kronstein, who fused life like a chessboard. Not interested in human beings, not even in his own children, good and bad had no place in his vocabulary, but to him people were chess pieces and he was only interested in their reactions and understanding their individual characteristics. Of course there is also the intimidating Smurfs colonel Rosa Klepp, who seems to enjoy overseeing torture and of course in classic Flemming writing she is described to be very ugly, toad-like with chicken skin and peasants ears. She was in charge of selecting the beautiful Russian woman used as part of the bait to get Bond's attention. And she reappears again in the final chapter of the book as Bond goes out to Paris to meet her in a hotel room where Red Grant was supposed to rendezvous with her. At first glance, Bond is hesitant if this woman is really Klepp or just some old lady as he's innocently knitting. The needles, however, turned out to be poison-tipped and Bond's Beretta is jammed. And unlike the movie, her poison-tipped shoe does strike Bond, ending the novel on a cliffhanger of Bond collapsing to the floor. And by the way, Mathis also makes a reappearance at the final chapter of the book here. The girl selected as the lure is Tatyana Romanova or as pronounced in my audiobook Tatyana Romanova. She is the innocent normal Russian citizen whose beautiful looks got her in the unfortunate situation of being selected and blackmailed by Rosa Klepp or as Tatyana calls her the Klepp woman. The passages of her being called upon by Smerz to perform a labor of love and how Klepp asks her about her sex life and lists of previous lovers, how she's incredible intimidated to take on this job to supposedly fall in love with this unknown 007 of the British Secret Service all adds to the intriguing setup as the conspiracy slowly comes together. And somehow it's easy to understand how Bond would fall for her story and for her. The eventual seduction scene it's all leading up to of Bond finally meaning Tatyana in the flesh completely naked in his hotel apart from the ribbon on her neck and some stockings is both erotic yet somewhat romantic. When you think about it both of these characters never chose each other to meet up. It were their governments that put their fates together. Yet, they are both human and start to develop genuine feelings for each other. It's definitely among Fleming's more complex romances so far and I really like this dynamic. Of course neither Bond nor Tatyana are aware that their love making in the hotel is all being taped in attempt to impose a huge scandal on the British Secret Service more. Tiffany Case may have been one of the better Bond girls Fleming constructed up until this point in the series but Tatyana certainly is the most exotic yet. There's always something intriguing when a girl has a different cultural background and speaks another language and I like the passages of their cultural differences such as Tatyana being startled when Karen makes jokes about the Queen. They would consider it very disrespectful to talk in that matter about a head of state in Russia. It is also interesting to read about Bond pondering about the fate of Tatyana, something the movie didn't really touch upon. The book also features Fleming's best ally yet in Darko Karim Bey, the head of station T Turkey, a man whose passion for life and experiences is infectious and Bond immediately grows a healthy dose of respect for him. He's very likeable and full of life experience. Fleming also gave him some great analogies in his dialogue such as this little passage. Listen my friend, he put a huge hand on Bond's shoulder. This is a billiard table, an easy, flat, green billiard table and you have hit your white ball and it is travelling easily and quietly towards the red. The pocket is alongside, fatally, inevitably you are going to hit the red and the red is going into that pocket. It is the law of the billiard table, the law of the billiard room. And outside the orbit of these things, a jet pilot has fainted and his plane is diving straight at that billiard room or a gas main is about to explode or lightning is about to strike and the building collapses on top of view and on top of the billiard table. Then what has happened to that white ball that could not miss the red ball under the red ball that could not miss the pocket? The white ball could not miss according to the laws of the billiard table but the laws of the billiard table are not the only laws and the laws governing the progress of this train and of you to your destination are also not the only laws in this particular game. It's really intriguing to listen to this guy. All of this makes Karim's sudden death on board of the Orient Express all the more gripping. This of course brings us to Smer's chief executioner, Donald Red Grant, an Irish defector who is the first to be introduced within this book, described to be incredibly skilled, fit and scaringly in love with killing. We are told beforehand how Grant, who by himself already is a psychopathic professional, somehow gets an even stronger urge to kill uncontrollably when there is a full moon out. This is even better when you get to the end of the book and there happens to be a full moon out and Bond meets a blonde man he thinks was sent out by M and as the reader being ahead of Bond you know that he just walked into the trap and that it's not Captain Nash but Grant that is now in front of him. Despite being wary of him, Bond simply doesn't know yet. So this is just another example of how Fleming set up in the first section is such a brilliant move that works so well for the payoff in the rest of the book and all of those passages are just so well constructed where Bond slowly walks into the trap of Grant, slowly starts to trust him, eventually even giving him his own Beretta so that Nash can supposedly watch over the compartment. Of course this leads to Grant having Bond at his mercy with his own gun. This is brilliant writing and as a reader since you are ahead of Bond you know he just walked into this trap and yet you somehow start to wonder how is he gonna get out of this one. From Russia with Love of course got adapted into the second Bond film in 1963 and the movie for the most part is a pretty faithful adaptation with some crucial changes. For one in the movie Bond isn't up against Smersh because the filmmakers felt it would get too political. Thus they brought in Specter as the third party to be the villains of the film. The Specter decoding machine therefore was understandably changed to the Lecter decoding machine for the movie. Not to cause any confusion having Specter in there. In the novel the decoding machine turns out to be booby trapped by the way and there is no mention of that in the movie. I think the movie's pacing is a bit too fast in the beginning. Whereas with the novel we spend a lot more time and detail into why and how this plan was devised. In the movie most of this is crammed within the first 10 minutes or so. And in the movie of course the main motive was mainly Bond's killing of their operative Doctor No. Of course I understand you can never cram all the details of the source material within a movie but I always felt the villain setup of the film went over quite quickly. The same holds for the brilliant M scene in the novel where it's explained why T'Chana has fallen in love with Bond. Though this is also in the movie I felt the movie brushed over the important setup at the beginning of Bond's interview with M. Also there is none of the full moon stuff with Red Grant in the movie either which I guess is for the better within the boundaries of the film. I thought it was funny how in the movie Bond became wary of Red Grant through the red wine with fistfing. But in the novel Bond is wary of him having a wincer knot. The film did add in more action with the helicopter and boatchase and plenty of explosions. Lastly of course the novel ended with a cliffhanger of Bond collapsing from the poison inside of Rosa CLAB's shoe. In the movie she is shot by T'Chana and it ends on the more standard note of Bond kissing T'Chana throwing away the love making film. Though the film and novel are both generally held in high regard by Bond fans, to me the novel wins out on the movie being much more rich in suspense and realism. With Bond going up against Smersh. The movie is great but the novel did it exceptionally well. So as you probably gathered from Russia with Love is still one of my favorite Fleming Bond books and I can't stress enough how well constructed this book is. Because I honestly have a hard time to critique anything within this book. You could argue that it was somewhat of an experiment for Fleming to have the first third of the novel be centered solely on the villains devising the plan of killing 007 and maybe to some readers that absence could potentially be off-putting. But the payoff of this detailed prologue is so rewarding as a reader and Fleming excels as you go through this book. Because everything is just written with care. Fleming is at his A game here. The intriguing and detailed setup of the villains and their conspiracy in the first third of the book. Then the British Secret Service going for debate and dispatching Bond to Istanbul. The spying on the Russians in the sewers through the underground periscope, the erotic gypsy fight, the sensual meeting between Bond and Tatiana. The eventual lead up of trying to get the Spectre machine safely back to the West. And much like the movie it has the most suspenseful thrilling third act that slowly builds up on board of the Orient Express that makes this book incredibly hard to put down. This in my opinion is among Fleming's crown achievements and definitely comes highly recommended to any Bond fan curious about the world of the literary Bond.