 Much like Live and Let Die, it had been a good 7 years since I last read the novel Moonrager, the third Ian Fleming James Bond novel. So now, continuing my journey through the world of the literary bond in honor of this series I'm doing, I did my fourth time rereading this novel recently. I remembered liking this one a lot in the past. How did I feel about it with my latest revisit? Let's delve into this one. In Moonrager we get to meet Britain's new self-made national hero, Hugo Drax, who literally came out of nowhere and was found as a survivor at the end of the Second World War and promised to defend Britain from any future threats by building a huge prototype missile called the Moonrager. The curious thing about him, though, is that M suspects him from cheating at cars in the private club called Blades. So he asks Bond for a personal favor to find out whether or not Drax is in fact cheating and why a millionaire would even be interested in doing so. The story takes place in a Monday to Friday work week in Bond's life, uniquely set exclusively in England. Bond is eventually sent on an official investigation at the Moonrager site in Dover after a killing took place there. This is where he teams up with Gala Brand, a special brand's police officer working undercover as Drax's assistant. Of course, as we go through the chapters, Drax is not who he is made out to be and neither is his intention to defend England. Agent 007 returns at the foreground, this time with a mission taking place exclusively in his own country. Originally MI6 would only have their agents sent out abroad for their missions, but Fleming does well in trying to explain that this is an exception. The novel offers a lot of insight into the life of Bond, with it taking place from a Monday to a Friday. The novel opens up with Bond at target practice and actually doing office paperwork which he finds incredibly boring. Immediately when he's called out by M for the personal favor, things become a lot of fun. It's quite unique to read about M and Bond teaming up at a card club for London's elites and Bond quickly finding out that Drax is indeed cheating at cards by using his cigarette case as a mirror to see the cards of his opponent every time he's dealing out the cards. I have personally never played Brits and I don't understand the game at all, but the opening chapters of the book immediately grab your attention and pull you in and it's very easy to be clued in on what's going on on the card table. This Bond gives Drax a taste of his own medicine, cheating himself with a rig deck of cards, luring Drax into a trap. Now all of this is in the beginning of the book. Bond himself almost has to act as somewhat of a detective in the large middle portion of the book, trying to put the pieces together, analyzing a chart that he finds at the moon raker site at night, piecing together the things that just don't add up, weighing his instinct versus the logical side. It's really a lot of fun to read as he goes through this. Now obviously as a Bond fan there really is no surprise that Hugo Drax turns out to be the main villain at all. The name alone spoils it, but it's still fascinating to read through and see the mass go off to reveal Drax's true identity and true intentions. Drax really is one of the best villains that Fleming ever wrote about. He's just such an obnoxious character, described to be a red-haired man with a mustache and a slightly scarred face, so I'm sure your imagination gets all kinds of pictures with a description like that. He's just such a piece of work straight from his introduction at Blades, and the audiobook I listened to while reading this really put the type of character he is to lie. So Hugo Drax, his hairy red face shining with cheerful anticipation, came towards them with mayor in his wake. Well, gentlemen, he said jovially as he reached their table. Are the lambs ready for the slaughter and the geese for the plucking? He grinned and in wolfish pantomime drew a finger across his throat. We'll go ahead and lay out the axe and the basket. Made your wills? So the very reason Drax is even cheating at cards is not just for the money, but for the simple reason of trying to humiliate the English. Because it turns out later on that Drax is secretly a Nazi trying to offend Germany's laws in the Second World War. And his real name is Graffen Hugo von der Drage. And though he managed to get the status of being seen as a beloved hero for Britain, he's actually building the moon raker with a nuclear warhead targeting London right under their nose in England's backyard. Now if that isn't a wonderfully over-the-top, yet realistic post-World War Bond villain, I don't know what is. The Bond girl of the novel is quite unique. Gala Brand, or as Robert Whitfield of the audiobook pronounces it, Gala Brand. So as mentioned before sees a special brand's police woman undercover working as Drax's personal assistant. We learn that Drax initially tried to make advances at her, but failed, and Bond initially seems to fail in the same way, as he doesn't seem to be particularly impressed by Bond at first, when he first arrives at the site for his investigation of the murder that went on there. But as Bond and Gala continue trying to work out what has happened, they narrowly escape an assassination attempt at the Dover Cliffs, where a landslide suddenly occurs. This is also where things become more romantic, when the pair go out for a swim. This whole sequence of the landslide taking place at the White Cliffs of Dover really is, in my opinion, where the novel starts to light up. And even after that, Drax still tries to pretend he's perfectly innocent, even though the table that night for dinner wasn't originally laid out for Bond and Gala anymore, clearly signaling he wanted them out of the way. It is eventually Gala that finds out that Drax is planning to attack London in some really thrilling passages of her going through the diary secretly, and gets caught doing so. This leads to a kidnapping situation and a car chase between Bond and his old Bentley Drax in a Mercedes and also an innocent driver on the road, which I just love because he's driving an Alpha Romeo. Now, those that have been following my channel and know me well, know that that is my favorite car brand, and I really just love that Fleming had it turned up in here. Even though Drax takes the Alpha Romeo out, thinking it was Bond, it's just another reason to hate Drax in this novel. Now, the interesting thing about Gala brand in the end is, despite her and Bond sharing a couple of romantic moments during this novel, she turns out to have a boyfriend in the final chapters of the book, leaving Bond empty-handed as he is picked up by this dude. It's quite an interesting twist that makes her quite a unique Bond girl, and I honestly like that aspect of her character. Other characters worth mentioning are the people working for Drax at the missile site, all of which are bald Germans with mustaches, by the way, which already in itself is really suspicious and quite creepy when you think about it, and notable is another assistant that Drax has that is called Krabs, who just really seems like this creepy dude, which he kinda is. And there is Dr. Walter, the brains behind the Moonraker missile working for Drax, put all of these characters together and you have a great recipe for quite an interesting story. Obviously, the 1979 movie with the same name starring Roger Moore could not be far away from its source material and was by no means adaptation of this novel. The only thing really carrying over in the movie is the name of the villain, also called Hugo Drax, but even as a character, movie Hugo Drax does not compare to novel Drax at all, with his keen to wipe out the entire human race from his space station, and the Moonraker in the film is a space shuttle. Well, there are actually several Moonrakers in the film. There is a moment however carrying over in the movie that came from the novel, with Bond and the Bond girl being left to be incinerated by the Moonraker directly underneath. There's something similar in the novel too, but the way the pair escapes is also vastly different in both works. The movie does reference the novel in a pretty subtle and clever way though. I hope you know what you're doing Bond, I've played Bridge with this fellow Drax. Speaking of which, the club where they play Bridge is called Blades, which later shows up in Die Another Day as the name for the fencing club. Which by the way is a movie that ironically somewhat resembles the basis of this novel more, with Gustav Graves being seen as a public hero in Britain as well, while secretly having motivations to wipe the West out. Another thing worth mentioning is, though Gala Brand was never used in any of the Bond movies to date, the character Miranda Frost was originally planned to be named Gala Brand, which I'm happy they didn't do by the way, because Miranda Frost has absolutely nothing to do with Gala Brand. I hope we do see that character show up in a future Bond film someday. Who knows? And last but not least, in Octopussy there's a line directly taken from Drax in this novel. So Moonraker the novel, did I enjoy it as much as I remembered it 7 years ago? The answer is quick and simple, yes I did. I'm honestly having so much fun revisiting these books because for the third time in a row I can say this was a great read. It has all the ingredients for a fun Bond adventure, and it helps that this story was never fully adapted into a Bond movie, making the reading experience of this story more unique. The structure is also different to the previous two, whereas both Casino Royale and Live and Let Die started with Bond on location, starting out his mission and then doing a flashback at Ems Office, explaining the mission in the second chapter, as we learn why Bond was sent out to these places. Here it just starts with Bond at headquarters doing his shooting tests, and just straight away drops you into the story on the first Monday and pretty much succeeds in capturing your attention earlier than the previous two novels did, in my opinion. The Bond villain is one of the best and most fleshed out yet. You really grow to dislike this character, and I think that's kind of what you want with a good villain too. Drax is just so obnoxious, so filled with hate towards England, and in the end, turning out to be a Nazi, it's just the perfect recipe for a Fleming Bond villain. Gala Brandt is also very interesting and a different Bond girl. She's not just another beautiful Burnett, which Fleming seems to like so far, by the way, another blue-eyed Burnett for the third time in a row, but she's very different to her two predecessors, and definitely has a good set of brains on her, as she is the one unraveling that Drax is planning to attack London in some great passages. Now, if I were to critique this novel, I would say it's in the climax. Drax eventually escapes the Mooraker side in a submarine, and Bond and Gala reprogram the Mooraker to be taking out the submarine instead of London. And all of this is told through a radio announcers broadcast, and it's a bit underwhelming to be the big finale of the book. It feels somewhat tacked on. You could argue it's also a little bit underwhelming to have a story not be set in any exotic location outside of Britain, but I don't know, it makes it unique to have a story be set on the home soil of Bond. I don't know if any future Bond novels ever do something like that again. I'm not bothered by it. Overall, Mooraker is yet another recommended novel where Fleming really hits the nail on the head in gripping you in a true timeless story, building suspense and simply writing a fantastic mix of a story that is over the top and yet down to earth. This was a real page-turner and I fully enjoyed revisiting this.