 Reading true from Russia with Love for the previous Reading 007 episode was a very enjoyable experience. Definitely one of Fleming's crown achievements, a real page-turner of a novel. I was very excited to revisit Dark to Know for today's episode. A book I read a couple of times before as well, last reading it in 2019. I remember enjoying it, so I was very curious to see if I still felt the same. From Russia with Love ended on a cliffhanger of Bond being poisoned by Rosa Clapp and collapsing to the floor. Some say they think Fleming wanted to end the Bond novels here by killing him off, which I think is false. For the simple reason that Fleming answered that letter to Jeffrey Boothroyd and mentioned a subsequent novel. Meaning he was already thinking of writing more of them. And this was that subsequent one. Dark to Know is a fast-paced novel centered on Jamaica where British agent Strangways, who we've already met in the novel Live and Let Die, is mysteriously murdered with his secretary. And James Bond, of course, survived the poison with the brink of an eye. But because he nearly died, M is wary of sending Bond on any major assignment, having lost a little bit of trust in him. So in a bit of a passive-aggressive move, he just sends Bond on this routine assignment to Jamaica to find out what happened to Strangways, viewing it as a bit of a holiday in the sun for Bond. Of course, when Bond gets to Jamaica and reunites with Quarrel, another character returning from Live and Let Die, things quickly turn out to be much bigger than they seem, as Bond gets cyanide-filled fruit sent to his hotel room and a poisonous centipede planted in his bed. These turn out to be long-range attacks coming from Crab Key, a private island owned by the mysterious Chinese Doctor No, who has a factory on Crab Key, processing guano, or, you know, bird shit. As Bond eventually sets sail to Crab Key, he meets the lone innocent shell-collector honey-child writer and wants to once and for all solve the mystery of Strangways' disappearance by getting to the heart of Doctor No's operation. So Bond escaped death from his previous adventure, and because of his failure, in the eyes of M, he's being sent out on this lightweight routine mission that M just views as a holiday for him. M suspects Strangways probably ran off with his secretary on some romantic affair, and dislikes cases involving his own personnel. There are more important issues going on in the world, so he just wants to get this one over with. Bond, having met Strangways, thinks it's very unlike him to run off with a woman without reporting in, so already suspects that there is more going on. Unlike the movie's counterpart, they already mentioned the existence of Doctor No right here in M's office, mentioning how Strangways was researching his bird factory on Crab Key. This is also the book where Fleming took the advice of his letter from Jeffrey Boothroyd and put in the character of Boothroyd's to trade Bond's Beretta that jammed when facing Rosa Clapp to either the Walter PPK or the Smith & Wesson. Bond actually gets to take both guns with him and hates leaving his trusty Beretta behind. I think much more so than in the previous novels, the theme of survival shines through in this book, as Bond is constantly put through suffering and dangerous situations. Fleming really reminds us that 007 is a human agent. Right upon arriving in Jamaica and suddenly being sent the basket of fruit, Bond is going through his routine checkups and finds tiny pinholes drilled into them, only seen through magnifying glass. When he lets the fruit speed checked out, he gets the memo of specimens contain enough cyanide to kill a horse, suggest different grocers, which I like. Bond quickly becomes certain that Strangways and his secretary were murdered and admits to himself that this mission excites him. He enjoys the mystery surrounding it and as a reader you start to feel very similar, unlike in Diamonds of Forever where Bond was bored out of his mind for the majority of the book. The centipede crawling into his bed is one of the most exhilarating goose bumps inducing passages of the book. He could feel dozens of tiny feet lightly touching his skin. What was it? Then Bond heard something he had never heard before, the sound of the hair on his head rasping up on the pillow. Bond analyzed the noise. It couldn't be. It simply couldn't. Yes, his hair was standing on end. Bond could even feel the cool air reaching his scalp between the hairs. How extraordinary! How very extraordinary! He had always thought it was a figure of speech, but why? Why was it happening to him? The thing on his leg moved. Suddenly Bond realized that he was afraid, terrified. His instincts, even before they had communicated with his brain, had told his body that he had a centipede on him. It was starting up his thigh. Whatever happened, he mustn't move, mustn't even tremble. Bond's whole consciousness had drained down to the two rows of softly creeping feet. Now they had reached his flank. God, it was turning down towards his groin. Bond set his teeth, supposing it liked the warmth there. Supposing it tried to crawl into the crevices, could he stand it? Fleming is a master in describing things in detail, and the way he brings this passage to life and triggers the goose bumps out of the reader, to me, can only be applauded. It's wonderful writing. Like I mentioned before, there is a definite survival of the fittest theme in the book. Bond doesn't just deal with poisonous fruit and a centipede. At Crab Key, he's being shot at, he's being hunted by dogs, he's faced a mars buggy disguised as a dragon spitting out a flamethrower, and to top it off, in the end, Bond faces Dr. No's obstacle course to truly test the limits of the human body. Crawling through a heated shaft, wounded and burned, and facing a giant squid at the end of the course. And when I say a giant squid, this is described the size of a kraken, capable of sinking a ship. Like I previously mentioned, Kroll returns from Live and Let Die and is a wonderful, colourful, heavy Jamaican accent ally with a healthy dose of admiration and respect for Bond. When Bond tells him he wants to go check out Crab Key, he immediately asks Bond to put out a life insurance for him. But despite his fears, he blindly follows Bond there. They also return to the same place in Jamaica that they did in Live and Let Die to do some training in Bo Desert. Bond even reflects back to Solitaire and wonders where she could be. And I always like these little bits of continuity throughout the novels. Quarrow meets his tragic demise at the hands of the flamethrower on Crab Key and it makes you feel sorry for him because he was constantly warning Bond of the dangers lurking there. And Bond is really starting to feel guilty at this point. Even when you feel it coming because you know the movie that doesn't take away from this being chilling writing. The Bond girl of the novel is of course honey child writer, which Fleming describes as Botticelli's Venus. Showing up in an erotic moment, completely naked apart from the belt around her hips. And instead of covering up her breasts when Bond spots her, she covers up her broken nose. The reason she's collecting rare shells to gather up money for an operation on her nose. She's given a lot more background than her movie counterpart. Being raised by an older black woman and had to fend for herself from a very young age. There are passages of honey child trying to seduce Bond and despite what you would think, Bond is being quite the gentleman about it and doesn't take advantage of this beautiful woman. Despite starting to get romantic feelings towards her too. There is this grown up and playful child dynamic between the two. Honey child is an adult but she never really lived in the real world. Haven't grown up in the wildlife of the Caribbean. That doesn't mean she's fully naive or even stupid. She's just experienced in a completely different field. I enjoy the way she's written and the deeper character she seems to be compared to how you would know her from the silver screen. Speaking of the silver screen, much like the movie, Doctor No does not show up in person until the end of the book. His presence is definitely felt throughout the novel and his eventual reveal is great. He's a bald, tall and thin figure with pincers for hands and a giant rope that made it seem like he glides instead of walks. Bond describes him as a worm wrapped in tin foil. A typical Fleming description of a Bond villain. There always needs to be something ugly, odd or deformed about them. Doctor No is even described to have his heart on the right side, hence why he survived a gunshot to the left side of his chest. Much like the movie, he has bigger motivations than just farming guano at his bird factory and also topples USA missiles with a bit of a different reasoning than the film. But again, much like in the movie, that aspect of the book really doesn't matter as much. It's much greater to read about Doctor No's survival obstacle course than he puts Bond through and his eventual demise underneath a pile of bird shit. Yes, in this book, Doctor No dies from bird shit. His underwater layer is also described in great detail with a window looking through the depths of the ocean. It all seems very grand and larger than life and you truly feel that by this book, Fleming was starting to think about the cinematic potential his novels have. And of course that cinematic potential was fulfilled as the sixth novel turned into the first cinematic Bond film. For the most part, the movie is a fateful adaptation in terms of story with some minor changes made. For one, Bond's introduction and meeting with Sylvia trends was all invented for the cinema. The same holds for the character of Professor Dent who does not show up in the novel and the much bigger interactions Bond has with the character of Miss Tarot who barely plays a part in the novel's counterpart. While Felix Leiter does show up in the Bond novels, he doesn't show up in this novel and I think that kind of makes more sense. The poisonous centipede was of course changed to a tarantula for a better cinematic appeal and the whole aspect of Dr. No's bird factory was dropped too. They made Crab Key more centered around the radioactivity and the Cuban missile crisis. Meaning his doom in the nuclear reactor instead. The biggest shame to me if the movie was the obstacle course of Dr. No to test Bond's human endurance was not a part of the movie but instead just a convenient escape route that Bond just happened to come across. The movie also added that car chase with the free blind mice all of which weren't in the novel. Ursula Andrus of course cemented herself as the quintessential Bond girl and is probably a lot more memorable to her source material counterpart. I think both the movie and the novel are highly enjoyable with the movie having Sean Connery as the biggest appeal and the selling point to watch the film but the novel offers a lot more depth and suspense so in that area the novel would win out for me. So I don't know you could really argue for both. It's kind of a tie. So upon revisiting Dr. No recently I can only come to the conclusion that I still find the novel an immensely enjoyable read as I remembered it being. I also find that this novel is the fastest-paced one yet reading them in order. First I praised from Russia with love for taking the time to set up the villain scheme and not having Bond appear until a third into the book. Here I do praise Dr. No for being written like a fast-paced thrill ride. You can simply pick this up and start turning the pages. A couple of pages in and Strangways is killed a couple of chapters in and Bond received his mission and is off to Jamaica. It's a very accessible book to new readers. If Ginger doesn't sit around and waits to appear either it's immediately present upon Bond's arrival and it's just written in a way to be consumed very quickly. The Bond books have the reputation of being dark and gritty but here you can truly see the larger-than-life aspect and its cinematic appeal being borne too. Dr. No's megalomania's lust for power and his extraordinary villain lair a beautiful naked woman showing up in an erotic tropical setting the constant lurking of danger and of course Fleming's eye for detail. You can tell this man lives in Jamaica himself describing places and nature and wildlife that just screams being written from experience. I think Fleming definitely excels in a setting he's familiar with. So overall Dr. No is another Fleming novel I would rank in the top half of his books. There is very little wrong with it and very much to simply be enjoyed.