I’ve been reading these books back to back and I’m loosing steam. Fleming’s prejudices were at first, while upsetting, a welcome challenge while attempting to tackle 70 year old books. Now it feels incessant, obnoxious and breaks my engagement with each novel.

The cartoonish portrayal of Soviet Russia in the books first half was amusing/entertaining, but then enter Bond with his infantilization of women and his dismissal of any culture other than white/western as backward, animal, or savage. His  adoration for a character with a history of human trafficking and sex slavery is  meant to be taken in earnest as rugged charm. It never ends. It’s exhausting.

The plot was contrived. The book moved slowly.  The last bit on the orient express was entertaining, especially the climax, but I feel like after 5 books it’s resoundingly clear that Bond is actually a pretty fucking awful spy. The main villain, when he reappears, was interesting and threatening enough to hook me back in for the last few chapters.

All in all I’m glad that

Fleming originally envisioned this as the last Bond book, so the cliffhanger ending makes it easy to let Bond die in my own head cannon.

. It gives the completionist in me an easy out from drudging through the rest of the series.