Year - 1958

Tease - The diabolical Doctor No, "You have both put me to a great deal of trouble.  Now I intend to put you to a great deal of pain."  With a fiendish smile, Doctor No taunted his prize captives - the brilliant agent James Bond and the beautiful blonde Honeychile.  The unlucky pair had discovered the closely guarded secret of Crab Key Island.  Now they must suffer the penalty.  Doctor No had planned his maze of tortures carefully.  Each was a harrowing test of endurance, strength and courage.  He'd waited a long time for the perfect victim.  Now - he had two of them.

Villain - Doctor Julius No, is half Chinese and half German.  He is six foot six inches tall.  Bald with a skull like face, jet black eyes and no eyelashes.  His heart is located on the right side of his chest.  A cruel and authoritative mouth and receding chin.  He also does not have hands, only pincers.  When he walks, he gives the appearance of gliding.

Bond-Girl - Honeychile Rider, a blonde with deep blue eyes under lashes 'paled by the sun'  Wide mouth and a jaw line that is 'determined'.  A face that fends for herself but a very naive island girl.  She has a broken nose which was caused by a former lover.  Bond compares her to Botticelli's Venus.  She never had formal schooling but has read the encyclopedia.

Minor Characters - Quarrel,  M,  Major Boothroyd,  Playdell-Smith,  The Three Blind Chigroes

Plot - Beaming radio waves to U.S. rockets to misguide them.

Highlights - Bond's night time ordeal with a deadly centipede, Crab Key, Dr. No's obstacle course and giant squid confrontation.

Opening Sentence - Punctually at six o'clock the sun set with a last yellow flash behind the Blue Mountains, a wave of violet shadow poured down Richmond Road, and the crickets and tree frogs in the fine gardens began to zing and tinkle.

Trivia - The plot of Doctor No was lifted from a failed TV project called "Commander Jamaica."  It had a character named James Gunn who was investigating an island in the Caribbean, where criminals were deflecting the paths of rockets from Cape Canaveral.

Personal Comment About This Novel - Fleming's first try at science fiction.  The story is incredibly fantastic and probably was hard to swallow back in the late 1950s.  But, it still reads very well by today's standard.  Very exciting and suspenseful.  The only Fleming novel I read in one day.  I could not put it down.

Jonathan Cape hardcover edition

Dr. Shatterhand's Scale from 1 - 10

"10"

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