My rating: 3 of 5 stars
After From Russia with Love, Dr No is a bit of a disappointment. It isn’t a bad book by any means and really is Fleming on autopilot. It reads well and almost works just as well as a travel document as an adventure story with its loving descriptions of the breathtaking scenery that Jamaica has to offer which is something that Fleming knew really well and in this book and in Live and Let Die this is really noticeable and bring to the book a realism that isn’t really matched in some of its characters.
After the Russians in the previous book this time is was the Chinese population who wanted Bond dead, in particular the Chigroes, which is not a very nice description of a people, but is often mentioned in this book, and not in a very good way either.
The main villain of the book Dr Julius No is an interesting creation and the first of the James Bond super villains but is little more than a ranting megalomaniac with lots of hired goons to do his bidding who in the end is quite easily beaten, when you think of all the stuff that he had gotten away with in earlier in the book.
Dr No was an easy read, and has some quite exciting moments but to be honest the best things in the book are the descriptions of Jamaica which probably sold more holidays to the island than any travel brochure ever written.
