Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 240
Printing Date: August 27, 2002
Publishing house: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Sale Popularity Level: 680286
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Product Description:
James Bond travels to the Caribbean to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a secret service team. As he uncovers the astonishing truth about strange energy waves that are interfering with U.S. missile launches, he must battle deadly assassins, sexy femmes fatales, and even a poisonous tarantula. The search takes him to an exotic tropical island, where he meets a beautiful nature girl and discovers the hideout of Doctor No, a six-foot-six madman with a mania for torture, a lust to kill, and a fantastic secret to hide.
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Rated by buyers 
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I've been working my way through Ian Fleming this summer, and this book is as much fun as any of the Bond novels. Honey Rider is not the most believable of Bond girls, but the descriptions of Jamaica are marvelous.
Rated by buyers 
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Even though Dr. No was dreadfully intolerant by today's standards, had subsequent to no real plot, and neglected to include any substantial characterization, I couldn't put it down.
James Bond is confident, capable, cocky, rather sexist, and perhaps even racist in Dr. No, but the prose is written at such a fast pace, Fleming concocted such a ludicrous villain in Dr. No, and Bond prevailed in such "manly" manners, it's hard not to get engrossed in it all.
Dr. No is a brisk, leisurely read that entertains and quickens the pulse. I didn't find Fleming's writing style terribly adept, but the man knew how to hook a reader, and in the end, some would say that's all that matters.
~Scott William Foley, author of The Imagination's Provocation: Volume II: A Collection of Short Stories
Rated by buyers -
If you can get past the parts of the story about the pink spoonbills, or whatever those birds are called, you will see that Doctor No is one of the best novels in the Fleming series. The story starts off slow, but really picks up when Bond arrives on Crab Key. This is just full of adventure, great dialogue and Bond goes through one of his worst beatings in the last chapters of the novel. If you enjoyed the movie, then you will definitely like this 100 times more since it expands and tells more than the movie does, even going into why his name is Doctor No (which isn't his birth name). This is just a really good book that you won't be able to put down once the real action gets started, just be warned that there is a slow beginning.
Rated by buyers -
Although Dr. No is the sixth book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, it is also a very first in a few key ways. From a cinematic standpoint, Dr. No was the very first James Bond book adapted into a movie (with only a crude TV version of Casino Royale preceding it). In addition, it is the very first of the Bond novels to feature the villain as a title character (to be followed by Goldfinger and The Man With the Golden Gun). Most significantly, perhaps, is that Dr. No is the very first novel to feature the truly megalomanical villain; only Hugo Drax, in Moonraker, comes close, and even his ambitions fit more in the category of violent than power-hungry.
As Dr. No begins, John Strangways, Britain's man in Jamaica is killed along with his female assistant. With no bodies found, it is assumed the two ran away on a lover's tryst. In England, Bond is recovering from a near-death experience (which occurred at the conclusion of From Russia With Love). M, uncertain if Bond is up to full strength, assigns him to look into the disappearance, figuring that it will be more of a vacation than a real job. Bond is insulted, but takes on the assignment.
Bond, who last met Strangways in Live and Let Die, suspects the worst, a feeling that intensifies when people start following him and attempting to kill him. The only suspect is the mysterious Dr. No, a Chinese-German who owns most of Crab Key, an island around thirty miles from Jamaica. Before Strangways died, he had been investigating claims that Dr. No was disrupting a bird sanctuary. With the assistance of the local Quarrel (also last seen in Live and Let Die), Bond decides to sneak onto Crab Key for a closer look.
Once they get to the island, they encounter the beautiful shell-seeker Honey Rider (what would a Bond book be without a beautiful woman, usually psychologically scarred and in need of meeting the right man?); Honey will accidentally alert the guards of their presence, eventually leading to capture by Dr. No. Julius No is the epitome of a Bond villain: clever, resourceful, merciless and sadistic. Dr. No wants to have his own little kingdom and he isn't about to let Bond get in his way. Of course, he will carefully describe all his plans before leaving Bond in a deadly trap.
Yes, it is a little over-the-top and has its share of traits that would eventually become cliches of the genre, but for what it intends to be - a straightforward and simple adventure story - it succeeds well. Following on the heels of what is perhaps the best Bond book - From Russia With Love - Dr. No is Fleming continuing to be at the top of his writing game.
Rated by buyers -
Years ago when I very first read Ian Fleming's Doctor No, I loved it. Having read it again recently, I think it is still one of the best Bond stories. The characters are unforgettable - Bond's trusty companion Quarrel, the beautiful Honey Rider, and the nefarious Doctor No. The tale has a great Caribbean setting and possibly the best challenge for Bond to face, i.e., the obstacle tunnel designed by Doctor No so he can test the endurance of the human species. This is a Bond story that you should certainly not miss.
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