Moonraker (novel)
Moonraker is a spy fiction novel by British author Ian Fleming. It was published by Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1955 and featured a cover design conceived by Fleming. The novel’s name was used in 1979 for the eleventh official film in the Eon Productions Bond series.
About Moonraker (novel) in brief
Moonraker is a spy fiction novel by British author Ian Fleming. It was published by Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1955 and featured a cover design conceived by Fleming. The plot is derived from a Fleming screenplay that was too short for a full novel so he added the passage of the bridge game between Bond and the industrialist Hugo Drax. In the latter half of the novel, Bond is seconded to Drax’s staff as the businessman builds the Moonraker, a prototype missile designed to defend England. Unknown to Bond, Drax is German, an ex-Nazi now working for the Soviets; his plan is to build the rocket, arm it with a nuclear warhead, and fire it at London. The novel’s name was used in 1979 for the eleventh official film in the Eon Productions Bond series and the fourth to star Roger Moore as Bond. It plays on a number of 1950s fears, including attack by rockets, nuclear annihilation, Soviet communism, the re-emergence of Nazism and the \”threat from within\” posed by both ideologies. Fleming examines Englishness, and the novel shows the virtues and strength of England. Adaptations include a broadcast on South African radio in 1956 starring Bob Holness and a 1958 Daily Express comic strip. The Moonrakers rocket was to be an upgraded V-2 rocket using liquid hydrogen and fluorine as propellants; to withstand the ultra-high combustion temperatures of its engine, it used columbite, in which Drax had a monopoly. All the rocket scientists working on the project are German. Bond meets Gala Brand, a beautiful police Special Branch officer working undercover as Drax’s personal assistant.
She is captured by Drax and taken back to London. While Brand is being taken back, Bond gives chase, but is also captured by the Drax, and given a chase. The story would simply be a cover for the fact that Drax was never a British soldier and has never suffered from amnesia: his real name is Dr Graf von der derache, the German commander of a Werwolfo commando unit. He was only injured in the detonation of a bomb placed at the army field headquarters, only to be used to cover it in order to avoid retribution, although he was actually a German soldier. After a Ministry of Supply security officer working at the project is shot dead, M assigns Bond to replace him and also to investigate what has been going on at the missile-building base, located between Dover and Deal on the south coast of England . Bond also uncovers clues concerning his predecessor’s death, concluding that the man may have been killed for witnessing a submarine off the coast. Later, an attempted assassination by triggering a landslide nearly kills Bond and Brand, as they swim beneath the Dover cliffs. Bond confirms Drax’ deception and manages to turn the tables—aided by a stacked deck of cards—and wins £15,000. After extensive rehabilitation in an army hospital, he returned home to become a wealthy industrialist. After building his fortune and establishing himself in business and society.
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