“Moonraker” widens as it goes, taking Bond from a duel at the bridge table to a rocket project with something to hide. In this third novel of the series Bond is attached to the staff of the industrialist Hugo Drax, who is building a missile meant to defend England. It is the ending, some readers say, that wins them over: they did not see it coming.

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About the book

Moonraker is the third novel by the British author Ian Fleming to feature his fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond. 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. Uniquely for a Bond novel, Moonraker is set entirely in Britain, which raised comments from some readers, complaining about the lack of exotic locations.

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Where the score comes from

The sources average 7.4 across 143 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 49% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Spy & espionage average of 7.6. That is how 7.5 comes out.