Thunderball

Thunderball is one of the best Bond novels that I have read. It features an exciting, intriguing plot that unfolds naturally (sometimes the plots can feel a little unreal). The characters all come alive, and I found myself continually wishing that my subway journey was a little longer so I could read more. It's really everything that you expect from a Bond story: action, intrigue, romance... It also has one of the best starts as Bond gets sent to a health farm by M. I would thoroughly recommend this story, and it certainly is one that I would want to read again.

Women are meticulous and safe drivers, but they are very seldom first-class. In general Bond regarded them as a mild hazard and he always gave them plenty of road and was ready for the unpredictable. Four women in a car he regarded as the highest potential danger, and two women nearly as lethal. Women together cannot keep silent in a car, and when women talk they have to look into each other's faces. An exchange of words is not enough. They have to see the other person's expression, perhaps in order to read behind the other's words or to analyse the reaction to their own. So two women in the front seat of a car constantly distract each other's attention from the road and four women are more than doubly dangerous, for the driver not only has to hear, and see, what her companion is saying, but also, for women are like that, what the two behind are talking about.

What's the good of other people's opinions? Animals don't consult each other about other animals. They look and sniff and feel. In love and hate, and everything in between, those are the only tests that matter. But people are unsure of their own instincts. They want reassurance. So they ask someone else whether they should like a particular person or not. And as the world loves bad news, they nearly always get a bad answer - or at least a qualified one.