Dr No
by Ian Fleming

Review by Maarja-Liisa Rämson

A famous agent of SIS, James Bond, have lost his strength and self-confidence after terrible experience with a woman of the Soviet Union. He got a new change. Is he able to conclude the secret of Crab Key, the small mysterious island near Jamaica? Does he get back his strength and fortitude?

I`m going to make English exam soon and I was looking for a book for increasing my vocabulary and improving the listening skills. If I found this book, it was clear to me that I want to work with it. The best is that the book is especially for English learners and contains CDs. To my surpise I found very useful explantations of some important words and expressions from glossary of the book.

As I`m Estonian, the Russian revolution and occupation have touched my country and nationality quite painfully. Although I`m young and don`t remember that time, I`m interested in history. The book is written at difficult time and it is discernible.

About the story

The book begins with very strange and mysterious murder case in Kingston. Three (our four) Afro-Chinese men aroused interest and through the characters of them there are depicted quite typical but still unique mystery of murder. If James Bond got hold of his new case, I was surprised because it was connected to birds. I thought that why the SIS deals with birds and sanctuaries. But agent 007 saw something behind it. So he flew to Jamaica.

Reading the book I realized that author tried to depict James Bond as a good friend. He understood that in spite of his professionalism he needed somebody next to him who was informed about local life. His prolonged friend Quarrel was perfect man for that.

Quite expected part of the stories about James Bond is beautiful women. As he arrived to Crab Key, he met a girl on the beach. If I read this part of the book, my first sense was the girl must be Dr No`s girlfriend or his assistant. And her story about collecting seashells was initially incredible. But they had a trouble together soon and Bond understood that Honey Rider, the girl from the beach, wasn`t with Doctor Julius No. In general, I think that Bond had been in trouble with women during all his life. It was a Russian woman who injured him after that he became seriously ill. It was Annabel Chung, the “reporter” of The Daily Gleaner who made pictures and collected information about Bond and his friend Quarrel.

In my opinion, the Dragon which is described in the middle of the book, is the symbol of the fear which is caused by bad things happening on Crab Key. And Quarrel`s horrible death painted a perfect picture in front of the reader`s eyes about horror and eeriness.

At the end of the book Bond had to overcome hard obstacles. While I read the writing, I understood that Bond had to show his endurance and mental strength. It was very hard for him but through the character author showed his faithfulness of the country.

About Macmillan Readers

Reading the book by Macmillan Readers was really considerable language experience for me. Althouhg in places it seemed like the story was too simplified and incredible, it offered a lot of to think about. In this regard I want to give a little advice for getting best results. I read the book through from beginning to end and wrote down some words which were difficult for me to copybook. Then I listened to CDs and used the copybook for understand everything. It helps to memorise difficult words and phrases.

Finally, I want to recommend this series of books to everyone who is interested in getting perfect English preparation using multifaceted and interesting way of learning.