The Thirty-Nine Steps - John Buchan

''(Thirty-nine steps)' was the phrase; and at its last time of use it ran — '(Thirty-nine steps, I counted them — high tide 10.17 p.m.)'.'

Heyo!

I started this the other day because, well, it's for the Kindle (think I got it for free, even), Scottish, short and a classic so I thought that was enough of a reason.

Surprisingly enough, the top ratings that popped up on Goodreads were all quite negative. I won't let that sway me from my opinion, though, because I quite enjoyed this little story. It follows Richard Hannay, who has recently returned to Great Britain from South Africa and is already dreadfully bored with London and life in general. This all ends when he meets a man who tells him of an assassination about to take place and how it needs to be stopped for the good of the world. When this gentleman is then killed in Hannay's quarters, which leads to him trying to prevent the crime by himself. He heads to Scotland and continues to run from his pursues.

It's a pioneer of many things; a spy and a man-on-the-run story in one. While it's not an amazing one (though at least it was less problematic than Casino Royale), it's an enjoyable read regardless, at least if you choose to only be in for the ride and not too bothered by the things that seem incredibly improbable and the such. It's also interesting because it was written in 1915 and set in 1914, so the political climate surrounding both is very tense. Like, there are German spies in London, and I suppose at the time that would have been a thing. Very interesting stuff. The French, however, are portrayed as helpful allies, which is very... queer for a British book. It almost felt ill-fitting, but I suppose a British author, and indeed the era, would know better than me.

One of my favourite things about this is the Scottish countryside it's very happy to explore. I mean, some of the places I could actually recognise, and the rest I could imagine quite easily. On this level, the book really felt like a love song to its setting. I also enjoyed all the people he came across, for they were very interesting and the scenes with new people were quite fun. Indeed, Hannay never travels too long on his own before something happens to offer a change of pace, so I never found myself bored with this book.

Like I said, many of the things that happen are very improbable, almost to James Bond levels. It's a thing I'd recommend you're on board for if you decide to read this — save yourself some annoyance. Additionally, the book is lacking that something that would, for me, raise it to a 5/5. It's not quite great, that's all. Maybe The Great Gatsby just spoiled me into thinking that even in under 200 pages, you should accomplish greatness.

I do understand those low Goodreads reviews as well; this book can be a little bit hit-and-miss, especially if you're expecting something else. Because of this, I have a few reservations about recommending it to just anyone. Personally, I'd rate this maybe a 3.5/5 rounded up. The lost half a star is because the ending was a bit anti-climatic but I don't feel it warrants a loss of a full star so I rounded it up. Just know that it's not a full 4/5.

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this in category 5: A book about travelling in the wild. This is because it has a lot of travelling in the Scottish Highlands and the such. Cool stuff. Pretty places.

Ian Fleming - Casino Royale

‘Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles.’ He laughed. ‘But don’t let me down and become human yourself. We would lose such a wonderful machine.’


I picked this book up because I suggested to J we should read it for our book club - we had both been meaning to. You might want to know that I'm not a huge James Bond fan myself, but I do enjoy the movies. Some of them, anyway. Honestly, I've seen Casino Royale once and had no recollection of what happens in it. It was a pretty dark book, honestly. I don't blame them for waiting so long to turn it into a movie.

Considering the book itself, I imagine many people would be surprised by Ian Fleming's style - it's surprisingly detailed and extravagant and definitely detailed, if that wasn't already clear. There were more casual French phrases thrown around than I ended up managing to Google, but most of them were rather self-explanatory.

It was actually this specific line that drew me in for the thrill ride, a tenth of the book in:

'We therefore recommend that the finest gambler available to the Service should be given the necessary funds and endeavour to out-gamble this man.'

I mean, if you don't think that makes for a very interesting espionage story, I don't know what you're thinking. An MI6 double-o agent out-gambling a dangerous criminal? Yes please.

Regrettably I have to admit that towards the end especially, the book became stifling and I found it harder and harder to make one last half an hour of time to actually finish it. The casino part was over (all too quickly for my liking, but it was awesome while it was happening) and in hindsight it was easy to see the James Bond storyline. Still, it was very dark in comparison to the gadget fun adventure Bond I've grown to know, and I enjoyed that.

The book is very misogynistic and very much a work of that time, and I would recommend strongly you just look past that and pretend it never happened. I would, except it kind of gets too glaringly awful and I couldn't look past it anymore. Here are some examples I picked up just so that I wouldn't have to put into words what the problem is (Because that would just anger me, I mean, it even shows the women belong in the kitchen -mentality and James Bond getting turned on by the concept of rape, yikes):

'Bond was not amused. ‘What the hell do they want to send me a woman for?’ he said bitterly. ‘Do they think this is a bloody picnic?’

'And then there was this pest of a girl. He sighed. Women were for recreation. On a job, they got in the way and fogged things up with sex and hurt feelings and all the emotional baggage they carried around. One had to look out for them and take care of them.'

'And he knew that she was profoundly, excitingly sensual, but that the conquest of her body, because of the central privacy in her, would each time have the tang of rape. Loving her physically would each be a thrilling voyage without the anticlimax or arrival.'

'This was just what he had been afraid of. These blithering women who thought they could do a man’s work. Why the hell couldn’t they stay at home and mind their pots and pans and stick to their frocks and gossip and leave men’s work to the men.'

Also, an incredibly interesting thought on history and the way ideologies work, if you're into that - I mean, this was the beginning of Cold War and it shows.

'Today we are fighting communism. Okay. If I’d been alive fifty years ago, the brand of conservatism we have today would have been damn near called communism and we should have been told to go and fight that. History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.’'

Something I don't think Casino Royale handled very well was giving James Bond an actual personality. It was hard for me to understand why he made certain decisions throughout the whole thing, and that's just kind of weird. It does however provide him with a solid, dark past - making a good ground for more books to follow.

Shortly; good writing, misogynistic writing, interesting plot that didn't carry through. Probably won't read the rest of these but no regrets having read this one. I think I'll watch the movie again, because I think it might actually work better when you don't have to listen to all of Bond's mostly awful thoughts. Solid 3/5.

PS. I never knew James Bond Ian Fleming was also Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Ian Fleming. Weird stuff.

PPS. I went back and upped my rating of The Last Wish to a solid 5/5. I definitely loved that book.