“James Bond suddenly knew that he was tired. Then the soul-erosion by high gambling-a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension-becomes unbearable, and the senses awake and revolt from it. “The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. The novel opens in a similar way to how the later films based on the soon-to-be iconic character of 007 have, by thrusting the reader right into a tense and dangerous scenario.Įxcept here, it is Fleming’s words, rather than images and sounds, that are used to brilliantly conjure the scene in the mind’s eye: On April 13, 1953, Ian Fleming‘s Casino Royale - the British author’s first novel overall, as well as the first in his James Bond series of spy thrillers - was published in the U.K. Book dealer Jon Gilbert poses with a first edition copy of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale at a 2012 antiquarian book fair in London.