18 books like Thunderball

What to read after Thunderball — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

From Russia with Love Ian Fleming · 1957 · ★ 3.9 · 187p · ≈ 6h · Moderate James Bond is marked for death by the Soviet counterintelligence agency SMERSH in Ian Fleming’s masterful spy thriller, and the novel that President John F. Kennedy named one of his favourite books of all time. SMERSH stands for ‘Death to Spies’ and there’s no secret agent they’d like to disgrace and destroy more than 007, James Bond. But ensnaring the British Secret Service’s most lethal… Shares: James Bond, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service, British

Goldfinger Ian Fleming · 1958 · ★ 3.8 · 322p · ≈ 10h · Moderate A friendly game of two-handed canasta turns out to be thoroughly crooked. And a beautiful girl ends up dead. In Bond's first encounter with Auric Goldfinger - the world's cleverest, cruellest criminal, useful lessons are learned. Shares: James Bond, Secret service, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service

You Only Live Twice Ian Fleming · 1964 · ★ 3.7 · 262p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Bond, a shattered man after the death of his wife at the hands of SPECTRE founder Ernst Stavro Blofeld, has gone to pieces as an agent, endangering himself and his fellow operatives. M, unwilling to accept the loss of one of his best men, sends 007 to Japan for one last, near-impossible mission with the hopes of bolstering his spirits. But Japan proves to be Bond's downfall, leading him to a… Shares: James Bond, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service, British

For Your Eyes Only Ian Fleming · 1959 · ★ 3.7 · 146p · ≈ 4h · Moderate "Bond watched her as she reached the edge of the tables and came up the aisle. It was hopeless. She was coming to meet someone—her lover. She was the sort of woman who always belongs to somebody else. What damnable luck! Before Bond could pull himself together, the girl had come up to his table and sat down. ‘I’m sorry I’m late. We’ve got to get moving at once. You’re wanted at the office.’ She… Shares: Secret service, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service, British

Casino Royale Ian Fleming · 1953 · ★ 3.7 · 180p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Introducing James Bond: charming, sophisticated, handsome, chillingly ruthless and licensed to kill. This, the first of Ian Fleming's tales of secret agent 007, finds Bond on a mission to neutralize a lethal, high-rolling Russian operative called simply "le Chiffre" -- by ruining him at the Baccarat table and forcing his Soviet spymasters to "retire" him. It seems that lady luck is taken with 007… Shares: Secret service, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service, British

Trigger Mortis Anthony Horowitz · 2015 · ★ 3.9 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate It's 1957 and James Bond (agent 007) has only just survived his showdown with Auric Goldfinger at Fort Knox. By his side is Pussy Galore, who was with him at the end. Unknown to either of them, the USSR and the West are in a deadly struggle for technological superiority. And SMERSH is back. The Soviet counter-intelligence agency plans to sabotage a Grand Prix race at the most dangerous track in… Shares: James Bond, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service, Great Britain

Live and let die Ian Fleming · 1954 · ★ 4.1 · 168p · ≈ 5h · Moderate Beautiful, fortune-telling Solitaire is the prisoner (and tool) of Mr Big - master of fear, artist in crime and Voodoo Baron of Death. James Bond has no time for superstition - he knows that Mr Big is also a top SMERSH operative and a real threat. More than that, after tracking him through the jazz joints of Harlem, to the Everglades and on to the Caribbean, 007 has realized that Mr Big is one of… Shares: James Bond, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service, British

Devil May Care Sebastian Faulks · 2000 · ★ 3.5 · 309p · ≈ 10h · Moderate An Algerian drug runner is savagely executed in the desolate outskirts of Paris. This seemingly isolated event leads to the recall of Agent 007 from his sabbatical in Rome and his return to the world of intrigue and danger where he is most at home. The head of MI6, M, assigns him to shadow the mysterious Dr. Julius Gorner, a power-crazed pharmaceutical magnate, whose wealth is exceeded only by… Shares: James Bond, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service, Great Britain

COLD John Gardner · 1996 · ★ 3.5 · 235p · ≈ 7h · Moderate James Bond is on a mission that will become an obsession. It starts the night Flight 229 is torn apart at Washington airport, killing 435 passengers. But the victim who matters to Bond is the Principessa Sukie Tempesta: once his lover, still his friend. The search for Sukie's killers will turn out to be the most complex and demanding assignment of Bond's career. Across continents and through… Shares: James Bond, Secret service, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service

Moonraker Ian Fleming · 1955 · ★ 3.8 · 194p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Flamboyant red cropped hair, florid skin, eyes blazing with hate— This Is the Face of Hugo Drax, The Mystery Man Behind Moonraker. A stranger, he came out of nowhere to build England the deadliest weapon ever devised by a human brain. A maniacal genius, he now holds the life of secret agent JAMES BOND in his fiendishly clever hands!! Shares: James Bond, Secret service, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service

For Special Services John Gardner · 1982 · ★ 3.6 · 296p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Bond is back on secret loan to the United States Government and primed to confront an old and deadly adversary which now has a sinister new leader and a devastating operation underway. Armed with a pair of Sykes-Fairbairn commando daggers, a new Heckler & Koch VP70 handgun and a gorgeous new partner – the daughter of his old friend Felix Leiter – Bond experiences the full deadly force of… Shares: James Bond, Secret service, Intelligence service, Great Britain

The Man from Barbarossa John Gardner · 1991 · ★ 3.9 · 303p · ≈ 10h · Moderate James Bond has been partnered with an Israeli Mossad agent, Pete Natkowitz, and assigned to work with the KGB to infiltrate a terrorist group. The group, The Scales of Justice, are demanding the trial of a suspected Nazi war criminal and each day of delay brings another death. Posing as a TV crew, Bond and the other agents attempt to discover the group's real motive. When Bond realizes that the… Shares: James Bond, Secret service, Intelligence service, Great Britain

Brokenclaw John Gardner · 1990 · ★ 3.7 · 236p · ≈ 7h · Moderate On holiday in Victoria, British Columbia, Bond becomes by intrigued Lee Fu-Chu, a half-Blackfoot, half-Chinese philanthropist who is known as "Brokenclaw" because of a deformed hand. On his return to the UK Bond is tasked to investigate the kidnapping of several scientists who have been working on a new submarine detection system. It becomes clear that Brokenclaw is behind the kidnapping and… Shares: James Bond, Secret service, Intelligence service, Great Britain

The Man with the Golden Gun Ian Fleming · 1965 · ★ 3.6 · 134p · ≈ 4h · Moderate Bond may have a license to kill, but “Pistols” Scaramanga has a talent for it. He’s a KGB-trained assassin who’s left a trail of dead British Secret Service agents in his wake. His weapon of choice? A gold-plated Colt .45. In the aftermath of his brainwashing by the Soviets, Bond is given one last chance to win back M’s trust: terminate Scaramanga before he strikes MI6 again. Traveling to… Shares: James Bond, Intelligence officers, British, Spy Fiction

Win, lose or die John Gardner · 1989 · ★ 2.7 · 319p · ≈ 10h · Moderate When M receives word that a known terrorist organisation is planning to destroy a top-secret British Royal Navy aircraft carrier – currently hosting a summit of world leaders - James Bond is returned to active duty in the Royal Navy. Promoted from Commander to Captain, Bond is expected to infiltrate the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible and identify potential sleeper agents. As he struggles to… Shares: James Bond, Secret service, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service

JamesBond in John Gardner's Scorpius John Gardner · 1988 · ★ 3.0 · 319p · ≈ 10h · Moderate James Bond investigates a cult guru, Father Valentine, and finds he has links to the mega-czar of global vice and terrorism, Vladimir Scorpius. From then on, 007 races to a confrontation with the evil genius. Shares: James Bond, Secret service, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service

The Spy Who Loved Me Ian Fleming · 1962 · ★ 3.4 · 203p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Vivienne Michel, a precocious French Canadian raised in the United Kingdom, seems a foreigner in every land. With only a supercharged Vespa and a handful of American dollars, she travels down winding roads into the pine forests of the Adirondacks. After stopping at the Dreamy Pines Motor Court and being coerced into caretaking at the vacant motel for the night, Viv opens the door to two armed… Shares: James Bond, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service, Spy Fiction

Colonel Sun Kingsley Amis · 1968 · ★ 3.4 · 255p · ≈ 8h · Moderate The life of secret agent James Bond has begun to fall into a pattern that threatens complacency... until the sunny afternoon when M is kidnapped. The action ricochets across the globe to a volcanic Greek island, where Colonel Sun Liang-tan of the People's Liberation Army of China collaborates with an ex-Nazi atrocity expert in a world-menacing conspiracy. Stripped of all professional aids, Bond… Shares: James Bond, Intelligence officers, Intelligence service, British

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