Unlike the 1979 film which shares the novel’s title and proves to be an incredibly loose adaptation, Bond never leaves Earth. The opening few chapters, which see Bond go about his daily life in the offices of the Secret Service, paves the way for a more grounded novel than his previous adventure, Live and Let Die.

The insightful opening also places Bond in his London headquarters from the very start of the novel, as well as beginning with some action, allowing for a much better narrative flow than the ‘in medias res’ openings of the last couple of novels, which begin well but ultimately drag when it comes time to catch the reader up. The huge progress in technology in regards to warfare is just one of them. Published in 1955, the third of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels concerns the public fears of that point in time. Bond is testing a new machine in the shooting range, a duel with a computer opening the novel in apt fashion. Moonraker begins not with a bang, but with two bangs.