From Russia with Love is Ian Fleming's fifth novel in the James Bond series. Fleming based the plot of book on the cold-war situation in the 1950s and took inspiration from his ride on Orient Express as he was returning from Istanbul.
A possible major problem with the book is the weak plot. Soviet Intelligence tries to involve Bond in a sex scandal with a cryptography corporal from their own Intelligence. The plan could falter at multiple places. Bond, who could have taken a different route than the train and shortened the journey, instead decides to continue on the train unnecessarily jeopardizing the mission. Tatiana Romanova, who is from cryptography, ironically is fooled by the fake Spektor. The sub-plot of Bulgarian gangs trying to kill Kerim doesn't add anything to main plot and ends up stretching the plot as it is.
Characters are mostly static and one-dimensional. Bond, shows some human emotions in this book, after Fleming faced much criticism for making Bond unresponsive to fear or guilt. Romanova is merely a honey trap and despite being a cryptography corporal in an intelligence known for their strong training seems to be incapable of anything. She looks up to Bond for approval, hardly ever expresses her own views, and seems to have no views at all. She is, more or less, an arm-candy, and is just an accessory to taint Bond. Kerim is cold-blooded killer, with no conscience or empathy. He feels entitled to treat women badly. M is as irresponsible as Bond, who instead of following a logical route, encourages him to continue on the train. Klebb and Grant seem to be typical villains with no explanation to their sadism. All the other characters except for Kronsteen, do not seem to think logically.
Another commonly occurring motif in the narrative is the stereotyping and misogynistic attitudes in general. Russians are portrayed as non-bathing, scheming people and, except for Tatiana, every character fits into this portrayal. The Turkish are described as blood hungry brutes who want to be treated badly. This also brings on point the problem of misogynistic attitude of the author. Women are portrayed either as good and naive or bad and cunning. Tatiana, who is supposedly the love interest of Bond is mostly called as the girl. Apart from being the bait, she doesn't play any part in the plot. At more than one point, women are compared to animals and Darko even confesses to keep a woman chained in his house, to which Bond shows no disgust or any other emotion.
