Before James Bond there was Commander Ian Fleming or '17F' as he was known during World War 2 when the young British author served as an intelligence officer in Great Britain's Naval Intelligence Department.In his startling debut novel, Ian Fleming scholar and screenwriter of upcoming movie Fleming Damian Stevenson has crafted the ultimate origin story for one of popular culture's most beloved icons.Everything that inspired the James Bond books is here: the suave and ruthless central character, his demanding boss, a bevy of beautiful femme fatales, formidable villains bent on world domination, their homicidal henchmen, exotic locations, crackling wit and all the cool cars, sleek guns, ingenious gadgets and monstrous hardware one would expect to see lavishly featured in a gonzo story about the author of Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, The Spy Who Loved Me, From Russia With Love, Diamonds Are Forever, Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, You Only Live Twice and The Man With The Golden Gun. James Bond was born from the ashes of World War 2 and The Ian Fleming Files: Operation Armada is all the more powerful for its attention to historical reality. This is no flight of fancy. The book has been lauded by Bond experts for the way in which it convincingly takes us inside Ian Fleming's mind as he executes the dangerous missions that inspired his best selling books. Damian Stevenson researched his novel for six years, interviewing hundreds of people connected to Ian Fleming's life and reading everything ever written about him. The result is an instant classic that will appeal to Bond fans and lovers of good writing everywhere.OPERATION ARMADA MISSION BRIEFJune 14, 1940.Naval Intelligence operative Commander Ian Fleming a.k.a. '17F' is parachuted into occupied France with two million pounds in gold. His mission: to negotiate the purchase of sixty battleships from the renegade head of France's Navy, the mysterious and charismatic World War I legend Admiral Darlan. Fleming is assisted in his quest by the French Resistance led by the beautiful saboteur Denise Astier.Plans go awry and 17F is forced to improvise when German Army Group B, led by the sadistic General Bock, makes a run for Admiral Darlan's ships. Hitler needs France's battle-cruisers and destroyers to mount 'Operation Sealion,' his planned invasion of Great Britain. Ian Fleming has four days to get to Darlan before the French fleet is annihilated by the Royal Navy. With General Bock on his heels, and a traitor close to home, 17F finds himself in a race with the biggest stakes imaginable.