A mathematics professor, who specializes in the study of “nothing”, is given millions of dollars to assist a villain in breaking into Fort Knox. What is supposed to be an hilarious caper ensues (and the professor totes along his one-legged dog who talks to him in dreams).

The author probably amused himself writing this spoof that is full of word play. Unfortunately, I was terribly disappointed by this book, which I found pretentious, self-indulgent and trying way too hard to be clever. I thought that “Trees” was brilliant and I also enjoyed “So Much Blue”, but this book didn’t appeal to me at all. Every time the protagonist started talking about “nothing”, my eyes glazed over, and that happened a lot. 2.5 stars

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher.

Percival Everett is an actual genius. I have no attachment to James Bond whatsoever, but it makes no difference in the enjoyment of this book. Everett is clearly having a blast here, and is so playful and inventive in the language. I have recommended this book to several people, and they've been blown away by it. It's a hell of a ride!

I was given a NetGalley widget for this one a year ago and I just got around to reading it and dangit it was so good. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have consumed this wildly relevant fictional tale, which felt not at all fictional, more like historical fiction, due to the times. The cover initially was what drew me in, but I'm so thankful to have stuck with it because the outcome was magical. I always love listening to audiobooks and when they sweep me off my feet, I'm just utterly captivated!

How does one write a book about nothing? Percival Everett does it. He is a genius satirical writer. The way he writes about nothing is impressive. The premise of the novel: a socially awkward mathematician bumps around life with his talking, mobility challenged dog. The book is a satire of the James Bond novel of the same name. I am not familiar with the story but enjoyed this novel.

I was given an audiobook copy of the novel via Netgalley. The audio is wonderfully read by Amir Abdullah.

I am really gaining an understanding of just how satirical Percival Everett’s writing is and I find it thoroughly enjoyable! I found Dr. No to be more comical (pun intended) than funny. It reads like a cheesy action movie – and this is a good thing. Black billionaire, John Sill, is extremely misguided as he is intent on trying to convince everyone he is the biggest and badest villain of all time. A mathematician by the name of Professor Wala Kitu studies the topic of nothingness… a literal Dr. No. So, it’s only appropriate that he is approached by John Sill to help him find “nothing,” and pays him handsomely for the task.

The fact that this book centers around the villain trying to get his hands on “nothing” to take over the world is perfection. And the way that Percival Everett writes and develops these characters is genius! This book has it all - eccentric characters, high speed chases, submarines, kidnappings, a compound in an exotic location and a pool of sharks - all things you would find in a James Bond movie. This book was just so good!

An parody of James Bond novels, the super-villain in this story is a Black billionaire who feels compelled to get revenge on America for the racist police officers who killed his parents. The subject of his focus is Nothing - a great Black mathematician and professor.
This book is filled with pun after pun and never-ending wordplay concerning that "nothing"; at times, they were funny and other times I wished for something more to grasp on to.
I will read more by Everett but this didn't quite hit the mark for me.

DNF at 57%.

I tried to push through because this book really isn't very long - but I was dreading it more than either the book or I deserves. It just isn't my style of silly and I wasn't having fun with it.

Amir Abdullah does a good job with the narration though!

A brilliant, (and I think) loving satire on the James Bond ouevre. Everett has once again climbed to the top of literary peaks to write a novel that is much funnier and less grim than his previous couple books. It does well to combine his sardonic humor with classical allusions and deep references.

Nothing propels the plot forward and nothing holds your attention but you keep reading (and laughing) to see just how much nothing is in store for Wala Kitu and really nothing compares.

This book was difficult for me primarily since it was an audiobook, I think if I had read the book it would have been easier to follow. Another problem I had was I have never seen a James Bond film and missed the humor.

Before embarking on Dr. No I had only read The Trees by Percival Everett. I had assumed (wrongly as it turns out) that he was a very politically engaged author with a great capacity to package his messages in extremely funny and readable plots.

After reading Dr. No I think it may be the other way around: he is a brilliant humorist who writes for the pure pleasure of having fun and the political messages are of secondary importance. And there is nothing with that. While reading Dr. No I had a smile on my face 90% of the time.

It is one of those books that you should go into without knowing too much of the plot. That being said, I think I still don’t have much of a clue what it was all about – it was much ado about nothing.

I listened to an audio version and the narration (accents, jokes) was excellent.

Format: audiobook ~ Narrator: Amir Abdullah
Content: 4 stars ~ Narration: 5 stars

I wanted to read The Trees first. But my first Everett's book was Dr. No, and I had fun.

Wala Kitu is a brilliant mathematics professor. He is an expert on nothing. Seriously, his area of expertise is nothing. Even his name, Wala, means nothing in Tagalog. But Kitu in Swahili means something. John Sill is a very rich supervillain who thinks Wala can help him with his evil plan. That is to steal nothing.

There’s a lot of wordplay on nothing. I assume the author had a great time writing this. But some might not like the repetition of the same word - nothing. I liked the first half best, where some would say nothing is going on. The second half is faster-paced.

Dr. No is also the title of the first James Bond movie, made in 1962. Although, the plot doesn’t resemble this movie. Dr. No is a parody of the whole James Bond series. But for me, much more interesting than that was how you can write a complete novel based on nothing. There it is again.

An author I will read again.

Thanks to Tantor Audio for the ALC and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.

There is nothing to say about this novel that will explain the plot, the humor, the premise, simply nothing. The main character is a math professor, who professes to be an expert in nothing, so you will think about nothing A LOT while reading and contemplating the meaning of, well, nothing. A little like an Abbot and Costello "who's on first?" routine - it's quite enjoyable once you get into the rhythm of the prose and the many cultural and current events references.

Maybe Jon Snow who is an expert at knowing 'Nothing' would have better understood and enjoyed the running joke about everything 'Nothing' in this book.

Or maybe he wouldn't 🤷‍♀️? Who knows.

I definitely struggled. The joke got too long and repetitive to cease being enjoyable. It was amusing until it wasn't anymore.

The audiobook was only over 6 hours long but it took me a few days to finish it. It also seemed every character was in love with using expletive language 😶.

I received an audio Arc from the audiobook publisher RB Media/Tantor Audio and the author via NetGalley.

Everett definitely has style and humour and uses both to effect here. Nothing becomes the subject that propels this story forward. It is the idea behind the antagonist's motivation and the concept that defines our main character's life.

I was more amused than immersed in this story and for me that is a let-down. The further the story unfurling is the more the plot falls apart, it's as if all the ruminations on 'nothing' becomes the focal point and the characters are not interesting enough to keep me invested.

It was interesting to identify the influence of Fleming's Bond novels as they appear all throughout the novel, from how the villain is molded, his seeking of intelligent persons to carry out his plans, the feds surveilling, the country and lair hopping, the subs, etc. It's clear that Everett had fun writing thus and used free reign in delving into making 'nothing' everything.

Dr. No is a great thrilling and funny novel. I loved the concept of going into Fort Knox to steal nothing. The book moves along quickly in the beginning, then slows down a bit,

Wala Kitu, the world renowned professor of nothing, gets hired by a James Bond-esque supervillain to steal nothing from Fort Knox.

The first half of this is honestly incredible. Sharp satire, fast pacing, all around absurd, and genuinely very funny. Unfortunately, I think the second half is a bit weak, mostly because I didn't care much for the Eigen Vector subplot. The last chapter was pretty great though.

Despite some slow parts this makes for a fun afternoon.

I would die for Trigo.

I can't decide if this novel was nothing or something. The joke was definitely too long. Someone needs to count how many times the word "nothing" is used. :))


Despite my mixed feelings, it's no doubt that Percival Everett is a gifted writer who can take a word and squeeze every meaning out of it.

I must say that I don't remember Bond books trying to be so funny, but this ( unofficial) reinvention of the Bond villain is a welcomed return to the less serious, more playful times of the franchise. Percival Everett shows that humor can say so much serious things about the world.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early, free copy.

I liked the idea of this, but it was just too clever for it's own good -- or maybe it just doesn't work on audio? Either way, I didn't finish it.

Dr. No is a spy novel satire with an aspiring evil villain reminiscent of the 007 novels who employs a mathematician that is an expert in “nothing.” This novel is definitely quirky with it’s philosophical musings about “nothing” and it’s obvious Everett had a lot of fun writing this one. Despite enjoying the premise of exploring the concept of “nothing,” the repetitiveness of its use was a bit much for me. Similarly, I am not fluent with spy novels, so I’m thinking some of the cleverness of the writing went over my head. Regardless of feeling this way about Dr. No, I will still read anything Percival Everett publishes because I loved The Trees so much.