Most Recent First Line - Another Bond

Thanks to my brother, I'm reading another James Bond, this time Moonraker.

"The two thirty-eights roared simultaneously."
Moonraker - Ian Fleming

I've not been overly impressed with Fleming's first lines. His books are so concise and well written that it's almost as if the first lines are afterthoughts. This one makes me think that as well. The first line could be removed, and the first paragraph would be fine without it. It's as if an editor came along and said, "Uh...Mr. Fleming? You need to add a first line with more pizzazz."

The first paragraph after the first line is:
"The walls of the underground room took the crash of sound and batted it to and fro between them until there was silence. James Bond watched the smoke being sucked from each end of the room towards the central Ventaxia fan. The memory in his right hand of how he had drawn and fired with one sweep from the left made him confident. He broke the chamber sideways out of the Colt Detective Special and waited, his gun pointing at the floor, while the Instructor walked the twenty yards towards him through the half-light of the gallery."

See, that paragraph, although not particularly "pizzazzable" is classic Fleming. The first line; not so much.