JAMES BOND BOOKS #13 - THE LAST NOVEL: THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN

The Man With the Golden Gun is Ian Fleming's final novel. It was written in the first months of 1964 when Fleming was suffering from the effects of his serious heart ailment. His illness was the product of stress, family heredity, a life of heavy drinking, and a 70-cigarettes-a-day habit. The book was published posthumously in the spring of 1965.

With the exception of the 1966 publication of a collection of 3 previously published short stories, The Man With the Golden Gun represents the end of Fleming's James Bond books. As I read through the final chapters, I could not help but feel sadness as if I was still mourning Fleming's passing. 

Maybe I was.

By the way, as with so many Bond movies, don't expect the book to be like the movie. There is no arcade-like killing game, no laser and Nick Nack, the creepy little guy played by Hervé Villechaize.

The last real James Bond novel (I don't count the subsequent Bond novels written by others), begins with Bond, brainwashed by the Russians, attempting to kill M. After Bond is treated, M gives Bond a shot at redemption by sending him on an assignment to kill Francisco Scaramanga, the world's most dangerous assassin, also know by his weapon of choice -- a golden gun. 

The trail of Scaramanga takes Bond back to Fleming's favorite location—Jamaica, the place where Ian Fleming wrote all of the Bond books at his beloved winter home, Goldeneye. Bond ingratiates himself to Scaramanga, who calls on Bond to help with a meeting of mob figures and Russian agents. The meeting leads to a showdown between Bond and Scaramanga on a narrow gauge railroad crossing a dense swamp.

The book draws the reader in, as do all of Fleming's works. It's a fitting final adventure although it will leave the reader wanting more, just as it did 60 years ago.  It is a MUST READ for any Bond fan.

JAMES BOND BOOK #12: YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE

You Only Live Twice, the 12th Bond novel and the last of the James Bond Blofeld trilogy, was the last Bond book published during Ian Fleming's lifetime. I last read it more than 50 years ago. 

While this novel is somewhat different in structure from the previous Bond books, it is a powerful, well-written thriller that stands out in many ways. But if your only knowledge of this title comes from the movie, don't expect rockets, astronauts and a volcano spaceport. That is NOT the Ian Fleming book.

The story opens with Bond suffering debilitating depression from the loss of his wife, Tracy (On Her Majesty's Secret Service). The depression has caused Bond to botch two recent assignments and has caused M to consider removing Bond from the 00 section. Instead, he offers Bond a chance at redemption with an impossible task—one that is more diplomatic in nature than 00 section assignments. Bond is sent to Japan to negotiate for Britain's access to the highly secret Japanese code-breaking machine that reveals Chinese secret communications, something that currently is only being shared with the CIA.

When Bond arrives, his host is Tiger Tanaka, the head of Japan's secret service. Tanaka's price for the secret information is high. He wants Bond to rid Japan of its newest problem -- Dr. Shatterhand and his Garden of Death (what a great name for a 60s rock band).  Bond quickly discovers that Dr. Shatterhand is Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the mastermind behind Thunderball and On Her Magesty's Secret Service and the murderer of Bond's wife, Tracy.

The book is, at times, almost a travelogue of Japan. The major action is confined to about 20 pages, but it is not at all slow or boring. It is a fascinating look at Japan in the post-war years from a Westerner's eyes, including the world's introduction to ninjas. And, as with From Russia With Love, it ends with Bond's future in question.

The book famously includes Bond's obituary, written by M, which provides much of Bond's previously undisclosed background. It also contains perhaps a hint of Fleming's plans for a future Bond storyline—his child with the book's Japanese Bond female lead, Kissy Suzuki, who, unknown to Bond, was pregnant with his child at the end of the book.

Reading this Bond book, particularly at a time when I am simultaneously reading the new Ian Fleming biography "Ian Fleming: A Complete Man," comes with a bit of melancholy. Written in 1963, the book was published in England in the spring of 1964 as Ian Fleming was dealing with severe health issues and the legal morass of the Thunderball lawsuit. 

On August 12, 1964, five days before You Only Live Twice was published in the United States, Ian Fleming died of a heart attack after a weekend of playing golf at Royal St. George's Golf Course. He was only 56 years old. 

You Only Live Twice is a MUST READ for any Bond fan. 

JAMES BOND BOOK #11: ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE

On Her Majesty's Secret Service, published in 1963, is the second of the Blofeld trilogy. It was published to strong reviews just weeks before release of the first Bond film, Dr. No.

This book is most well known to Bond aficionados as the book where James Bond gets married. But more importantly, it marks a return of Ian Fleming to his full stride following a nearly 4-year lean stretch after Goldfinger. In the intervening years, he wrote only Thunderball, which was adapted from a failed screenplay, a short story collection (For Your Eyes Only) of previously published stories, and the failed novel from a female perspective (The Spy Who Loved Me) which was so poorly reviewed that Fleming initially prohibited a paperback version from being published. 

But On Her Majesty's Secret Service is all Fleming, and ranks among the better books in the series. Bond meets Contessa Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo, and her crime boss father, Marc-Ange Draco. It is Draco who helps Bond locate Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who is disguised and hiding in a fortress in the Alps after the failed project that was the subject of Thunderball. Now Blofeld is plotting his next attack, this one on the world's food supply with the help of 10 unwitting young women.

Bond takes the identity of a British expert in heraldry, Sir Hilary Bray (the name borrowed from one of Fleming's closest friends). Undercover, he travels to Switzerland and confronts Blofeld. Bond narrowly escapes in a tense mountain chase, one of the best chase scenes in any Bond book. He  escapes only when he is rescued by Tracy. But with the help of Draco, he mounts an attack on Blofeld's fortress. Any Bond fan knows how it ends, but for those who have spent the past decades living in a cave, I won't spoil it. 

This is Ian Fleming and James Bond at their best. A really great thriller written just on the cusp of Bond's breakout success on the big screen. It is a MUST READ for any Bond fan.

JAMES BOND BOOK #10: THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

 When I first read The Spy Who Loved Me more than 50 years ago, this was by far my least favorite of Ian Fleming's James Bond books. --  It still is.  And going back and reading through book reviews from 1962 when the book was released, my opinion was shared by reviewers of the time.

Still, it is an interesting trip back into early 1960s America. And while it is quite different than any of the other Bond books, it is still an interesting addition to the series, if for no other reason than a peek inside Ian Fleming's mind. 

The Spy Who Loved Me is written in a first person female perspective by the fictional Vivienne "Viv" Michel, a young Canadian woman. James Bond does not even make his appearance until two-thirds of the way through the book. The first half is Viv Michel telling about her life and loves which result in her being a caretaker for a night of an isolated motel in upstate New York. When a couple of thugs burst in on her, we have the stage set for Bond's appearance.

There's no saving of the world here. Just saving a young woman. 

Accounts of Fleming's life at this point more than hint that Fleming was struggling with coming up with new plots for his books. The fact that his three books after Goldfinger were a short story collection, a novelized screenplay that landed him in legal trouble ("Thunderball"), and this out-of-character book, bears evidence that indeed Fleming was struggling with the Bond plots. But the end of the book contains some fascinating reflections by Fleming on the character he has created. Those observations alone make the book worth reading.

The book was so poorly received that Fleming ordered that the book not be released in a paperback version and that it not be released in the United States. When the movie rights to the series were sold, Fleming included The Spy Who Loved Me, but with the caveat that while a film could use the title, the plot of the novel could not be used for a movie. 

Of course when the Bond book sales skyrocketed, The Spy Who Loved Me did appear in the United States and in paperback editions.

Is this book worth reading? It depends. For a casual Bond reader, this is the one I would skip. But if you are a true fan of the Bond book and want a full picture of Fleming and his character, you need to read this one, too. 

JAMES BOND BOOK #9: THUNDERBALL

This ninth book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series has a special place for me. It was the first Bond book I read when I was 13 years old.  And I was hooked on both the books and the movies. This was the first time for me to read Thunderball in well more than 50 years, and five decades later, it still holds up as a great thriller.

For movie fans, this was originally intended by Bond producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to be the first Bond movie. But costs of production and legal issues with the book caused them to look first to Dr. No. More on that later.

Much of the movie comes directly from Fleming's book. There are some modifications, but the movie is very true to the book. This is the book that introduces SPECTRE and Ernst Stavro Blofeld (in a limited roll). The super-criminal organization hijacks a NATO bomber and takes possession of two atomic bombs, demanding a ransom or the organization will explode the bombs in some undefined populated area.

Perhaps one of the reasons that the movie followed so much of the book was that Thunderball was originally written as a movie script. This gets us to the legal issue which plagued Fleming for the rest of his life.

Fleming was eager to get James Bond on the screen. His only meager success was a 1954 Climax TV production for American television of Casino Royale with Barry Nelson as an American "Jimmy" Bond and Peter Lorre as LeChiffre.  (If you want to view the 54-minute black-and-white production, it can be viewed on YouTube, CLICK HERE.

Efforts to market a Bond-style television show failed, although Fleming drafted the scripts for 13 episodes. So in 1959, Fleming sat down with Kevin McClory, a wannabe movie producer, and Jack Whittingham and created a script for a movie originally titled Longitude 78 West.  Fleming changed the title to Thunderball. When the movie effort was unsuccessful, Fleming in January-March 1960, turned the screenplay into the novel Thunderball, not crediting either McClory or Whittingham for their contribution. Undoubtedly that was a mistake, but after all, Bond was Fleming's creation. The book was published in 1961.

Kevin McClory was an Irish scoundrel who overplayed his qualifications and connections in the movie business. When Thunderball was ready to hit bookstands, and with Dr. No on tap for the movies, McClory launched nothing short of a legal vendetta in British courts against Ian Fleming. His attack was vicious. The legal fight sapped much of Fleming's energy and perhaps health. He suffered a heart attack. After years of legal fighting, during the trial, Fleming threw in the towel and settled in November, 1963, giving McClory the film rights to Thunderball while Fleming kept the book rights. The stress of the litigation is credited by many, including Fleming's wife, as adding to Fleming's health woes and causing his death. Fleming, a life-long heavy smoker with a family history of heart problems, died on August 12, 1964 at age 56.

McClory's movie rights resulted in Sean Connery's last appearance as James Bond in the remake of Thunderball, titled "Never Say Never Again." McClory stubbornly refused to part with the rights to Thunderball, hoping to launch his own Bond series. Only after McClory's death in 2006 did his heirs sell the movie rights to ION, which after more than 50 years, finally unified all the movie rights to James Bond.

BOND BOOK #8: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

For his eighth James Bond book, published in 1960, Ian Fleming took a different approach. This is not a novel at all, but rather a collection of five short stories that reveal things about Bond's character. To Bond movie fans, three of the stories carry familiar names: the titular For Your Eyes Only, From a View to a Kill and Quantum of Solace. But only one of the stories, Risico, will seem familiar to Bond movie fans.  

Here's a brief summary of the five stories in the order they appear in the book. 

From a View to a Kill. A NATO motorcycle courier is killed and his top secret papers are stolen. Bond is called in to investigate, almost like an international policeman rather than a spy. The story is intriguing in that for the first time, Bond must deal with the multi-national politics of NATO and the internal political maneuvering between M and NATO.

For Your Eyes Only. Bond becomes the instrument of M's personal revenge. A retired British Colonel and his wife living in Jamaica are ruthlessly murdered by a Batista thug in an effort to secure a Jamaica estate to which the Batista henchman can escape from Cuba in the face of the Castro revolution. But the couple were personal friends of M. He sends Bond to Canada to assassinate the killers. But Bond is surprised when the victim's grown daughter beats him to the scene.

Quantum of Solace. Perhaps the most unusual of all Bond stories. On a business trip to the Bahamas in the waning days of British rule, Bond spends an evening listening to the Colonial Governor telling a tale of an up-and-coming diplomatic officer whose life is ruined by a harlot wife. That's the entire story. There is no other action other than the post-dinner storytelling, yet I love the Hitchcock-like concluding twist. A quantum of solace, by the way, is a term of the story-telling governor's invention meaning the minimal amount of attachment between a couple that holds them together, and without which, they cannot stay together.

Risico. Attentive Bond movie fans will recognize this story as part of the plot in the movie "For Your Eyes Only." Bond is sent on an assignment to disrupt the opium supply from Italy into England. Bond is thrown into the conflicting world of smugglers Kristatos and Colombo, both of whom paint the other as the true drug smuggler. Who will Bond believe?  By the way, one of the best scenes of any Roger Moore Bond movie is taken directly from the conclusion of this short story.

The Hildebrand Rarity. Bond has completed an assignment on a South Pacific island, and now has several days before his return. A friend, Fiedel, talks Bond into joining him on an extravagant yacht owned by a wealthy American and his wife as they search for a tiny six-inch tropical fish termed Hildebrand Rarity, which has previously only been seen once. But what happens is far from a simple fishing trip.

This book contains some of Fleming's best writing. Don't expect the taut adventures of Dr. No or Goldfinger. Instead, you will find a more subtle Bond, and one well worth reading.

JAMES BOND, BOOK #7: GOLDFINGER

Released in 1959, Goldfinger may be the high-water mark in Ian Fleming's Bond books. It was the third in the great Bond trio: From Russia With Love, Dr. No and Goldfinger, which turned in to the first three James Bond films.

This is Ian Fleming at his finest. For those only familiar with the movies, all the elements from the film version of Goldfinger are there : the Miami card game, the sharp-edged golf match, the gold painted girl, Odd Job, the Silver Ghost Rolls Royce, the gangsters, Pussy Galore (although in a different role), and the Aston Martin, only a DBIII with only minor gadgets & no ejector seat. There's even an atomic bomb headed to Fort Knox. But some of these elements are not quite in the same order as in the movie.

Goldfinger -- "the man with the golden touch," as Shirley Bassey sings -- is even a more deliciously disturbing character in the book as created by Fleming than in the movie. There are a couple of places where the pacing dips due to some of Fleming's wafting into too much detail, but that is minimal.

Goldfinger indeed is a thriller that reinforces Fleming as one of the most entertaining spymaster writers ever. It is a MUST READ.

I began this by noting that it was the high water mark in Bond books.  Written in 1958 and published in 1959, Goldfinger preceded the first James Bond film by three years. Dr. No didn't come to film until 1962. But Fleming admitted that by this time, he was straining to find plots for his novels.  In fact, Goldfinger was the last truly original stand alone Bond novel for four years.

His 1960 book was For Yours Eyes Only, a collection of five James Bond short stories that included From a View to a Kill and Quantum of Solace. He worked on other projects, including a 13-episode American television pitch to CBS which was turned down, and teaming up with three other men, including Kevin McClory, to draft a movie script featuring a super-criminal organization called SPECTRE. That, too, was rejected.

In 1960, Fleming used the unproduced script and turned it into Thunderball, published in 1961. That became the source of the great legal controversy that plagued the Bond movies for more than half a century and contributed to Fleming's early death at age 56 (although Fleming's heavy smoking and drinking surely also contributed). 

Even after Thunderball, Fleming still was looking for something different. He wrote The Spy Who Loved Me, published in 1962. Told in a first person narrative by a lonely woman in the woods of New York, Bond is almost a secondary character. He does not appear until well more than halfway through the book.

But by that time, Life Magazine had published the list of JFK's favorite books, which included From Russia With Love, and the first James Bond movie was making its way to movie theaters. By then, Ian Fleming, not Goldfinger, was the man with the golden touch.