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.