You only Live Twice, the 12th and final polished, completed book of James Bond by Ian Fleming.  The Man With The Golden Gun was released after his death and before he could edit the first draft.

This book keeps with the humanity of James Bond that the movies never deal with.  At least, until Daniel Craig’s bond.  The start of the book is with how Bond is dealing with the death of his wife.  With a character like James Bond, he is not handling it very well.   M, to try and get Bond back to his old self, sends him on a what is considered an impossible mission to Japan.  Once Bond arrives in Japan, that’s where the book goes at an odd pace.

This book doesn’t have the wonderful polish that the previous novels have.  The pace is fast, almost like Ian wanted to just finish the book.  It feels like he was tired of writing about Bond.  Even the scene that Bond is captured by Blofield and then questioned/attempted executed was very short compared to his earlier novels.  This was the final book with Ernest Blofield and James finally finishes him off at the end of the book.

This is not one I would recommend to anyone to pick up for their first Bond book.  It’s a decent read and nice follow up from On Her Majestys Secret Service, there are other Bond books that would be a better read.

Movie comparison.  The movie only uses the names of the characters and the setting in Japan.  However, that is all it uses.  However, the way that Ian wrote about the Japanese and also how Tiger and Bond talk to each other, it wouldn’t be a very good movie to make without offending people.  Also, the “Castle of Death” would be very difficult to film at the time the movie was made.

Now, on to The Man With The Golden Gun.

Lopaka