You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming - A James Bond Book Review

-

 I'm reading an Ian Fleming Bond novel again. I collect James Bond, in case you didn't know. Let's get into it. 


This is the book after Bond's wife is killed. Bond is sent on a diplomatic mission to Japan, for intel that they need and don't want someone else to know they have. This leads into a mission to kill a man who created a poison garden. The suicides were allowed to freely walk in and die to piranhas and poisonous trees. Japan is getting a little sick of this, so Bond is sent in to kill the scientist who did this. It turns out to be Blofeld, who killed Bond's wife in the previous book. He becomes Japanese for a while, does his mission and strangles Blofeld, then loses his memory. 

This is where the end gets a little weird. The clam diver he stayed with liked him and decided to lie to him. She made sure his old life was not brought up and kept him under a cloud of amnesia, convincing him he was her lover and a fisherman. The end of the book implies he went to seek out his old life, that she knows the game is up. But by now, the service is convinced he died because she hid him from investigators coming to find him. It ends with him going to find out more about a word he found. Also, our clam diver is pregnant and he doesn't know. That means Bond has a child. 

Overall Thoughts

Okay, so this was the least sexist Bond novel. Strangely, the Japanese culture was more sexist than Bond. The ending, though, it bothered me a little. I'm assuming the next book intro will explain what happened, but I want to know more. Did the service find him when he left the island? I'm sure they did, but we don't know until the next book, which I suppose is the point. Five stars. A good Bond novel with less sexism than usual from Fleming. 


***********************************************************************************

 
Morrow is released! This novella is the story of two women writing a family history for the Morrow family. They find a nasty secret while researching. Will they survive their internship? 

Sign up for my newsletter at this link to get a free first chapter. All you need to plug in is your email. You'll also get a free first chapter of Wrenville, my first novel. 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Laurel and Hardy - a brief history

-
Image
 Laurel and Hardy are a pair of comedians I grew up watching, despite the fact they were popular in the 1930s. My dad loves their work and that era of film. Today let's look at their history. You might learn something new. I know I did. Courtesy of Fanpop Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy didn't start out working together. Stan was more of a writer than an actor and Oliver was working as primarily an actor.  Stan Laurel (Stan Jefferson) was the understudy to Charlie Chaplin in 1910. While working in Vaudeville he changed his last name to Laurel. He found success in 1920 while doing comedy, then went more into writing and directing. Hal Roach Studios signed him in 1925 and he was supposed to be more behind the camera than in front.  Oliver Hardy (Norvell Hardy) took the name Oliver in tribute to his late father. He managed a movie theatre in 1913 and said "why not" to acting. He was in 200 short films for various studios. Hal Roach signed him in 1926.  They began working t...
Read more

One by One by Ruth Ware - A book review

-
Image
 This book was an easy five stars. It's one of those books where you're just waiting for something to go wrong. The tension is already piano-wire tight and only tightens by the end. I didn't predict the murderer until the end setup made it obvious and said it outright. Let's get into it.  We have two perspectives in this whole book, both women. It reminded me of The Hitchcock Hotel or a modern twist on an Agatha Christie novel. Ware's a modern Agatha Christie. If you like Christie's stuff, you'll love this. Basic plot, a bunch of coworkers (all rich and kind of hipster) get snowed in after an accident on the slopes. As the lights go out, the heat wanes, and everyone gets more and more upset, things get worse. Someone is now dead in the chalet and they don't know who did it. Worse, help has not come, yet.  Spoiler territory So, you want to be surprised by the culprit? Don't read on just yet. It was a twist that made sense and yet, took me by surprise....
Read more

eye contact

-
Image
If you know me personally you know I'm not one to make a lot of eye contact. It's an intimate thing, even between friends. Let's talk about eye contact and what it really means to get eye contact.  Courtesy of Glam Some people have issues with eye contact not being made. For those people, I'd say that you've not had much experience with introverts. (Don't say shy to an introvert, by the way.) Please don't label people who make less eye contact with flirting either (cough cough, elementary school). Maybe they just don't want the intimacy of making long periods of eye contact. It isn't an easy answer. While some people won't make eye contact while lying, others can look you straight in the eye and lie to you. It depends entirely on who you are talking to and their personality.  Personality aside, eye contact means a lot. It can mean sexual attraction, hatred, lying, shame, and lots of other emotions that the body language attached will clarify. Add...
Read more