- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (3 Jun 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0141187549
- ISBN-13: 978-0141187549
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 237,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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A sensational imagination (Sunday Times )
Instructive and entertaining (Cyril Connolly ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Instructive and entertaining (Cyril Connolly ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
Shattered by the death of his wife at the hands of Blofeld, Bond has gone to pieces.
Unwilling to accept the loss of one of his best men, M sends Bond to Japan for one last, near-impossible mission. But Japan proves to be Bond's downfall, leadinghim to a mysterious residence known as the 'Castle of Death' where he encounters an old enemy revitalized. All the omens suggest that this is the end for the British agent, and for once, even Bond himself seems unable to disagree.
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The geisha called 'Trembling Leaf', on her knees beside James Bond, leant forward from the waist and kissed him chastely on the right cheek. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The geisha called 'Trembling Leaf', on her knees beside James Bond, leant forward from the waist and kissed him chastely on the right cheek. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the second of Ian Fleming's novels that I have re-read before reading "Devil May Care", the latest Bond Novel, by Sebastian Faulks under licence from the Fleming Estate.
It is, I think, my favourite Bond. Bond goes to Japan on a mission to help restore his self confidence after the death of his bride at the end of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and a couple of bungled missions thereafter. He has been stripped of his "double - 0" number but allocated a "diplomatic" one - 7777 - instead. He comes up first against Tiger Tanaka, head of the Japanese secret service and then, in an attempt to prove to Tiger that the British are a race still to be respected, against a mysterious botanist who turns out to be none other than his old enemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The scenario - a garden designed to entice hundreds of suicidal Japanese to their deaths - is perhaps the most fantastical of all Flemings' plots.
Tiger provides Fleming with a mouthpiece to express his angst about contemporary British society and its place in the world: "Bondo-san, I will now be blunt with you...it is a sad fact that I, and many of us in positions of authority in Japan, have formed an unsatisfactory opinion about the British people since the war. You have not only lost a great Empire, you have seemed almost anxious to throw it away with both hands...when you apparently sought to arrest this slide into impotence at Suez, you succeeded only in stage-managing one of the most pitiful bungles in history. (Tiger's English is impeccable - he went to Oxford, and spied against Britain, before the war!) Further, your governments have shown themselves successively incapable of ruling and have handed over effective control of the country to the trade unions, who appear to be dedicated to the principle of doing less and less work for more money. This feather-bedding, this shirking of an honest day's work, is sapping at ever-increasing speed the moral fibre of the British, a quality the world once so much admired. In its place we now see a vacuous, aimless horde of seekers-after-pleasure-gambling at the pools and bingo, whining at the weather and the declining fortunes of the country, and wallowing nostalgically in gossip about the doings of the Royal Family and your so-called aristocracy in the pages of the most debased newspapers in the world."
What would Tiger Tanaka and Fleming think of Britain today, I wonder? Given that Fleming was something of a hedonist himself, one might consider him ill-qualified to make such a judgement in any case. One wonders, moreover, with the best will in the world, the extent to which the Japanese ever admired the British.
Bond roars with laughter at Tiger's analysis - but then goes on to risk life and limb to prove him wrong and so to win vital cooperation over intelligence in the Far East. In so doing he meets the lovely pearl-diver Kissy Suzuki, loses his memory as the result of injuries on his mission but is nursed back to health and subsequently presented with a "pillow book" by her - to which he memorably replies "Kissy, take off your clothes and lie down there. We'll start at page one." - but earns a premature obituary.
This is Bond at his best - valiantly struggling to maintain Britain's status in a changing world, having quite a lot of fun along the way, but knowing, in his heart of hearts, that he needed something more.
It is, I think, my favourite Bond. Bond goes to Japan on a mission to help restore his self confidence after the death of his bride at the end of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and a couple of bungled missions thereafter. He has been stripped of his "double - 0" number but allocated a "diplomatic" one - 7777 - instead. He comes up first against Tiger Tanaka, head of the Japanese secret service and then, in an attempt to prove to Tiger that the British are a race still to be respected, against a mysterious botanist who turns out to be none other than his old enemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The scenario - a garden designed to entice hundreds of suicidal Japanese to their deaths - is perhaps the most fantastical of all Flemings' plots.
Tiger provides Fleming with a mouthpiece to express his angst about contemporary British society and its place in the world: "Bondo-san, I will now be blunt with you...it is a sad fact that I, and many of us in positions of authority in Japan, have formed an unsatisfactory opinion about the British people since the war. You have not only lost a great Empire, you have seemed almost anxious to throw it away with both hands...when you apparently sought to arrest this slide into impotence at Suez, you succeeded only in stage-managing one of the most pitiful bungles in history. (Tiger's English is impeccable - he went to Oxford, and spied against Britain, before the war!) Further, your governments have shown themselves successively incapable of ruling and have handed over effective control of the country to the trade unions, who appear to be dedicated to the principle of doing less and less work for more money. This feather-bedding, this shirking of an honest day's work, is sapping at ever-increasing speed the moral fibre of the British, a quality the world once so much admired. In its place we now see a vacuous, aimless horde of seekers-after-pleasure-gambling at the pools and bingo, whining at the weather and the declining fortunes of the country, and wallowing nostalgically in gossip about the doings of the Royal Family and your so-called aristocracy in the pages of the most debased newspapers in the world."
What would Tiger Tanaka and Fleming think of Britain today, I wonder? Given that Fleming was something of a hedonist himself, one might consider him ill-qualified to make such a judgement in any case. One wonders, moreover, with the best will in the world, the extent to which the Japanese ever admired the British.
Bond roars with laughter at Tiger's analysis - but then goes on to risk life and limb to prove him wrong and so to win vital cooperation over intelligence in the Far East. In so doing he meets the lovely pearl-diver Kissy Suzuki, loses his memory as the result of injuries on his mission but is nursed back to health and subsequently presented with a "pillow book" by her - to which he memorably replies "Kissy, take off your clothes and lie down there. We'll start at page one." - but earns a premature obituary.
This is Bond at his best - valiantly struggling to maintain Britain's status in a changing world, having quite a lot of fun along the way, but knowing, in his heart of hearts, that he needed something more.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Following on from On Her Majesty's Secret Service (unlike the film which precedes it), this novel sees Bond at his weakest following the tragic death of his bride of only a few hours. On what may well be his final mission he is forced to undertake a highly secret mission for the Japanese which inadvertantly gives him the chance to settle some old scores. This is a strong follow up to the previous novel and shows Japan in very high detail, yet never once sounding like a travelogue. This book is far superior to the film of the same name and is highly recommended.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
You Only Live Twice picks up where On Her Majesty's secret service finishes.
Bond is somewhat broken in a melancholic state after the violent and sudden murder of his wife on their wedding day.
When MI6 gets wind on sinister goings on in the far east Bond is eventually sent to Japan by M in a last chance mission to redeem himself from his present state of personal decay "either shape up or get out". Embarking on one of his most deadliest of adventures perhaps the most deadliest of all, which leads to a final showdown with his most deadliest of foes in what will be a fatal encounter.
You only live twice is a fast based thriller Flemings penultimate complete Bond novel and the last that was published in his life time. Perhaps Flemings last great work.
It has all the travelogue detail which Fleming always did well in a style that entices the reader into a new and exotic world , formidable villains ,bold women and adventure are a plenty the plot moving at a break neck speed to a suspenseful climax. Fleming writes with a hard boiled style yet has time to reflect on the psychological effects that all the death ,sex and violence is having on an ageing Bond. The James Bond of Fleming's books is a more believable character unlike in many of the famous Bond movies
. The Psychological effects that the death of Bonds wife has on him was not explored in any meaningful detail in the original film series. As a viewing of Diamonds are Forever 1971 which followed OHMSS 1969 in the film series will show.
Well worth getting if you have read a few of the earlier Bond novels since this one seems to bring the Bond series full circle in my opinion to what should have been a fitting end to the Bond saga.
Although the Bond franchise has been milked ,milked and continues to be milked for all it is worth today. Various writers have subsequently done duties on their typewriter writers as varied as Kingsly Amiss and Sebastian Faulks,each has put in a shift on the now mandatory assembly line of Bond books.
However Nobody did it better then Fleming
Bond is somewhat broken in a melancholic state after the violent and sudden murder of his wife on their wedding day.
When MI6 gets wind on sinister goings on in the far east Bond is eventually sent to Japan by M in a last chance mission to redeem himself from his present state of personal decay "either shape up or get out". Embarking on one of his most deadliest of adventures perhaps the most deadliest of all, which leads to a final showdown with his most deadliest of foes in what will be a fatal encounter.
You only live twice is a fast based thriller Flemings penultimate complete Bond novel and the last that was published in his life time. Perhaps Flemings last great work.
It has all the travelogue detail which Fleming always did well in a style that entices the reader into a new and exotic world , formidable villains ,bold women and adventure are a plenty the plot moving at a break neck speed to a suspenseful climax. Fleming writes with a hard boiled style yet has time to reflect on the psychological effects that all the death ,sex and violence is having on an ageing Bond. The James Bond of Fleming's books is a more believable character unlike in many of the famous Bond movies
. The Psychological effects that the death of Bonds wife has on him was not explored in any meaningful detail in the original film series. As a viewing of Diamonds are Forever 1971 which followed OHMSS 1969 in the film series will show.
Well worth getting if you have read a few of the earlier Bond novels since this one seems to bring the Bond series full circle in my opinion to what should have been a fitting end to the Bond saga.
Although the Bond franchise has been milked ,milked and continues to be milked for all it is worth today. Various writers have subsequently done duties on their typewriter writers as varied as Kingsly Amiss and Sebastian Faulks,each has put in a shift on the now mandatory assembly line of Bond books.
However Nobody did it better then Fleming
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Cheap shoddy paper cover
Great book, shame about the cheap shoddy paper cover.
Was hoping that the cover would be the same as the preview, but it is just a thin paper cover. Read more
Was hoping that the cover would be the same as the preview, but it is just a thin paper cover. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Sagacity
Travelogue With A Spy Story Attached
If you go into You Only Live Twice (YOLT) expecting hidden volcano bases and 'Little Nellie' then you will be very disappointed. Read more
Published 14 months ago by C. Green
What an odd book in the Fleming canon
This is an enjoyable book in the Bond series and is the final of the so-called Blofeld trilogy. It's an interesting insight into Bond - but the plot is rather weird (even for this... Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2008 by Marcus G
There is a definite sense of madness about this odd book
As is usual with Bond, the book is totally different from the film. It's set in Japan, Tiger Tanaka remains, and Blofeld's the villain, but that's about it. Read more
Published on 29 Dec 2006 by Greshon
Not quite the film legend
Bondo-san? Sounds like a Japanese brand adhesive.
I've seen several of the 007 films with a wide range of actors - Connery, Moore, and Brosnan. Read more
Published on 22 Jun 2004 by Joseph Haschka
The best Bond by far
Burned out Bond is sent to Japan to negotiate with the Japanese secret service for the product of Japanese code decrypts. Read more
Published on 2 April 2001
Bond's life changes when he is given an impossible mission.
After the murder of his wife Bond has gone to pieces. And even M is contemplating firiing Bond. But M gives Bond one last chance. And the mission is considered impossible. Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2000
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