The Man with the Golden Gun [Paperback]

The late Ian Fleming wrote this final Bond thriller just before his sad passing in the early 60s. The big question was with this and "You Only Live Twice", also "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" did the early films influence changes to his original character? The answer is no. The Bond of the books remains as consistent as he was in "Casino Royale" and "Live and Let Die". The book follows neatly on from "You Only Live Twice" which I would reccommend reading first. Bond has been missing for over a year and his department have already argreed he is dead. In fact he has suffered from amensia and has become corrupted and brainwashed by the KGB. He is sent back to London in an attempt to assainate M, his boss, in a heart stopping and most suspensful opening. Yet when he fails M insists against all odds he should earn a chance to be reinstated, he sends his top man to Jamaica to elminate the millionare hit man, Paco Scaramanga. Fleming's Jmaes Bond ever faithful to his hatred of killing a man in cold blood leds 007 to pass up the perfect opportunity of expiring his enemny and is forced to take a much more dangerous path, he gets inside the man's gang, yet some of the other members are not all what they seem and Scaramanga does not trust Bond as far as he can throw him, and it is only a matter of time before he will realise that Bond is not the man he is pretending to be!
An exciting start leds to some fairly dull moments during the middle of the novel, yet it is not long before things start getting hotter again. Bond is once again portrayed wonderfully by Fleming showing us how his mind works and devealing deep in to his emotions, something that none of the actors in the films could successfully do.
The film version has a completely different plot but the sharp reader may spot one or two nods to the movie of the same name, yet they are not really linked.
As for it's faults, once again, Fleming gives a fairly plain villian, most of the time the bad guys of the books are fairly wooden and too similar to each other, not really proving equal to Bond. Yet, Scaramanga's threat is coloured by other character's description of him. It is not as good as its predessor, "You Only Live Twice" but it comes close, Bond's dreams are beautifully descriptive and so is Fleming's descripton of his female counterpart, Mary Goodnight, who is unfortunately under used in the novel.
All in all, it is a good Fleming Bond novel, there have been some better and others worse. I feel one would need to read other Bond books first to get used to the style to improve their reflections. As previously mentioned, it follows on nicely from "You Only Live Twice" a slightly better book which would make this one benefit from being read first.
However there was only one true James Bond and he lived in the 1950s and early 1960s, on the pages on Ian Flemings brilliant spy novels. This is the final outing of the World's most famous spy before Flemings health sadly failed. And it is great final bow too!

Thanks for reading!

Oft maligned as the weakest of Ian Fleming's secret agent novels (it was also his last) The Man with the Golden Gun is a thoroughly enjoyable tale of the titular mercenary `Scaramanga' and 007's seemingly suicidal mission to assassinate this thorn in the side of Secret Services around the world.
The novel is certainly unconventional compared to its predecessors; there is no plot as such and Bond, after attempting to murder his boss - M - in the opening chapter, is both irreparably damaged and at the same time stoically determined to redeem himself and continue to serve his country, no matter what the cost. This is a lean and sparing thriller, which serves its purpose as both disposable fun and poignant final chapter in the (original) career of the world's most famous spy.

The imminent arrival of "Devil May Care", the latest Bond Novel, by Sebastian Faulks under licence from the Fleming Estate, seemed a good time to re-read this, the last of Fleming's Bond novels, which was published posthumously in 1965, Fleming having died of heart failure in 1964. (Octopussy, published later, was a collection of short stories.) Fleming had almost killed Bond off at the end of "You Only Live Twice", and I wonder whether he had intended to write a further book at that stage - or whether, indeed, he had expected to have the chance.

Bond returns to London, brainwashed by the KGB, on a mission to kill M, fails, is restored to sanity (or at least, his normal mental state) and is sent on a suicide mission in the Caribbean to find and despatch the eponymous "Pistols" Scaramanga. He finds him in Jamaica - convenient, of course, because that was Fleming's holiday home, where he had a bungalow, called Goldeneye, next door to Noel Coward's (more impressive) one. Several Bond stories, of course, are set in Jamaica, which had a touch of exoticism and where Fleming could easily provide all necessary touches of local colour.

As a result we get little of the taste of living the 50s/60s high-life in England, but much local detail from a Jamaica which has probably also vanished. As was often the case, Bond passed up the chance to complete his mission when he could have done so easily, instead infiltrates his enemy's organisation, is rumbled, gets a helping hand from ex-CIA man Felix Leiter and an improbably named female (in this case, Mary Goodnight), escapes to fight a desperate battle with his quarry, and prevails, suffering serious (but survivable) wounds in the process. Formulaic? - not half! So why have I enjoyed this and all Fleming's other books so much?

Bond stories are first and foremost gripping tales, and Fleming wrote them brilliantly. Had Bond been a more regularly efficient agent, (as he tends to be in the short stories), content simply to carry out his mission and go home, then the stories would have been shorter and less interesting. The fictional hero has to take his time, work out his foibles, and interact with the target. I find Fleming's Bond novels fascinating as a comment on attitudes prevailing, or perhaps just hanging on, in 1950s society. Fleming suggests that Britain was still a "great power" when in fact there were now just two superpowers. Bond's sexism and racism are breathtaking by modern standards, although this book is much less prone to either. Fleming clearly greatly loved the Jamaicans - especially Jamaican comrade "Quarrel", sadly killed in the course of Dr No - although it was a reverence influenced by his strong class awareness: at best, I feel, he admires and respects them as subordinates, much as he does his Scottish housekeeper May. Interestingly, in this novel, he seems to take a swipe at homosexuality - suggesting that Scaramanga, a very active womaniser, was in fact gay, and much other pseudo-psychological nonsense beside. Given that Fleming was himself bisexual, and clearly wrote in part to amuse Mr Coward next door, I do wonder what to make of this. One day I'll read one of the many biographies and try to find out.

This is a great novel if you like action stories with a touch of period detail and can view the prejudice from a distance (God forbid that you like it!) - although I would recommends starting with Casino Royale and working forwards. They are not particularly good value for money, as you can finish them within a few hours if you wish. I wait, with interest, to see how Faulks renders Bond. I suspect that he will be more politically correct, for a start, and clearly rather longer . That will be fine if the story is as fast and exciting.

This edition, by the way, has the best thought out cover - Scaramanga's gun as a gold-plated long-barrelled Colt 45 revolver with home made dum-dum bullets, the two birds feature in the story, there were drummers and exotic dancers.