You Only Live Twice- Ian Fleming 1964Summary- Bond's career, and life in general, is suffering after the loss of Tracy. He had bungled his last two missions, and M is going to fire him. Only at the request of the chief neurologist of MI6 does M agree to give Bond one more chance. M hopes that a nearly impossible mission will snap Bond out of his lethargy. Bond is given a "promotion" to the Diplomatic Section. His number is even changed from the three digit 007 to the "more illustrious" four digit number 7777. Bond is to go to Japan and meet the head of their secret service, "Tiger" Tanaka. His job is to get a hold of the main information line they have.
At first Tanaka is reluctant, but he and Bond become friends. He decides to give Bond what he wants, in exchange for performing the Japanese government a small service. He is to go and kill a doctor known as Guntram Shatterhand. He was let into Japan on the guise of being a renowned botanist who wants to set up a preserve in Japan. He buys a castle and buys all sorts of deadly plants and animals. This place that is supposed to be for study becomes a favorite place for suicidal Japanese to kill themselves. Over five hundred people kill themselves in a short time. Tanaka wants Bond to kill Shatterhand, since the Japanese government technically has no right to arrest him.
Bond agrees, and goes to a nearby island to prepare for his silent assault on the castle. There, he meets Kissy Suzuki, who he spends a few days with. During that time Bond discovers that Shatterhand is actually Blofeld! Rather than tell anyone, he decides to go on with his solo attack, planning revenge. She learns of his pending attack on the castle, and offers to swim with him to the edge of the castle.
Bond goes to the castle and learns the area of the castle and finds an entrance into it. The next night he enters the castle. He doesn't get to Blofeld, however, and he falls down a trap door. He ends up defenseless, facing Blofeld with a sword. Bond manages to get a staff, and fends off Blofeld, finally managing to strangle him to death. Bond then turns off the valve that keeps the volcano the castle is on from erupting. Bond escapes the explosion, but falls many feet to the water. Kissy saves his life, but Bond has amnesia. Kissy tries to keep him in the dark about his past, so that he would stay with her. He does for many months, making love to her and even getting her pregnant. Bond finds a piece of newspaper, however, with the word Vladivostok on it. This triggers a memory of his former life, and he vows to go to Russia and find his past, without ever knowing he will have a son.
My Grade- A This Bond novel has a little bit of everything. Bond's number is no longer 007, he kills Blofeld, he "becomes Japanese", he impregnates Kissy, his obituary is run, and he ends up with amnesia. There's plenty of action there.
Best Moment- There are a lot to choose from, but the best moment is the death of Blofeld. Bond strangles the man to death, after a one on one fight. This is so much better that the movie "death" of Blofeld, where Roger Moore cracks jokes and dumps him down a smoke stack. The book version makes the movie death seem pretty lame.
Also Notable-The announcement that Bond will have a son, though very brief in the book, is a pretty big deal. Raymond Benson would eventually bring this up in his introductory short story "Blast From the Past".Back to Novels Page
