[.ca] Modern Classics You Only Live Twice (ISBN 0141187549)

Twice Is the ONLY Way to Live!:
Forgive me if I am more of a Bond-Movie aficionado than one of Ian Flemming's original works. Perhaps it's because I am a Sir Sean fan more than anything. But I have come to conclude after watching "You Only Live Twice" twice, three and four times - and beyond! - that no one beats Sean Connery's 007. Donald Pleasance's sets the standard for the aristocratic, diabolically calm Blofeld. The action grabs you from the get-go. Considering this was Mr. Dahl's first movie script, I felt he stayed truer to his late friend's stories than the more recent, poorly contrived 007 plots (and since "Goldeneye" Pierce Bronsan's Bond deserves much better scriptwriting). The Special Edition DVDs feature a real treat for Avenger fans: the behind-the-scenes stories narrated by the seductive voice of Patrick Macnee, the original John Steed. Add to this the original trailers and audio commentary of the director and actors, and you have a fitting tribute to one of the 20th century's great movie legacies. But as a woman of color, my main appreciation is that, unlike "Dr. No," "You Only Live Twice" features authentic Asian actors and actresses, and is the first Bond film in which the Bond girls do more than sleep with 007: they actually are working agents who can steer a getaway car and shoot to kill! Granted, I'll always be a Cathy Gale/Emma Peel Avengerwoman fan, because, unlike Bond girls, they had superbadness AND relational integrity. But for my money You Only Live Twice rates as a film worthy of its place in the 007 legacy...and as the trailers aptly state, "Twice is the ONLY way to live!"

th rot sets in:
the true beginning of what bond has become; a two demensional popcorn cartoon fluf franchise.

The finest of all the Bond novels.:
"You Only Live Twice" (1964) was published the year of Ian Fleming's death, and, as with its predecessor, the superb "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," it is suffused with doom and death. It is unlike any of the other Bond books, with a pervasive gloominess that was as much the result of Fleming's rapidly declining health and unhappiness with the world around him as it was the result of Bond's clinical depression after the tragedy that finished the last book. Bond, recovering from the death of his wife, is falling to pieces. Taking the advice of a friend, M sends him on a vital mission to Japan, which he hopes will restore Bond's spirits. What seems at first to be a rather placid visit soons turns dangerous as Bond agrees to accept secrets about the Russians in exchange for carrying out a delicate mission for the Japanese government. What he encounters is the culmination of the previous two Bond novels, and the last half of the novel is virtually unputdownable. This is the best writing of Fleming's career, and his descriptions of Bond's disintegration are surprisingly moving. The final hundred pages or so are horrifying and gripping; never before had Fleming demonstrated such mastery of his craft or technical skill at setting up a denouement. The tension becomes almost unbearable. "You Only Live Twice" is not an uplifting book, but it is a vital book in the Bond series, and much better than its successor, the pale and posthumously published "Man With the Golden Gun." Those expecting slam-bang action will have to wait until the middle and final chapters, but the rewards are worth the patience. This is a fine novel, but I wouldn't start here if I were just discovering Fleming's Bond novels.

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. However, this is the first Bond book by Ian Fleming that I've ever read. I'm left marveling at the liberties taken by Hollywood with the hero. Is this truly Bond - JAMES Bond - the Suave Super Stud Super Spy of the Big Screen? In YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, the redoubtable Commander is about to be fired by "M" for a recently unacceptable job performance brought on by the murder of the former's wife. (There was a Mrs. 007?!) But "M" is persuaded by the house shrink to send his agent on one more mission - one that will be touted as so impossible that James will be challenged enough to snap out of his funk. So, off Bond goes to Japan to persuade the head of that nation's Secret Service to share information from a key Soviet source - information only otherwise being shared with the CIA. Bond befriends the Japanese spymaster, "Tiger" Tanaka, who consents to the new arrangement if 007 will carry out a special and very dangerous assignment. Relative to the Bond movies, I liked the in-print character much better; he's less of a comic book hero and more real. And there's not an improbable high-tech gadget in sight. However, that being said, Fleming's original 007 is much less developed and complex than, say, the Quiller persona created by Adam Hall (the nom de plume of Elleston Trevor) during the 60s and 70s. Quiller was a lonely, scarred, and bloody-minded agent who, when sent off on a perilous mission, managed make it alive out of the dodgy spots - whether it was being chased by attack dogs across the no-man's land of the East German border or bundled unceremoniously into the Lubyanka basement - purely on luck, innate ability, and pure survival sense. Quiller didn't even carry a gun. And Quiller had the hint of a secret life, perhaps one in the past; his will on file with the Secret Service specified that roses should be sent to "Moira" in the event of his death. And the reader never found out who Moira was during the entire Quiller series of nineteen books. Bond, on the other hand, just doesn't run that deep. Indeed, Quiller would think 007 a poofter dilettante. YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, as an example of Fleming's source material for the Bond cinematic legend, is perhaps only of interest if you want to see the tenor of the original character before the Tinseltown scriptwriters got hold of him. Take my advice and discover Quiller if you haven't already.

IAN FLEMINGs Japan and the Devil:
This is Ian Fleming's most mysterious and enigmatic James Bond novel. This is a direct follow up to "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." It starts out as a direct secret service story even though Bond is reassigned to the diplomatic section. As it progresses it becomes almost surrealistic as James Bond tracks down his arch nemesis on the island of Kyushu. This is a very well written and researched novel. The Japanese idioms and depictions of locale are exquisite. When the novel moves to Kuro Island and is on the threshold of Dr. Shaterhand's castle lair, Fleming approaches mythical horizons. I found this absorbing, haunting and prophetic novel very difficult to put down once I started reading it. You get addicted early on to such charismatic characters as Tiger Tanaka and the all too brief Dikko Henderson but it is the narrative of this epic tale that beckons the reader. The new retro-paperback cover is alluring.