The James Bond Novels

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Guys, I'm a 007 diehard. I've read every novel from "Casino Royale" to "The Man With the Red Tatoo". If you have any questions, or would like to compare the Bond of the films to that of the novels, post here.

 

 

Here's a guide for those who want to read the novels:

 

Written By Ian Fleming:

 

Casino Royale

Live and Let Die

Moonraker

Diamonds Are Forever

From Russia, With Love

Dr. No

Goldfinger

For Your Eyes Only**

Thunderball

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

You Only Live Twice

The Man With the Golden Gun

Octopussy and The Living Daylights**

007 in New York**

 

Written by Kingsly Amis:

 

Colonel Sun

 

Written by John Gardner:

 

License Renewed

For Special Services

Icebreaker

Role of Honor

Nobody Lives Forever

No Deals, Mr. Bond

Scorpius

Win, Lose, or Die

Brokenclaw

License to Kill*

The Man from Barbarossa

Death is Forever

Never Send Flowers

SeaFire

ColdFall

GoldenEye*

 

Written by Raymond Benson:

 

Blast From the Past**

Zero Minus Ten

Tomorrow Never Dies*

Midsummer Night's Doom**

The Facts of Death

High Time to Kill

The World is Not Enough*

Live at Five**

Doubleshot

Never Dream of Dying

The Man With the Red Tatoo

Die Another Day*

 

(* Indicates that the novel is based on the script for the film, but is slightly reworked to fit into the Literary 007 universe. The most drasticly changed in License to Kill)

 

(** Indicates that this is a short story or a compilation of short stories.)

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

First we had the dude in the WWE folder answering questions no one had asked, now this?

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

First we had the dude in the WWE folder answering questions no one had asked, now this?

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

You just asked a question.

 

Does that count? (That's two)

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Since no one wants to talk, I'm going to use this thread for my reviews. Expect CASINO ROYALE very soon.

[Guest areacode212]

When I was like 14, I had read most of these up to the middle of the Gardner run. But that was so long ago, so I don't remember anything about them. Are the Benson novels any good?

[Zorin Industries 0]

How has License to Kill been changed to fit in with the literary universe?

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

When I was like 14, I had read most of these up to the middle of the Gardner run. But that was so long ago, so I don't remember anything about them. Are the Benson novels any good?

Zero Minus Ten was very good, it had all the elements of the best Fleming novels: a game, a surprise villain, oodles of sex. It is one of the better non-Fleming books.

 

Facts of Death was a definiate step down. It felt a LOT more like the films than the books,(Although Liter was a welcome sight.) even down to a psuedo-pre-credits scene. The villian was way too over the top for one of the novels.

 

The film novelizations are generally better than Gardner's.

 

High Time to Kill is great. It has unorthadox setting for a Bond novel, and the intro to SPECTRE for the new mellenium: The Union.

 

The next three novels: Doubleshot, Never Dream of Dying, and The Man With the Red Tatoo all range from okay to awful with NDOD being the best, and DS the worst.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

How has License to Kill been changed to fit in with the literary universe?

Since Liter's shark attack already cost him his arm in Live and Let Die, the attack on resulted in the loss of his prosthetic arm, and was played up as Sanchez forcing Felix to remember what happened. In the book, Bond cares more about stopping the Drug money, than Felix's attack.

[Guest areacode212]

Maybe I'll check out Zero Minus Ten some day. The only thing I remember from the Gardner books was this one really sadistic scene at the end where a female villain gets her arms chopped off by a guillotine, prior to getting blown up. What was up with that? It's like something out of The Authority.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Maybe I'll check out Zero Minus Ten some day. The only thing I remember from the Gardner books was this one really sadistic scene at the end where a female villain gets her arms chopped off by a guillotine, prior to getting blown up. What was up with that? It's like something out of The Authority.

I believe that scene took place in BROKENCLAW or THE MAN FROM BARBAROSSA, BC is generally considered the worst of the Gardner bunch and the worst Bond novel ever written. TMFB was a change-of-pace novel that is either loved or hated. I hapen to like it a lot.

 

 

I don't think any of the other Garnder 007 Books feature villians who were depraved enough to do that to their underlings.

[Guest SP-1]

I've wanted to get into the bond novels for quite some time. I read a Fleming novel and absolutely loved it, and I started reading DoubleShot but never did finish it.

 

I think I might go to the Library and get some of the Fleming books and do some serious reading. With the craptacular nature that Die Another Day seems to be moving towards, I need some good Bond to fall back on.

 

SP

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

I've wanted to get into the bond novels for quite some time. I read a Fleming novel and absolutely loved it, and I started reading DoubleShot but never did finish it.

 

I think I might go to the Library and get some of the Fleming books and do some serious reading. With the craptacular nature that Die Another Day seems to be moving towards, I need some good Bond to fall back on.

 

SP

SP, I'd suggest picking up Casino Royale, for historical purposes, the SPECTRE trilogy (Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, You Only Live Twice) or From Russia, With Love. They're the best of them.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

CASINO ROYALE

 

By Ian Fleming

 

This review contains SPOILERS

 

THE STORY: This is the first James Bond novel and definatly one of the best. I'll save all the commentary for the next part of the review, but let me just say here that this novel shows Bond at his darkest, and most ruthless.

 

The story is simple: A French Communist and operative of SMERSH named La Cherrife, uses the company money to invest in a chain of brothels. When the business goes bankrupt, La Cherrife panics, and steals the rest of SMERSH's treasury to use in the Baccarat games in Monte Carlo in a desperate bid to win back the lost money before his employers catch on.

 

Enter James Bond, 007. Bond is a sexist, rascist, eleteist, bastard who swears too much, drinks too much, and can't help but get too attatched to his female coworkers. Even with all this, we can't help but root for him. He is sent M to use MI6 funds to bankrupt La Cherrife and let SMERSH kill him.

 

Bond travels to Monte Carlo, and meets up with his American counterpart, Felix Liter for the first time. He also meets his "protection", a stunningly beautiful agent named Vesper Lynd. When Bond and La Cherrife "duel" in Baccarat the emotion is high, the action is tense, and it is truely a pleasure to read. Bond defeats La Cherrife, but doesn't count on how ruthless his quarry is. Upon his exit from the Casino, Vesper is kidnapped, and in the insueing chase Bond is captured. Bond is led to an abandoned house where he brutally tortured by La Cherrife. Just as he gives up hope, Bond is saved by the unlikliest man of all: A SMERSH agent, who kills Cherrife for stealing the money. Since he has no orders to kill Bond he mearly brands him, "S.S" Smeit Spyonum, Death to Spies.

 

While recuperating from the attack, Bond spends a week with Vesper. He decides to retire and marry Vesper. When he tries to propose to her, he finds her dead. A nearby note reads that she was really working for SMERSH the whole time. When Bond informs HQ that Vesper was a Russian Double-Agent, he delivers a line that shows just how cold-blooded he is.

 

"... Agent 119 was working for the opposition. Yes, I said was.

 

The bitch is dead now."

 

MY THOUGHTS: Wow, what a terrific novel. Despite the lack of action, Fleming keeps the book fun by building an overwhelming sense of menace. You really get the feeling that the walls have eyes. The baccarat scene is fantastic. It is everything it should have been. The torture scenes were painful to read, and you get the feeling that Fleming *really* knows what he's talking about this. The climax is the best you will find *in all of spy fiction* Bond's cold dimissal of the women he loved enough to give up his profession for is surprising, and yet totally in character.

 

***** out of *****: Normally it would only be **** 1/2 but it gets 1/2* for historical purposes.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Bond Review: Week 2

 

 

LIVE AND LET DIE by Ian Fleming

 

 

Reviewer's Note: Keep in mind this novel was written in the late 50's by an Englishman. It is *not* politically correct in any way shape or form and is in fact, borderline rascist in it's descriptions of Mr Big: The most powerful Negro villian in the world. (Actual line from the book.) While in no way do I endorse these views, I chose to give this book a recommendation. Quite simply it is required reading for anyone who wants to write an adventure novel, and this is the first example of the famous "Fleming Sweep" or, Ian Fleming's ability to cover the cartoonish elements of his story with fast pacing, great descriptions, and excellent dialouge. This magical element is what seperated James Bond novels from the pack, and led to MGM turning them into movies.

 

The Story: This is the second Bond novel, and the first to establish the formula for what we expect from a 007 novel/film. The martini makes it's debut here, as does a few characters who will pop up again in DR. NO. (Strangways, Quarrel)

 

Bond is sent to Harlem to investigate a known kingpin, Mr. Big. Big controls almost every criminal market, and has an army of muscle. MI6 believes he is also a triator who is working for Bond's mortal enemeies, SMERSH. Bond sets out for Harlem, but when he arrives is captured by Big's men. Bond uses his wits to escape, and meets up with Felix Liter in city. They decide to travel to Florida to follow up a lead on Big's operations. While in Florida, Felix gets too close, and is fed to a shark by Mr. Big. He survives but Bond is *royally* pissed off. He seduces Big's fortune-teller, Solitaire and with her help discovers Big's true plot: Big has found a horde of pirate's treasure in a Jamacian coral reef. If he gets the buillion he will give it to SMERSH to finance their operations.

 

The Climax is completely different from CR's. It is explosive, exciting, and very satisfying. This book reads very fast. (About 3 Hours at the most.) and is a lot of fun on a rainy day, or if you have an office job and want sometthing to do on lunch break.

 

MY THOUGHTS: Wooh. This is easily the most action-packed Bond novel, the fight at the fish warehouse is great, and the final showdown between Bond and Mr. Big is proof just how different these characters are. Not just in race, but in ethics, and code of morality. This book establishes one of Bond's few heroic qualities: Intense loyalty. Liter's near-death changes Bond's attitued for the rest of the film. It's not about SMERSH anymore, it's a blood-feud, and you can sense it in everything he does.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Differences between the books and the movies:

 

Casino Royale

 

The book begins with Bond being in Royale-Les Eaux (Montenegro in the film) already and ends with "The bitch is dead."

 

Le Chiffre doesn't have the cool scar nor does he cry blood, but I like that change.

 

Bond meets Vesper at the park with with Rene Mathis.

 

In the movie, Bond's game with Le Chiffre is interrupted when the martini he drinks is poisoned. In the book, one of Le Chiffre's hitmen gets behind Bond's chair and tells him to pull out of the game before he wins all the money or he will be shot. Bond then flips the chair over backwards onto the man and gets up as if he just fainted with the bottom of the chair missing. They bring him another chair as the hitman gets away.

 

In the movie, Bond crashes his Ford Ashton Martin trying to avoid running over a tied up Vesper. In the book, his convertible Bentley crashes when it hits steel spikes set up on the road by Le Chiffre.

 

In the book, Vesper kills herself by ODing on sleeping pills. Bond finds out she was a traitor when he reads the letter she left behind informing him of everything.

 

Mathis is Bond's friend and does not betray him.

 

Also, Bond doesn't catch Le Chiffre's killer.

 

Live And Let Die

 

There is no killing of MI6 agents at the beginning. The book starts off with Bond being in New York City already.

 

In the book, Mr. Big (acronym for Buonapart Ignace Gallia, his real name) was still a big crime lord, but instead of a major drug operation he was smuggling gold coins and financing SMERSH. He is bald and has grayish skin due to him suffering from chronic heart disease. He is not a diplomatic representative. He doesn't have a PH D. either so there's no second identity as Dr. Kananga.

 

Mr. Big's eatery in Harlem is called The Boneyard, not the Fillet of Soul.

 

Tee Hee (just a regular guy, no mechanical arm crap) actually does break Bond's pinky finger unlike in the movie. Bond kills him shortly after that so no climatic final fight on a train as seen in the film.

 

He had a live dangerous fish-trade operation in gulf-coast Florida (he hid the gold coins beneath the tanks) where he fed Leiter to sharks (used in License To Kill)

 

No idiot Caucasian sheriff, no Rosie Carver, and no Baron Sademi

 

Solitaire has black hair and it is revealed that her real name is Simone Latrelle. IIRC, she doesn't use tarot cards thus eliminating my favorite scene in the movie with Bond pulling off the switch! Bond also doesn't sleep with her due to his finger injury.

 

No bus, airplane, or boat chases

 

Strangways and Quarrel are introduced here when Bond arrives in Jamaica (San Monique in the film). Strangways also has an eyepatch.

 

When he'd caught Bond in his Caribbean lair, he tied him and Solitaire together and dragged them behind his boat through a reef to be shark food (used in "For Your Eyes Only").

 

Bond saves himself and Solitaire when the mine that Bond placed earlier on Mr. Big's boat goes off and causes it to sink.

 

Mr. Big dies when he gets eaten by a group of sharks. Bond takes recreational leave at the end and shares it with Solitaire.

 

Moonraker

 

Bond comes across Drax when M has Bond expose him as a card cheat.Drax has red hair, that covers scarring on his face.

 

The Moonraker is a missile instead of a space shuttle.

 

Jaws, Corinne, or Chang are not in the book.

 

CIA agent Dr. Holly Goodhead is instead a Scotland Yard agent named Galatea "Gala" Brand.

 

Drax turns out to be a Nazi named Graf Hugo von der Drache, and the Moonraker is secretly aimed to hit London.

 

Drache captures James and Gala and plans to cook them with the Moonraker's rockets. James changes the gyros, then he and Gala hide in the shower turned on full blast. Drache escapes in a Russian submarine, but a reprogrammed Moonraker is aimed at him and he is killed in the explosion. Bond and Gala are exiled to France until the event blows over. Bond tries to get with Gala, but she informs him that she's engaged and they part ways.

 

Diamonds Are Forever

 

Bond goes up against a major diamond smuggling operation run by a syndicate called "The Spangled Mob". The Mob is lead

by the Spang brothers, Jack and Serafimo. There's no Blofeld.

 

Wint and Kidd are some of their hitmen. Wint is afraid of flying, and carries a card with his blood type on it when he has to fly. "Shady" Tree is a red haired hunchback, and a small time mobster in New York. He is not killed.

 

Peter Franks looks somewhat like Bond, and Bond never meets him so no awesome elevator fight.

 

Felix Leiter now has prosthetic limbs from being attacked by a shark in "Live And Let Die". Once in Las Vegas, Bond is taken to "Specterville", a ghost town in the desert that Serafimo has bought. There, Wint and Kidd stomp on him with cleats, but Bond survives.

 

At the end, Bond derails a train full of baddies, but only Serafimo dies. and has a massive face-off with Wint and Kitt on a voyage on The Queen Elizabeth back to England. Bond winds up killing both of them in a gunfight after they kidnap Tiffany. Then he goes to Africa with the troops to stop Jack Spang, who was meeting the dentist in a chopper in a remote area. Jack kills the dentist, because he knows the government is onto him, and as he attempts to escape in his helicopter, Bond shoots the chopper down using a heavy artillery gun.

 

Also, Tiffaney Case was a hard-boiled, intellegent, blond. Not a dumb bimbo.

 

From Russia With Love

 

Almost half of the novel is about SMERSH planning the assassination of James Bond after his past interferences in the past that resulted in the deaths of Le Chiffre and Mr. Big, two of their operatives.

 

SPECTRE is not involved at all and it wasn’t even invented until several years later when the novel “Thunderball” was written. Grant has these urges to kill during a full moon. He fulfills these urges at first by killing small animals then larger animals until he finally starts murdering people. With talents like that, he is the perfect candidate for the execution branch of SMERSH and eventually becomes their Chief Executioner. He does not kill a Bond-alike. He gets brass knuckled punched in the stomach by Klebb in her office. The watch that he wears with the garrote wire is something the film makers came up with. He does not appear again until meeting Bond for the Orient Express ride. There is also no mention of him being "Bond's protector".

 

Rosa Klebb is even an more frightening character as the head of the execution branch for SMERSH. When she interviews Tatiana Romanova it is at her apartment and Klebb makes sexual advances towards her and after leaving the room comes back wearing a negligee. The sight of Klebb in a negligee has Tatiana fleeing from the room in horror. Thank goodness they didn’t film that scene.

 

Bond doesn't show up until the second half of the book. He is equipped with the attaché case, but not the AR-7 folding sniper’s rifle, it also does not come with an explosive device attached. Kerim Bey has his own cane gun and takes care of Krilencu in a similar way as in the movie. The assassination attempt on Kerim with the bomb at his office happens before Bond gets to Turkey. Bond wasn't at the Russian embassy when it explodes. Kerim got Tatiana out of there with the Spektor (Lektor in the movie) cipher machine. There are not any boat chases or helicopters chasing Bond around.

 

Grant tells Bond he is going to kill him by shooting him in the heart as soon as they pass through the tunnel. He also informs Bond that the Spektor is booby trapped with a bomb as insurance policy in case SMERSH's plot fails so that way the Spektor is useless to the British once they get their hands on it. Bond asks to smoke before he is killed. Grant allows it. Bond smokes and places his metal cigarette case in front of his heart. The lighter blocks the bullet, saving Bond's life. He plays dead until Grant is not looking. Then Bond gets the knife from the case and slashes Grant in the leg. They have a brief scuffle before Bond gets a hold of a gun and shoots Grant to death.

 

Kronsteen is not killed off.

 

Bond encounters Klebb at a hotel in Paris because Grant was suppose to meet her there as he told Bond this. Bond traps her against the wall with a chair (because she's trying to kill him with a poison-tipped knitting needle) until Rene Mathis and his men come to the rescue. Bond gets kicked by the shoe tip because he or Mathis didn't see it come out. Klebb is stuffed into a laundry basket as they take her into custody (she just dies in her imprisonment in the Dr. No novel, not being fatally shot like in the FRWL movie). The book ends with Bond "dying" so he doesn't ride off into the sunset with Tatiana.

 

Dr. No

 

The beginning of the book Bond is recovering from almost dying at the end of "From Russia with Love" when he was kicked by Rosa Kleeb's poisoned steel blade shoe. He is investigating the disappearance of Strangways and his secretary. After killing Strangway's assistant, Dr. No's henchmen burn the building down, destroying everything (instead of taking the files on Dr. No as seen in the film)

 

There is no character named Sylvia Trench so Bond does not go to a casino before going to M's office.

 

Felix Leiter does not appear at all. Quarrel picks up Bond at the airport thus no Mr. Jones character for Bond to beat up.

 

Instead of a tarantula, it is a centipede.

 

Bond does not sleep with Miss Taro nor go to her place so there is no car chase. There is also no Professor Dent character thus eliminating the best scene from the movie (Dent being killed in cold blood).

 

When he first meets Honey Rider (Honeychile Rider) she comes out of the sea topless. She has a broken nose that was never fixed, from her rape (the one mentioned in the movie)

 

During Bond's escape, he goes through a maze of different obstacles including heat, extreme cold, a nest of tarantulas, and finally has to fight a giant squid. Honey is tied down and left for the crabs to feast on before she is rescued by Bond.

 

Dr. No is 6'6'' and has no eyelashes. His hands are like that of mechanical crab claws. He does topple missiles, but not just ones from the USA. He does not work for SPECTRE, but the Russians. He is killed when Bond drops tons of bird shit from a crane on him.

 

A nuclear reactor is not used so therefore there is no explosion of Dr. No's base. Bond and Honey escape when they hijack the Dragon Mobile. The book ends with Bond going over to Honey's home and becoming her little bitch in bed.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Goldfinger

 

Auric Goldfinger works for SMERSH and actually intends to steal the gold from Fort Knox. He is a midget as his height is 5'0''.

 

Bond never sees Jill Masterson covered in gold paint as he is informed by Tilly about it.

 

The Aston Martin is of a different model and is much simpler with the gadgets. Q is not in the novel.

 

Pussy Galore is the lesbian leader of an all-female criminal organization from New York City called the Cement Mixers. She is not a pilot.

 

Also Bond isn't threatened with emuscalation by laser, but by a buzzsaw.

 

Tilly is killed the same way with her neck getting broken after getting struck by Oddjob's hat, but that actually happens later on in the novel during the Fort Knox robbery.

 

The name of an actual nerve gas sarin is used in the novel, but is intended to be delivered in the water supply, not by air.

 

All the mob leaders are shot to death by Goldfinger, not gassed.

 

Bond does not have a climatic fight with Oddjob. Oddjob is the one who gets sucked out of the airplane window after Bond breaks it with a concealed knife. Goldfinger is killed right afterwards after Bond strangles him to death.

 

Thunderball

 

Bond doesn't beat up and kill a transvestite.

 

Count Lippe works for The Tongs, not SPECTRE. He is killed by a SPECTRE assassin motorcyclist who throws a grenade into his car just as Count Lippe is about to shoot Bond. There's no Fiona!

 

Domino's real name is Dominetta Petacchi, not Dominique Derval as used in the film version. She is also blonde.

 

Domino's brother actually sold out to SPECTRE for greed, not being killed and switched with a look-alike as seen in the film version. He is killed in the book when Vargas stabs him under the chin with a knife after landing the plane.

 

Bond has sex with Domino in a hut on the beach, not underwater like in the film.

 

Bond's CIA allies come out of a submarine, not by airplane. Felix was part of the underwater battle.

 

Ernst Stavro Blofeld makes his debut here. He is NOT bald. He has black crew cut hair as depicted in the From Russia With Love film. He also does not have a white Persian cat.

 

Emilio Largo has long sideburns and black hair. He does not have an eyepatch. He is killed underwater by Domino when she shoots him through the neck using a spear gun while he is attacking Bond so no climatic battle on the runaway boat.

 

The two bombs are retrieved, the Disco Violante does not blow up.

 

The book ends with Bond sleeping next to Domino's hospital bed.

 

The Spy Who Loved Me

 

The book is about a woman, Vivienne Michel, running a motel in the US. "Sluggsy" Morant (short fat bald guy) and Sol "Horror" Horowitz (big guy with metal teeth), arrive and are going to burn it down so their boss can profit from the insurance. Bond turns up in the last third of the book and saves the day by shooting the two gangsters, screws the girl, and then leaves. The whole book is written from the point of view of the woman.

 

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

 

Bond wants to be relieved of Operation Bedlam and when he isn't, he contemplates resignation. Bond had believed that Blofeld must be dead and SPECTRE gone.

 

Mary Goodnight is introduced here and she is far from being the dumbshit broad in the film version.

 

Bond doesn't save Tracy from suicide until after they have met at the casino.

 

No epic fight on the beach

 

Bond meets Blofeld for the first time. Blofeld has white hair now (think Charles Gray in the DAF film).

 

Bond only sleeps with one Piz Gloria patient

 

Bond fled Blofeld's lair before being found out.

 

Tracy was not kidnapped and so she was not involved in the Piz Gloria assault.

 

No epic bobsled fight. Blofeld escapes after leaving a grenade in the path of Bond's bobsled. Bond has to jump to avoid being killed.

 

Bond and Tracy are shot at while the car is in motion instead of being parked to the side. Blofeld is the one who pulls the trigger, not Irma Bunt, that results in Tracy's death.

 

You Only Live Twice

 

Bond is not "killed off" at the beginning and the plot has nothing to do with the kidnapping of space capsules.

 

Bond's career is fading following the wedding day murder of his wife, Tracy. He assigned on a diplomatic mission and temporarily gets a new number, 7777.

 

Dikko Henderson is featured a lot more and is not killed off.

 

Bond did not go through a fake marriage with Kissy Suzuki as in the movie. His cover simply operated on the assumption that he was an Ama fisherman, and had been living with her and her family for an indeterminate period of time.

 

There is no Aki character.

 

Bond is asked by Tiger Tanaka to kill Dr. Guntram Shatterhand (who operates a politically embarrassing "Garden of Death" where people go to commit suicide, and where they die whether they later decide they want to or not) in exchange Tiger will provide information about an informant within the Soviet Union.

 

Bond accidentally discovers that Shatterhand is actually his nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld (now sporting a drooping mustache), and gladly takes the mission, keeping his knowledge of Blofeld a secret so that he can exact revenge for his wife's death.

 

After breaking into Blofeld's castle, Bond kills him and Irma Bunt. Blofeld is strangled to death after a swordfight. While escaping, Bond suffers a head injury from an explosion, leaving him an amnesiac living as a Japanese fisherman with Kissy, while the rest of the world believes him dead. Kissy becomes pregnant so there is a James Bond Junior!

 

At the novel's end, Bond finds a paper slip with the name Vladivostok written on it, making him wonder if the far-off Russian city is the key to his missing memory.

 

The Man With The Golden Gun

 

After making it to Russia, Bond is brainwashed by the Russian and is sent back to England to assassinate M for them. The plan fails. Bond is deprogrammed and is eager to prove his worth as a member of the 00 section before retiring. M assigns him to Jamaica to locate, gain the confidence of, and finally kill Francisco "Pistols" Scaramanga, an assassin known as "the man with the golden gun" (because of his golden revolver) who is believed to have killed several secret agents.

 

Scaramanga is a Caribbean gunman who often works for Fidel Castro's secret police instead of a high priced assassin.

 

No Andrea Anders, no Nick Nack, no Thai island, no fun house, no Solex Agitator crap.

 

Bond catches up with Scaramanga, where Bond pretends to be a freelance security officer, and Scaramanga hires him to guard an upcoming meeting of gangsters. During the meeting, a KGB officer blows Bond's cover, subsequently pitting Scaramanga and Bond in a shootout. Bond wounds Scaramanga, but before he can finish the gunman off, Scaramanga shoots Bond with a poisoned bullet from his backup weapon, a golden Derringer. Bond returns fire, killing Scaramanga instantly; soon thereafter, a policeman finds the nearly dead Bond in time to save him.

 

Mary Goodnight invites a hospitalized Bond to finish his recuperation at her place. Bond also is offered knighthood, but he refuses it.

[MrRant 0]

I appreciate your reviews (I've read all the books but haven't seen the movies in awhile) but I think you may want to clean up your book vs. film comparisons.