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NOBODY LIVES
FOR EVER (1986)
At the beginning of Gardner's fifth James Bond novel, NOBODY LIVES
FOR EVER, 007 is on leave, travelling in his Bentley across Europe en
route to a medical facility in Vienna to visit his ailing and
convalescing housekeeper, May. Bond soon discovers SPECTRE is
sponsoring an open competition for, literally, his head.
When he encounters wealthy Sukie Tempesta, a girl he saves from a
possible roadside robbery/rape, Bond decides to take her along as a
safety precaution and Sukie's friend and professional “bodyguard”, Nannie Norrich, soon joins the entourage. Bond eventually learns
that May and Miss Moneypenny (who has been visiting the housekeeper)
have been kidnapped by SPECTRE to lure Bond into its clutches. It
becomes apparent that someone is eliminating any competition that
comes near Bond and his party - and 007 deduces that it is SPECTRE
itself that wants to win “the game”.
It was a personal plot for Bond. I
remember thinking, why don't we do a chase across Europe? We'll
probably do it again, and we did. So I thought - why is there a
chase - someone puts a contract out on Bond. Who and why? And it all
fell into place. I believe it was the shortest outline I ever did. |
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It's a plot reminiscent of FROM
RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, and it moves along excitingly! If it were a film,
it would surely have much of the same tension that something like
Hitchcock's North By Northwest had. The chase idea was
splendid, and the reader is chased along with Bond throughout the
book.
Once again, the continuing theme of the secret agent being a
prisoner of his profession is obvious. Bond's professional life has
put people close to him in danger. This time, the plot is not a
mission given to 007 by his service. It is an all-out
run-for-his-life pursuit; his goal is to not only escape the
killers on his tail, but to rescue May and Moneypenny.
It all fell into place because
everything works. This is far and away John Gardner's best James
Bond novel, and it is precisely because it is such a personal plot
for the leading character.
One nitpick might be that there is no central villain -
Tamil Rahani is bedridden, an invalid as a result of what happened
to him at the end of the previous book - so it is his organisation
that serves as the intangible antagonist. But Bond is accompanied by
a couple of well-written female characters (Sukie Tempesta and
Nannie Norrich), and the author takes the threesome through many
surprising turns. It is perhaps significant that NOBODY LIVES
FOR EVER marks the end of SPECTRE. I suppose it could always be
resurrected, but it seems as if the nail was driven into the coffin
with this one.
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NOBODY LIVES
FOR EVER contains John Gardner's one and only scuba diving scene.
Since Fleming used the underwater environment so many times in his
series, I asked Gardner if he ever dived and why he hasn't kept it a
part of Bond.
I tried it once.
I didn't catch a single scuba! Seriously, scuba diving just does not
turn me on. It obviously did turn Fleming on.
And what about Jamaica? This island was also so much a part of
Fleming's Bond, but Gardner has never used it in one of his stories.
I suppose I'm not terribly fond of Jamaica. It really isn't what
it used to be. Yes, it's apart of Bond, maybe in the Fifties and
Sixties. I find it terribly run down now. I haven't been to
‘Goldeneye’. Specifically I don't want to go to Noel Coward's grave
either. It's a personal thing. I do not like Jamaica very much. It's
my loss, I'm sure. I missed the golden age of Jamaica when people
like Fleming, like Coward, were there, when it was an artistic
community. |
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NO DEALS, MR.
BOND (1987)
Five years before the events depicted in NO DEALS, MR. BOND, James
Bond had helped two young female members of an operation known as
“Cream Cake” escape from the Eastern Bloc with their lives. Using
two other females and one male, Cream Cake's goal was to seduce
senior high-ranking Communist intelligence officers. But the plan
was blown, and the five Cream Cake participants were brought to the
West and provided new identities.
As the story begins, two of the women have been murdered and left
with their tongues removed - a sign of ritual execution by a Russian
hit squad. Bond's assignment, officially unsanctioned, is not only
to pull in the remaining members of the Cream Cake operation, but
also to find and eliminate the traitor among them.
First Bond links up
with Heather Dare in London and takes her to Ireland in search of
the second potential victim, Ebbie Heritage. There they are caught
by Maxim Smolin, Heather's Cream Cake target in the GRU. Luckily, M
has arranged for the colonel to defect, but General Kolya Chernov,
head of Department 8 of Directorate S (formerly SMERSH), arrives
intent on killing everyone, including James Bond. |
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It's not my
title. Let me tell you about this. I think, without exception, every
title I’ve put up has been mulled over and eventually turned down.
They all think they can do better. Putnam always said, the title
needs work. NO DEALS, MR. BOND is an atrocious title, but it was the
best of what was a very bad bunch. Actually, about half the titles
are mine, about four are Peter's. NEVER SEND FLOWERS is Putnam's.
I'm not crazy about it. The title thing becomes an absolute
nightmare.
The title notwithstanding, NO DEALS, MR. BOND is a solid,
action-packed, exciting adventure. The plot is perhaps a little
farfetched, but it makes for gripping reading. The two main female
characters, Ebbie Heritage and Heather Dare, are strong and well
drawn, and the ally, Maxim Smolin, is especially interesting. |
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The major villain,
General Kolya Chernov, is not present enough to develop fully, but
the scenes in which he does appear are effective. And the author's
descriptive writing, especially in the action scenes, is effectively
violent. The only disappointment comes with the rather clichéd “most
dangerous game” climax in which Bond is “hunted” by assassins on an
island.
Once again, Gardner
ventures slightly into political territory, this time Northern
Ireland. James Bond is actually forbidden to set foot there. This is a
strange thing that some people don't realise. In Britain, we have
two services. MI6 - Secret Intelligence Services, and MIS - Secret
Security Services. MIS have a policy that they only operate on
British territory, and parts of the Commonwealth that invite them
in. MI6 operates in all countries outside the UK. And at one point,
they were specifically instructed not to meddle in Northern Ireland.
The north of Ireland is part of the UK by law, despite what the IRA
says. So, MIS has jurisdiction. Another small
aspect of the story which I found odd was M's handling of the
assignment.
Bond's boss sends the agent into the field without giving him a full
briefing. I questioned whether M would really do such a thing. |
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I wouldn't think he would, but it made for a more interesting
story! I must remind you that the author is God! Yes, it's probably
odd, but I guess there could be situations when a senior officer
would withhold information because he didn't want the junior officer
to know certain things. It was a device.
Mr. Gardner apparently grew fond of the device, because he used it
again in subsequent books. CONTINUED |
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