The Man with the Golden Gun

Every time I read one of these Im amazed by how different, but also how great the literary version of Bond is. If you were hoping for a novelization of the film, those hopes will be dashed by the opening chapters in which a brainwashed Bond attempts to kill M! As penance, and a chance at redemption, Bond is sent after Pistols Scaramanga. Its a fine story, told with the usual Fleming flare and attention to detail, and even though they differ drastically from the cinema versions I love so much, Ive come to enjoy these novels immensely. I can recognize the bones of the films within the novels, and its always interesting to see what was kept, and what was discarded. In this case, most of the novel was passed over, so this feels like a newly uncovered mission from Bonds past.

At the start of the year I made it an intention of mine to read the entire James Bond series, which I have been doing in hardcover, paperback, and e-book. While I have jumped back and forth with the John Gardner and Raymond Benson cycles, I have clearly kept with the original Ian Fleming books in chronological order, to see the evolution of 007 as Mr. Fleming intended.

With that, I have reached the end of his final full-length book, The Man with the Golden Gun, and I have to admit that it is the first book to which I am disappointed. It is not up to the quality of the previous books. And the reasons are many. First, the book starts off with promise of Bond’s return to action after disappearing off the radar for nearly a year after the end of You Only Live Twice, finding him acting suspiciously in the possible employ of the KGB. But that soon fizzles out without further information. Fleming had left out a lot of back story that remains unwritten.

Then, it abruptly jumps to Bond returning to Jamaica to infiltrate and stop the plot of Scaramanga, the self-titled man with the golden gun, who comes off as a ruthless drug dealer intending to transport marijuana to the United States. He is far less flamboyant and charismatic than the version of the character I remember seeing in the film of the same name. Let’s face it, Christopher Lee made a more memorable impression.

Finally, the plot and action seem more in tune with License to Kill or any standard episode of Miami Vice than an Ian Fleming book. To me it’s not as convincing. While there are sparks of the Fleming magic, it doesn’t always work.

Sadly, there is a preoccupation with death in this novel, as with his two previous books. The tragic death of Bond’s wife Tracy at the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, followed by Blofeld’ s death in You Only Live Twice, not to mention Bond’s obituary, and the constant stream of Death references here, suggest that Fleming somehow knew that his own death was imminent, which seems to lend supposition to the rushed quality of the book, that it was important to get one final full-length completed before he died. Had he lived longer, he would have very likely fleshed out the book again.

Still, with all its flaws, The Man with the Golden Gun is a fairly good addition to the James Bond series, just not up to the quality of the previous books.

We all knew it was to be the last ” real” James Bond novel as it was published the year after Ian Fleming’s death. After rereading the entire series again with the release of the kindle edition I was reminded why these were such good books, James Bond was very real, very human, very fallible and very immortal. This was about the same time that we were waiting for Thunderball and at that time I knew that rhe movies still had quite a ways to go in order to film all 14 books. Who would have predicted that the films are just as strong as they were 50 years ago. James Bond is a cultural ICON, not many of these have been created throughout history but 007 is one of them, I hope the suceeding generations will take the time to read the books that helped create this ICON and not just watch the films. And hopefully read them in the order that they were written because it not only documents the genesis of 007, but also documents a very crucial period in history when humankind came very close to an atomic nightmare.

I have set for myself the goal of reading all of the James Bond books in the order in which they were released. Some of the books are true to the story told in the movies and some of them only share the title and none of the plot of the movie released with the same name. This book was very similar to the Movie. Like all of the books it was entertaining and written such that you felt like you were experiencing the events at the place and time when they happened. I enjoyed this very much.

At the end of You Only Live Twice James Bond had killed his nemesis Blofeld. In the process he also received a head injury that left him with amnesia. He stayed for some time with the young diver who saved him. On the last page of the book he is headed to Russia because he believes that there is something there that will remind him of who he is. The Man With The Golden Gun picks up a few months later. It seems that Bond made his way to the Soviet Union and was captured, interrogated, brain washed, and sent back to kill M.

M doesn’t trust the situation and is able to thwart the attack. Bond is fixed up and now M has to decide what to do with him. He decides to send him after a hired killer known as Saramanga. This assassin has come across M’s desk It is believed that it will be nearly impossible to succeed with this task. In his rather callous manner M decides that Bond will either succeed and redeem himself, or die in the attempt and redeem himself. Bond is anxious to strike back at the machine that turned him against M. He tracks his prey to Jamaica and sets about his task.

This is the last of the James Bond novels. It was still in manuscript form when Ian Fleming died. It is not the best of the Bond books. Scaramanga is not the twisted fiend or evil genius that we usually see Bond going after. He is simply a thug who is good with a gun. While the villain may be a bit flat at times there are some interesting scenes with Bond as he tries to get over what happened to him. While the James Bond novels might not be high literature they are great spy stories from the Cold War and they can still entertain 50 years after their initial publication.

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