Brokenclaw

A really good continuation novel, and much more in the style of Fleming, using localised traditions and ceremonies in a way that mimicked Flemings journalistic eye. A clever villain, a mind stretching and unpalatable torture scene, this had a lot of the tropes of a good Bond plot. Curiously, the femme fatales were unmemorable, and think that these let this down. Otherwise a solid entry in the continuation series.

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Brokenclaw by John Gardner is the 10th book in the author’s tenure as the official author of the James Bond novels. The book expands the 007 universe, and goes back to a more suave secret agent, which made the earlier books a success.

Agent 007 is bored, so much so that he wants to quit M16. M, as much as he’s been disdaining Bond this series, doesn’t want this and sends him on a vacation to Victoria, British Columbia in Canada.

While on vacation, James Bond’s spy sense activates when he sees Lee Fu-Chu a philantropist knowns as Brokenclaw due to his deformed hand. Brokenclaw uses his half-Chinese/half Blackfoot to run his empire.

What Bond doesn’t know is that show more Blackfoot is involved with the kidnapping of top military scientists working on a secret submarine tracking system. He goes undercover with a CIA agent posing as operatives for the Chinese to infiltrate the organization before he can realize his scheme of crashing the global economy.

John Gardner tried to transition James Bond from Ian Fleming’s flamboyant agent, to a slightly more realistic Cold War grit spy. This book, I thought, was probably the more Fleming-esque of the series, so far.

Brokenclaw, the main villain, is very reminiscent of Fleming’s villains. He has a physical deformity, loves elobrate torture, and of course, a bizarre, technologically advanced lair.

I liked that Brokenclaw by John Gardner attempts to expand the Bond universe. While I missed his old allies, I enjoyed the new characters and Bond cringing with the American slang and the informalities.

The ending was unlike any ending in a Bond novel or movie, for that matter. In a highly bizarre torture ritual called O-kee-pa of the Mandan people. The scene is brutal, realistic, and involves a painful endurance test done with piercings. While it was thrilling, it was very un-Bondlike, to say the list.

The novel itself was a bit disjointed. Moving from a thriller about submarine thriller to a world destroying financial plot. Sometimes “saving the world” bombastic plots are much less tense than the smaller ones because, let’s face it, you know the world’s not going to end.

The book goes back to the classic formula which made the Fleming novels successful. The villain was intimidating, memorable and one which is not easily forgotten. I’m actually surprised he hasn’t been picked up by the screenwriters. show less

Gardner's Bond is not my favorite Bond, but I like his books enough to keep reading them. The action all takes place in the American northwest, and since I live in the northwest, this book definitely did not scratch my "various and exotic locations" itch. Good villain. No Q. Lacked the classic quips and zingers I expect from a Bond installment.

This was a fun read. Set out in San Francisco, Monterey, and Big Sur. Some of my favorite places!

Return to the classic Fleming formula of introducing larger-then-life quirky villains. Brokenclaw is a villain on par with Goldfinger or Scaramanga, with a finale, although implausible, is nevertheless a must-read.

James Bond versus his opposite number, Brokenclaw, a cunning monster six feet six inches, half Chinese and half Blackfoot Indian, massively strong and rumored to have torn men apart with his bare hands. A competent Bond rendering by John Gardner, made a little more tasty by the presence of a formidable villain.