Nobody Lives Forever

One of John Gardner’s better entries into the James Bond mythos. This reads well, and certainly the first 3/4 of the book are an interesting take on the Tree formula, but with some original ideas.

Unfortunately, it’s sort of slows towards the last third, which is a shame because had it of kept up that momentum and ingenuity. I think it may well have been close to what I considered to be gardeners best book so far. Enjoyable but still not quite as good as Flemming.

I liked the idea for this book - SPECTRE have put a cash prize on Bond's head. Reminded me of John Wick. The book itself was par for the course. Lots of fun, explosions, beautiful women, double-crosses, fast cars, shark attacks, tuxedos, exotic locations... most of the things I read these books for. Bond didn't really have a mission in this one, however, the events all take place while he's on vacation. He's not in London at any time in the story, never has an exchange with Q branch, no scoping out the eccentric villain from afar. He even goes to the United States to look into SPECTRE and doesn't involve Felix Leiter. But no Bond story has EVERYTHING. Like I said, it was a fun book nonetheless.

Many of the earlier James Bond movies were based on the novels of Ian Fleming. When Ian Fleming passed away, the torch was eventually passed to John Gardner to continue writing (it has passed two times since then as well).

When I read Ian Fleming’s books they almost felt like I was walking through the beginnings of one of the most famous fiction characters of our age. I would read a chapter and then just lie there for a while pondering and enjoying the aftereffects of the reading. For some reason, this book felt like a cheap knock-off. The version I read was just a cheap paperback!

In this book, Bond actually doesn’t save the world; in fact, he is just saving his own head. Someone has issued a challenge of the crime world – bring me show more Bond’s hand on a silver platter. Bind finds this out when he is beginning his vacation. Shortly thereafter, Moneypenny and his maid are kidnapped. Bond races around Europe to save the two damsels while accompanied by two more “hostages” (female of course!). show less

This was my least favorite of the series so far. It just seemed a bit goofy to me. 3.5

4/9/22