::AMAZON REVIEWS::

Well Writte and Exciting
This review is about the novel, not the movie.

"You Only Live Twice" is the concluding novel of the "Blofeld Trilogy" ("Thunderball", "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" with "The Spy Who Loved Me" in the middle but not part of the trilogy).

The story finds James Bond in a sad place after the murder of his wife and a fading career. M, head of MI6, wants to dismiss Bond but changes his mind, gives him a new number ("7777") and assigns him the difficult mission of convincing Japan's secret service to provide information about the Soviet Union.

The head of Japan's secret service, Tiger Tanaka, asks Bond to kill a doctor who provides people the ability to commit suicide (even if they change their mind later). Bond discovers that his enemy, Blofeld, is also involved but keeps the knowledge for himself while training with a Japanese movie star on trying to live and think as a Japanese.

The plot continues with much of the Fleming gusto, fine writing and twists we don't get at the movie theater.

The novel is a bit moody and dark, yet well written, exciting and well researched. The narrative is very engrossing and the characters are well built. However, I would NOT recommend it as your first Fleming novel.

Dark, surreal, and mystical
You Only Live Twice is possibly Fleming's best Bond novel, if only because it's so radically different from its predecessors. Bond is no longer the debonaire, in-control agent of the preceding stories; here he is a burn-out looking for some meaning in life, and he finds it- maybe- in the peaceful islands of Japan while on a mission to investigate a mysterious "Castle of Death" that is claiming many Japanese lives.

This novel isn't just somewhat darker than its prdecessors; it is, at times, downright macabre. Death is a constant theme in the novel, from Bond brooding on his wife's murder to the Japanese obsession with suicide to the main villain's nihilistic outlook on life. There is humor and hope in the novel, but it's not the same carefree kind that we saw in previous novels. You Only Live Twice has some of Fleming's most eloquent prose and is highly recommended to anyone who loves a good thriller (not just Bond fans). If only the movie had followed the book...

Death In The Face
The movie version of "You Only Live Twice" is a long desultory set-up leading to a gripping blow-out of a finale. The novel works in reverse. There the best part is in the development; the best of any Ian Fleming novel. It's the conclusion that disappoints.

We meet James Bond a few months after the end of Fleming's previous novel, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." He is an emotional wreck, and drinking his way into becoming a physical one. His boss M wants to retire him, but is persuaded instead to give Bond one last "impossible" assignment more likely to test his diplomatic skills than his ruthless killer efficiency: Get a line on a Soviet code system the Japanese secret service has broken.

Fleming died soon after "Twice's" 1964 publication. Bondmania was just busting out, but in Fleming's Jamaica retreat he seems to have been beyond the hoopla. The focus here is on death and a life lived fully if not well, as seen when Bond attempts a haiku that sums up his journey here. "You only live twice/Once when you're born/Once when you look death in the face."

Despite his occasional use of abusive terminology, unpleasant to read but true to the period, Fleming's relish for Japanese culture brims over and is the best thing "You Only Live Twice" has going. Often his Bond novels read like thinly-concealed travelogues. This time it's an unconcealed one. Whether it's the raising of Kobe beef, the postwar culture of demokorasu, or the sneaky power of sake, Fleming is constantly finding new things about the Home Islands to share with the reader. In the character of the allusive but amiable ex-kamikaze Tiger Tanaka, he creates his best Bond companion since Darko Bey in "From Russia With Love".

I could have kept reading this book forever, especially as Fleming keeps the spycraft aspect humming in the background in low-key and believable fashion. Bond is trying to find an in with Tanaka, winning his respect enough to prove worthy of the Japanese agent's treasure trove of Russian secrets. Eventually Tanaka offers a deal. A strange Swiss botanist has created a literal "garden of death" for suicidal Japanese. It's strictly legal but very cruel sport the government would like to end. If Bond wants the code, he will have to "slay the dragon" and shut down his garden. So in order to complete his non-lethal mission, Bond must kill anyway.

Fleming develops his story with a complicated blend of humor and morbid curiosity. Japanese culture as presented in this novel is one half in love with painful death, and Fleming has Bond react to Tanaka's stories of happy suicides with pungent shock and sarcasm, yet fascination too.

Fleming saves his biggest surprise for the end, and it's a good one. But it's also abruptly resolved, and uncharacteristically muted for what should have been one of Bond's most ripping moments of action. The main villain takes a long time getting on stage, and when he does, he's less than advertised, a self-acknowledged lunatic way too interested in explaining his sick hobby.

Fleming redeems himself somewhat with an offbeat conclusion that challenges our assumptions about what makes Bond tick. An offbeat effort, "You Only Live Twice" should have been the start of something bigger than Fleming was given time to develop. But it's a memorable read that sticks with you long after most spy thrillers are comfortably forgotten.

Leaves you feeling empty.
Most people are familiar with the films of James bond, agent 007, licensed to kill, but the novels written by Ian Fleming can be very different from the books that provide their names. Certainly this is the case in "You only Live Twice." Both the film and the book are set in Japan but beyond that they part ways quickly.

In the book James Bond is nearly finished. 8 months after the murder of his wife Tracy at the end of "On Her Majesties Secret Service" he has gone from M's best man to the dregs of the service. M, considering his dismissal is prevailed upon to give Bond one last chance.

Bond is promoted out of his beloved 00 section and transferred to the diplomatic branch with the code number 7777, and given a near impossible mission. He is go to Japan and convince the head of the Japanese Secret Service to share with Great Britain their decrypts of top secret Soviet messages. The problem is that post WW2 the United States views Japan as its private preserve and does not like poachers.

The rather more serious problem is that Bond does not have much to bargain with and when it is quickly revealed that the Japanese are not interested in his one bargaining chip he is left with very little to go on.What he has is his own life and skills, and in return for these magic decrypts, Japan requires Bond to kill a Swiss botanist named Dr. Shatterhand, a man of evil intent and deed who, for political reasons the Japanese police cannot move against but a gaijan whose arrest if he fails cannot be tied to the government? This is acceptable.

This is actually one of Fleming's weaker outings for Bond. Although he is in full force in his pacing and plotting and character development, part of what is missing is the setting. During the Second World War was deeply involved in the planning and control of British and American espionage units and his writing carries the flavor of how things really work, a far cry form the gadgets and gizmos of the films,

However part of the charm of the books is his descriptions of the places where Bond's missions take him. Fleming knew France, Jamaica and the United States well and this carries over in his descriptions of the places. The reader truly gets a feel of the casinos, the beaches, the hotels and the streets. But Fleming did not know Japan and this is reflected in his writing, details that are common in other books are lacking here.

If this is the first Bond book you've read, it is highly enjoyable but if you are well familiar with the books by Fleming, this will be a little disappointing. James bond is still in effect with all his prowess but the world he is moving in, compared with earlier books, is empty and unfulfilling.

Review of You Only Live Twice
At the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, James Bond loses the love of his life. Falling into a downward spiral of depression and loneliness, James loses his fire, his will to live, and perhaps, his job.

On one last assignment to see if he has anything left, in You Only Live Twice, by Ian Fleming, James must go to Japan to recover secret spy technology and intercepts by the Japanese. While there, James soon finds himself on the trail of a mysterious and sinister foreigner who has created an island of death, filled with macabre poison plants, piranhas-filled lakes, and scalding lava pits. But James is rejuvenated through the mentor relationship with Tiger Tanaka and the chance for revenge when James discovers something important about the mysterious creator of the island of death. The love of an island fisher girl saves him though, in a very touching side to the typical action-oriented James Bond thriller.

This book finds an end to the Blofeld trilogy, and is actually a very satisfying conclusion. It resolves many of the inner demons inside James, and rekindles the fire that makes our favorite 00-agent tick. We also get to see a bit of the inside of Japanese culture, experienced through the eyes of a British agent.

The plot of the movie version deviates somewhat from the real storyline, but Sean Connery nevertheless provides a commendable rendition of the James we know and love on the silver screen.

(review by Kendall Giles)