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Book Review By James Craver
You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming

As the twelfth novel in Ian Fleming's Bond series opens, Commander James Bond, Agent 007 on Her Majesty's Secret Service, is on the verge of being dismissed from his post. Nine months after his wife's death at the hands of terrorist super-gangster Ernst Stavro Blofeld, he is still a nervous wreck and has failed in his past two missions.

Persuaded to send Bond on one last mission to prove his worth to the Service, M. assigns 007 to travel to Japan to persuade Tiger Tanaka, the head of Japanese Intelligence, to hand over the information about the Soviet Union gleaned from his state-of-the-art spy network.

Heading to Tokyo, Bond quickly befriends Tanaka, but seems unable to persuade him to do the British such a large favor. Finally, after two months of friendly boozing and not-so-friendly haggling, Tanaka agrees to give Bond what he wants, but only if Bond agrees to do kill Dr. Guntram Shatterhand, a botanist who has built the Garden of Death, a secluded castle on a volcanic island stocked with boiling geysers, carnivorous fish, and poisonous plants and reptiles for the suicidal to use in ending their lives.

Traveling to a small fishing village a mile from Shatterhand's castle, Bond befriends Kissy Suzuki, a beautiful shell-diver (and former movie star!) who agrees to help him with his mission. When Bond discovers that Shatterhand is none other than Ernst Stavro Blofeld, however, he swears to travel to the castle alone and kill the man within, no matter what the cost...


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - depressing/sad
Time/era of story:
Spying/Terrorism Thriller Yes
Cloak & Dagger Plotlets:
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
descript. of violence and chases - 20 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20 %
Who's the terrorist enemy here?
Amnesia story? Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Race

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status:
Eccentric: Yes
Motive of antagonist - money/treasure
The antagonists are: - foreign organized crime
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters

Setting
Asia/Pacific Yes
Asian country: - Japan
Water? Yes
Water: - swimming on - scuba under
Island? Yes
Island: - Mean guy who wants to hunt/mutate - Pacific Island
Small town? Yes
Small town people: - nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee
Misc setting - fancy mansion

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - very gorey descriptions deaths/dead bodies
Explicit sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references - descript of kissing - descript. of breasts
Unusual forms of death - asphyxiation - boiling - eaten - perforation--swords/knives - exploded into bits
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
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