Sean Connery receives the Man of the Year Award from the Harvard Hasty Pudding Theatrical Club. One of his prizes was a Roger Moore dart board. (Photo by Richard Schenkman, courtesy of Bondage magazine.)
The new Bentley Turbo R, the latest version of the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo, which James Bond currently drives in the John Gardner novels. (Photo courtesy of Rolls-Royce Motors, Inc.)
The ASP 9mm, a combat modification of the 9mm Smith & Wesson, is James Bond's current weapon in the John Gardner novels. (Photo courtesy of Armament Systems and Procedures, Inc.)
Roger Moore and San Francisco Mayor Diane Feinstein in front of City Hall for the premiere of A View to a Kill. (Photo by Charles Meagher, courtesy of Bondage magazine.)
At the outset of NOBODY LIVES FOREVER, Bond is on leave, traveling in his Bentley across Europe en route to a medical facility in Vienna to visit his ailing and convalescing housekeeper, May. Bond soon discovers that SPECTRE is sponsoring an open competition for, literally, his head. When he encounters wealthy Sukie Tempesta, a girl he saves from a possible robbery/rape, Bond decides to bring her along on the trip as a safety precaution. Sukie's friend and professional "bodyguard," Nannie Nonich, soon joins the entourage. Bond eventually learns that May and Miss Moneypenny (who was visiting Bond's housekeeper) have been kidnapped by SPECTRE to lure the agent into the organization's clutches. It then becomes apparent that someone is eliminating any competition that comes near Bond and his party—and 007 deduces that it is SPECTRE itself that wants to win the "game."
Five years before NO DEALS, MR. BOND takes place, James Bond helped two young female members of an operation known as "Cream Cake" escape from the Eastern Bloc with their lives. Using two other females and one male, Cream Cake's goal was to seduce senior high-ranking Communist intelligence officers. But the plan was blown, and the five Cream Cake participants were brought to the West and provided new identities. As the story begins, two of the women have been murdered and left with their tongues removed—a sign of ritual execution by a Russian hit squad. Bond's assignment, officially unsanctioned, is not only pulling in the remaining Cream Cake members, but fingering and eliminating the traitor among them. First Bond links with Heather Dare in London and takes her to Ireland in search of the second potential victim, Ebbie Heritage. There they are caught by Maxim Smolin, Heather's Cream Cake target in the GRU. Luckily, it is revealed that M has arranged for the colonel to defect. But General Kolya Chernov, head of Department 8 of Directorate S (formerly SMERSH), arrives on the scene with intent to kill everyone, including Bond.
In SCORPIUS, the daughter of a baronet is found drowned in the Thames. When police investigations reveal that she was a member of a religious sect called The Society of the Meek Ones, whose guru is the mysterious Father Valentine, the Secret Service is alerted. There is further concern when authorities find on the girl's person a mysterious credit card (the "Avant Carte") unknown to the Royal Treasury and the IRS. The CIA is already investigating Valentine, and when the man is linked with international terrorist Vladimir Scorpius, James Bond is brought on the job. Without warning, members of the Meek Ones begin to assassinate major public officials in suicide missions meant to bring about the destruction of the upcoming general election. After he joins forces with American IRS agent Harnett (Harry) Horner, Bond interrogates another young member of the sect who was found drugged and catatonic in front of her parents' home. It seems that Valentine, who is revealed to be none other than Scorpius himself, is brainwashing his members with drugs; he plans to hire out for profit not only his own brand of terrorism, but an army of kamikaze followers willing to die for their religious "beliefs."
STYLE AND THEMES
Stylistically, John Gardner has improved. The author's presentation is much more confident and self-assured in his second batch of Bond novels. His use of detail, especially, is more credible. Gardner manages to smoothly blend in the brand names and descriptions with the action, whereas before they called attention to themselves. The stories read at a breakneck pace; and although there are a few sections in all four books which nag at one's logic, it is this momentum which sweeps the reader along.
Although the author has not brought anything new to the series in terms of thematic elements, Gardner further emphasizes the chains with which James Bond is tied to his profession. This is something that Fleming first introduced as the downside to the character's personal life in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. Bond cannot escape his duty to the Service, even in his personal life.
In ROLE OF HONOR, Bond's assignment calls for his social life to be publicly uprooted for the purposes of a cover. At the beginning of the novel, 007 inherits a quarter of a million pounds from an "Uncle Bruce," whom he has never seen. Service rules dictate that whenever personnel come into money, they must report it. Bond does so, and proceeds to follow the contingency set forth in his uncle's will—to spend 100,000 pounds immediately in a "frivolous" manner. For the next few weeks, Bond is seen around London literally throwing it around—high gambling, extravagant living, lots of ladies. He even purchases a brand-new Bentley Mulsanne Turbo. As a result, tongues begin to wag and M seizes upon a brilliant plan of action. He and his chief of staff have learned that "the other side" is in London and is recruiting. Why not have James Bond resign from the Service over a fictitious spat concerning his legacy? Bond would then be, in essence, "free for hire."
There is a small announcement in the Times, and soon James Bond is unemployed—stripped of his license to kill. The agent's personal life has never been so unwittingly meshed with his job. The theme is clear—once an agent, always an agent.
NOBODY LIVES FOREVER takes this idea a step further. While Bond is on leave, SPECTRE strikes at the agent where he is most vulnerable—his home life. May, his loyal, Scottish housekeeper, is kidnapped from a medical center in Austria. To make matters worse, Miss Moneypenny is snatched as well, for she was visiting May at the time. What is significant is that the kidnappings have nothing to do with the war between the Secret Service and the forces of evil. It is purely a personal vendetta—SPECTRE wants Bond's head, and they sponsor a competition to get it.
NO DEALS, MR. BOND is less personal to Bond, although there is a double edge to his assignment. M has entrusted him with a dangerous and delicate mission—one of "saving face." M could lose his job if the details of Cream Cake are made public. Additionally, the Service does not sanction the mission—Bond is on his own and would be ignored should he be caught by the other side.
In SCORPIUS, Bond's feelings for Harriett Homer are compounded when the mad villain forces the couple to "marry" in a mock ceremony. (Although this is never fully explained, Scorpius seems to want to use the newlyweds in some hind of deadly and perverted role-playing game to satisfy his own penchant for death.) The preparations for the "wedding" and the ceremony itself painfully remind Bond of his only real marriage to Tracy. Again, his personal life is meshed with the professional one.
". . . People like us can't just stop, or lead normal lives," Bond tells Percy Proud at the end of ROLE OF HONOR. He is, and always will be, "the man who is only a silhouette."
CHARACTERS
James Bond is still more or less the same character John Gardner resurrected in LICENSE RENEWED, but the author has clearly attempted to humanize the hero more. For example, in Chapter 7 of ROLE OF HONOR, Bond wistfully sings "Rolling home. . ." aloud to himself as he drives from Calais on the A26 Autoroute. But he can't bring himself to sing the last line of the tune, for it reminds him of his dead wife, Tracy. The image of a James Bond who sings is an uncommon one (although he does so in DOCTOR NO). But why shouldn't he? Why wouldn't James Bond sing to himself in his car, or in the shower? It's a side of the character we've rarely seen, and Gardner should bring to 007 more interesting tidbits like this.
One significant sequence in NO DEALS, MR. BOND is disturbing and shocking, especially in comparison with the cinematic James Bond. At the end of the novel, James Bond assassinates a traitorous Heather Dare with co
ld ruthlessness. His act is very violent and vicious, despite the fact that the woman is about to kill him. The sequence jars the reader because the cinematic Bond would never do such a thing. But the literary 007 would. The author has not forgotten that James Bond is first and foremost a civil servant whose job is to kill in the name of the government.
Gardner makes an amusing in-joke about the character in SCORPIUS, when Bond watches an in-flight movie on the way to the states. "Though he had already seen it, Bond sat through it again. The Untouchables. A favorite actor of his played a Chicago cop." That actor, of course, is Sean Connery.
Incidentally, the author has made additional changes in James Bond's equipment. In ROLE OF HONOR, 007 purchases the aforementioned Bentley Mulsanne Turbo, painted British Racing Green, with a magnolia interior. Surprisingly, Bond has had no "extra features" installed, save for a small concealed weapon compartment and a long-range telephone.
The new books also find Bond using a new gun—the ASP 9mm, a combat modification of the 9mm Smith & Wesson. Manufactured by Armament Systems and Procedures, Inc., in Appleton, Wisconsin, the gun has a 3.25" barrel and is an overall 6.75" in length. Because the finish is a matte black Teflon-S, the skin on the shooter's hand will not adhere to the weapon, even in extreme cold. The magazine holds seven rounds. Bond also uses the ASP 616 Tactical Baton, which is 6" long when closed and 16" long when telescoped. It is made of toughened steel with a vinyl grip.
Gardner's new batch of heroines are a lively bunch. Percy Proud, of ROLE OF HONOR, is probably the author's most successful female character to date. Percy is an American computer whiz and the villain's former wife. She is tall with long ash-blonde hair, and has blue-gray eyes which "twinkle with amusement." What distinguishes the character is a sense of humor and a confident independence. She can hold her own, as she demonstrates at the end of the novel by shooting an assassin before Bond has time to react.
Sukie Tempesta, in NOBODY LIVES FOREVER, is a redhead (a rarity in the Bond novels). She is English, but is officially an Italian Principessa. Her husband, the Principe Pasquale Tempesta has died a year before the story begins. She is tall, as usual, and has large oval brown eyes set off by naturally long, curling lashes. Sukie has a habit of sticking out her lower lip to blow hair from her forehead. Despite her obvious wealth and worldly experience, Sukie is actually a very normal, convent-educated girl. She engages in no heroics; nor does she get in the way as a helpless victim.
Ebbie Heritage, the German heroine of NO DEALS, MR. BOND, is a blue-eyed blonde who is "full of fun" and has an "unselfconscious sense of her own attractiveness." In other words, she is a terrible flirt. Of all the female characters in the recent Bond novels, it is Ebbie Heritage whom 007 finds the most attractive. Because of her seemingly endless capacity for fun and teasing, she excites Bond to no end.
American Harriett Irene ("if you're worried about the alliteration") Homer is an American Internal Revenue Service undercover investigator who has been looking for Father Valentine for tax evasion (inspired by The Untouchables, no doubt). Harriett, or Harry, has gray eyes and short black hair, which at first strikes Bond as "slightly unreal." She is stylish, tasteful, and highly intelligent—a very worthy character for James Bond. In her bedroom, he is impressed that Eric Ambier's Doctor Frigo is lying on top of Peter Wright's Spycatcher, and "considered she had got them in the right order." Other than her voracious reading habits, we don't learn much about the unfortunate Miss Horner. It would have been nice to know where in the States she was from, how she came to have such a dangerous job, a bit of her history, and other essentials to flesh out her character. She dies at the end of the book in perhaps what is a much too horrible and violent death than is warranted.
This round of villains is lively, too. ROLE OF HONOR features Dr. Jay Autem Holy, an Englishman who once worked for the Pentagon as a computer whiz specializing in advanced programming. Now Holy works for SPECTRE and is developing special programs which coordinate any sort of crime in minute detail. Holy is tall and slim, with piercing green eyes and a large hooked nose. He is naturally charming and full of boyish zeal, yet he also has a terrible temper and hates to lose games.
Holy's partner in crime is Tamil Rahani, the new leader of SPECTRE and the major antagonist of NOBODY LIVES FOREVER. Rahani is part American, part Lebanese, and is the principal shareholder/chairman of Rahani Electronics, based in New York. He is sleek, well-dressed, needle-sharp, and confident Bond notes that Rahani has perfect teeth—white and regular, below a neatly trimmed mustache. How Rahani inherited the SPECTRE throne from the Blofelds a few years before is never really explained. Unfortunately, Rahani's roles in both novels are brief, and we are unable to fully grasp the character.
NO DEALS, MR. BOND presents General Konstantin Nikolaevich Chernov, Chief Investigating Officer of Department 8 of Directorate S, K.G.B. Code name: Blackfriar. The new leader of what was once called SMERSH is a stereotypical Russian fanatic whose primary function is to keep the Cold War alive. Chernov is over six feet tall, slim, and has tanned, good-looking features. His hair is thick, graying at the temples, and unusually long for a member of the Russian Service. But the man keeps it well groomed and distinguished by the wings that almost cover his ears.
The title character of SCORPIUS is one Vladimir Scorpius, long-wanted international supplier of illegal arms and explosives to radical groups. Scorpius has been masquerading for two years as Father Valentine, the leader of a bizarre religious cult formed in England. He is short and has Italianate good looks with a patrician nose. He is supposedly a Svengali-like, charismatic man who is able to exert his willpower onto less intelligent, weaker, and therefore more susceptible people. But instead, the man seems to be just another Doctor No. Although results of his hypnotic abilities are demonstrated by monstrously horrible and violent events scattered throughout the novel, the reader never witnesses a scene in which Scorpius actually does his thing on a cult member. Vladimir Scorpius might have been more timely, topical, and ultimately more successful as a hellfire American TV evangelist, a type of personality that in reality is becoming more and more powerful and ultimately more frightening.
One does miss the occasional appearance of Felix Leiter, for there is no character who fulfills Bond's need for male friendship—an element of the agent's makeup which was strongly felt in Fleming's books. But many other regulars are still around. M, who hasn't changed a bit and is still as crotchety as ever, has little impact on any of the Gardner novels until SCORPIUS. Here, M is one of the better characters in the book, as the size of his role in the story is quite large. There is a wonderful, dramatic bit as Bond and his chief watch Lord Mills' assassination on television. M, usually one who contains his emotions, finally turns to Bond and says, "Get them, James!" He speaks through "clenched teeth." "Just get them. Kill them, wipe them off the face of the earth if you have to, though I'll deny ever saying that to you if it happens. Go out and find the devils."
HIGHLIGHTS AND OTHER INGREDIENTS
The John Gardner Bond novels read like movie treatments. The plots are fast-paced and contain plenty of action and there is minimal attention paid to character or thematic development ROLE OF HONOR features an especially explosive sequence at a terrorist training camp called "Erewhon," where SPECTRE recruits its assassins. Bond has the opportunity to show his prowess against four hit men during an "exercise" in which the four men stalk the agent inside a gutted building.
A hair-raising highway gun battle in the first half of NOBODY LIVES FOREVER is quite exciting. Bond, Sukie Tempesta, and Nannie Nonich are attacked by hoods in a Renault while driving through Austria. Using Glaser Slugs, prefragmented bullets containing No. 12 shot suspended in Teflon, 007 manages to make a "growing crimson ball" out of the Renault before it crashes into the beloved Bentley.
The best scene in NO DEALS, MR. BOND is yet another shoot-out, this time in an ancient castle in Ireland from where Bond, Ebbie Heritage, Heather Dare, and Maxim Smolin make an escape. Agent 007 must grapple with f
erocious Doberman Pinschers while covering Smotin—and Bond damn near loses his life.
SCORPIUS is gripping and suspenseful for the entire first two-thirds of the book, thanks to a cleverly structured chain of events involving Bond's investigation of a situation which rapidly escalates into chaos around him. Agent 007 is shuttled all over London and its environs in what is unusual for a Bond novel—police investigation work, which happens to be surprisingly involving. There are several violent, exciting, and unexpected action sequences throughout this bulk of the book, and not until 007 arrives at Scorpius' Doctor No-like headquarters in South Carolina does the novel begin to falter.
Gardner is always finding interesting gadgets for his hero. Besides the new ASP and the aforementioned baton, Bond makes use of a Q Branch toolkit containing small explosive charges and their electronic connectors, the latest advance in what at one time were known as "harmonica bugs"—tiny surveillance devices which can be hidden in normal telephones; an oilskin pouch containing various sundries such as a flare and a grenade; a belt which can conceal a number of devices; and an ingenious overnight briefcase with a secret compartment for hiding a gun, explosives, a knifelike tool, and a first-aid kit.
As mentioned earlier in this book, the John Gardner Bond novels make no pretensions to being any more than escapist reading. And even though Ian Fleming's books are now considered classic spy literature, Fleming always said that they were meant for "warm-blooded heterosexuals in railway trains, airplanes or beds." John Gardner is certainly capable of writing novels of higher literary content—his recent THE SECRET GENERATIONS is one such example. Critics of the author's Bond novels fail to grasp that they, like their predecessors, only aim at providing a few hours of entertainment. And that they do.
The James Bond Bedside Companion Page 52
