Signet You Only Live Twice

One of the best James Bond novel by Ian Fleming👌

Excellent plot..James Bond@ best.Nice packing also

井上一夫の訳を思い出しながら本書を読むうちに、物語の世界に浸ってしまいました。前作「女王陛下の００７」がイアン・フレミング原作の白眉だけに、その続編の本作は当然暗く、映画と異なってアクションの連続とはなりません。ラスト手前で気球につかまって漂流するジェームズ・ボンドの姿が本作、いやジェームズ・ボンドの物語すべてを象徴しているように思えるのです。映画でしか００７を知らない方は、この物悲しさについていけないかもしれません。しかし、このボンドがあったからこそ、挫折し再生する英雄として、ジェームズ・ボンドは今に残っていると言えるでしょう。なおペーパーバックでは本書の表紙が気に入った方は急がれる方がいいでしょう。一番廉価です。米国アマゾンでは別の表紙のものしかありません。

You Only Live Twice has a fair claim to being the best of the Bond novels. It has arguably the most deranged villain of all, Ernst Stavro Blofeld posing as, of all things, an insane horticulturalist going by the name of Dr Shatterhand (nobody did names quite so well as Ian Fleming); it has a terrific heroine in the resourceful and fascinating Kissy Suzuki; it has two charasmatic allies in the form of Tiger Tanaka and Dikko Henderson and it has the exotic locations - the islands skirting mainland Japan with their mountains, beautiful flowers and clear blue seas. Unusually for a Bond novel, and for me this is what sets it apart and places it very near the summit of all the Bond books, it has a fascinating and surreal plot and a great deal of emotional depth.At the beginning of the novel James Bond is suffering from depression, experiencing a nine-month stretch in which his world crumbles and the colour bleeds from his life. He is not sleeping, he is drinking too much and his work for M has gone to hell. M, sensing that something must be done, sends him to Japan on what is regarded as an impossible mission - not because he believes Bond has any chance of succeding, but merely to present him with a challenge so insurmountable that he is forced to face reality and thus hopefully emerge from his moribund, drink-addled stupor. In Japan Bond meets Tiger Tanaka, finds himself getting an insider view of the Japanese secret service, and becomes immersed in Japanese culture (Tiger sees Britain as old, crumbling and decadent - a fading power - while for Bond Japan is a land of cloying ritual and rigid - too rigid - discipline); in a discussion on information-sharing between the two powers a side-issue emerges, a tale of a mysterious 'Castle of Death' in a remote coastal region of Japan where suicides flock in vast numbers to do away with themselves. Bond takes up the challenge to investigate and put an end to the macabre castle, and its mysterious owner, Dr Shatterhand.The idea of a 'garden of death', a region cultivated with toxic plants that weep poisonous sap, yield lethal seeds and exude a miasma of decay comes - I suspect - from Nathanial Hawthorne's short story 'Rappaccini's Daughter', in which Dr Rappaccini cultivates flowers that positively exhale a toxic scent. In Fleming's hands the garden becomes a surreal devil's playground in which Blofeld - who patrols the garden in a suit of Japanese medieval armour in order to protect himself from the plants - provides what he sees as a noble service (a means by which suicides can easily do away with themselves without inconveniencing others). The accounts of Bond making his way through the garden to reach Blofeld's castle, and the sinister games of cat and mouse that follow, are amongst the finest things Fleming ever put down on paper.In conclusion You Only Live Twice is one of the finest Bond novels. You can keep your straight-forward megalomaniac plans for world domination - a personal battle between Bond and an insane genius inhabiting a noxious landscape of beautiful poisonous plants is way more fascinating. Superb, surreal, baffling, dazzling stuff! Recommended.

If you watched most James Bond movies, you'd hardly know that the British secret agent had ever been married to a woman named Tracy. He was, however, in both the book and the movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service, though wedded bliss would be short indeed, thanks to Bond's greatest foe, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. In the movies, Tracy is hardly referred to ever again (to my knowledge, only briefly in the prologue of "For Your Eyes Only". In the books, however, the death of Bond's true love is far more devastating.In You Only Live Twice, Bond is not coping well with Tracy's death. Nine months later, he is still depressed and his work has declined considerably. Bond's boss, M, is on the brink of firing 007, but is convinced to take one last shot at redeeming his best employee. He sends Bond to Japan to try and convince Tiger Tanaka, the head of Japanese Intelligence, to share a valuable information source called Magic 44. Tanaka and Bond get along well enough, leading to a deal: Tanaka will share Magic 44 if Bond kills a nasty character named Shatterhand (who is beyond the reach of Japanese law).Shatterhand has his own Garden of Death, an estate filled with lethal flora and fauna. Although he makes a show of trying to stop trespassers, in fact he is perfectly willing to let people in. In a culture which is very stressful and values honor above all (even life), Shatterhand's garden attracts the suicidal and even subtly encourages them. Tanaka wants Shatterhand stopped and believes a foreign agent is the best way to go. Bond, thinking primarily of Queen and Country, is willing to go along with the assassination, but he does have misgivings. Then he discovers Shatterhand's true identity is none other than Blofeld and all reluctance is gone.You Only Live Twice is the final book in what I think of as the Blofeld trilogy, preceded by Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Although I think OHMSS is the strongest of the three, this is not far behind (if it suffers from anything, it's that Blofeld's scheme this time is less rational; then again, the master criminal may be going insane through syphilis). Compared to some volumes in the Bond series, this one has relatively limited action - at least before the conclusion - instead focusing more on Bond the person. We even get substantial biographical information on him. The penultimate Bond novel (by Ian Fleming) is best enjoyed when reading the other trilogy books first; for those who have read these earlier works, You Only Live Twice is a satisfying conclusion.