The first of the official James Bond novels that was completed after Fleming’s death. The difference does show. Whilst there are very flaming, light touches in places, a lot of the time bond seems inaccessible here and also a different sort of character. With a blend of Greek smugglers and is a combination of Colombo and caring Bay. This does seem like a rather distorted repeat in many respects.

The locations are suitably unusual, and for its time exotic, but this isn’t the world travelling excitement fest that is the normal offering from Fleming. Bond is more cautious, cynical, but remains driven, loyal, and as charming as ever.

A good effort, but this is no Fleming novel. I see this as more of an interlude between the bonds great adventures. Some of the really great Fleming like ideas, including the attack on Quarterdeck, the capture of M, and what comes next door, crushed by lack lustre, and dreary passages. ( )

Not as irritating as a lot of Fleming's other novels. For some reason, Bond's dialogue feels less "chummy" and contrived than in the Fleming novels. But it is still pretty boring, with much of the action taking place on a boat. The villain, an Anglophile Chinese general, could have been interesting (and I think this may be the only novel where the omniscient narrator strays from Bond to the villain) but his presence is fairly minimal. ( )

A good Bond story except for the escape from the villain at the end. The minion just releases him!?!. It's a shame Kinsley Amis didn't write more. It was also interesting that it's Bond and a Russian against the Chinese. ( )

Sometimes a literary author (in this case, the legendary Kingsley Amis) can elevate genre fiction, and sometimes an author like that just makes genre fiction more boring. There is a section toward the end of this novel in which Bond is being tortured that is so long, over-written, and over-explained (by the villain) that it feels like the reader is the one being tortured. Which would potentially be interesting intellectually if it weren't right near the end, only delaying the inevitable escape, victory, etc...

There are two positives. The first is that some of the dialogue is funny; it's much better than most of the prose. The second is that there is an undercurrent of frustration by every factions' (British, Russian, Chinese, and Greek) soldiers that it is their bureaucrat bosses that are ruining everything. It brings to mind the movie Black Rain's contention that no matter how different the country, cops-and-robbers is still cops-and-robbers. At least in fiction. ( )

4/9/22