Rach's Reading Club

Having already read all of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, I decided to read "Octopussy" which is four short stories about the character.

Personally, I'm not crazy about the idea of James Bond short stories to begin with . I prefer seeing the character engaged in epic adventures which traverse the globe. Nevertheless these stories are satisfying and ,if you've seen the James Bond movies, interesting.

Take the title story, "Octopussy". 007 fans will remember that that was the title of a Roger Moore movie from the early 80s, which incidentally, had an extremely epic plot. The plot of this story has is completely unrelated to that movie though. Even the title refers to something completely different (and less sexual).

Moreover, the story is not even really about James Bond. It focuses on a British officer who committed a crime during the war and is now hiding out in the Carribean. The story consists mostly of flashbacks to the war and Bond only shows up at the end to bring him to justice.


The second story, "The Property of a Lady" is interesting in that the movie, "Octopussy" does seem to have been loosely inspired by it. It involves a Russian Faberge egg which is being auctioned off presumably to pay a Russian agent in London. Obviously, this isn't even close to the labyrinthine plot of the movie, but it's an okay read.

The third one is titled "The Living Daylights" and, yes, that was the title of another James Bond film--the first Timothy Dalton one. And, yes, the story is related to the plot of that movie. It involves Bond being assigned to help a Soviet defector get across from East Germany. (I believe they changed it to Czechslovakia in the movie) There is a sort of plot twist which people who have seen the movie will guess, but Fleming handles it in a much darker way.

Finally, the worst of the bunch is a story called, "007 in New York". It involves Bond traveling to New York to rendezvous with a former British agent. The agent is a female that he presumably has a history with. This story consists mostly of Bond thinking about his plans for the rendezvous. I get the feeling that here, Fleming was going lessfor suspense and more for the urbane feeling of a night in New York. As a native of New York, I could appreciate this, but I'm not sure it's what I want from James Bond. The story has a twist at the end, but not one that I like very much.

So all in all, I suggest this book for after you've read the Bond novels.