The James Bond Bedside Companion (49 page)

M shows that he, too, is susceptible to the fear of boredom. When Bond is summoned to M's office, he unexpectedly finds M with a stranger, a Dr. Fanshawe,
who is an expert on jewelry.

Bond wished that M. had given him some kind of a brief, hadn't got this puckish, rather childishly malign desire to surprise—to spring the jack-in-the-box on his staff. But Bond, remembering his own boredom of ten minutes ago, and putting himself in M's place, had the intuition to realize that M. himself might have been subject to the same June heat, the same oppressive vacuum in his duties, and, faced by the unexpected relief of an emergency, a small one perhaps, had decided to extract the maximum effect, the maximum drama, out of it to relieve his own tedium.

("The Property of a Lady," OCTOPUSSY)

The story picks up a little once Bond arrives at the auction, but the entire incident is over so quickly it is hardly worth one's time. Of course, one must remember that "The Property of a Lady" was originally commissioned by Sotheby's to be included in their publication,
The Ivory Hammer: The Year at Sotheby's
. Perhaps this explains its thinness.

As a whole, OCTOPUSSY is not a grand finale to the Fleming Bond saga. It's too bad that his
oeuvre
ends with the two weakest books in the series. But, as Glidrose Productions probably assumed, weak Fleming is better than no Fleming.

The James Bond saga entered a hiatus after OCTOPUSSY was published in 1966. It was not until 1968 that Kingsley Amis (under the pseudonym Robert Markham), took the reins and resurrected Bond from literary inactivity.

C
OLONEL SUN, by Robert Markham (Kingsley Amis), continues the Bond saga and is a worthy successor to the Ian Fleming novels. It is not totally faithful to the Fleming books, but it would be foolish to expect a new author to mirror Fleming's style completely. It is important, however, to maintain the continuity of Bond's character and the events that have a direct bearing on Bond's life. COLONEL SUN achieves this. Despite a slow middle and an overly complicated plot, COLONEL SUN contains several exciting passages, good characterizations, and the rich detail that typify Fleming's work.

The story concerns Bond's attempts to rescue M, who has been kidnapped by Red Chinese forces belonging to one Colonel Sun Liang-tan. Colonel Sun hopes to lure Bond into his clutches so that both the famous agent and his chief can be killed. An important Russian summit conference is scheduled to take place in Greece; Sun plans to bomb the conference with a mortar gun and leave the two Englishmen's bodies at the site to implicate their guilt in the crime. 007 teams up with Russian agent A
r
iadne Alexandrou and her Greek friend, Niko Litsas, to combat Colonel Sun and his henchman, an ex-Nazi named Von Richter. The allies are eventually captured by the villains; Bond is severely tortured but is saved by a prostitute staying with Sun. The girl's intervention gives 007 the advantage over his enemies, and he and his confederates overcome Sun and succeed in rescuing M.

STYLE AND THEMES

C
OLONEL SUN begins and ends with explosive events. The main problem with the book is the middle, which is slow-moving and sometimes a little boring. At the beginning of the story, M is kidnapped by terrorists working for Red China; the Hammonds, who take care of M and his home, Quarterdeck, are murdered.

This is one of the most frightening and suspenseful openings to any of the James Bond books. Finding M in a helpless state—drugged and immobile—is a very disturbing image and it stamps the novel with a dark, foreboding mood which persists throughout the story. COLONEL SUN is the most violent, the sexiest, and one of the most unsettling of all the Bond books. The climax is extremely bloody, and James Bond undergoes perhaps the worst torture he has ever experienced.

One of the problems with COLONEL SUN is the lack of the Fleming Sweep. This is the one stylistic element which Amis has failed to duplicate in the series. The book is sometimes tedious, and this is not helped by the fact that the author has used an extremely complicated political plot. It is a lengthy book, and each chapter is dense with information and detail. Although there are a few tense passages in the middle of the book (the gun battle in the streets of Greece before Ariadne takes Bond to meet Litsas; the sea battle in which Bond sinks the enemy ship), the slow overall pace of the novel is a flaw.

Amis manages to create an adequate semblance of Fleming's penchant for rich detail, eloquently describing locations, characters, and events. He is also much more daring than Fleming in chronicling the sex act:

Within seconds they stood flesh to flesh. She shuddered briefly and moaned; her arms tightened round his neck, her
loins thrust against his and he felt the strength of her as well as the softness. As if they had become one creature with a single will, the two bodies sank to the bed. No preliminaries were needed. The man and the woman were joined immediately, with almost savage exultation. She leapt and strained in his grip, her movements as violent as his. The pace was too hot for their strivings to be prolonged. Their voices blended in the cry of joy that sounds so oddly akin to the inarticulate language of despair.

(COLONEL SUN, Chapter 8)

Though tame by today's standards, this is more explicit than anything Fleming wrote.

COLONEL SUN marks James Bond's first important involvement with politics. It is also Bond's first encounter with the Red Chinese as adversaries. A strong theme in the novel is that of keeping the peace between nations, especially Britain and Russia. Until Bond realizes that his adversaries are the Chinese, he of course believes them to be Russian. It seems that Amis is making a point that the Russians are no longer enemies of the British Empire as they were portrayed in the earlier Fleming novels. The ending of the story is ironic, as a Russian official thanks and offers James Bond a medal for defending Russia. Amis is extremely successful in maintaining the tension between the Russian official and Bond. Although nothing is said of Bond's past encounters with the Soviet government, there is a definite subtext underlying their conversation. The Russian chooses his words carefully, not quite apologizing for his government's treatment of Bond in the past, but rather approving the valiant efforts Bond has made on their behalf. Even M agrees that it was appropriate for the British Secret Service, this time, to help Russia in a common fight against Red China.

Another theme of the novel deals with Bond's permanent tie to his profession. The last few lines of the book present the two spies from opposite sides, Bond and Ariadne, reaching for each other's companionship; but deep down they both know a union would be impossible:

Bond said, "Come to London with me, Ariadne. Just for a little while. I know they'll give you leave."

"I want to come with you, just as you don't want to go. But I can't I knew you'd ask me and I was all set to say yes. Then I saw it somehow wouldn't be right.... I'm still stuck with my middle-class respectability. Does that sound silly?"

"No. But it makes me feel sad."

"Me too. It all comes from our job. People think it must be wonderful and free and everything.
But we're not free, are we?"

"No," said Bond again. "We're prisoners. But let's enjoy our captivity when we can."

(COLONEL SUN, Chapter 21)

What Bond means is that he and Ariadne are both prisoners of their professions. In a way, this is a flashback to the same feeling Fleming brought to the end of MOONRAKER with the allusion to James Bond as a "man without a silhouette." Bond is trapped in his profession—there will never be an escape. This was underscored with the deaths of Vesper Lynd and Tracy di Vicenzo, the only women he admitted truly loving, as well as by his devotion to rescuing M from his abductors in COLONEL SUN.

Finally, the other strong theme in the novel is that of revenge. James Bond is intent on avenging the deaths of the Hammonds and the kidnapping of M. Bond is particularly brutal in achieving his goal:

Bond just had time to notice the deep parallel scratches on the gunman's left cheek before Litsas grabbed him and clapped a large hand over his mouth. Bond stepped forward and looked into the dilated eyes. "This is for the Hammonds," he hissed, and drove the knife in. De Graafs body gave one great throe, as if he had touched a live terminal, then went totally limp.

(COLONEL SUN, Chapter 20)

The revenge is very satisfying. This is Bond at his toughest Amis has not forgotten that Bond is primarily an executioner—a prime element in the make-up of his character.

CHARACTERS

L
uckily, Amis has not tampered with the character of Bond. He is the same darkly handsome man first introduced in CASINO ROYALE. At the book's opening, Bond is troubled by the familiar malaise—boredom and complacency. The agent also seems to be much more hardened since YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. It's almost as if Amis has brought back the humorless Bond of the early novels. Perhaps the agent has built new walls around himself since his traumatic ordeals of the past five years. The death of Tracy; the fight with Blofeld in Japan; the loss of memory and subsequent year of living with Kissy Suzuki; the brainwashing ordeal in Russia; the assassination attempt on M; and the fight against death after Scaramanga's poison-tipped bullet almost eliminated the agent forever—all have had a toll on Bond. He is in a new cycle of his
life.
Now it's
only the job that matters. He is as grim and determined as before, but with a renewed strength. This is illustrated in the scene at Colonel Sun's house in which Bond sees M for the first time in weeks. When his chief orders Bond to leave him behind if there is a chance for the agent to escape, Bond flatly refuses. Bond's loyalty to his job and chief are stronger than ever in COLONEL SUN.

Ariadne Alexandrou is a very appealing heroine and a creation of whom Fleming would be proud. She is beautiful—a Greek, but unlike the "overrated, beaky, 'classical' look one associates with old coins." She has skin with soft tints of tan and white and olive and rose. Her eyes are tan-colored, and she has "tobacco-blonde hair." Ariadne is tough, intelligent, and resourceful. In many ways, she is superior to most Fleming heroines in that she has strong beliefs and ideals for which she is fighting. She is extremely independent (a common Bond-heroine trait), and can hold her own in a fight Bond is impressed by her ability to knock down a thug twice her size, as well as by her sexual magnetism.

Colonel Sun Liang-tan is a cruel, methodical villain, and very worthy of inclusion in the Bond saga. He is tall for a Chinese (nearly six foot) and is big-boned and long-headed. His skin color is the usual flat light yellow, his hair is blue-black and dead straight, and the "epicanthic eye-fold is notably conspicuous." One immediately compares him with Dr. No, not only because of the doctor's half-Chinese origin, but also because of his manner of speech and the control with which he holds himself. His methods and philosophies of torture, presented in the obligatory lecture scene, reveal Sun's demoniacal inclinations:

"In the divine Marquis de Sade's great work Justine there's a character who says to his victim: 'Heaven has decreed that it is your part to endure these sufferings, just as it is my part to inflict them.' That's the kind of relationship you and I are entering into, James...."

"You must understand that I'm not the slightest bit interested in studying resistance to pain or any such pseudoscientific claptrap. I just want to torture people. But—this is the point—not for any selfish reason, unless you call a saint or a martyr selfish. As de Sade explains in The Philosopher in the Boudoir, through cruelty one rises to heights of superhuman awareness, of sensitivity to new modes of being, that can't be attained by any other method. And the victim—you too, James, will be spiritually illuminated in the way so many Christian authorities describe as uplifting to the soul: through suffering. Side by side you and I will explore the heights."

(COLONEL SUN, Chapter 19)

Sun's words are chilling, and the subsequent torture Bond undergoes is excruciating for the reader as well as for the hero. Sun proceeds to probe the orifices of Bond's head with extremely thin wires which reach into his brain. Sun's words reveal the sick mind of the villain, and this impression is further refined at the end when Bond corners the wounded madman. Prepared to die at the hands of Bond, Sun welcomes his angel of death and pathetically attempts to apologize for the cruel treatment he has visited upon Bond. Also chilling is his use of "James" instead of the usual "Mister Bond." Sun's "Goodbye, James," as Bond plunges a knife into his heart, is the final plea for absolution.