The Man with the golden gun

by Ian Fleming

Book, 1966

Status

Available

Call number

823.914

Series

James Bond novels (13)

James Bond novels - Original Series (13)

Genres

All Topics

Fiction

Description

Fiction. Suspense. HTML: If you try to assassinate your boss�??even though brainwashed at the time�??you must pay the price. To redeem himself James Bond is sent to kill one of the most lethal hit men in the world ... Paco "Pistols" Scaramanga. In the sultry heat of Jamaica, 007 infiltrates his target's criminal cooperative�??only to find that Scaramanga's bullets are laced with snake venom. When the end comes, every shot will count. This audiobook includes an exclusive bonus interview with Kenneth Bran

User reviews

LibraryThing member richardderus

Rating: 3* of five

**THIS REVIEW IS OF THE FILM**

I felt generous. The 1974 film, which is what I'm rating, is more or less a 2-star experience. Oh me oh my...an AMC Hornet, an AMC Matador, Simon Templar....I mean Roger Moore!...wearing loser suits...I mean leisure suits!...and the most horrendously

offensive Southern stereotype sheriff in the history of moviemaking adds up to some seriously noxious stuff. Then there's the damnfool idiot chop-socky pandering, and the concomitant "Oriental" stereotypes...ugh.

Maud Adams is GORGEOUS. She's just luminous in or out of her clothes. Tattoo from Fantasy Island is the houseboy to the baddie, resulting in a regrettable lack of hunky blond henchrats for me to ogle. Britt Ekland, Peter Sellers' ex, plays the stupidest secret agent imaginable, who manages to get herself locked in the trunk of the baddies' FLYING AMC MATADOR *oh dear goddesses please keep my dinner down* with the macguffin in her handbag which she hasn't had the common sense to drop...well, it's ridiculous even for a Bond movie.

The ending is...it's...epic. Titanic. So awful, so ridiculous, so completely...I...words do not exist yet for the sensation of revolted, horrified, amused, aesthetically affronted...well.

The title tune is sung by Lulu. I do not know why they chose this singer or this tune. It's just awful. Hideous.

I didn't lke 1974 the first time around, and I don't like it any better this time. Oh wait...Bond's Bangkok hotel room was way cool, turquoise shantung walls and marvelous decorative accessories and wonderful closets...you see where my mind was. The "story" (which doesn't resemble the novel too terrible much, the novel in this case was far better) sure as hell wasn't doin' it.

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LibraryThing member iansales

There’s a story that Fleming had told people he planned to become a writer once World War II ended, but one of his upper crust friends told him, “Oh Ian, don’t. You don’t have the brains for it.” And he didn’t, you know. Have the brains for it. The 007 novels, and I’ve now read them

all except for Octopussy & The Living Daylights (which is on the TBR), range from bad to terrible. And The Man with the Golden Gun is toward the terrible end of the scale. Of course, the film bears no resemblance to it. (The only film which follows the plot of the novel is Thunderball, and that’s because it’s actually a novelisation of the script… and a rights battle between Fleming and four others subsequently tied up the title for decades.) In The Man with the Golden Gun the novel, Scaramanga plies his trade in the Caribbean and has links to the Castro regime. Bond has been sent after him because he returned from You Only Live Twice brainwashed by the KGB to kill M. But now he’s had electro-shock therapy and he’s back to his normal self. M is still wary, however: hence the mission to terminate Scaramanga. Either Bond will prove his mettle, or Scaramanga will get rid of an embarrassing loose end. Bond stumbles across a clue revealing that Scaramanga is in a town in Jamaica, heads there, meets the man in a brothel, and is hired as security for an upcoming meeting Scaramanga is hosting at his half-finished luxury hotel nearby, where “investors” (ie, mobsters) will be persuaded to hand over more cash to finish the hotel. Scaramanga talks like a hoodlum from a cheap television series, Bond is his usual two-dimensional self, and Fleming can’t resist getting in his usual offensive digs at homosexuality, women and non-whites. Parts of the novel simply don’t ring true at all, as if Fleming has done little or no research; the only bits that are convincing are his descriptions of the countryside (Fleming, of course, lived in Jamaica). As with the bulk of the Bond books, you’re better off sticking with the film.

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LibraryThing member cinesnail88

This one was definitely a bit of a disappointment after coming off of the fantastic You Only Live Twice, but I expected as much so I wasn't surprised by it at all. That said, two of favorite characters were back - Felix Leiter and Mary Goodnight. Part of my lack of enjoyment of this one probably

had to do with it being set in Jamaica, as I never seem to like those as much as the other ones. That said, I only have one more until I am finished with Fleming's James Bond series. Woe, woe is me.

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LibraryThing member TheBeerNut

Battling epically with The Spy Who Loved Me for the title of Worst Bond Novel, this is the work of an author who just didn't care any more. The plot is sieve-like, the prose stilted and awkward and the characters lacking that crucial second dimension of Fleming heroes and villains. Bond didn't

deserve to go out on such a bum note.

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LibraryThing member JBreedlove

Bond is back in Jamaica on his toughest assignment yet. He is reunited with Miss Goodnight and his American friend and spy Felix Leiter. Technically not the last but his settling in w Goodnight portends the swan song. As usual an easy and entertaining read.

LibraryThing member polarbear123

Written in the year of his death this novel was never going to be the highlight of the series. The narrative does on occasion get bogged down with superfluous details about Fleming's beloved Jamaica. There are of course many good parts of the story to enjoy particularly the dialogue scenes between

Bond and Scaramanga and likewise between Leiter and Bond. Not one of the bes tbut it is not going to take you long to get through so its worth a punt!

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LibraryThing member Jakeofalltrades

A golden Gun, a Jamaican caper, a spy who has been brainwashed, but after recovering, he gets sent on a final, suicidal mission. This was the first James Bond book I read, and I had a good introduction to 007's world.

LibraryThing member jshillingford

I’d never read James Bond before, and this is only the second unabridged audio book of the series that I have listened to. I was seriously unimpressed with Octopussy, and am sad to find that this book is also underwhelming.

I rather felt like the author was beating a dead horse to stretch a short

story out into a novel. Scaramanga is the titular character – an assassin for hire with a deadly reputation. When James Bond has to redeem himself to MI6 after an unfortunate incident, he’s sent on what most expect to be his last mission. At first this sounds like a strong premise, but the writing just doesn’t pan out. The story almost immediately jumps to the island where Bond finds his target (so no exciting cat and mouse chase across the world) wherein Bond passes up more than one opportunity to kill Scaramanga because he doesn’t want to kill him unawares! Where is the dispassionate 007 spy who carries out any and all missions for Queen and Country? Evidently, movie Bond is a whole lot different from book Bond. And then there is the ending which was so frustrating I actually screamed out loud in my car to “get on with it!” Really. It dragged on and on for no good reason at all, with Bond making one stupid decision after another.

Since this is only the second of the series I’ve read, and I’m not going into chronological order, I decided on 3 stars mainly because Kenneth Branagh is an entertaining reader. I understood him easily, despite his accent, and he changed his tone and voice just enough to differentiate the various characters. And, I did enjoy the interplay between Bond and Felix Lighter (Bond’s CIA counterpart) when he showed up. Overall, I hope this isn’t the best I can expect of Bond, but at least it helped pass 5 hours of a long drive.

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LibraryThing member longhorndaniel

My 1st James Bond /007 book!!! Yeah me.... was pleased with the story and the characters;predictable of course but fun none the less

LibraryThing member alanteder

Even though this was supposedly only the first draft of the novel which Fleming was unable to finish due to this death, it still comes off as a completely satisfying conclusion to the original James Bond series. Having Kenneth Branagh as the narrator in this Celebrity Performances Series also kicks

it up a notch.

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LibraryThing member JackMassa

The last Bond novel by Fleming, written when he had had one heart attack and would soon die of a second. Some say it was finished by another writer, but this is disputed. Fleming himself is purported to have said, "This is, alas, the last Bond and, again alas, I mean it, for I really have run out

of both puff and zest." (quoted in Wikipedia article on the novel.)

Sadly, it shows. Highly implausible plot, rehashing much of the material from earlier books, without the puff and zest.

Still, worth a read if you enjoy pulp adventure writing or want to experience the entire Bond history.

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LibraryThing member DinadansFriend

A book of no great interest to me. But I did finish it, after picking it up. the last ian fleming I read, apparently, moving on to deighton,and Le Carre.

LibraryThing member Stevil2001

This isn't Fleming's best work; indeed, having now finished all the novels, I feel pretty certain that he peaked with On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and he should have just stopped there. It would have been a much better final Bond adventure than what came next. Man with the Golden Gun opens

okay, with Bond-- after the events of You Only Live Twice-- having been brainwashed by the Soviets. But once he's been deprogrammed, he's sent on a mission to Jamaica to kill a thug, which feels way beneath his talents. I think another writer could really do something with this: Bond having to prove to other and himself that he's still the man who he used to be. But Fleming doesn't do that, and this is Just Another Bond Mission.

Fleming always does pretty well with the mechanics of it all: Bond playing detective is good, and Scaramanga is a good villain, and the final action sequence is excellent, and the last line is a sad summation of Bond's character. But the novel has a fatal flaw, which is that Bond could just kill Scaramanga outright early on, and his reason for not doing so is completely unconvincing. Honestly, if Fleming hadn't pointed it out, I might not have noticed it, but he lampshades it, and everything that follows from there is undermined as a result.

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LibraryThing member aadyer

A morbid ending to the main series of bonds novels. At this point in his life Fleming was ill with cardiovascular disease and had been having several bouts of angina and was living with the consequences of ischaemic heart disease. His writing reflects that, and there is an atmosphere of both

morbidity, and of tarnished regret that comes across in this novel.

The original premise of Bonds versus the worlds, greatest assassin or the 1960s parlance, gunmen is an interesting one. of tarnished, regret that comes across in this novel.

The original promoters of Bonds versus the worlds, greatest assassin or the 1960s parlance, gunmen is a interesting one. However, Skara manga is no shadows bond, and is people looking for a nemesis story will be sadly disappointed. It becomes particularly exciting certainly towards the end. It is with regret that I close the last of the bonds novels written by the original author.

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LibraryThing member comfypants

The jist of this book is basically that James Bond is a dick, and a terrible spy. Even if the action scenes were better, it would still have zero suspense, since Bond isn't any better than the villains.

LibraryThing member andyray

Fleming's work is probably best known from Sean Connery's, Roger Moore's, et al, work in the films. Be that as it may, there is a stilting (stifling?) quality about Fleming's prose that doesn't make it edible to this Yankee. C'est beaucoup de la hauteur et grandiose par le Britain pour moi.

LibraryThing member jklugman

Considered one of the weaker Bond novels by Fleming, but I am not sure why, as it seems of a piece with the other books. Reading this finally made me realize why Fleming's novels leave me so cold--all of the characters, including Bond, sound so goddamn fussy and dumb. There is nothing at all

interesting about the conflict between Bond and Scaramanga, there is no drama, no stakes, no tension. And to be honest, that's basically all of the books in a nutshell.

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