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Nobody Lives Forever (1986)
Author: |
John Gardner |
Published: |
June 1986 |
MI6 Rating: |
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Data Stream
Villains: |
Tamil Rahani of SPECTRE, Steve Quinn, Dr Kirchtum,
Der Haken |
Plot: |
James Bond becomes the target of a winner-takes-all
manhunt as SPECTRE place a 10 million Swiss franc
bounty on his head. |
Bond Girls: |
Principessa Sukie Tempesta, Nannie Norrich |
Allies: |
May, Moneypenny |
Locations: |
Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Key West
(Florida) |
Highlights: |
Sea journey, clinic assault, final battle on Shark
island |
Capsule Synopsis
Someone wants James bond's head on a silver platter, literally.
All you have to do is deliver Bond to one of the most sinister
criminals in the world, and earn ten million Swiss francs
for your trouble. But there's stiff competition. And soon
007's motoring holiday turns into an odyssey of treachery
as he becomes the target in a winner-take-all manhunt. |
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Above: British 1st edition Jonathan
Cape hardback. |
Official Blurb (First Edition USA Hardback)
Many have tried; few have succeeded.
Not even James Bond's most desperate adversaries, not even all
the global resources of a SMERSH or a SPECTRE under the diabolical
leadership of Ernst Stavro Blofeld or, in more recent days,
Colonel Tamil Rahani, have managed to defeat 007.
But is it because no one has discovered 007's soft spot?
It all starts innocently enough: the suave James Bond is on
leave in Europe, motoring across France in his Bentley Mulsanne
Turbo on his way to visit friends in Italy, then to a sanitorium
in Austria, where his devoted housekeeper, May, is convalescing
from a serious illness. Soon enough, however, ominous events
begin to take place: Sudden death strikes at least four people
who come close to Bond during his journey. Coincidences? Perhaps.
But is Bond's encounter with the wealthy and beauteous brown-eyed
Sukie Tempesta, known as "La Principessa", or her
cohort, the equally charming "Nannie" Norwich, who
heads the world's only female bodyguard service, truly a coincidence?
Then a phone call comes, from May's doctor at the sanitorium:
Bond's housekeeper has been kidnapped, and with her a familiar
visitor, M's secretary and Bond's longtime (if discreet) admirer,
Miss Moneypenny.
Soon enough Bond realizes what has happened. There is a contract
out in the espionage world: ten million Swiss francs for James
Bond's head literally severed and delivered on a silver charger.
The donor: none other than Tamil Rahani himself, who was last
seen (in John Gardner's Role Of Honour) plummeting from an airship
in Lake Geneva.
Nobody Lives Forever is vintage Bond and the best of the best
selling cycle of James Bond novels created by John Gardner,
which began with Licence Renewed, Told at a breakneck pace,
marked by unforeseen pitfalls and twisting turns that confound
Bond as much as his readers, it propels us from the winding
roads of the Tyrolean Alps to a shark-defended island off the
coast of Key West and a locked room that contains but a slant-bladed
device long favoured by head-severer's: the guillotine.
Filled with double-crosses that will throw off even the most
seasoned Bond hand, this is high-tech, high-tension thriller
writing at its very best, proving once more and for all that
Nobody Lives Forever.
Official Blurb (First Edition US Paperback)
Someone wants James bond's head on a silver platter, literally.
All you have to do is deliver Bond to one of the most sinister
criminals in the world, and earn ten million Swiss francs for
your trouble. But there's stiff competition. And soon 007's
motoring holiday turns into an odyssey of treachery as he becomes
the target in a winner-take-all manhunt.
- No Way to Start a Vacation
- The Poison Dwarf
- Sukie
- The Head Hunt
- Nannie
- The NUB
- The Hook
- Under Discipline
- Vampire
- The Mozart Man
- Hawk's Wing and Macabre
- England Expects
- Good Evening, Mr. Boldman
- Frost-Free City
- The Price for a Life
- Going Down Tonight
- Shark Island
- Madame Awaits
- Death and Destruction
- Cheers and Applause
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Top Left: British 1st edition
Coronet paperback. Top Right: American 1st edition Charter paperback.
Bottom Left: American 1st edition Putnam hardback. Bottom Right:
Canadian 1st edition Coronet paperback.
Excerpt
Taking a deep breath, he raised the ASP. He was only a few steps
away from Rahani's head. One squeeze of the trigger and it would
be obliterated, and, with luck and cunning, he could be away
- hiding up in the grounds - until he found a method of getting
off the island. He began to squeeze the trigger, and as he did
so thought he felt a small gust of air on the back of his head.
"I don't think so, James. We've brought you too far to
let you do what God's going to do soon enough." The voice
came from behind him. "Just drop the gun, James. Drop it,
or you'll be dead before you can even move>" He was
stunned by the voice. The ASP fell, with a noisy thump, to the
floor and Tamil Rahani stirred and groaned in his sleep. "Okay,
you can turn around now. I'm sorry it had to be like this, James.
You lived up to your reputation." "Not as sorry as
I am." Bond allowed himself a smile..
Trivia
Author John Gardner apparently concocted the plot based on feedback
from his friends when asked what they would like to see in the
next adventure: a personal story won over a regular spy mission.
The book was given the working title "You Only Die Once"
by Gardner, a play on Fleming's opus "You Only Live Twice".
Regular first edition artist Richard Chopping again provided
the cover, but this was his last in the Bond series.
Timeline
1986 |
May - 1st edition Putnam hardback (USA)
June - 1st edition Jonathan Cape hardback (UK)
1st edition Landmark large print hardback (USA)
1st edition Coronet paperback (Canada) |
1987 |
July - 1st edition Charter paperback (USA)
August - 1st edition Coronet paperback (UK) |
1989 |
1st edition Valby paperback (Denmark) |
Synopsis
As Bond drives across Europe to collect May from Klinik Mozart,
a nursing home in Austria, violence continues to surround him.
Bond doesn’t believe in coincidences, and it turns out when
he gets in touch with London that a price of 10 million Swiss
Francs is on Bond’s head if it can be decapitated. Bond
suspects the involvement of SPECTRE and its dying leader, Tamil
Rahani. Bond hides in Strasbourg with Sukie Tempesta, whom he
earlier saved from a mugging.
Bond decides to use Sukie as a hostage, and escapes Strasbourg
after Italy’s SIS man, Steve Quinn, has told him the whole
story. But meanwhile May and Moneypenny are kidnapped. Bond also
picks up Sukie’s friend, Nannie Norrich, who turns is head
of a bodyguard agency and helps defend Bond from attacks on the
way to Austria. In Austria, 007 is captured by ‘Der Haken’,
a bent police officer, but someone kills him and his four cronies
and allows 007 to escape.
Bond then goes to the Klinik and rescues Dr Kirchtum from three
villains, one of whom is Steve Quinn who Kirchtum injects to keep
him asleep. All leads point to May and Moneypenny, for whom Bond’s
head is the ransom, being in Key West. Bond flies to Miami but
still distrusts the two girls, who seem to have saved his life
too often and who he thinks may be keeping him alive for SPECTRE.
But on landing 007 is captured by Kirchtum and Quinn, but escapes
on transportation to SPECTRE’s island base when Nannie and
Sukie kill the two traitors and their captain.
Mistrusting the girls, Bond journeys alone to the island, but
is caught by Nannie Norrich on the way, and locked up by SPECTRE.
He is shown the guillotine with which he will be executed, but
soon starts an escape plan. Using Q gadgets which evaded Nannie,
Bond rigs up Tamil Rahani’s bed to explode when it is moved
into position to see Bond’s execution. With Bond about to
die, Rahani is blown into a million pieces, and Nannie is locked
in the burning room with the other henchmen after Bond sends the
guillotine down and chops off her arms. Bond escapes an frees
May and Moneypenny from the cells, helped by soldiers who were
alerted by Sukie who outwitted Nannie’s attempts to poison
her and alerted the police.
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