You Only Live Twice
James Bond series book 12
Ian Fleming

The tragic end to James Bond's last mission - courtesy of Ernst Stavro Blofeld - has left 007 a broken man and of little use to the British Secret Service. M knows there's only one way to save his best agent: send him on an impossible mission far away from the painful reminders of his ruined life.
In Japan, Bond regains his will to live - and kill - under the tutelage of the formidable spy chief Tiger Tanaka. Trained in the dark arts of the ninja, disguised as a Japanese villager, and aided by the beautiful former Hollywood starlet Kissy Suzuki, Bond accepts a commission to assassinate one of Tanaka's enemies: a mysterious Swiss botanist named Dr. Guntram Shatterhand.
But the road to Shatterhand's impregnable fortress, known as the "Castle of Death", will lead 007 into the violent heart of a culture whose ways he has yet to master - and a final confrontation with his bitterest enemy.

Another top notch Bond novel, this one begins a little while after the other one leaves off. With the murder of his new wife Tracy, Bond is not the man he used to be. M's only choices are to either fire him, or to send him on an impossible mission to try and re-light Bond's former fire. He decided on the latter and it takes Bond to Japan on a mission to gain something from the Japanese.

Being under American occupation after the war, Bond must do something for them in return for what he wants. And that something will take him straight back to Blofeld so that he may have his revenge. But revenge comes at a price, and for Bond that price is that those in England think him dead while the wily Kissy Suzuki plots to keep him to herself on her island.

Much like the other top notch Bond novels (From Russia With Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service), the ending in this one leaves the reader wanting more. It's a bit of a cliffhanger and something that will lead in well to the beginning of the next novel.

While you do need to read this series in order to fully appreciate and understand each one, I do highly recommend this one. It's one of the best of the series.

My rating: Five out of five snails.