Picking her up from a health care center, giving her a ride home, rescuing her from international criminals… Boy, James Bond is the best boss ever lol

Knowing how fussy Bond is about his food and drink, May must be a phenomenal chef.

I love how Calvin is talking about Bond’s elderly housekeeper while the intense “Caverns” theme is blasting in the background lol.

Really glad you're continuing to review these novels. This one probably represents the high watermark of Gardner's Bond efforts. I'm sorry to say that the criticisms you have levelled at the previous novels only become more pronounced. But please continue to read them as (like others) I really enjoy your increasingly despairing reviews!

Remember Sukie Tempesta now, because she inexplicably returns in 11 books time (including the two novelisations) in Gardner's final Bond novel COLD. Not to get too spoiler-y but her character there is radically different from how it is here - bafflingly so.

Just found your channel. I love not just your enthusiasm for Bond but also your love for experiencing film on the big screen! Great channel, keep it up!

Panicked for a moment and thought you were going to review No One Lives Forever, the PC game xD

This book would come to define the Gardner era for me, with its plot contrivances, over abundance of characters and trying to guess who the traitor is, these are tropes Gardner kept doubling down on in his subsequent books. The book itself is probably Gardner's best as it barrels along without becoming overly convoluted like some of his later ones.

Gardner is very underated. I enjoyed all of the first 6 books. They lack Fleming's beautiful descriptive prose but make up for it with a more down to earth grittiness. Icebreaker's concluding chapters with the russian agent and the final chase at the airport are really gripping and feels like an 80s realist film

And then SPECTRE never appeared again in novel/short story form until a Raymond Benson Playboy story.

"The personal staff of a co-worker" ha ha ha ha ha ha. Great work Calvin, keep these up.

I do love these novel reviews. You've become so confident in doing these v-log style videos and it's a delight to watch. I'm please you had so much fun with this given there are so many Gardner books to cover still. Here's hoping you keep having fun with them.

Definitely my favourite of his books, and I think you hit pretty much bang on why. As it's almost a grande finale for his run to date, think he'd be better remembered if he'd left the series on this one.

No-bo-dy LIVES For-EVER Makes me feel sad for the rest.

The insight into the elusive genuine hilarity of these books is appreciated, having never read a Bond book. Also, happy to see you finding something to review during the lull.

Now let's hope the next one doesn't take 2 years to come out

There is a similarly titled game on PS2 called _No One Lives Forever,_ which plays like it was pulled straight out of one of those 60s spy TV shows. Perhaps something to review next?

While it's a shame that it's through her being a damsel in distress [and as you say her inclusion is quite forced] it's nice Gardner in 1986 gave Moneypenny a bigger role in the plot. I did wonder if LTK could have had her come along with Q and help Bond out [by doing background checks etc] but no, just send the 75 year old alone into the fray! At least when Naomie Harris came along the character finally got far more to do.

Your comments about the view of the JG books is spot on. Peoples views vary a lot. I think part of that is the struggle to tell them all apart! I do love to slag off the JG books because they are totally ridiculous, however they have given me a lot to laugh about and in some places admire, so they certainly have their place in the Bond canon!

There's a complete 180. He hates Role of Honour and yet this one is fantastic. From Icebreaker to here, I'd practically call Gardner's ranking almost identical to Fleming's at this point.

My only thought is that it would make more sense to use Anne Reilly (aka Q'ute) as the person that gets kidnapped along with May. Since the Gardener books have a lot more chemistry between Bond and Anne, than Bond and Moneypenny.

My compliments to your barber! Your hair cut looks fantastic!

First Gardner Bond I read, having seen it and said to myself "that's not a real Bond book" and then found out that, in fact, it was. Glad I hadn't read the previous four in order. but I went on to read them all. Win, Lose or Die was my favourite Gardner novel because you couldn't help but see and hear the then-current Bond Dalton as you were reading it. May had a great moment in Thunderball (?) when he eschews the health food he's been on and asks for an egg and bacon breakfast and she heartily approves. Also, there was a Fleming novel where Bond met an Italian aristocrat (by marriage) and "rescued" her.

In Ian Fleming s original series May knows Bond is a Civil Servant who disappears for awhile and returns in a rough state mentally and physically and she looks after him and nothing is said so basically she knows exactly what he his but ignores it And Moneypenny knows May because when she and Bond spent that special weekend together May made their picnic and lent Moneypenny her Brolly 😁

I also really liked this one - even after reading all the subsequent Gardners, it's my favourite of his tenure. The Bond-manhunt is a great idea, with everyone out to get Bond and their assassination attempts interfering with his mission, and Bond unable to trust anyone. I think the Gardner novels that work better are the one where he's able to come up with an interesting hook - the ones which are just standard Bond adventures are the ones that fall the most flat. It's a shame that EON are so resistant to using stuff from the continuation novels because I think the manhunt aspect from this book would work well in a Bond movie. Not sure I'd want a full-on adaptation of this book though.

Calvin, glad to see you returning to the novelisations. Brings back old times (I read all of these as they came out back in the day). Will you be reading any of the spin-offs, like the Moneypenny Diaries?

Its probably the case that Bond, after exerting himself to the limit on his various missions, wants to relax during his breaks. The last thing he wants to do is push a vacumn cleaner or make his beloved scrambled eggs himself. Thus, May.

Really enjoying these reviews Calvin. I read all the Gardner books as they were released and have re-read them two for three times over the years. I have my favorites and the ones that I just can't warm up to. But a Gardner book every year and a Roger/Dalton movie every two years...it was a great time to be a Bond fan. Along with everyone else, Nobody Lives Forever is a favorite, but it's going to be hard sledding from here on out I'm afraid. But I do like some of the '90s novels.

These retro-reviews are great. Can you do "With a Mind To Kill" next? I'd love to hear your take on the ending.

Love the book reviews Calvin! Will you be reviewing Devil May Care at some point? One of my favourite non Fleming novels

This one and 'Death is Forever ' were my two favorite Gardner books

Loved the review. I've not read the Gardner books since they were first published. I came to the books thru the films, and having read all the Fleming books I was hungry for more Bond when Gardner started writing them. I did read them all, more or less as published, and this one was my favorite out of them all. It'd be interesting to reread them now and see if my taste is the same. I look forward to your opinion on the rest of the Gardner series.

Of Gardner's first six novels that I've read, Nobody Lives Forever is the best! I love the ending! The climax with Q Branch's little explosives that Bond secretly carries on his person! What's with the scorpion on the cover of that one paperback edition? I would expect a different animal - I don't want to spoil it for anyone who has yet to read it. A winged animal, but not a scorpion...

Really enjoying watching these, been watching everyone as I'm working my way through the Bond novels and I just finished NLF tonight. I agree, this book was fantastic and I'm surprised that the films didn't borrow more from this one like some of the previous Gardner novels (although the description of Der Haken reminded me a lot of Dr Kaufman from Tomorrow Never Dies). Icebreaker is still my favourite Gardner novel but this definitely takes a close second place. I did read Trigger Mortis after reading Goldfinger and I think you'll have a blast with it, Horowitz really captures that Fleming magic in my opinion.

Always great to see more Gardner discussion. It’s so rare. I can understand why you liked NLF. It is definitely the pulpiest of his Bond novels. And as usual EON seems to have taken some inspiration. There’s quite a bit of LTK in this book. It’s only when you read them as an adult or reread the books many times that you start to nitpick and find all the inherent silliness in places. NLF also marks the end of the first five books and is the last of his initial Bond style. The next book starts a different style and section of his tenure. And just wait for someone from this book to reappear in his final Bond novel…..

Are you going to review mission impossible fallout

This was the first Gardner Bond I read, well listened to. It's good fun and brilliantly narrated by David Rintoul. Anyway it's always been one I remember quite fondly as it is quite earnest in its silliness. Also I don't know if you've read William Boyd's Solo but if you like May get ready for Donalda, May's niece. I haven't started reading With a mind to kill yet but I'd kill for the days of Gardner and Benson where there's a new Bond novel every year or so. I'd especially love to read novelisations of the Daniel Craig films, we used to get them from LTK thru to Die Another Day but none since, that I can find. Casino Royale I get, it's faithful enough to its source but the other DC films could do with a literary interpretation.

Yeah, when I read the Gardner books it got annoying the way every 2nd character was a double agent.

I can't remember which Fleming novel, but in 1 of them it is mentioned that she doesn't know what he does, but she has some suspicions.

This book is my favourite of the Gardner's. It's a sort of 80s From Russia with Love and the plot could of been a cool movie set up too. Can't wait for you to review No Deals, Mr. Bond. Operation Cream Cake awaits you.

I just LOVED the John Gardner books and I remember reading them all in the mid 90's...For some reason I always pictured Gardner's James Bond being Timothy Dalton...

It’s Definitely the Best of the Gardner Books

Just found this channel- really enjoying the literary reviews. Inspired me to re-read after first reading them as a kid. I agree this is one of the best of the Gardner years mainly as Gardner feels much more confident in Bond’s skin and the different plot to the cookie cutter Bond. One thing that has always puzzled me about these early Gardner books (including No Deals Mr Bond) is the generic titles. Nobody lives forever…really? Could he not think of anything else? Did the marketing boffin’s have a say on them? Keep up the great work- really like the reviews!

Vampire bats are (relatively) common carriers of rabies, so it's probably best to avoid getting bitten by them. Though shepherding them out of a window is probably a better idea (at least if you're not a trained killer).

I'm pleased to hear that you enjoyed Nobody Lives Forever. It's probably my favourite John Gardner novel. A few years ago I did an interview with James Bond Radio, and when they asked what I would like to see in Bond 25 I said that I would enjoy an adaptation of Nobody Lives Forever, with Blofeld in prison and the world's greatest assassins trying to kill Bond for a reward. Obviously not everything from the book would have worked on screen, but I think as a core premise it could have worked. I look forward to the next Gardner review video. No Deals Mr Bond is another of my top ranking Gardner books.

book review lets goo! cant wait for you to reach benson

Hey Calvin, enjoyed the video. You mentioned your Letterboxd page, just wondering why you don't log any Bond movies on that?

This is the plot of “The Pink Panther Strikes Again” !

I am rereading all of the Fleming novels and plan to read the continuation novels at some point. Nice review Calvin and I really enjoy your channel.

Calvin your better than Bollinger or '51 sherry the original vintage 1851. Your a true original vintage. Thank you

Is this the one where Bond drives a Saab and wears a Members Only jacket? '80s-tastic!

Have you checked out any of the Anthony Horowitz written James Bond stories? I’ve had fun with them, and With A Mind To Kill is about to release too.

I was actually expecting Rahanii to reveal to Bond at the end of NLF that the "Arab boy" that followed him around at the end of Role of Honour was, in fact, his son. Or some relation. If you recall - I can't remember if he pops up before this scene - but when they are on the blimp, Bond mentions that, along with "Colonel" Rahani, Simon, Holy, and Rolling Joe, there is an Arab boy who is ordered (apparently) to keep a close eye on Bond. And that he does. Bond notes that it will be difficult for him to make a move on the villains because the boy has a gun trained on him and won't take his eyes off of Bond. Bond actually comes to the conclusion that he will have to sacrifice his own life to foil their plot and he resigns himself to that fate. Of course, he never has to because Rahani reveals to Holy that he used him the whole time, and he only intended to disable the United States nuclear arms program and not the Soviet Union's. Betrayed, Holy launches himself at Rahani and then all hell breaks loose. I think Simon inadvertently shoots the Arab boy when he is killed, or vice versa. Anyway, Rahani puts the price on Bond's head in Nobody Lives Forever and wants 007 dead, claiming Bond made it personal, or something, at the end of ROH. You mention, Calvin, that Gardner doesn't expand on Rahani's character, and the Arab boy was the first thing that came to mind. Little else transpired between The Colonel and Bond, and Rahani kind of has himself to blame for Bond thwarting his plot in ROH, bc he was the one that made the call to include Bond in everything lol. I was expecting it to end up that Bond was responsible for the boy's death, and as Rahini's son, he would have been the obvious heir to the Spectre throne. Honestly, that's the only thing that made sense lol. Why else would Spectre have a "boy" following them around?? It made sense to me, at least lol.

The name of this book is also the title of a set of awesome Bondian spy video games set in the ‘60s that I think you really ought to do videos on!

Read this about 25 year ago and seam remember enjoying it. Was a lot younger then though so probably not aware of the flaws.

Not going to lie, this was the book when I kind of fell off with the continuation novels until Benson came about. They start to get a bit bonkers. It reads almost like fanfiction these days.

The Queen lives forever ...

this was the only gardner book which i’ve read that i liked. I’m happy bond wasn’t hanging around disney word. I know a few people have said that the concept of different spectre assassins coming for bond is a solid basis for a movie.

Enjoy listening to your review but i found the background music distracting. It felt like i was playing Goldeneye on the N64.......

In the comic "Reflections Of Death" Moneypenny is also kidnapped.

I would like to see Calvin talk about Spy x Family once the season wraps up. I think it would be a show he would enjoy.

Like all Gardner novels, it is batshit insane but it sure is fun. I think this is one of his best ones. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on "Scorpius," which is two books away. I think that one is my new favorite Gardner Bond novel. You might like "No Deals, Mr. Bond" as well; it has a similar Bond survivalist mentality to it. Is this the one where Marc-Ange Draco and the Union Corse get a shoutout amongst the organizations competing for the bounty on Bond's head? I always thought that was a cool callback (but maybe I have the wrong book.)

Calvin...at first I thought it said No One Lives Forever which was a PS2 game I played set in the 60s where you play as a female Secret Agent trying to prevent a worlds organisations plans to hold ransom the world....I laughed so much when I realised what a dumb dumb I was... Saying that...I would love love love love if you could review that game. Its a love letter to James Bond and 1960s spy series generally and while the graphics haven't aged well (even for PS2 it was not great) what it made up in plot, character, humour and winks to 1960s spy genre I believe would be deserving of a review in your channel.

When will a bond ranking come out?

It's a fantastic premise with solid action sequences and brutal moments. Eon should mine the continuation novels for plot, character names and even title. Ian Fleming could issue movie tie-in editions. The writers or the writers estate would make some money. Eon could create anticipation and speculation on what would be adapted.

You missed a great opportunity by not saying it's "Gardener-ing time!"

Can't wait until you get to the more modern era of Bond books with actual writers, Deaver, Boyd, Faulks and Horowitz - much more worthy of your time.

Good, clean hooky fun indeed! I didn’t expect it would rank this high!

Haven’t read this series yet but I loved trigger mortis

I've just finished reading this tonight in my Gardner series re-read. This is certainly my favourite so far - good plot with black comedy potential - shame we didn't see more direct examples of hunters become the hunted. It has only now occurred to me that Skyfall missed a trick by not referencing May - would she not have worked there when Bond was young? Anyway, I agree that the main villain was underdeveloped but the book is a cracking read - a real "railway station" purchase you can shoot through in a few hours - but I was a bit disappointed with the bull shark sequence, which was not fleshed out or as tense as it should have been. Interesting characters and locations. Well paced and willing to take risks - the vampire bat is a real WTF moment. But Gardner's love of a double cross is already getting a bit tiresome and I'm only 5 out of 14 novels in! Great title though and the Coronet paperback jacket design (UK, 1987) really works with the gold and red text with silhoutte Bond pose to create a striking cover. So my personal rankings for Gardner's first five are: 1. NLF (excellent) 2. ROH 3. FSS 4. IB (all very good) 5.LR (fair to average).

Out of interest Calvin, do you try and see if you can buy 1st editions of these Novels from John Gardener or at least an early editions? theres a great video by 'PeterHaringtonBooks' on the 1 st edition of Casino Royale in such clean condition. there s a few of them actually, like the 1st edition hard back harry potter book knowing you i'm sure you would have seen that already :) have a great weekend

I do wonder if there will ever be a future Bond novelist who will be able to channel Gardner's sense of absurdity - what one could call his 'bonkers' ideas - into something that more closely resembles the darker, more grounded but ultimately fantastical ideas of Fleming. While I liked Colonel Sun it didn't have enough of that for me, and I never got this sense from the books of Horrowitz and the other modern Bond writers. The Gardner books can be full of contrivances, weak writing, and are generally hit or miss for me. Hell, I hope we have a film which can a achieve this... Good stuff as always Calvin.

Gardner's books start schlocky, get pretty good and then go back to schlock in the 90's.

im reading through the continuations, its an okay book i enjoyed it.

I like the idea of a Spectre thats kind of a shadow of its former self, just trying to use the name for hype.

While I still prefer "Icebreaker" (and "License renewed") I also liked "Nobody lives Forever". I guess you will like "No Deals, Mr Bond" when you get to it since this one has a set-up as NLF.

After having read NLF (NLFE in the UK ha ha) twice now, both the US & UK printings, one thing stands out more than anything else. After Nannie and Sukie spring their attack on Quinn and Herr Doktor Kirtchum and rescue Bond out at sea, why the hell do they put on the ridiculous charade of fishing? Remember, Bond insists they do this, lest they bring suspicion upon themselves if the boat is returned too soon. Why the hell didn't Nannie deliver Bond to the island at that point?? They were already on the way there! Why risk the possibility of running into more complications by returning to Key West?? Also, Bond originally planned to spend a couple days in Rome with Steve Quinn and his wife. At the end of the story, it is implied that Quinn was a close friend. But there was no sense of any of that when you read the book. Bond is annoyed with him almost immediately when he shows up at the hotel to brief him. And Bond expresses his mistrust of Steve right away. There seems to be hostility between the two men, so why was Bond planning on spending part of his holiday with the man?! The betrayal would have been more shocking if Quinn was portrayed as a trusted colleague. Maybe this was established in a Fleming novel? I haven't read many of them yet but was Quinn an entirely new Gardner character, or one Ian created back in the day?

M got kidnapped, Moneypenny got kidnapped, does Q get kidnapped someday then? ehhh I'd like to think he probably has gadgets to get himself out of that situation

I adore you Calvin but you did go a bit snow flakey then with your worries of Bond having a Housekeeper. It is absolutely no big deal, it fits perfectly in the James Bond world where he could A: Well afford one and B probably needs one as he is usually saving the world and not having time to iron any shirts or put the vacuum around. But like I said, love you Calvin!

Here's an idea for the next Bond movie..... adapt one of the pile of Bond books written over the years

Calvin, what do you think about doing an episode covering the various "what ifs" of the Bond franchise? There's the well known ones like what if Sean Connery stuck around for On Her Majesty's Secret Service or what if George Lazenby stuck around for Diamonds Are Forever, what if there never was the 1989-95 gap and Timothy Dalton got to make his third movie, what if Pierce Brosnan was able start his Bond career with The Living Daylights a full eight years before GoldenEye. And had he gotten to be in TLD in 1987 would he have stayed on during the six year gap? Or what if Dalton instead of quitting stayed on? Would the studio have still made GoldenEye the same way? Some others are what if Roger Moore decided to retire after Moonraker? Who do they cast as Bond in For Your Eyes Only? What if all the legal trouble with Kevin McClory never happened and Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were able to properly wrap up the Tracy/Blofeld/SPECTRE storyline? And how long does SPECTRE stay in the franchise if Eon is able to use them after DAF? What if Eon had acquired the rights to Casino Royale in the early 60s and got to make that movie first? What if Die Another Day was better received and the studio didn't fire Brosnan? Could they have put him in CR or is that movie fundamentally an origin story? If not CR, what does Brosnan's fifth movie look like? I'm sure there's a lot more but those are all the ones I can think of. Great video! I finished all the Fleming novels over a year ago and have been contemplating which later Bond author's books to read next and you've been making a good case for John Gardener.

any one else thinking the same if money penny is on holiday in this book whos writeing m reports letters and memos while shes away unlees penople smallbone is covering for her while shes off

Icebreaker would make a decent movie plot and it’s a good 007 movie Title…

Bond Vs. Vampire Bat?! Dracula couldn't be spying on 007 in such manner such as this. And also, killing the bat? Seriously? If someone ever had a bat intruding them, I would rather imagine him or her releasing the bat out of the window gracefully instead of doing harm to it, unless it is necessary to do so. But again, not a very confident idea to kill it.

Yay😍

Come on Calvin, you should know that “guillotine” is pronounced gee-uh-teen.

Calvin, do you happen to know the title of the James Bond novel written by American Crime Novelist Jeffrey Deaver? I bought it in paperback form about 10 years ago and really enjoyed it, but I can't remember the title.

👍👍👍👍

Spoiler for the next book, but it’s revealed that Bronchitis is actually the leader of SPECTRE.

Nanny knows best rofl. This one is wild but I think my favourite Gardner. Although Bonds head on a silver charger! lol May in a clinic with Moneypenny. I did enjoy the romp across Europe and JG was obviously a total Yankeefile so it did have to end in south east USA lol

So the baddy died in an exploding bed. If only Bond had Q's explosive alarm clock on hand.

People still have helpers 😑

C A M P

Calvin, you need to review the video game (which is _not_ related to the novel you're reviewing in this video) _Nobody Lives Forever_ (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Operative:_No_One_Lives_Forever); you'll love it to bits.

The bent Austrian cop bit is good. Der Haken etc Same MO as Kobus Breed in Solo 💀 🪝