Absolutely one of Gardner's best 007 efforts, and one of the most entertaining and chilling Bond novels ever written. Bond takes on a malevolent cult leader named Father Valentine, who turns out to be none other than loathsome arms dealer Vladimir Scorpius, who has switched from selling mechanical weapons to marketing the services of his brainwashed cult members, The Society of the Meek Ones, as human bombs. A campaign of terror reigns in England as these human bombs blow themselves up at public gatherings, taking many public officials and innocent spectators and police officers with them. Father Valentine has also issued a smart card, a credit card, Avante Carte, to his members, and it also has menacing possibilities. Bond joins forces with Harriett Horner, an American IRS agent, and a military man named Pearlman whose daughter is a member of the cult. But Bond isn't certain that either can be trusted, as someone seems to know his every move... It all winds up on Hilton Head Island, off South Carolina, where Valentine/Scorpius has his headquarters, and Bond tries a thrilling escape through a nest of hundreds of scorpions, and a run across a beach occupied by dozens of deadly snakes whose one bite means near-instantaneous death. The thrilling climax has Bond desperately trying to prevent a final attack on both the Prime Minister and the President.
Scorpius is prime Bond. It pulls the reader along from the first paragraph and never lets go. The supporting cast is more interesting and dimensional than usual, and more than one of the characters comes to a moving fate. The novel also taps into contemporary fears of cults and terrorists and human bombs, who have become all too common in the real world. As an in-joke, Gardner has Bond watch The Untouchables on an airplane in which “a favorite actor of his” played a Chicago cop. (The role was essayed, of course, by Sean Connery.) Possibly expressing his own feelings about the death penalty Gardner has Bond, improbably, make the comment that “I don't believe this eye-for-an-eye business... I've been in the game too long, and there's something particularly vile about snuffing out life if there's another way.” Not so improbably, Bond forgets all of this stuff and deliberately engineers the death of the truly miserable villain at the end. (Bond would try not to take a life if he could help it – he was certainly never as casual about death as the movie 007 is -- but he would take pleasure in snuffing out certain despicable and merciless parties if it came to it.)
Verdict: Despite some suspect or illogical moments, Scorpius is the real deal.***1/2.
Sounds like it would make a great movie, too - who would you like to see star as James Bond next, Bill?
ReplyDeletePreferably someone rough, sexy, decidedly British who will play the role, as Daniel Craig did, with a bit of dimension. Can't believe they killed off Bond in the last 007 outing! I believe producers should more to less stay true to Ian Fleming's original vision and let others create different super-spies who could be, say, female, black, gay etc., etc.
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