About:
Brokenclaw by John Gardner is the 10th book in the author’s tenure as the official author of the James Bond novels. The book expands the 007 universe, and goes back to a more suave secret agent, which made the earlier books a success.
- 304 pages
- Publisher : G. P. Putnam’s Sons
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 0399135413
My rating for Brokenclaw – 3
Buy Brokenclaw from Amazon.com*
More books by John Gardner*
John Gardner’s Bond series (16 book series) *
Thoughts:
John Gardner tried to transition James Bond from Ian Fleming’s flamboyant agent, to a slightly more realistic Cold War grit spy. This book, I thought, was probably the more Fleming-esque of the series, so far.
Brokenclaw, the main villain, is very reminiscent of Fleming’s villains. He has a physical deformity, loves elobrate torture, and of course, a bizarre, technologically advanced lair.
I liked that Brokenclaw by John Gardner attempts to expand the Bond universe. While I missed his old allies, I enjoyed the new characters and Bond cringing with the American slang and the informalities.
The ending was unlike any ending in a Bond novel or movie, for that matter. In a highly bizarre torture ritual called O-kee-pa of the Mandan people. The scene is brutal, realistic, and involves a painful endurance test done with piercings. While it was thrilling, it was very un-Bondlike, to say the list.
The novel itself was a bit disjointed. Moving from a thriller about submarine thriller to a world destroying financial plot. Sometimes “saving the world” bombastic plots are much less tense than the smaller ones because, let’s face it, you know the world’s not going to end.
The book goes back to the classic formula which made the Fleming novels successful. The villain was intimidating, memorable and one which is not easily forgotten. I’m actually surprised he hasn’t been picked up by the screenwriters.
Synopsis:
Agent 007 is bored, so much so that he wants to quit M16. M, as much as he’s been disdaining Bond this series, doesn’t want this and sends him on a vacation to Victoria, British Columbia in Canada.
While on vacation, James Bond’s spy sense activates when he sees Lee Fu-Chu a philantropist knowns as Brokenclaw due to his deformed hand. Brokenclaw uses his half-Chinese/half Blackfoot to run his empire.
What Bond doesn’t know is that Blackfoot is involved with the kidnapping of top military scientists working on a secret submarine tracking system. He goes undercover with a CIA agent posing as operatives for the Chinese to infiltrate the organization before he can realize his scheme of crashing the global economy.
Buy Brokenclaw from Amazon.com*
More books by John Gardner*
John Gardner’s Bond series (16 book series) *
Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I bought this book.
*Amazon links point to an affiliate account, the money is usually spent on books
