You Only Live Twice cover art

You Only Live Twice

A James Bond Adventure

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You Only Live Twice

By: Ian Fleming
Narrated by: Eleanor Matsuura
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About this listen

BOND TAKES ON A DEATH-DEFYING NEW MISSION TO SECURE KEY JAPANESE INTELLIGENCE

James Bond is shattered by the murder of his wife at the hands of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and only the prospect of a particularly challenging mission can draw him out of his deep depression.

Determined to restore 007 to his former effectiveness, M sends Bond to Japan, where a criminal mastermind is using a poisonous garden inside a rocky island fortress to lure people to their deaths. Bond will have to infiltrate and destroy this mysterious Castle of Death in exchange for top secret Japanese intelligence.

When the mastermind behind the deadly plot proves to be an old and terrifying enemy, 007 will have to use all of his skills in a fight to the death.

©1964 Ian Fleming Publications Ltd (P)2025 Ian Fleming Publications Action & Adventure Classics Espionage Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense World Literature Exciting Crime

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This is a later Bond book by Ian Fleming. He develops the characters better and takes time to go into more detail. I particularly liked the Japanese part of the novel. The narrator is excellent and the story fascinating. A definite 5/5

Towser T

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I remember reading You Only Live Twice as a teenager - and it certainly made an impression. I vividly recall Blofeld’s garden of lethal plants, and Bond negotiating the poisonous vegetation. My memory of him having to stop for a cigarette as he did so turns out to have been accurate - I always assumed Bond’s cigarette breaks coincided with Fleming’s own as he hammered away on his typewriter, producing 2,000 words a day. Revisiting the novel now, decades later, underlines just how weird it is, even by Fleming’s standards. The eccentricity is why we love the character, of course, but it isn’t hard to see why the movie version - written by Roald Dahl - takes a very different, if similarly bonkers, tack. Essentially a straightforward espionage tale turns into an opportunity for Bond to eliminate his arch rival. The rug is pulled out from under the reader. Bond travels to Tokyo to try and obtain Russian secrets intercepted by the Japanese. But for various reasons this plot strand fizzles out very quickly - and Bond is asked to take on the assassination assignment. Blofeld, dressed in Samurai armour, is living in the Castle of Death (what did the postman make of that?), using the portentous alias Shatterhand. It’s a memorable tale with a good twist, though overall it’s beyond preposterous - and actually not a particularly satisfying novel, at least in this form. As a listening experience, it’s let down by the narration. It’s enthusiastic and energetic - but there are just too many accents. The novel is very dialogue-heavy - which should make it Audible-friendly. But it turned into a chance for the narrator to try out a production line of different accents - with varying degrees of success. It was hugely off-putting, and at times I came close to giving up. The story is worthy of four stars probably for nostalgic reasons. The narration is assured, for all its faults, but I suspect it’s heavily Marmite. That said, I’ll always have a soft spot for the novel - and I am a big Bond and Fleming fan. I recommend Dr No on Audible, read by Hugh Quarshie; there are some parallels with You Only Live Twice - and the narration is much more bearable.

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