Review: Octopussy & The Living Daylights by Ian Fleming

Collection first published: 2002
Contents originally published: 1962-65
Acquired: June 2020
Read: August 2020

Octopussy & The Living Daylights
by Ian Fleming

This slim volume collects four James Bond short stories. Technically, it's the final Fleming James Bond book, but although the compilation first came out in 1966,* after The Man with the Golden Gun, three of the four stories here were published prior to Golden Gun, so I decided to read it first.

In his introduction to the 2006 Penguin edition, Robert Ryan suggests Fleming was a short fiction man at heart, and based on reading the Bond books, I agree; many of the novels feel padded even when they're slim. Thus Octopussy & The Living Daylights contains some of Fleming's strongest Bond work in my opinion. Bond isn't much of a factor in "Octopussy," but I enjoyed it anyway, a very thorough story of a man who plans a horrible crime and very nearly gets away with it. I was surprised to realize that the idea that Bond's ski instructor cared for him paternally after Bond's parents died wasn't an invention of the film Spectre but actually originated here. I'll be curious to see if any other elements of "Octopussy" make it into the film, or if it will be one of those Bond adaptations best characterized as "loose."

The other standout here was "The Living Daylights," where Bond has to work as a sniper in order to help an agent make it over the Berlin Wall. It's one of those stories that really gets you into Bond's psychology: he is good at killing but finds little joy in it. Or, to be honest, much else. The twist is pretty obvious, but I still enjoyed it because it's a fun one.

Of the other two, one is all right and one is for completists only. "The Property of a Lady" has some interesting ideas and backstories, but the actual story isn't really up to much. "007 in New York" isn't even a story; it's just Bond thinking about New York City while he visits it on a mission. "007 in New York" was published in the American edition of Fleming's travel book Thrilling Cities as an apology for how much Fleming hated New York City; Fleming said that Bond's take on New York was "more cheerful" than his own. But in this story's mere seven pages, Bond complains about Customs and Immigration, about how all the good hotels have closed, about how the eggs look wrong, about the shops having nothing you can't get in Europe, about how many used car lots there are, about how the restaurants have got too expensive, about the blandness of the food, about how Americans are too obsessed with hygiene, and about how there is no Reptile House at the Central Park Zoo. If that's a cheerful take on New York City, one wonders how awful Fleming must have been about it!

There's also a scrambled egg recipe in a footnote. I will try it someday.

I read a James Bond book every four months. Next up in sequence: The Man with the Golden Gun

Book Rankings (So Far):

1. Casino Royale
2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
3. Dr No
4. Thunderball
5. Moonraker
6. For Your Eyes Only
7. From Russia with Love
8. The Spy Who Loved Me
9. Octopussy & The Living Daylights
10. You Only Live Twice
11. Live and Let Die
12. Goldfinger
13. Diamonds are Forever
    

* Kind of; the 1966 edition collected just two short stories, and over the years more were added until all four were together in 2002.