The Octopussy Collection

I just finished reading Octopussy, a collection of three short-stories of James Bond 007 by Ian Fleming.

Octopussy consists of "Octpussy," "The Living Daylights" and "The Property of A Lady."

The book's cover (I have the July 1967 first Signet printing with the cover as shown at right) states that the book contains "The Last Great Adventures of James Bond 007."  This would've been the case had the Ian Fleming estate not licensed further Bond adventures by other writers.

To get to the meat of the book, I'll start out with "Octopussy," the book's first story. 

"Octopussy" is nothing like the movie of the same name that starred Roger Moore as James Bond.  It is about a retired major, Dexter Smythe, O.B.E. of the Royal Marines.  Bond is sent to question him on a mission Smythe undertook following World War II in which Smythe murdered a former German officer to steal gold ingots.

 

There is very little of James Bond in the story, but it is interesting anyway, especially the way Smythe meets his demise.

The second story is titled, "The Living Daylights."  Unlike "Octopussy," "The Living Daylights" does contain elements that were used in the movie of the same name starring Timothy Dalton as Bond.  Following a shooting range sequence that has Bond practicing with a Winchester .308-caliber Experimental International Target rifle, the story moves to Bond's assignment to kill a KGB sniper before the sniper can kill an agent with important information. 

The KGB agent turns out to be a blonde female who conceals her weapon in a cello case.  (Sound familiar?)  As in the movie, the woman catches Bond's eye and he makes the split-second decision to disobey orders to kill her.  He wounds her instead.

The final story, "The Property of A Lady" was lifted for the movie Octopussy.  It primarily is set at an auction house where a Faberge jeweled sphere called "Emerald Sphere" is up for auction.  (The movie uses the auction story for the auction of a Faberge egg.)  MI6 is hopeful that Bond (who attends the auction) can pinpoint an underbidder who would possibly be a Soviet agent.  After the underbidder is pinpointed and is determined to be a Soviet agent, he can be expelled from Britain.