Line #29 Literature/ColonelSun


1	[[quoteright:272:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/colonelsun007.png]]
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3	A ''Literature/JamesBond'' novel from 1968, and the first one by someone other than Creator/IanFleming. It was written by Kingsley Amis, under the [[PenName pseudonym]] Robert Markham.
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5	When M is kidnapped from his own house, James Bond is tasked to retrieve him. This takes him to UsefulNotes/{{Greece}}, where he is joined with the local beautiful GRU agent Ariadne Alexandrou. Eventually, he comes face to face with the master torturer of China's Liberation Army, Colonel Sun-Tang Liang, who has plans, ''painful'' plans, for both him and M.
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7	The book was long out-of-print, at least physically, however recently it's seen a bit of revival, with an E-Book Edition published, an audio-book adaptation solicited, and being brought back into print through Penguin's Vintage Classics imprint, in an edition matching Fleming's novels and under Amis' own name, not the pseudonym. Elements of it were used in the [[Film/{{Spectre}} twenty-fourth]] Bond film.
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9	!!This novel has the examples of:
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11	* ADayInTheLimelight: M takes part in the action and gets some genuine character focus for the first time.
12	* AlliterativeName: Ariadne Alexandrou.
13	* AntagonistTitle
14	* ComicBookAdaptation: ''Colonel Sun'' was the only non-Fleming ''Bond'' book to see adaptation in the newspaper comic strip. One notable difference is that it made Sun a member of SPECTRE.
15	* ContinuityNod:
16	** Bond's past adventures involving [[Literature/TheManWithTheGoldenGun Scaramanga]] and [[Literature/YouOnlyLiveTwice a trip to Japan]] are briefly mentioned.
17	** As Sun lectures about genital torture, he notes that Bond is quite familiar with it. This could be a reference to ''Literature/CasinoRoyale''.
18	* DespairEventHorizon: Sun is going to torture Bond up to point of ultimate despair, then kill him.
19	* DirtyCommunists: Colonel Sun himself is a part of the [[RedChina Chinese]] branch of this trope. An interesting subversion occurs in the fact that Bond allies with the {{UsefulNotes/GRU}} agent Ariadne to stop him.
20	** The head of the Greek KGB branch is a pedophile.
21	* EarAche: First part of Bond's torture has Sun rummaging through his ear canal with a metal spike.
22	* {{Expy}}: Colonel Sun, like Doctor No, is one for Fu Manchu.
23	* EvilPlan: Sun, as per orders from China, plans to disrupt a secret meeting hosted by Soviet Union by killing everyone in it, and framing the British for the deed.
24	* FailedFutureForecast: A DownplayedTrope example. The book has a running theme about how the Red Chinese are a [[YellowPeril bigger danger to the West]] than the Soviet Union and how eventually both the USSR as well as the West will probably team up against in the future. Cue 1972 with Richard Nixon visiting China...
25	* FauxAffablyEvil: Sun keeps up his polite demeanor even as he tortures someone horribly.
26	* FirstNameBasis: Sun prefers to call his subjects by their first names.
27	* GorgeousGreek: Ariadne, the resident Bond Girl/love interest.
28	* GroinAttack: Defied. As Sun is about to to start torturing Bond, he notes that genital mutilation is effective, but too ordinary of a choice, and goes for a spike in the ear instead.
29	* {{Hypocrite}}: Sir Ranald Rideout implies that Bond was cowardly for 'fleeing' M's kidnappers, then quickly switches to praising him after it occurs to Rideout that there might be political fallout. At the end of the novel he complains that Bond didn't kill a witness, then despises him for being a ProfessionalKiller.
30	* InsaneTrollLogic: The KGB doesn't remove the head of the Greek branch despite the fact he's a pedophile because such a horrifying secret means he can't be blackmailed on the basis of his superiors already knowing something so incredibly awful. Yeah.
31	* InterserviceRivalry: One of the many reasons that Alexandra isn't believed when she tries to warn about the imminent attack on the Soviet meeting is that she's reporting to a KGB representative, who doesn't take her seriously as she's a {{UsefulNotes/GRU}} agent.
32	* LeaveHimToMe: Litsas agrees to help Bond in his mission, but only if he gets to kill von Richter for his war crimes.
33	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Colonel Sun and von Richter (TheVonTropeFamily and the German word for "judge").
34	* NotQuiteDead: Despite being fatally stabbed by Bond, Sun has enough life in him to kill those who betrayed him, and to have last attempt at Bond's life.
35	* RedRightHand: A powerful gun was discharged near von Richter's right ear during the war, which has left it and the area around it scarred.
36	* ScaryShinyGlasses: Used on the second cover of the book, which has light being reflected from the right lense of Col. Sun's glasses, and Bond aproaching being reflected from the left one.
37	* SmugSnake: Colonel Sun turns out to be not nearly the ice-cold badass he pretends to be--see VillainousBreakdown.
38	** The head of the Greek KGB branch thinks he'll be able to trick James Bond into a trap which will kill him--ignoring that he's a minor functionary and he's James Bond.
39	* ThoseWackyNazis: von Richter is a former Nazi who took a part in the Greek side of the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
40	* TortureTechnician: Col. Sun was specially trained to be a torturer, a job he enjoys as he believes that "through cruelty one rises to heights of superhuman awareness".
41	* UnPerson: The man who's killed kidnapping M is left behind because there are no records on him.
42	-->"...this chap'll turn out to be one of a comparatively new type of international criminal who's been turning up in rather frighteningly large numbers in the sabotage game, terrorism and so on. They're people without a traceable history of any sort, probably white Africans with a grudge, various fringe Americans - but that's all supposition because they turn up out of thin air. The lads in Records here call them "men from nowhere"."
43	* VillainousBreakdown: PlayedWith, as Colonel Sun tells Bond that he expected torturing him to make him feel like a god but it actually just made him feel sick and horrified at him. Really, Sun is just trying to get Bond to give away his position by answering, so he can throw a mortar shell at him.
44	* WriterOnBoard: Kingsley Amis was significantly softer on Soviet communism than Ian Fleming, to say the least. Becomes HilariousInHindsight because he predicted a thawing of Soviet and Western relations as well as an escalation of Chinese-Western tensions. Cue Nixon's visit to China...
45	* YellowPeril: Colonel Sun is a fairly typical figure of the Inscrutable Oriental villain type.

Context Literature / ColonelSun