Line #29 Literature/DeathIsForever


1	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/200px_deathisforever.jpg]]
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3	The twelfth ''Literature/JamesBond'' novel by John Gardner, published in 1992.
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5	A British-American network of agents called Cabal has disappeared in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Now with many of them turning up dead, including the people sent out to look for them, Bond must find out what is really going on.
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7	----
8	!!This novel contains examples of:
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10	* AffablyEvil: When Bond finally gets face to face with Weisen, he excepts him to be a monster-of-a-man worthy of the nickname "Poison Dwarf". He instead meets a pleasant, smooth-talking man who wouldn't be out of place in a Christmas movie, albeit one with hidden fanaticism and insanity.
11	* AlliterativeName: Wolfgang Weisen, who is the second BigBad in the ''Bond'' books to be part of the trope.
12	* AnimalAssassin: Staying at a hotel, Bond and Easy order sandwiches. When they are about to eat them, they find out that someone has [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink planted eggs]] of [[SpidersAreScary poisonous spiders]] on them, which were supposed to hatch after ingestion.
13	* TheBaroness: Monika Haardt, Weisen's lover and a fellow fanatic communist.
14	* BaldOfEvil: Weisen is described as having a small, round head with no hair.
15	* BigBad: Wolfgang Weisen, the [[TheSpymaster former spymaster]] for Soviet Union.
16	* CityOfCanals: Bond travels to Venice after he learns from the remaining members of Cabal that Weisen and Haardt are stationed there. In there, he stays in a hotel that can only be accessed with a boat.
17	* CodeName:
18	** Every agent in Cabal has a designated code name.
19	** As Bond and Easy are tasked to find the living members of Cabal, they are given the names Vanya and Eagle, which were carried by the two previous agents looking for them.
20	* ContinuityNod:
21	** The failure of the coup in [[Literature/TheManFromBarbarossa the last book]] is referenced. The real, less dramatic [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union#The_August_Coup coup attempt]] that happened several months of after its release is also mentioned.
22	** [[spoiler:When Praxi, the sole alive member of Cabal, asks Bond that how much she has left considering that others are dead]]. Without thinking, Bond answers "[[Literature/OnHerMajestysSecretService all the time in the world]]", and immediately regrets it due to the all the pain it brings back in his mind.
23	* DirtyCommunists: Weisen is a hardcore Stalinistic communist, who was brought into it by the [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin man himself]], whom he came regard as a father figure.
24	* TheDragon: Weisen's [[TheMole mole]] in Cabal, [[spoiler:the real Harry Spraker]].
25	* EmbarrassingLastName: The real name of the brutish Cabal agent Ariel is Karl Kuckuk (German for "cuckoo"), which is a sore spot for him. He insists upon being called by his nickname Bruin (old English for "bear").
26	* EvilLaugh: After an ominous remark, evil blonde Dominic gives out a laugh which makes Bond think that it would be suitable for Franchise/TheHauntedMansion in Disneyland.
27	* EvilPlan: Weisen has been eliminating Cabal members so that he can cover his tracks before attempting to destabilise the European community by [[spoiler:by killing its leaders who are travelling through the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel Eurotunnel]] to Calais]].
28	* FakingTheDead: To throw suspicion off from him, Kapitan Wimper of Cabal arranged a corpse wearing his clothes into a river. Days later, its bloated appearance was enough to convince people that Wimper was dead.
29	* GirlOfTheWeek: Elizabeth Zara "Easy" St. John , the CIA agent tasked to work with Bond to find the Cabal agents. They fall for each other despite the initial problems of their partnership.
30	* GrapplingHookPistol: Bond and Wimper scale the wall of Weisen's building with the help of fictional Hilton Pyrotechnic gun, which can fire grapples for easy climbing. A mortar variant is also mentioned.
31	* GroinAttack: Bond, terribly pissed off [[spoiler:by the death of Easy]], unleashes his rage on TheDragon by kicking him on the groin, following with a knee to the mouth as the guy keels over in pain.
32	* HighVoltageDeath: [[spoiler:Bond kills Weisen and his men in the Eurotunnel by covertly sending a message to restore the power to the rails, which then fries them alive right before his eyes.]]
33	-->'''Bond:''' [[BondOneLiner An absolutely electrifying experience]].
34	* HoneyTrap: It is revealed that Easy's predecessor slept with the traitor in Cabal, and unknowingly helped to bring them down. [[spoiler:This is ultimately subverted that while she did sleep with a Cabal-member, the evidence of honeytrapping was actually faked]].
35	* JustBetweenYouAndMe: Averted. Weisen feels obliged to "fill in the blanks" of the events prior to their meeting for Bond before moving out and leaving him to be killed, but refuses to reveal the machinations of his main operation when questioned about it.
36	* TheMole: Wimper pretended to be a mole for Weisen to find out the other, real one within the Cabal.
37	* PostClimaxConfrontation: After stopping Weisen's EvilPlan, Bond is attacked in London [[spoiler:by Monika Haardt]] who forces him into a KnifeFight.
38	* RenegadeRussian: Weisen seeks to restore international communism, and the novel repeatedly posits the threat of idealistic people who won't give up on it and will continue to fight the west until the bitter end.
39	* SexForSolace: Bond has sex with Praxi after she asks him to, so that he can [[spoiler:help her cope with the deaths of the rest of the company]].
40	* ShoutOut: A mook has Bond dead on his sights, and says "Go on, punk. [[Film/SuddenImpact Make my day]]." Bond's ally Wimper then makes a timely appearance beside him and tells the mook to make ''his'' day.
41	** [[WordOfGod Gardner himself]] has said that the title was taken from dialogue in a Creator/StephenKing book.
42	* SlashedThroat: Bond distracts one of Weisen's men by throwing his coat at him, and follows it by slicing his throat with a knife.
43	* StealingFromTheTill: A stabbing of Dmitri, an operative of Weisen's, seems to be out of context with the Cabal-business, but it is later revealed that he had been stealing from "operational funds", and Weisen had him killed because of it.
44	* TextualCelebrityResemblance: Spraker complains about the use of this trope, telling Bond that an author whose book he is reading constantly uses it to describe people. Bond then notes that someone once told him that he "looked like Hoagy Carmichael with a cruel mouth", [[MythologyGag which is how he was described]] by Creator/IanFleming in ''Literature/CasinoRoyale''.
45	* WentToTheGreatXInTheSky: Bond tells Spraker, one of the Cabal agents, that the previous investigators of their disappearance are "going through a debriefing with that great Director of Intelligence in the sky".
46	* WhatMeasureIsAMook: Weisen is genuinely saddened by the deaths of some of his men, and expresses it when he talks to Bond.
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Context Literature / DeathIsForever