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The dark hair is minutely necked with gray these days. Martinis and Balkan Sobranies are pretty much out; Perrier and filter tips are in. The Mark II Continental Bentley has been replaced by a more fuel-efficient supercar, a Saab 900 Turbo. Otherwise, since the last adventure appeared in print 16 years ago, he seems unchanged. The icy eyes and reflexes remain as quick as a cobra's; the jawline is taut, and the ability to attract supple and delectable females remains as potent as before. And while the Service has undergone reforms and shakeups as sanguinary as any that have afflicted the CIA, James Bond still covertly retains the Double0 prefix, the license to kill in the line of duty.
As literature's most celebrated spy (more than 91 million copies in 36 languages), Her Majesty's superagent continues to do what he knows best: intrigue and seduction. Bond redivivus has been entrusted to John Gardner, a British writer who knows his way around military hardware, neo-villainy and a plot whose absurdity even Ian Fleming might admire. Bond's adversary this time is Anton Murik, nuclear physicist, megamillionaire and major loon. Convinced that all nuclear power plants are hazardous, Murik wants to replace them with a design of his own. If the world complies, fine. If not, he will cause a worldwide China Syndrome. In classic style, Gardner piles picaresque on bizarre: Neanderthal henchmen, a medieval castle equipped with radar, cars that repel attackers with clouds of tear gas. Some of Bond's more ingenious widgets have been prepared by a newcomer to the Service's Q Branch: Ann Reilly, referred to by her colleagues as Q'ute. Bond fans can be assured of two things: 007 will be back, only slightly more gray-flecked. And so will Ann Reilly, only Q'uter.
DIARY OF A YANKEE-HATER by Bob Marshall Watts; 212 pages; $7.95, paperbound
THE MAN WHO BROUGHT THE DODGERS BACK TO BROOKLYN by David Ritz Simon & Schuster; 288 pages; $12.95
The strike may have emptied major league ballparks, but two of the summer's most diverting books offer ideal lineups for the stadium of the mind. In Diary of a Yankee-Hater, Bob Marshall, a Time Inc. associate counsel, recalls the New Yorkers' quirky, disappointing 1980 season.
He hurls a brushback at Reggie Jackson ("playing rightfield like he thought it would bite him"), reminisces happily about Yankee crushers like George Brett's winning homer in the playoffs, and dissects the various feuds between Owner George Steinbrenner and his players, Steinbrenner and his managers, Steinbrenner and the world. Marshall's inside pitches include a look at the locker room (the story of the first woman reporter admitted to the inner sanctum is worth the price of admission), some bright anecdotes about slumps and spitters, and enough negative gossip to make the Yankees, as always, the team America loves to hate.
The Man Who Brought the Dodgers Back to Brooklyn is a far more affectionate look at a team that might have been born of a fever dream, but was as actual and bizarre as its home town. The Dodgers were so real, says Novelist David Ritz, that they should be hauled back from the lotus land of Los Angeles to the grit of their now defunct stadium, Ebbets Field.