Bond realises that Shatterhand is Ernst Stavro Blofeld—the man responsible for Tracy's death—and sets out on a revenge mission to kill him and his wife, Irma Bunt.

Through the mouths of his characters, Fleming also examines the decline of post-Second World War British power and influence, particularly in relation to the United States.

The book was popular with the public, with pre-orders in the UK totalling 62,000; reviewers were more muted in their reactions, many criticising the extended sections of what they considered a travelogue.

After the wedding-day murder of his wife, Tracy,[b] the Secret Service agent James Bond goes into a decline, drinking and gambling heavily, making mistakes and turning up late for work.

His superior in the Secret Service, M, had been planning to dismiss Bond, but decides to give him a last-chance opportunity to redeem himself by assigning him to the diplomatic branch of the organisation.

Bond is subsequently re-numbered 7777 and handed an "impossible" mission: persuading the head of Japan's secret intelligence service, Tiger Tanaka, to share a decoding machine codenamed Magic 44 and so allow Britain to obtain information from encrypted radio transmissions made by the Soviet Union.

After examining photos of Shatterhand and his wife, Bond realises that the couple are actually Tracy's murderers, Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Irma Bunt.

After infiltrating the Garden of Death and the castle where Blofeld spends his time dressed in the costume of a Samurai warrior, Bond is captured and identified as a British secret agent.

Bond reads scraps of newspaper and fixates on a reference to Vladivostok, making him wonder if the far-off city is the key to his missing memory; he tells Kissy he must travel to Russia to find out.

This included contacting the company secretary of The Times to ask permission to use their masthead above Bond's fictional obituary; the matter was complicated by the presence of the royal arms.

[18][e] Fleming described Saito as "a chunky, reserved man with considerable stores of quiet humour and intelligence, and with a subdued but rather tense personality.

[29] When planning the 1959 trip, Fleming told Hughes: There would be no politicians, museums, temples, Imperial palaces, or Noh plays, let alone tea ceremonies.

[13] Given a final chance by M to redeem himself with a difficult mission, Bond's character changes under the ministrations of Dikko Henderson, Tiger Tanaka and Kissy Suzuki.

[37] By the close of You Only Live Twice, according to Amis, Bond has been transformed and has "acquired the most important single item in the Byronic hero's make-up, a secret sorrow over a woman, aggravated, as it should be, by self-reproach".

[38] Blofeld makes his third appearance in the Bond series in You Only Live Twice[12] and Benson notes that on this occasion he is mad and egocentric in his behaviour;[39] Tanaka refers to him as "no less than a fiend in human form",[40] and the cultural critic Umberto Eco considers the character to have "a murderous mania".

[42] The literary analyst LeRoy L. Panek considers the character to be a declining force in comparison to his appearance in Thunderball, and "is a paper figure ... in spite of the megalomaniac speeches".

[45] Eco identifies Tiger Tanaka as one of Fleming's characters with morals closer to those of traditional villains, but who act on the side of good in support of Bond; others of this type have included Darko Kerim (From Russia, with Love), Marc-Ange Draco (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) and Enrico Colombo ("Risico").

[46] Similarly, Panek considers that Dikko Henderson "serves as an inspiration for Bond" because of what he sees as the character's "robust enjoyment of life—enjoyment of food, drink and women".

[47] The Anglicist Robert Druce finds similarities in characters between Henderson and those of Draco and Darko, and observes that the nickname "Dikko" is a close echo of their names.

[56] Tanaka accuses Britain of throwing away the empire "with both hands";[57] this would have been a contentious situation for Fleming, as he wrote the novel as the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation was breaking out (in December 1962), a direct challenge to British interests in the region.

[67] Druce also highlights a kimono Blofeld wears when addressing Bond, which is described thus: "the golden dragon embroidery, so easily to be derided as a childish fantasy, crawled menacingly across the black silk and seemed to spit real fire from over the left breast".

[70] In July 1963, Michael Howard of Jonathan Cape had written to Chopping about the artwork, saying, "If you could manage a pink dragonfly sitting on one of the flowers, and perhaps just one epicanthic eye peering through them, [Fleming] thinks that will be just splendid.

[88] Peter Duval Smith, in the Financial Times, believed that the setting of the novel was well done; he considered that Fleming "caught the exact 'feel' of Japan".

[89] Maggie Ross, in The Listener, was a little dissatisfied, writing that the novel can be read as a thriller and that when a reader's interest waned, they could focus on the travelogue aspects of the book.

[90] Maurice Richardson, in The Observer, was critical of several aspects, saying that the "narrative is a bit weak, action long delayed and disappointing when it comes but the surround of local colour ... has been worked over with that unique combination of pubescent imagination and industry which is Mr. Fleming's speciality".

"[92] Robert Fulford, in the Toronto-based magazine Maclean's, noted that Bond's moral simplicity was one of the keys to the popularity of the series, although that also made the books appear trivial.

[92] Charles Poore, writing in The New York Times, observed that Bond's mission "is aimed at restoring Britain's pre-World War II place among the powers of the world.

[70] Cyril Connolly, in The Sunday Times, wrote that the novel was "reactionary, sentimental, square, the Bond-image flails its way through the middle-brow masses, a relaxation to the great, a stimulus to the humble, the only common denominator between Kennedy and Oswald".

[72] Dealing with the cliffhanger ending to the story, the reviewer wrote that "Mr. Fleming would keep us on tenterhooks, but at this rate of going even his most devoted admirers will free themselves before very long.

The film included Bond mourning the loss of his romantic partner and eventually seeking revenge by strangling the main villain and destroying his "garden of death" on a private island between Russia and Japan.