You Only Live Twice (novel) concerned with the actual business of a thriller", and his enjoyment was further diminished by what he considered "the grossness of Bond's manners and his schoolboy obscenities". Peter Duval Smith, in the "Financial Times", was in two minds about the book, believing on the one hand that "the background is excellent ... Mr. Fleming has caught the exact 'feel' of Japan", and on the other that "You Only Live Twice" "is not really a success and it's Bond's fault mainly. He just doesn't add up to a human being". Maggie Ross, in "The Listener" was also a little dissatisfied, writing
You Only Live Twice (film) it had pace and spectacle. Christopher Null considered the film one of James Bond's most memorable adventures, but the plot "protracting and quite confusing". Ali Barclay of "BBC Films" panned Dahl's script displaying "a whole new world of villainy and technology." Leo Goldsmith lauded the volcano base as "the most impressive of Ken Adam's sets for the franchise." Danny Peary wrote that "You Only Live Twice" "should have been about twenty minutes shorter" and described it as "not a bad Bond film, but it doesn't compare to its predecessors — the formula had become a little stale." IGN ranked "You