8. Licence Renewed (John Gardner)
At the beginning of Licence Renewed the entire 00 section of MI6 is liquidated probably due to the recent adage in Bond stories that 00 agents aren't needed anymore. M realizes that this is a load of rubbish and retains Bond for a secret assignment. Once more Bond is sent up into the Scottish highlands to play the role of mercenary for hire to a mysterious Dr. Anton Murik who has been seeing a terrorist named Franco for some nuclear talks over cocktails. As in any good Bond story the bad guys are planning to destroy the world in one way or another. Murik accepts Bond's services and 007 learns that he plans to have six nuclear power plants hijacked around the world. This is where the novel gets problematic as a Bond film though. The bad guys succeed, but are stopped when Bond sends them a false code to stand down. Oh. Pretty anti-climatic for a Bond movie where James would have to be at one of the power plants stopping a meltdown that would give him some sort of half life that Q would have to cure him of later.