I like Gardner's working title for this, "Tomorrow Always Comes", which fits the book's themes of the past coming to a head and tomorrow arriving.
Anyway, this book is decent. I prefer it to NLF (which I think is overrated) too. That the Cream Cake "five years later" set up is one of Gardner's strongest and most conheret set ups helps. I'm not really a fan of the country-hoping "Bond on the run" type stories (which seem to have become a trend of the last two films. JG ahead of the curve again?), but of Gardner's three of this time (Nobody Lives Forever, No Deals, Death is Forever), this is the superior. Great setup, slighty talky mid-section if I recall, but then rallys in the third act when the action shifts to Hong Kong. One double cross too many at the end, but highly engaging overall. Mid-tier Gardner Bond, but upper mid-tier.