Last Bond Novel You Read

Says it all on the tin, folks.

Not a novel, but I reread The Living Daylights the other day after Rave's eulogy. TLD is quite understated unlike many of the novels.

As for the Bond novels 'proper', nowadays I only tend to pick them up when I'm laid low (comfort reading), but I've been damnably healthy for a long time.

Read Gun to finish off my annual Flemingathon, but that was in late January/early February.

I gingerly read my copy of Moonraker today. As always I find it a delight to read. Quite like the fact that it happens solely in England, then there's Gala Brand and the filthy swine Drax. As is usually the case when reading I briefly remember the Prisoner episode "The Girl Who Was Death" where the villain is going to launch a rocket at London and then back into the novel. My favourite passage might just be the chase back from London. In some ways it's similar to Casino Royale except it has that moment when "Attaboy II" is destroyed and Bond is set on revenge.

And then, onto The Spy Who Loved Me. I've not read it since spring 2008 which was my first time, so trying to hit it with an open mind.

More than can be said of the Bond story lurking on this forum that did not benefit from a surge of inspiration by reading Moonraker.

Why "gingerly"?

And I agree wholeheartedly that the "Attaboy II" chase is superb. This really needs to be done in B23.Complete with the pinwheeling, exploding Alfa Romeo, the newspaper truck, and Willy Krebs making a "fine paperchase." This sequence needs to be lengthy. It requires time for the tension to build. And, of course, the stakes of its outcome must be of the highest.

I hope you'll like Spy. I think some folks give it the bum's rush because it is not a proper Bond novel, but it's really tremendous despite that fact. Fleming's descriptive, story-telling and dialogue skills are at their peak in this novel. And Sluggsy Morant is a terrific character, just like Willy Krebs mentioned above.

Gingerly as it's an old copy, as in my dad's from when he first brought it ('63 I think) and the things falling apart, alas. Been looking for a cheap copy someplace.

I was thinking that the chase would have looked good if MR had been a period piece (as now it would), a TV-movie, somehow I pictured Jeremy Isaacs but it'll never happen (Isaacs or not). I can't see it in B23 unfortunately. The writing is superb for it, right down to the driver of the Alfa's two fingered salute. Always feel a pang when I read the car somersaulting the hedge.
Krebs is a wonderfully written character.

I hope I like TSWLM :) Certainly this time round the narrative is appealing though I sometimes picture Ian Fleming reading it aloud as he types and it doesn't seem right! Knowing me I'll finish this by tomorrow.

Finally got through TSWLM to the end, cold allowing. Viv feels such a well-written character as is indeed Sluggsy, typical slimey Fleming villain. Yet Viv is the classic Bond girl. "A bird with a wing down" (as Tracy is mentioned as being subsequently), an element of being headstrong yet vulnerable and then being left by Bond at the end another woman who won't ever get close to him.
What I liked about TSWLM is seeing Bond from a different perspective, it's almost "Guest Starring James Bond" but when he shows up it's cracking. Someone to help Viv, someone to turn the tables on Sluggsy and Horror. Bond's entrance is fantastic, one can picture the scene of him in that raincoat with the hat drawn low maybe if there had been suspensful music the Bond theme is heard (not too loud). Or no theme. It is almost one of those moments where the Bond theme kicks off.
Yes not too bad.

--"Just say who I was. I've got a number in my outfit- sort of a recognition number. It's 007. Try not to forget it."

Glad you like it, Hilly!

:)

No problem, I do try...even when I'm not at my best.

:)

Just finished You Only Live Twice for the umpteenth time. Almost applauded Blofeld's speeches he performed before his brawl with Bond. One Golden Day remains my favourite chapter. Just beautiful.

Am debating whether to move on to The Man With The Golden Gun and then Colonel Sun (which will be a first read) or go back to Alistair MacLean and start Where Eagles Dare.

Well, if you're going to hit any MacLean, Guns of Navarone :)

I'd say go to Golden Gun next and then that way you're done with the Fleming's Bond...Fleming Bonds, as it were.

Very well, Golden Gun it is. :)

Moving onto OHMSS after a brief pause away from Bond. The writing I find is a delight everytime. A case in point being Bond and his resignation letter as he is driving along.

Agreed, Hilly. I especially love Bond's self-critique.

"Sharp. Perhaps a bit too sharp!"

Recently re-read the Christopher Wood, Spy Who Loved Me and MR screenplay novelizations penned at the time of both film's releases in 1977 and 1979.
Then I got about half way through John Gardner's LTK but set it aside, when I suddenly got intrigued by some non-fiction political commentary I wanted to read.
The plan though was to re-read all 7 of the screenplay novelizations. I do like the screenplay novelizations, as they flush out the movies, fill in some gaps, and the book Bond is a little edgier.
As a compulsive repeat watcher of the films, these books are enjoyable as they are like reading the movie.
Meantime I felt compelled to finish Shirley Eaton's Golden Girl autobiography penned in 1999 which I finally did. It's a friendly little read, but easy to put down. It took me several years to finally commit to finishing it. Problem is the GF stuff is interesting, but the rest of it is kinda ho-hum. She's not one to offer up juicy bits or stir things up much.
Then I moved on to Roger Moore's autobiography, My Word Is My Bond (2008)
This is real good read. Rog spins a good yarn, but I've had to set this aside with the release of Carte Blanche.
So right now I am thoroughly engrossed in the 400 plus pages of Carte Blanche and then I will eagerly go to back to Rog's book.
Funny thing about Rog and Shirley Eaton. Shirl mentions him constantly throughout her book- about all the time she and her hubby spend with Rog and Luisa however in Rog's lengthy book, Shirley gets barely a mention. Her name comes up only once in the index, and then only in a list of sexy leading ladies that Rog had co-starred with. In Shirely's Case, a couple of Saint episodes.
Rog has had an interesting life and known many interesting people, so he may not have time for everyone he knew. Shirley on the other hand retired from the business roughly 1970, so she doesn't have as many show biz yarns to tell. Much of her book is about family and friends, so Rog's name comes up quite a bit.
Rog might be concentrating on his long experience and colourful stories from the biz as well as family, and less about routine socializing.
Rog is funny. He tells tales of unwanted advances from gay guys in the biz when he was young and fresh and how he managed to work around this, and keep whom he needed to keep on his side, but one gets the impression he considered the attention to be a real bother, even if he was smooth enough to deftly deal with it.

Up to Bond/Bray's flight to Switzerland. I always enjoy OHMSS for seeing how closely the film matched it yet at the same time how it differs to the film (later on, the proposal at the airport, Bond hiding in Geneva etc) so we have Bond swotting up on heraldry.

"And that corner of his life, of his heart, he wanted to leave undisturbed for the time being. Their last evening had passed quietly, almost as if they had been old friends, old lovers..."

Hate to ruin a Fleming quote but one can almost hear We Have All the Time in the World or visualise that montage.

Picked up copies of Christopher Wood's James Bond and Moonraker , Gardner's Licence To Kill novelisation as well as this :



which was the best find, in mint condition too. It's Sir Rog's daily diary of filming Live And Let Die. Turns out his final line of dialogue that was filmed was "Easy, Charlie, let's get there in one piece." Looking forward to reading them once I've finished with Golden Gun, which has gone unread for a few days.

G section wrote:

Picked up copies of Christopher Wood's James Bond and Moonraker , Gardner's Licence To Kill novelisation as well as this :



which was the best find, in mint condition too. It's Sir Rog's daily diary of filming Live And Let Die. Turns out his final line of dialogue that was filmed was "Easy, Charlie, let's get there in one piece." Looking forward to reading them once I've finished with Golden Gun, which has gone unread for a few days.

Where did you manage to get copies of those long out of print books? Good job!

A secondhand bookstore in a local town called Sheringham. They've got a Bond section right in the doorway. I've had many great finds from there. :)

G section wrote:

A secondhand bookstore in a local town called Sheringham. They've got a Bond section right in the doorway. I've had many great finds from there. :)

That store is a real find then. Those paperbacks are virtually impossible to find. I've got all the screenplay novelizations, but I've never even seen the Rog LALD book.

breezed through my inaugural reading of Carte Blanche. Wasn't too bad, read better than Devil May Care at any rate. Still reinforces my opinion that I could never string a Bond book together. Meh, there we go.

Octopussy - I lacked that one in my PAN collection.

Bought a 16 book lot with Ian Flemings for the price the so-called dealers asked for just the book Octopussy. Which turned out to have several moviecover-versions of the 007 books. Agreat bonus.

I actually quite like all three short stories of OP, they show the skill of the writer Ian Fleming. And especially TLD shows a lot about the character James Bond

COLDFALL :3*:

I give it 3 stars because it dared to be a little different, but the problems with the book are the same ones that plagued Gardner's novels from about 1986 onward: overuse of the contrived "twist" (where at least one character comes back from the dead or is revealed to be a double or triple agent), stilted dialogue, , lack of a central villain, meandering plots, and basically Bond being a "tethered goat" in all of these novels and used by others to move the plot along, but not actually doing very much of his own investigative work. Bond is very reactionary in all of these novels. He's reacting to what others are doing to him or around him, but rarely is Bond seen to be spying.

The Gardner novels felt like novelizations of movies that had never been made, and Gardner was simply too good of a writer to have been writing these novels by rote. I think the pace of doing a Bond novel a year diminished the quality of his potential work; the stories were too short and skimped on a lot of detail.

I did like, sort of, Bond being told by M to 'move on' from Fredericka, even though he's engaged to be married to her and is in a coma...and I did like that Gardner had the balls to make Bond look somewhat like a creep by having Bond cheat on Fredericka with Beatrice (while Fredericka is in a coma no less and fighting for her life), and I thought it was interesting to see an M on the way out and with less power and forced to grovel before politicians and committee people. There were some interesting ideas Gardner had, but I suspect that there were a lot of limitations on him, namely that the books be under 300 pages. They tended to heavy on action and light on characterization and intriguing plot details. I knew Sukie Tempesta was alive the whole way through the novel; Gardner has simply been to the well way too many times with that plot device.

Currently on Casino Royale. Probably my 5th reading. It still holds up well. I think after the Fleming books I'll jump straight to Carte Blanche.

Got through Casino Royale and as always enjoyed it. In some ways I forgot a lot about the romantic getaway with Bond and Vesper. Really wish the film went deeper into that instead of skimming it.

Live and Let Die - Only read it once many years ago, and wasn't that crazy about it. Having just read it again I found it to be very very engaging this time around. Solitaire still seems pretty useless to me. Favorite bit might be Bond's entire journey underwater to the caves. This is a sequence I would have loved to seen realized on screen. Oh well.

Moonraker - Only read up to Bond getting his assignment, since I already read it just recently before. Just as good as the last couple of readings and still is my favorite Fleming book.

Currently I am reading Diamonds Are Forever. It's the one I never actually finished. I just remember by the time Bond entered the ghost town I lost interest. Right now Bond just arrived in Las Vegas. I think I'm liking it more now than I did before, but I still find it very weak after the first three books. Not enough interesting things happen so it kiinda drags. But I intend to finish it. After this book, I only read the rest of the novels once many years ago. I really look forward to rereading them soon.

RANKINGS:

MOONRAKER - 4.5 of 5
CASINO ROYALE - 4 of 5
LIVE AND LET DIE - 4 of 5