Last Bond Novel You Read

Vesper wrote:

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Blunt Instrument wrote:

It's been said that that's what the continuation novels will always lack ... none of their authors 'are or were' Bond in the way Fleming was.

That's certainly true. But perhaps the Fleming estate (or whoever chooses the continuation authors) should attempt to find authors who are at least somewhat like Fleming, and, to a significant degree, share his worldview. Such an approach would lead to less laughable attempts at reanimating Fleming's character and world.

You see, I think that's difficult. I think the problem is that different people connect to Bond in different ways. I would say Deaver connected to the thrill of bringing down the bad guy, saving the world. Benson probably to the sex and the lifestyle. The problem is you can't really anticipate how that would affect their writing until they hand in a manuscript. And obviously there would be writers out their capable of being objective and at least attempting to write Bond based off Fleming's novels rather than their idea of Bond (I think Faulks, pretentious byline aside, did try to do this).

Those are good points. But I think one could read a writer's oeuvre and determine fairly accurately whether that writer connects with Fleming/Bond in a Bondian way or an eccentric one. Judging by past results, it seems the Fleming estate is not even attempting to do this. Rather, they're more concerned with getting a writer on the cheap or snagging one with a big name and hoping that name sells copy. Attempting to create a faithful continuation of the Fleming literary legacy seems an afterthought at best.

More reflections on OHMSS:

Chapter 19: Love For Breakfast. This chapter must have caused readers in 1963 to choke on their whiskey and sodas. The great Casanova is finally smitten.

"Hell! I'll never find another girl like this one......I'm fed up with all these untidy, casual affairs that leave me with a bad conscience....Tracy. I love you. Will you marry me?" Say what?! :affraid:

Fleming's description of Bond's bachelor party had me in stitches. He chugs beers with a German taxi-driver that he just met.

"Bond hired a taxi, and he and the taxi-man, who had been a Luftwaffe pilot during the war and was proud of it, tore round the town together until, at an antique shop near the Nymphenburg Palace, Bond found what he wanted - a baroque ring in white gold with two diamond hands clasped. It was graceful and simple and the taxi-man was also in favour, so the deal was done and the two men went off to celebrate at the Franziskaner Keller, where they ate mounds of Weisswurst and drank four steins of beer each and swore they wouldn't ever fight each other again. Then, happy with his last bachelor party, Bond returned tipsily to the hotel, avoided being embraced by the taxi-man, and went straight to Tracy's room and put the ring on her finger."
Reeking of sausage and stale beer, I might add. What a charmer! Then he heads down to the lobby to drink schnapps with Draco. Starts with a double Steinhager. :drunken:

YOLT: Fleming wrote this book in 1963. He gives another shoutout to JFK. The first was in TSWLM., which would have been written shortly after JFK was elected.

I love this book. One of my favourites. I've been looking forward to getting to this point finally. It's actually the first Fleming I got my paws on way back when.

Bond has been promoted to a diplomatic status, to get some business done with Tiger, and also of course to get him out of his funk. I agree with the paperback cover blurb "perhaps the most bizarre and doom-fraught of all James Bond's adventures."

Could movie Dikko be more different than book Dikko?! I don't think so. I don't think Eon was brave enough to even attempt to cast an authentic Fleming Dikko. What a character! Man, can Bond and Dikko pound back the sake. And Tiger's no slouch either.

I hope our down-under members have all read this book. Tiger maintains that if his country had attacked Australia and New Zealand instead of Peal Harbour, you Aussies would all be drinking sake and saluting the Empire of the Rising Sun.

Some great lines associated with this book:

My favourite; "You are to enter this Castle of Death and slay the Dragon within" :shock: Bond as St. George. Furthermore, Bond must slay the dragon to restore the worthiness of the British Empire in the eyes of the Japanese rulers. Talk about pressure.

and,
You only twice:
Once when you are born,
And once when you look death in the face.

And Fleming of course gets some early shots in at Irma la not so douce.
"The doctor and his wife, who is by the way extremely ugly, moved into the castle......." If there was any doubt that Tiger was describing Blofeld and Bunt, it has now been erased.

Vesper wrote:

I think the biggest problem with Carte Blanche is something I noticed while reading (and that stood out like a giant sore thumb at the time) is author projection. The passage where Bond recalls reading Tolkien and standing up for some bullied school boy in the playground. Fleming's Bond would never have read that. Or done that. Without knowing his bio that seemed to me like pure Deaver inserting himself into the character.

As much as I like Tolkien's work, the idea that James fecking Bond would be caught dead reading about elves and wizards is ridiculous.

Reckon Deaver's "Bond" copped a wedgie or two at school.

CJB wrote:

Vesper wrote:

I think the biggest problem with Carte Blanche is something I noticed while reading (and that stood out like a giant sore thumb at the time) is author projection. The passage where Bond recalls reading Tolkien and standing up for some bullied school boy in the playground. Fleming's Bond would never have read that. Or done that. Without knowing his bio that seemed to me like pure Deaver inserting himself into the character.

As much as I like Tolkien's work, the idea that James fecking Bond would be caught dead reading about elves and wizards is ridiculous.

Reckon Deaver's "Bond" copped a wedgie or two at school.

Exactly. It's like Fred Sanford attending a Mostly Mozart festival, for the love of God. Deaver was utterly clueless, and so were the people who tapped him for the job.

CJB wrote:

Vesper wrote:

I think the biggest problem with Carte Blanche is something I noticed while reading (and that stood out like a giant sore thumb at the time) is author projection. The passage where Bond recalls reading Tolkien and standing up for some bullied school boy in the playground. Fleming's Bond would never have read that. Or done that. Without knowing his bio that seemed to me like pure Deaver inserting himself into the character.

As much as I like Tolkien's work, the idea that James fecking Bond would be caught dead reading about elves and wizards is ridiculous.

Reckon Deaver's "Bond" copped a wedgie or two at school.

To be fair, I believe it was Sir Gawain and the Green Knight but the point stands.

More observations on YOLT: Well Bond is a dad. Kissy is having his baby, even if she doesn't tell him. He's going to grow up a little Ama-village fishing-boy, with a pet Cormorant named David, to go fishing with. If Benson hadn't killed him off, he'd be - born 1964- 48 years old this year.

Benson's killing of Bondo-san Jr. may be a "breach of Fleming". First of all, I think Fleming intended that Bunt was killed in the massive volcanic eruption that destroyed the Castle of Horrors. Last we saw of her, she was knocked out cold, just before the place blew up. Actually it was Pearson, in his book, that escaped her. Good then of Benson I guess to tidy-up and kill-off the old toad, what with Pearson having given her new life, so I will let Benson off for the "breach". Bond Jr. - too bad, we hardly knew you. Killed by Bunt in Benson's Blast From The Past. Bitch!

YOLT might be the most re-readable of all the Flemings, as the dialogue is so prevelant and provocative, plus we learn something new about this post-war Japanese culture in transition, with each read.

TMWTGG: Bond the beer drinker is back. After polishing off 4 big steins of lager with the ex-Luftwaffe pilot at his "bachelor party," we find Mark Hazzard/Bond quaffing Jamaican Red Stripes with his new pal, Pistols Scaramanga, at No. 3 1/2 Love Lane.

We know Scaramanga is a read bad dude, if we had any doubt, after he blows away poor Tiffy's pair of pet Kling Klings. Much like the Robber did with the poor pelican in LALD (Death of a Pelican), and we know what happened to the Robber. Plus Tiffy has arranged for a hex to be put on the bird-blasting cretin. Sucks to be you, Francisco.

Bond's return to Jamaica sparks memories of Beau Desert and Honey Ryder. The old sentimentalist. He wonders why she never wrote! Then kind of answers his own question, with the knowledge "that last he'd heard, she'd had two children by the Philadelphia doctor she had married." Yes, she might be rather busy with her life.

The movie did borrow some Bond/Goodnight banter with the discussion of Goodnight's dress being tight in all the right places, and the bit about the buttons too. Cute.

Another shout-out to JFK. That's three now, following TSWLM and YOLT. Bond relaxes at the Thunderbird Hotel at Bloody Bay with a copy of JFK's Profiles in Courage.

Let it not be said that Fleming didn't recompense his benefactors! To a certain degree, the whole political climate of James Bond changed after JFK plugged FRWL. Verily, Fleming's munificence was boundless.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Let it not be said that Fleming didn't recompense his benefactors! To a certain degree, the whole political climate of James Bond changed after JFK plugged FRWL. Verily, Fleming's munificence was boundless.

Yes, he gets plugs in for both David Niven and Noel Coward in YOLT. Niven was the only actor in Hollywood that Kissy Suzuki could abide. The rest were basically pigs.

Fleming had much disdain for Hollywood actors it seems. He takes at least a couple of good shots at them in his books.

He worked Coward into his final jab at Bunt.

"Well, Blofeld, you mad bastard. I'll admit that your effects man down below knows his stuff. Now bring on the twelve she-devils and if they are all as beautiful as Fraulein Bunt, we'll get Noel Coward to put it to music and have it on Broadway by Christmas. How about it?"

"Over my dead body Ian, the woman is "too ugly to live."

Read LALD a couple of times this month, mainly because of how well Fleming characterizes 007 in this novel.

You really learn about Bond in this one, perhaps more so than the other novels. You're given the passage about Bond 'looking to his stars', Bond's method of mixing women with his mission (Solitaire as his 'personal prize'), Bond's loyalty and attitude toward his allies (M and Leiter, mainly), and even a small bit about religion, where Bond's calling on God before the Secataur explodes. There's also that cold, grim, and sympathetic piece about Bond's idea to drown Solitaire before drowning himself, in order to avoid being torn up by man-eating fish.

Fleming's characterization of 007 may be worth its own thread.

Anyway, moving on to MOONRAKER and DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. Finishing these before the New Year. It's always fun to revisit these colorful thrillers.

Reading TMWTGG. So far its biggest weakness for me is the narrative gap between chapters 3 and 4, where Bond's reconditioning from his Manchurian Candidate episode and subsequent reassignment and initial reactions to chasing Scaramanga are all skipped.

Lots of times in Fleming there are strange gaps in the storytelling, but before you get annoyed by them he doubles back and summarizes the in-betweens.

Doesn't do the de-brainwashing justice in GG at all though. You'd figure he could have gotten a crawling through DN's obstacle course-level tension out of Sir James and his black box, if he'd been so inclined ... then again, it would have overshadowed the mission, such as it is.

I haven't had that book in ages, and Goodwill had a HC on the shelves, but they pulled it and tossed it before I could buy (3 day wait for staff to buy merchandise) ... kinda ticked me off.

Agreed, I was taken aback by suddenly having Bond back to some normal state already in Jamaica instead of seeing him go through recovery, trying to pull himself together. It would have been like skipping that whole section with Bond in the hospital in CR. As a result I felt like there was more distance between myself and Bond, wondering if he was totally cured or not. It was off putting.

Yeah even if we skipped the Molony treatment it still would have been nice to see a recently recovered James be given his assignment, his self doubt, his guilt back in that office with M, etc.

Python wrote:

Agreed, I was taken aback by suddenly having Bond back to some normal state already in Jamaica instead of seeing him go through recovery, trying to pull himself together. It would have been like skipping that whole section with Bond in the hospital in CR. As a result I felt like there was more distance between myself and Bond, wondering if he was totally cured or not. It was off putting.

It's a rushed novel under pressing circumstances for its writer. A healthy Fleming would not have written this book, or would have written it much better.

That said, the first meeting between Bond and Scaramanga is fucking brilliant.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

That said, the first meeting between Bond and Scaramanga is fucking brilliant.

Oh yeah. Sub-par Fleming still kicks the ever-loving crap outta just about everybody else. I enjoy Gun very much.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

That said, the first meeting between Bond and Scaramanga is fucking brilliant.

Oh yeah. Sub-par Fleming still kicks the ever-loving crap outta just about everybody else. I enjoy Gun very much.

Bah Heineken! We Fleming fans know what Bond likes to drink, when he sits down for tete-a-tete's with golden-gun-toting villain friends.

Bond also swigged beer and chuffed chicken salad sandwiches in the Seychelles with Fidele (Fido) Barbey. Don't recall if the brand o' brew was specified. I somehow think not.

I admit having to look up what an "octoroon" was.

I wonder of Maud Adams is an octoroon.

At least she's not an octomom.

Or an octomammary.

It's official. Bond is a beer drinker. He also quaffs Lowenbrau during one of his sojourns from the snipers perch in TLD. He seems to like to sample the local ale when he's in Germany, as he did at his "bachelor party."

Octopussy: Dexter Smythe seems to mirror Fleming in his final days at Goldeneye. They are the same age, with the same heart problems, both drinking too heavily, both with a military type/intelligence background, both former very active "swordsmen", both living at Jamaican retreats and both very keen on the fish communities that live under their nose.

Fleming may have been foreshadowing the imminent arrival of the grim reaper that he knew was coming for him as well.

Property of a Lady: What a smart little story. Originally written for the Sotheby people. We meet Maria Freudenstein. Another classic Fleming ugly in the tradition of Klebb and Bunt, but younger. In Golden Gun, during his screening process, Bond learns from Major Townshend, that she was in fact killed after the POAL affair, no doubt by the KGB. Although her name has changed to Freudenstadt in Golden Gun. Author error presumably.

Fleming though, does diligently describe her ugliness of both spirit and body, with much the same energy he applied to both Klebb and Bunt.

"She was an unattractive girl with a pale, rather pimply skin, black hair and vaguely unwashed appearance. Such a girl would be unloved, make few friends, have chips on her shoulder - more particularly in view of her illegitimacy - and a grouse against society. Perhaps her only pleasure in life was the triumphant secret she harboured in that flattish bosom - the knowledge that she was cleverer than all those around her, that she was, every day, hitting back against the world - the world that despised, or just ignored her, because of her plainness - with all her might. One day, they'd be sorry! It was a common neurotic pattern - the revenge of the ugly duckling on society."

Not bad. Not quite the Klebb treatment, but still a good third of a page. After all, it is a short story not a full length novel.

Tiger no doubt would have also considered her "too ugly to live"

==M gets in trouble from Fanshawe for calling the Faberge Terrestrial Globe, an "expensive hunk of jewellery." Horrors. M = philistine.

The Living Daylights; Fleming puts focus on Bond's moral code, as Bond adjusts his sights at the last second, when he sees that Trigger was a fetching young blonde, although it seem it's as much Bond's inherent chivaly as morality, on display here.

The Bond moral code is very much on display later in TMWTGG, as Bond struggles with gunning Scaramanga down in cold blood. I think Fleming is telling us here that Bond knows he has to do it, and he is prepared to go ahead with it, and we do believe that he will, but Fleming makes it clear that he doesn't have to like it, which radically separates Bond from an amoral soul like Scaramanga, who'd kill a man just for kicks. Well written, even if somewhat frustrating for "dear reader" who is screaming "pull the trigger". The guy is guilty of double-bird homicide for crying out loud. Blow him away Bond!!!

In TLD, Fleming also foreshadows the cianide pistol that Bond would later attempt to use against M.

3 great little stories to tie-up the Fleming oeuvre with.

Hilly wrote:

One curious little facet in OHMSS is that Bond is said to have learnt skiing as a teenager at the Hannes Schneider School at St. Anton in the Arlberg. In Octopussy, Hannes Oberhauser taught him (as a teen). I guess Oberhauser taught there perhaps :)

I think your observation is probably what Fleming intended.

From wiki:

"Sankt Anton am Arlberg, commonly referred to as St. Anton, is a village and ski resort in Tyrol, western Austria, with a permanent population of approximately 2,564. St. Anton is frequently listed as one of the world's top skiing resorts both in terms of skiing available and après-ski entertainment. It is also a popular summer resort among trekkers and mountaineers."

Major Smythe and his MOB "A" Force had been allotted the same Tyrol area as the St. Anton ski resort. Smythe for his little off books side-trip had enquired about the best mountain guide in Kitzbuhel and was referred to our friend Oberhauser.

And Fleming tells us that Oberhauser was in the Tyrol area when Smythe "recruited" him, so I think you are right; ie. that Oberhauser could have taught Bond at the "Hannes Schneider School at St. Anton in the Arlberg." The place would also accomodate Oberhauser's mountaineering and trekking talents.

==Also from wiki. Hannes Schneider was quite the personage - a world famous ski instructor of the downhill skiing method known as the "Arlberg technique"

St. Anton was also the setting for the film "Der Weisse Rausch", starring Leni Riefenstahl and local ski instructor Hannes Schneider. Made in 1931, the comedy film was a fictional account of the skiing exploits of a young village girl, played by Riefenstahl, and her attempts to master the sport of skiing and ski-jumping aided by the local ski expert Hannes Schneider. The film was one of the first to use and develop outdoor film-making techniques and featured several innovative action-skiing scenes. Riefenstahl went on to make Nazi propaganda films and, post-war, subsequently lived in Africa where she continued film-making, but now of life in the African bush. She survived two fatal crashes, a helicopter and a road accident, in the process. Hannes Schneider, post-war, became the world-famous ski instructor of the downhill skiing method known as the "Arlberg technique".

==The 60th anniversary year of Fleming-writing-his-first-Bond-novel Flemingathon is complete. Quite enjoyable.

From the famous CR opening, " The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning" to twelve years later and "For James Bond, the same view would always pall." Bravo Mr. Fleming.

Again, I would next like to visit the books on tape, or whatever radio dramas might be accessible, and have the stories poured into the ear by noted thespians.

In the meantime Khanners, I will be reviewing your Fleming Bond's culinary summation, posted elsewhere on the site. What with the books being very top of mind right now, the appreciation of the meal settings will resonate that much more. :)

Your appetite has clearly been whetted.