Last Bond Novel You Read

If I was Bond I'd avoid Royale-les-Eaux like the plague after losing Tracy. In my mind, Tracy supplants Vesper perhaps in the sense he went as far as to marry her and there was something more to the Tracy relationship.
Just leave Casino Royale alone, go somewhere else. Nice perhaps.

In the film FYEO it is Tracy's grave he visits...Not much of an improvement if you ask me.
Yes, there a better places for him than Royale.

Found a cheap copy of the recent-ish Quantum of Solace collection of Bond short stories. Spite of the fact I have the stories in various forms anyway, figured what the heck. An excuse to re-read them anyway. Only VTAK so far but it has plenty of ticks. The taking out of the SHAPE courier (the use of 'old' language/expressions -"Was it Wally?....Good show!"), Bond in Paris (I assume not liking the city since 1945 alludes perhaps to a wartime adventure gone wrong), the Austrian-Hungarian job that went wrong and various little things like Bond's explosive impatience with Head of Station F.

Such are the descriptions of the characters I could see this as an episode in a Bond TV series. The likes of Norman Bird/Michael Nightingale as Head of Station F.

The FAVTAK story is crying to receive a cinematic adaptation.

I could see it as a PTS perhaps but the trouble is, personally, the courier aspect. Nowadays I can't imagine there are such couriers buzzing about with top secret files like they were here.

Though I've soared through Risico, Hildebrand Rarity and Octopussy, I'll note FYEO here. (And QOS, though perhaps not a riproaring adventure, there's something about QOS I like. Sort of feel for Masters).

But FYEO has:

"If foreign gangsters find they can get away with this kind of thing they'll decide the English are soft as some other people think we are. This is a case for rough justice- an eye for an eye."

Bond's notes on the latest way of flying transatlantic (missing the old days of a BOAC 'country' breakfast).

Bond cursed his previous indecision. He said fiercely: "Don't be a silly bitch. Put that damned thing down. This is man's work. How in the hell do you think you can take on four men with a bow and arrow?"

AND this:

Bond's mind luxuriated briefly in the thought of what he would do to the girl once all this was over.

There's also when Bond is asked about his co-effacement of toughness by M and he reflects that he's suffered no personal loss (or anything to test his resolve) and I thought of Tracy -that it goes some way of losing her tearing the guts out of him. Or even at the start of the London part, Bond liking that time of year for the sound of old fashioned lawn mowers. But the constant theme throughout these stories of Bond bitching about stuff, like Nassau, or Paris. A man of high taste.

Hilly KCMG wrote:

I could see it as a PTS perhaps but the trouble is, personally, the courier aspect. Nowadays I can't imagine there are such couriers buzzing about with top secret files like they were here.

Maybe, though I'm sure they simply wouldn't be emailed through, given the infinite cyber world and susceptibility to attacks. It can be justified in today's world.

FieldsMan wrote:

Hilly KCMG wrote:

I could see it as a PTS perhaps but the trouble is, personally, the courier aspect. Nowadays I can't imagine there are such couriers buzzing about with top secret files like they were here.

Maybe, though I'm sure they simply wouldn't be emailed through, given the infinite cyber world and susceptibility to attacks. It can be justified in today's world.

How do you kill the courier then?

Kath wrote:

FieldsMan wrote:

Hilly KCMG wrote:

I could see it as a PTS perhaps but the trouble is, personally, the courier aspect. Nowadays I can't imagine there are such couriers buzzing about with top secret files like they were here.

Maybe, though I'm sure they simply wouldn't be emailed through, given the infinite cyber world and susceptibility to attacks. It can be justified in today's world.

How do you kill the courier then?

In today's world, the baddies would spam the courier's phone with eggplant emojis instead.

v

Bunch of French tree huggers protesting the cost of the courier's emissions on the trees in the forest. Unless he was Gilou out of Spiral, in which case he wouldn't give a shit and kill the guy sent out to get him.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Or worse, start a change.org petition against the courier. That'll show him.

FAVTAK could probably get the same kind of treatment TLD did, just a singular sequence after the titles that's used as a jump start to a much larger scheme.

The only way I could see a QOS adaptation is just dropping Bond altogether. He was superfluous and a gimmick to draw readers into Fleming flexing literary muscles and tribute to another author. It needs to be its own story.

Benedict Cumberbunch always felt like a natural pick for Phillip Masters. I could easily see him play with the turn from an inept social misfit to the cold hearted prick he becomes, and Cumby is very good at playing assholes.

I just finished TRIGGER MORTIS and, I have to say, it wasn't bad at all, even if it is largely a rehash of Fleming's MOONRAKER and DOCTOR NO. I'm not sure how I feel about another author setting their story so close to the Fleming canon timeline (in this case, between books), but Horowitz does a noble job at capturing the essence of Fleming's style, particularly early on. I expected the Nürburgring race to be more integral to the plot, in fact I was disappointed that it wasn't, especially as this was supposedly the accumulation of the "Original Fleming Material" as advertised. I'd like to see Bond in a motor sports environment again. Meanwhile, Jason Sin is a worthy villain, his Korean War experiences described by Horowitz in such moving and horrific detail. Jeopardy Lane is absent too often, as is sex. But there's a good deal of sadism and the attempted murder of Pussy Galore is particularly memorable.

I think Horowitz placing himself in the canon of Fleming works more than Faulks' 'writing as...' Horowitz seems genuinely into it, Faulks' felt off. Wonder if he'll do a third book -I've not read Forever and a Day yet but looking forward to it.

Hilly KCMG wrote:

I think Horowitz placing himself in the canon of Fleming works more than Faulks' 'writing as...' Horowitz seems genuinely into it, Faulks' felt off. Wonder if he'll do a third book -I've not read Forever and a Day yet but looking forward to it.

I suspect that he will write a third. It certainly seems like his labour of love, or his dream job if you will. Plus he's suggested that there's a number of these abandoned Fleming-penned television treatments, of which he's formulating these new novels around.

I'll pick up FOREVER AND A DAY at some point. In the meantime, I may go back to DEVIL MAY CARE. Haven't read it since it was first published and I have no memory of it at all. Perhaps an indication of its quality.

Ditto, I remember nothing from Devil May Care or Carte Blanche for that matter. Makes me wish there was a way of Fleming living to see all that has been done in his name or otherwise. Noel Coward would be tickled.

I suddenly have an overwhelming desire to re-read John Gardner's NEVER SEND FLOWERS (1993) for the third time in 20 years.

It celebrated its 25th Anniversary of first UK publication on 15 July 2018. It remains one of my favourite Bond Continuation novels, precisely because it is so offbeat and experimental in nature, incorporating the horror and serial killer genres.

Hilly KCMG wrote:

Ditto, I remember nothing from Devil May Care or Carte Blanche for that matter. Makes me wish there was a way of Fleming living to see all that has been done in his name or otherwise. Noel Coward would be tickled.

It has been suggested that Fleming would be horrified to see his 'cardboard booby' had lasted this long ... I dunno, though.

I didn't mind Devil May Care (although the 'Writing As Ian Fleming' thing on the cover was a definite mis-step), but Trigger Mortis was undoubtedly better. Carte Blanche and Boyd's Solo were more like thrillers that featured a lead character who just happened to be called James Bond, rather than 'Our Man' recognisably.

Have finally cleared Octopussy & The Living Daylights thus concluding my second run-through the Fleming Bond offerings (only took me about four or so years, in between other books).

To my mind, TLD is Fleming and Bond at their purest. A taut thriller with everything that tickles the senses. The Cold War, an alluring girl, scrambled eggs, and coffee laced with whisky - what more can you ask for?

I think we can ask for a return to such times.

Though maybe not for the person who reviewed Moonraker thusly: "We want taking out of ourselves, not sitting on the beach in Dover."

Harsh, but fair. Visiting an English "beach" was surely the greatest torture that ever befell the literary Bond.

The only novel in which Bond doesn't leave Blighty, and the poor sod doesn't even get a compensatory leg-over into the bargain.

Wonder if the film would've been more of an adaptation of the novel if it hadn't been for Star Wars. A plot to drop a nuke on London is still pretty frightening, albeit more down-to-Earth than Stromberg's plans in the preceding flick.

Moonraker's one of my favourites and the final few pages are some of the best there is in the Fleming literary universe. The Russian submarine, the BBC chap being lost and yes that overall threat of the rocket being launched on London. I think it would've worked as a film in the sixties, especially if it had come around 1962/63, coming so soon after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Having a vengeful Nazi drop a rocket on you is just part and parcel of living in a big city.