Last Bond Novel You Read

I'm certainly well overdue for a re-read of the Fleming novels. Try to do it every few years....I think the last time was 2014 for me.....way to long. I need to start this weekend!

I've always enjoyed Gardner. Although he wasn't always a hit, I always enjoy the fact that he didn't try to just copy Fleming (like Faulks). I appreciate that he is only continuation author who really gave the only unique perspective on Bond and tried to do his own thing with the character (the Saab, the low tar cigs, etc.)

Hell.....I'm even long overdue on re-reading Benson. I can't tell you the last time I gave him a re-read. I have been harsh on Benson in the past, but I've certainly lightened up on him in the last few years. Never Dream of Dying was my first Bond novel and holds a lot of damn good memories for me. Regardless of the quality, with that book being my first it holds so many fond memories for me.

Think Faulks pushed it over the edge by the "writing as Ian Fleming" tag. Don't know if it was something he came up with, the IFF or the publishers but seemed faintly arrogant to me at the time. Though for a book, it got a proper do over it, didn't they have a speedboat or some such?

I last read Zero Minus Ten last year about the time I re-watched TND and Hong Kong was in the news prominently. (Around the same time re-watched Clive James' HK special prior to the Handover, bits of Alan Whicker and even Les Paterson's HK special which all in their way made what was happening last year resonate somehow).

The one problem with Benson is that one with Draco as a villain. Though I could understand Draco being pushed in a way, I somehow can't see it as to me Bond and Draco forged some kind of bond that Tracy's death would've held together. Draco would have helped Bond find Blofeld.

I'm well overdue myself. I'm dying to pull out CR/MR/FRWL again but I'm just so strapped for time these days.

Now you say that fields I'm itching to re-read Moonraker soon. But also TSWLM.

I now have that QOS volume Penguin did containing all the short stories so I might take that with me to the coast in a few weeks.

I agree Draco's turn in NDOD was too much. Of course the character was originally a gangster but it felt far too forced as did his seemingly youngish age for the time period of the book. Outside of this the novel may be Benson's best and has the most developed relationship between Bond and the love interest of his tenure.

Quite agree Boots. Assuming there was a passage of time as such, Draco festered for what thirty years? Surely, if pissed with Bond, he would've done it sooner?

I did like Benson's DAD, sort of 'normalised' the film a little.

His TND had a few nice bits of extra backstory. His TWINE had essential Renard backstory and his DAD had lovely bits. I LOVED when he had Bond come ashore and have to do street surveillance and find a asshole guy's wallet to steal to get capital and then get moving again. It was very Ludlum Bourne-esque but soooo much more Bond-like than what we got in the film with the jokey hotel lobby stroll.

Quite agree Boots. I find novelisations always add flesh to the bones of course. The Star Trek Wrath of Khan one gave me backstory that took until Meyer's director cut 2003ish to be confirmed!

Am onto Gardner's novelisation of LTK ... as ever, it's the little differences that intrigue (like Killifer mentioning Sanchez's $2 million bribe offer during his meeting with Leiter and Bond at Leiter's wedding party instead of it being a separate scene, and the fact that Killifer had been 'bought' not actually being 100% apparent until Bond encounters him at Krest's warehouse).

I always forget LTK has a novelisation. Always figure it started with GoldenEye.

I've reread the novelization before doing my commentary tracks so I finished GE/TND/TWINE/DAD. All of them have nice extra character bits and backstory that feels crucial to the films and simply isn't there or hinted at. They otherwise follow the film's script with Gardner and Benson adding an extra scene or two in each book.

The biggest differences I note:
Gardner amps up the steaminess of the love scene between Bond and Natalya and overall the book has more energy than any of his novels since Death is Forever. It's a much better way for him to go out than ColdFall was and the book really made me admire Natalya finally and come around on her character. Gardner makes her feel so much more alive than the mere hint and suggestion we get in the film.
TND has the ESSENTIAL bit of Carver finding his biological father and getting to him before stealing his publishing empire. It's great and very well done and one wishes it had been in the film somehow. Benson also invents an early scene of Wai Lin on a case in China to establish her badassery and its very effective. Again in the novelization Wai Lin comes across as more of a character and the romance with 007 is much more explicit and thus develops logically over time. Stamper has the reversed pleasure and pain centers which explains his seeming invulnerability which goes unsaid in the film. But the most striking thing is the stealth boat climax is completely different. Here Bond and Stamper fight on the blown exterior of the boat, Bond sets the explosion in motion and makes a callback to the Danish in the opening of the film AND uses his connection with Wai Lin to message her, the missile sequence is totally different with Carver sacrificing Stamper-I think Benson had an earlier draft with a different ending or he must've crafted this version on his own. I know the Bond vs Stamper fight on the exterior of the ship was developed and partially shot.

TWINE is roughly the same as the film outside of extra character inner monologues-but again this helps to flesh things out. Crucial is Renard's backstory and the entire unfolding of the Elektra kidnapping. It's the best passage of the book and makes you scream "why wasn't this in the film dammit???"

DAD is the same in that it roughly follows the film and Benson adds some great genuine Bond flourishes. We get to see the ins and outs of Moon getting to Cuba and setting up the diamond mine-AND it explains the Moon-Frost relationship. It's not just that she's a mole but she used her MI6 information to help Moon actively at all times.
Most striking of all is how Benson continually slightly tweaks and alters Bond's dialogue to give him more traditional and weightier lines and thus Bond in the novelization takes much more initiative unlike in the film.
Two bits that SHOULD have been in the film: Bond escapes the British ship and finds himself in Seoul with no money or assistance on the run. He assess the local back alley situation and steals a wad of cash off of a rather disagreeable pimp, manages to get some food and shoes, bribes his way onto a different British ship to then arrive in Hong Kong and do the stroll into the Yacht Club hotel.
When infiltrating the Antonov in the climax, Bond finds General Moon before Moon is brought to Graves. Bond tells him his son is still alive which Moon does not believe. Bond insists and then gives the General a pistol in a moment of implying a sense of trust with his former torturer. It then plays out as it doe sin the film but the idea of Bond and Moon having a final meeting with Bond then handing over a gun is perfect and very much like Columbo handing over the PPK in FYEO.

On the novels reread I finished Doubleshot and onto Never Dream of Dying.

After rather purposefully avoiding them for decades, I picked up the two Benson omnibus volumes at Goodwill earlier this year and duly plowed through all the novels and the two short stories. Can't say that any of them really grabbed me, but it sure did seem like bits served to inspire Eon on various courses.

I had read all the Gardner's Bonds -- only enjoyed the first two as I recall, but really did like a non-Bond spy/war novel of his called GOLGOTHA -- up till his horrid LICENCE TO KILL novelization - read it before the film came out and was expecting a truly terrible flick, which made seeing it a total revelation, as it remains the last new Bond movie I ever loved. I think I've read most of the big name continuations from the last decade or so, but none of them clicked for me either. Oddly, I find myself wishing I'd held onto my copies of Wood's SPY and MR novelizations, as I think his Fleming emulation is actually pretty good (better than his screenwriting anyway.)

Most recent reread was COLONEL SUN, which I've always really liked for its small scale and grit. And of course, reading it made me want to dive back into Fleming, but I'm trying to keep from rereading them all (almost all, I skip SPY WHO every time) too often. I think the last time I went through the whole non-SPY WHO round was in 2019.

It's funny, the first Fleming I ever read was TMWTGG, and the first few pages pretty much put me off reading any more for quite awhile, the stuff about messages being passed on from Bond who was stuck on Uranus while awaiting passage to heaven. I don't know that I'd have ever gone back and read the rest (well, yeah, I would have, but not nearly so avidly and rapidly), but I happened across Pearson's BIO OF 007 and absolutely devoured it. I still have a tendency to perceive Bond as much through Pearson as through Fleming (except for the Bond's brother bit.) After that, I was able to go to downtown San Jose where Recycled Books was located and I picked up the whole round of Fleming Bonds (except Octopussy) for 15 cents apiece ... this was in 1975-76. Blew through them in well under a month and went straight into shooting a half-hour Bond parody film -- YOU ONLY DIE THRICE -- during my sophomore year of high school, which was when ABC was rerunning a ton of Bonds (including that weird 2part OHMSS, which was my first exposure to that film.)

Also discovered the Sol Weinstein oyoyseven stories, as serialized in Playboy (my stepdad had a collection going back to the late 50s in a shed, and I gotta say, it was funny when my mom caught me actually READING Playboy.

It's funny, because that was when Trekmania was hitting its apex, with 15,000 people attending a trek convention in 76, I was in total Bondmania, having already petered out on Trek from saturation viewings (2 episodes per day in our TV market for the previous few years.) Was so jazzed about the possibility of Connery doing WARHEAD ... then the pendulum swung back the other way, because SPY and MR really did not float my boat, and so I was back on the Trekwagon in time for the first movie to come out.

(boy, you can really tell when I'm on deadline and looking for an excuse not to work on an article, I just spew like mad.)

Totally understandable. Plus one never gets the chance to seemingly ever spew on the continuation books. I can't even really bring them up much on other Bond forums.
As a teen I used to rank Benson's work much higher but reading them now you can see the holes and issues more clearly. Still they are full of great ideas, energy, Fleming nods and pulls-and definitely a shot in the arm after the spiraling late Gardner tenure.
The first five Gardners are the best and most solid. After that each book became an attempt at trying different kinds of stories and the effectiveness varies. I do appreciate his attempts to do harder pure spy stories but the most effective book he wrote after Nobody Lives Forever for me is probably Death is Forever.

Gardner's LTK is okay. I like the extra bits it has and the deleted scenes from the film but the more relaxed pacing it has by placing it in the context of the Gardner Bonds is very weird and ill fitting. Plus it gives us the hilarious: oh no the shark ate Felix's artificial limbs. Bond: "not again!!"

Since it's the first time in ages I've done the full absolute complete reread I've gotten to the modern post-Benson books I don't reread as much: Faulks, Deaver and Boyd. I just finished Devil May Care and boy has it not held up well. The plot meanders, there are many not so disguised Fleming bits being reused, the villain's motivation is like a watered down version of Horowitz's Stormbreaker and I could go on and on. The "writing as Fleming" moniker was more of a publicity gag as only Christopher Wood and most of Amis's Colonel Sun really got the Fleming tone down. The best parts of the book are the tennis match and the trek through Cold War era Russia which of course were the only two things I vividly remembered before rereading.

Colonel Sun is a book I always start enjoying and it loses me over the course of the book. I actually love TMWTTG despite its simplicity and status as semi-unrevised. It's a sort of return to the early Bond book style but with the post-YOLT Bond which is fitting for it being the last novel somehow. It also was one of my first owned Bond novels so I reread it many times. When I reread Fleming every year I get through the drawn out second act of YOLT by reminding myself I get to read TMWTGG next. I actually prefer it as a novel to YOLT which puts me in the extreme minority. I must admit thinking of the final lines about "that view would always pall" when thinking about the final denouement of NTTD.

Spy gets a bad rap. If it wasn't for the Mickey Spillane feel of the later sequences and that awful "all women love" line-it's Fleming actually doing a rather impressive job at creating a female heroine from her perspective at that time period. It gets better every time I reread it.

hegottheboot wrote:

Spy gets a bad rap. If it wasn't for the Mickey Spillane feel of the later sequences and that awful "all women love" line-it's Fleming actually doing a rather impressive job at creating a female heroine from her perspective at that time period. It gets better every time I reread it.

I understand why the vicious reception of the book caused Fleming to try and bury it, but he shouldn't have. It's a great read. Viv might be my favorite of his heroines. I love her story, I love the horror/slasher elements, Bond's entrance is a fist punch the air moment, and I'm not sure he's ever been more heroic. Dare I say it, but I absolutely love The Spy Who Loved Me.

Both of the times I read TSWLM I breezed through it. It's a great story with vivid (no pun intended) characters and genuine tension. Real shame it's maligned the way it is.

Somerset wrote:

hegottheboot wrote:

Spy gets a bad rap. If it wasn't for the Mickey Spillane feel of the later sequences and that awful "all women love" line-it's Fleming actually doing a rather impressive job at creating a female heroine from her perspective at that time period. It gets better every time I reread it.

I understand why the vicious reception of the book caused Fleming to try and bury it, but he shouldn't have. It's a great read. Viv might be my favorite of his heroines. I love her story, I love the horror/slasher elements, Bond's entrance is a fist punch the air moment, and I'm not sure he's ever been more heroic. Dare I say it, but I absolutely love The Spy Who Loved Me.

Fleming's description of the storm that hits Dreamy Pines early in the book was rarely bettered by the author. Absolutely top-rate Fleming.

And Sluggsy Morant--well, the name says it all. One of Fleming's greatest creations. "You ever think of guys who don't have any hairs in their schnozzle?! Aaaaargh!"

CJB wrote:

Both of the times I read TSWLM I breezed through it. It's a great story with vivid (no pun intended) characters and genuine tension. Real shame it's maligned the way it is.

Quite agree. Not Fleming's best but it has a way about it, it seems quite bold and original Probably would be slated to bits if released fresh today.

Decided it was time to finally revisit the Benson novels. It’s been quite a few years and most of his novels I have only read once. Over the past few years I’ve tried To be less critical of the films
And Books and enjoy them for what they are.

Currently about half way through Zero Minus Ten. I’m enjoying it but I never was
A huge fan of his first two novels. I don’t see that changing. Always thought his later efforts were his best.

Hilly wrote:

Quite agree Boots. I find novelisations always add flesh to the bones of course. The Star Trek Wrath of Khan one gave me backstory that took until Meyer's director cut 2003ish to be confirmed!

For me the most interesting part of that movie's backstory still hasn't really come into the light. Specifically, the scene with Kirk and Spock after the simulation opening cuts their exchange -- which was shown on CREATURE FEATURES shortly after the film released -- about Saavik's half-Romulan heritage, which goes a ways toward explaining Alley's eccentric performance, and how it sometimes feels like cosplay or a nervous high school cheerleader doing her first play. The fact Meyer never slipped this brief but informative exchange back in has always bothered me, because it isn't just informative, it is really funny (Spock deadpans about her heritage making her more volatile than he is, and Kirk kind of tweaks him for it, before the scene continued with Kirk thanking him for the birthday present.) I guess since Nimoy retroactively turned her into a full Vulcan with the next movie, insisting that the replacement actress play totally straight and removing what was most interesting to play about her, kind of overrode things. Shame, because I think Robin Curtis would have done a great job if she hadn't been sent into battle with this arrow already sticking through her head.

The revelation that the dead kid in engineering was Scotty's nephew is okay, but I remember my stepdad thinking it was better that Scotty was this broken up over losing ANY of his crew rather than it being a blood thing, and I kinda agree.

Plan on getting around to Benson some day, though I never felt any urgency to.

Kind of a sidenote, but I just learned the other week that Eon brought Meyer in as part of a group of writers to pitch ideas for TND.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

And Sluggsy Morant--well, the name says it all. One of Fleming's greatest creations. "You ever think of guys who don't have any hairs in their schnozzle?! Aaaaargh!"

Yes! "The air twang like piano wire." Great stuff.

Everyone gives Fleming the business for his gangster-speak but I wouldn't have it any other way.

That's interesting. Wonder what Meyer would've done with TND.

trevanian wrote:

Hilly wrote:

Quite agree Boots. I find novelisations always add flesh to the bones of course. The Star Trek Wrath of Khan one gave me backstory that took until Meyer's director cut 2003ish to be confirmed!

For me the most interesting part of that movie's backstory still hasn't really come into the light. Specifically, the scene with Kirk and Spock after the simulation opening cuts their exchange -- which was shown on CREATURE FEATURES shortly after the film released -- about Saavik's half-Romulan heritage, which goes a ways toward explaining Alley's eccentric performance, and how it sometimes feels like cosplay or a nervous high school cheerleader doing her first play. The fact Meyer never slipped this brief but informative exchange back in has always bothered me, because it isn't just informative, it is really funny (Spock deadpans about her heritage making her more volatile than he is, and Kirk kind of tweaks him for it, before the scene continued with Kirk thanking him for the birthday present.) I guess since Nimoy retroactively turned her into a full Vulcan with the next movie, insisting that the replacement actress play totally straight and removing what was most interesting to play about her, kind of overrode things. Shame, because I think Robin Curtis would have done a great job if she hadn't been sent into battle with this arrow already sticking through her head.

The revelation that the dead kid in engineering was Scotty's nephew is okay, but I remember my stepdad thinking it was better that Scotty was this broken up over losing ANY of his crew rather than it being a blood thing, and I kinda agree.

Saw I sure a bad quality copy of the discussion about Saavik's heritage someplace. No idea why it wasn't in the DVD/blu unless the copy is quite bad nowadays. Interesting if Alley had returned for STIII, if Nimoy would've done the same direction wise as with Curtis. Maybe Spock's death drove Saavik into striving to be more Vulcan.

I had long seen the film pre-directors cut so it was always as you say more like Scotty being cut up over a cadet dying but think it works still knowing he's Scotty's nephew.

Pretty sure if you look up showest reel and khan that the sizzle reel they put out in advance of the film incudes the half-rom exchange, along with some david/saavik bypay on bridge at end.

The original outline for TREK 3 has Saavik sleeping with Kirk, so it is also a departure.

trevanian wrote:

Pretty sure if you look up showest reel and khan that the sizzle reel they put out in advance of the film incudes the half-rom exchange, along with some david/saavik bypay on bridge at end.

The original outline for TREK 3 has Saavik sleeping with Kirk, so it is also a departure.

Bloody hell, that's some departure.

Otherwise, I'll be sure to try and find the reel.

Hilly wrote:

That's interesting. Wonder what Meyer would've done with TND.

He was interviewed (very quickly -- 20 minutes maybe) on a spy movie podcast called SpyHards. I can't vouch for the podcast, as I actually saw a link to ANOTHER episode where they (more extensively) interview Jeffrey Caine about GE. During that interview, they mentioned they'd done one with Meyer, so I sought it out.

Anyway, his pitch was something about a villain combating "overpopulation." IIRC the first chunk of the film was to proceed as a normal Bond film with action set pieces and Bond following a decoy plotline, leading him to come face to face with the villain who announces that was all a "test." The villain asks Bond to join forces with him and put his license to kill to work in a big way, and Bond accepts this (as a ruse) and they go from there.

The Jeff Caine one was more worth listening to.

Meyer's villain motivation reminds me of Thanos's. Or possibly that of whoever's responsible for turning people into food in Soylent Green.