Last Bond Novel You Read

trevanian wrote:

Perilagu Khan wrote:

trevanian wrote:

Quarter-century plus, I'd say you've got it spot on.

I am gretting obsessive about MOONRAKER's adaptability. Am thinking you could do a totally faithful adaptation but expand it slightly to make it fit with Bond film (traditional Bond film, not CraigTown) expectations. Could make the German rocket scientist a woman to fit the bad girl trope. To take it further back to tradition, could also open with Bond spending time w/ one of his married women, intercut with the shooting range stuff. (have been thinking about cutting patterns, detail stuff, like this was a movie I was actually going to get to make.)

All the crap about needing product placement money keeping it contemporary infuriates me, because geez, the KINGSMAN prequels don't seem to be hurting for cash, right?

I would absolutely sign off on a faithful adaption of Moonraker. How is it that probably Fleming's greatest novel has never been faithfully transposed to the silver screen? Where there's a will there's a way, and it needs to happen.

During this last reread of it, during the 'you great hairy-faced' part before Drax lays into Bond, I got a very unfortunate mental image of Drax as played by comedian and GONG SHOW regular Rip Taylor.

https://waldinadotcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/rip-taylor-1.jpg

Haven't been able to shake that pic from mind since and desperately need to have some other actor in mind to overwrite my psyche before the Taylor visage takes over as a default. Any casting ideas (any era at all will do) for Drax?

You know, Robert Shaw, if you'd slapped a curly red wig on him and a great red beard, would have made for an excellent Drax.

Thank you!

And for some reason I always picture pianist Alfred Brendel as Willy Krebs. He'd have to grow a stache of course.

trevanian wrote:

Thank you!

I believe Richard Dawson would also have pulled off Drax.

CJB wrote:

By the time GF and TB hit the screens the scale and tone of the films had grown to something quite grandiose and exotic, so you'd struggle to sell a story set entirely in rainy Old Blighty.

I think this must be what happened, logistically. They have at least recognized the strength of the novel in how frequently they have mined it for material (by my count...MR, AVTAK, GE, DAD, QOS).

CARTE BLANCHE by Jeffery Deaver.

Far from finished, but as is usually the case with fan fiction I am not impressed so far. I wonder, what is the point?

Yeah ... bits of it are not bad, but overall it feels like one of the continuation novels that just happens to have somebody called James Bond in it rather than 'Our Man' (see also William Boyd's Solo).

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Yeah ... bits of it are not bad, but overall it feels like one of the continuation novels that just happens to have somebody called James Bond in it rather than 'Our Man' (see also William Boyd's Solo).

I have read it, and did not like that one, either. It started out fine, but deteriorated as it went along.

Has anybody bit on the new one yet? It's apparently very short, having been written in a hurry to tie-in with the coronation.

I just reread the Pearson Bio of 007 again, which I consider to be a solid book in its own right (I actually read it before the Fleming books, as it was pretty new in paperback at the time.) Except for postulating the existence of Bond's brother, I still like pretty much everything in it, and love some of the descrips, such as the 53 year old Bond as being 'wary of pain's return.'

trevanian wrote:

Has anybody bit on the new one yet? It's apparently very short, having been written in a hurry to tie-in with the coronation.

I just reread the Pearson Bio of 007 again, which I consider to be a solid book in its own right (I actually read it before the Fleming books, as it was pretty new in paperback at the time.) Except for postulating the existence of Bond's brother, I still like pretty much everything in it, and love some of the descrips, such as the 53 year old Bond as being 'wary of pain's return.'

I have not read any of those, or anything by Benson yet, but to be fair to Deaver, he probably writes better than all of the others, except Wood perhaps. And he has created perhaps the nastiest villain in all of Bond.
Anyway, only Fleming is canon for me.

Fleming is canon, the rest are merely fodder...

Hear, hear.

Carte Blanche pretty much put me off any Bond novel not written by his creator.

I think that the only James Bond continuation novel that could have a claim to bring canon is the very first one, Kingsley Amis's Colonel Sun (1968). That's due to both the quality of the writing and the closeness to Fleming in terms of the authentic 1960s setting.

SUN is close enough for me that whenever I reread all (save SPY) of Fleming's Bond, I always pile it on at the end. Kind of makes up for GG, which has a lot of weak spots. Oddly, I remember reading a transcript of a conversation between Bond devotees in a book published in the 60s -- I don't think it was FOR BOND LOVER'S ONLY, but may-be ... ? Anyway, when GG comes up, one of the fans, a woman as I recall, states definitively that the writing in GG is nearly all Amis, finishing up Fleming's committment for him. I hadn't read any Amis at that point, and took it as truth, but have not ever seen anything else that supported her view.

I don't detect any Amis in Gun. It's just slightly under-polished Fleming, IMO.

HIGH TIME TO KILL by Raymond Benson

My first Benson. Fairly enjoyable, but it is certainly not in the same league as Fleming.

I should maybe give the Bensons a go. I've a copy of Zero Minus Ten kicking around the house somewhere here, but never got past the mahjong game in it ... whereas Fleming would've made it sound tense, snappy and exciting it came across as long-winded and boring in Benson's hands, but maybe I judged it too harshly.

High Time to Kill is probably Raymond Benson's best James Bond novel. I remember really enjoying it when it came out back in 1999.

It is at least not boring. It is more like a novelization of a movie that does not exist than an attempt to add to the Fleming canon.

DOUBLESHOT

Much interesting going on here. I am a bit surprised by how much I enjoy Benson Bond. I thought he was a hack. Well, compared with Fleming he is a doublehack, but he manages to get me hooked. Unlike most other fan fictioneers.

NEVER DREAM OF DYING

Another entertaining read. I am not aiming to read his other novels, though. It is not that good. Will consume one of his short stories next, and then I am good.

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. I had come across a rare copy of the Executive Choice/Golden Knight Binding edition awhile back, and when I opened it (finding a slip of paper describing how collectible it was) I heard the binding crack. Didn't even open it up all the way and the binding split on the outside  from top to bottoms between front cover and spine. At that point, I was like 'so much for ebay' and since my old paperback was in bad shape, decided to reread it.

The book held up fine for the read (except for that first titanic crack), and I enjoyed it a lot more than I usually do (I really only like the opening stuff with M.) It does still have the problem of Bond's dialog sounding more like Roger Moore than usual, and there are places where I wish there was a lot more info (like the de-brainwashing), but it was kind of pleasant anyway. Still didn't pick up on the homoerotic aspect that gets mentioned with respect to Mr. S, but hey, I didn't know The Village People were gay at first either.

Guess it'll go on the shelf next to the centenary editions of CR and FYEO, which I decided to keep after not being able to get the resale stickers off the dustjackets without them looking all ruined. Collectibles by accident, that's me.

I read Gun recently and was struck by how derivative it is. So much of it is recycled material from earlier Bond novels. I think Fleming was really running out of creative steam at this point, but knew he wasn't long for the world and wanted to complete one last novel before departing.

I definitely pick up a homoerotic vibe from Bond toward Scara. Bizarrely enough, 007 almost seems to worship that scumbag, and Scara manifestly does not recipricate the affection.

Trying to work my way through Double or Nothing. I don't necessarily hate the idea of Bond spinoffs. But the opening few chapters have been pretty rough. Going to try and hang in there and hope it gets better.

Right now it's kind of giving me Zero Minus Ten and The Facts of Death vibes. Some decent ideas but the execution is poor.

JAMES BOND, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME by Christopher Wood.
As good as I remembered it to be. Clearly the best Bond writer besides Fleming himself and the only one who has not been a complete hack.(Not read Pearson. Have not read the latest either, but have no interest in it.) Also a vast improvement on the film it is based on.