Are any of the post-Fleming bond books worth reading?
Discussion
I recently re-read a couple of the original bond books and they are still excellent. I know a lot have been written by other authors and I was wondering if anyone could give me a recommendation (or otherwise...) for any of them?
The only one I've read is the Sebastian Faulks effort, which I thought was fairly awful.
The only one I've read is the Sebastian Faulks effort, which I thought was fairly awful.
Huff said:
Colonel Sun, the first post-Fleming Bond novel written by Kingsley Amis as 'Robert Markham', is the best of the rest by far IMO. Not been impressed by the other author takes that I've bothered with.
That was a fabulous book. Imagine if Mr Amis had kept the series going?John Gardner did a workmanlike job, but I never felt his heart was in it. He admitted his Boysie Oakes books were deliberately written as a piss-take of Fleming's Bond.
Raymond Benson's stuff was OK as a read on the beach but the frequent little nuggets of info from the original Fleming books that aficionados would realise were just popped in to show that the "author had researched this" really made me cringe.
The book by Sebastian Faulks was very good, well researched, but not to add in little bits of Bondian folklore, but to actually read as if Fleming had written it. Recommended.
Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver, was shlt. I cannot believe that Ian Fleming Publications Limited accepted his manuscript.
I've only received the new book by William Boyd today, so I can't comment yet. But I must say, at long last Bond is driving a real car. The car he was always meant to drive!
I thought Sebastian Faulks' 'Devil May Care' was poorly written s
te, like pretty much every other non Fleming Bond book.
Faulks had obviously read all the original Bond books before writing it, in the first few chapters he almost delights in ticking off a list of characters and details to prove it.
But Faulks got a lot of the details arse about face. In one part he mentions Bond playing high stakes poker but needing an adversary of Hugo Draxs' calibre to make the game worth the candle. Of all the card games Bond plays, poker is only mentioned in passing at the beginning of Thunderball.
If you compare the way Fleming writes, he's almost lazy in his long descriptive passages of grotesque villains and their stories. Bond only appears in 'From Russia With Love' halfway through the book, the first half is pure Ian Fleming the journalist and travel writer building the back story slowly and carefully before Fleming the thriller writer makes an appearance to finish the book.
Every other writer seems to rush into their story whilst potraying Bond as some sort of cold blooded invincible superhero, John Gardner was one of the worst for this with Bond having all sorts of gadgets to help save the day.
Yet Fleming always portrays Bond as both fallible, vunerable and a reluctant killer, Bonds breakdown at the beginning of 'You only Live Twice' or Bonds refusal to execute Scaramanga in cold blood on not one but two occasions being a case in point.
te, like pretty much every other non Fleming Bond book.Faulks had obviously read all the original Bond books before writing it, in the first few chapters he almost delights in ticking off a list of characters and details to prove it.
But Faulks got a lot of the details arse about face. In one part he mentions Bond playing high stakes poker but needing an adversary of Hugo Draxs' calibre to make the game worth the candle. Of all the card games Bond plays, poker is only mentioned in passing at the beginning of Thunderball.
If you compare the way Fleming writes, he's almost lazy in his long descriptive passages of grotesque villains and their stories. Bond only appears in 'From Russia With Love' halfway through the book, the first half is pure Ian Fleming the journalist and travel writer building the back story slowly and carefully before Fleming the thriller writer makes an appearance to finish the book.
Every other writer seems to rush into their story whilst potraying Bond as some sort of cold blooded invincible superhero, John Gardner was one of the worst for this with Bond having all sorts of gadgets to help save the day.
Yet Fleming always portrays Bond as both fallible, vunerable and a reluctant killer, Bonds breakdown at the beginning of 'You only Live Twice' or Bonds refusal to execute Scaramanga in cold blood on not one but two occasions being a case in point.
To update this thread, I've now read a couple. Colonel Sun was very good - thanks for the recommendation. Carte Blanche, Deavers effort, was not. Only read it because it was available and wish I'd not bothered. Didn't feel like a Bond book and was generally terrible into the bargain. The new one, Solo, is in my pile to read soon.
Once upon a time, I tried, for fun, to write a Bond book. When you do that, you realise what a brilliant writer Ian Fleming was, what a pity he did not last longer. On form, like Casino Royale, Live & Let Die and Moonraker, he combines the taste of the good life, experience, travel writing, journalism, high adventure and imagination in a unique way. He does not waste words or pad books out, and he draws the reader on exactly as he set out to do. Even his thinner books, like Spy who Loved Me or Man with the Golden Gun have an atmosphere of reality about them. Maybe some of this came from Fleming's personality and own experiences - it must have - which makes you think would Picasso's estate commission people to produce more paintings in his style?
Kingsley Amis was one of the many detractors Fleming had, who said, essentially that it was piss easy to write books like that, and that they were (as a critic said of Dr.No,) 'just sex, sadism and snobbery'. I thought Colonel Sun was long and convoluted and read like fiction, rather than draw you into a world and believe it, as Fleming did.
Since then I haven't read any of the post-Fleming books as I don't want to be disappointed.
The first question facing a 'Bond' writer is whether to place him in period or to make him contemporary. Fleming of course did both, which noone now can. Either stands a big risk of failing. The next thing is that anyone who writes a book has to give something of himself. I would say that Fleming had more to give, and more sense of adventure, than any of his successors.
PS I also read Birdsong by Faulks and thought that was crap too.
Kingsley Amis was one of the many detractors Fleming had, who said, essentially that it was piss easy to write books like that, and that they were (as a critic said of Dr.No,) 'just sex, sadism and snobbery'. I thought Colonel Sun was long and convoluted and read like fiction, rather than draw you into a world and believe it, as Fleming did.
Since then I haven't read any of the post-Fleming books as I don't want to be disappointed.
The first question facing a 'Bond' writer is whether to place him in period or to make him contemporary. Fleming of course did both, which noone now can. Either stands a big risk of failing. The next thing is that anyone who writes a book has to give something of himself. I would say that Fleming had more to give, and more sense of adventure, than any of his successors.
PS I also read Birdsong by Faulks and thought that was crap too.
Edited by cardigankid on Thursday 10th October 23:00
William Boyd's Solo was excellent- but he is a far better writer than Sebastian Faulks- whose Birdsong was sublime but whose other works were forgettable at best. I have just reread From Russia With Love and I was surprised how tired the plot seemed but also what an excellent writer Fleming was. Anybody who enjoys Solo should read 'Any Human Heart ' by Boyd- I adored it.And it features Fleming as a character too I might add.
hairykrishna said:
I recently re-read a couple of the original bond books and they are still excellent. I know a lot have been written by other authors and I was wondering if anyone could give me a recommendation (or otherwise...) for any of them?
The only one I've read is the Sebastian Faulks effort, which I thought was fairly awful.
I'm surprised. I thought the original ones were pretty poor - they read OK when I has a lad, but rereading one recently really did show how poor they are. Faulks is a very good writer.The only one I've read is the Sebastian Faulks effort, which I thought was fairly awful.
The kids at our primary school love the 'young james bond' books - I'm gradually getting to hav read them from going in to assist in the literacy classes.
coppice said:
William Boyd's Solo was excellent- but he is a far better writer than Sebastian Faulks- whose Birdsong was sublime but whose other works were forgettable at best. I have just reread From Russia With Love and I was surprised how tired the plot seemed but also what an excellent writer Fleming was. Anybody who enjoys Solo should read 'Any Human Heart ' by Boyd- I adored it.And it features Fleming as a character too I might add.
I read (and thoroughly enjoyed) Solo last week. It felt very true to the Fleming books in style and character. Will have a crack at Any Human Heart, thanks. Finally just started "Wolf Hall" which may take me a while.Slightly off topic but I can recommend the John Buchan "Sir Edward Leithen" stories (only a couple of quid for a compilation of all 5 books on Kindle) for more tales of derring do.
Despite what I said above, I picked up an audio book of 'Solo' by William Boyd last week for a long car journey. I am a dyed in the wool long term Ian Fleming fan, and very sceptical of any post-Fleming Bond books. However I would unreservedly recommend this one.
Ian Fleming's Bond canon is not as crude and facile as some of his intellectual critics used to suggest before they attempted to do the same thing themselves. Boyd has carefully read and understood Fleming, and treats him with respect. For the connoisseurs, there are quite a few references you would need to know your Fleming to pick up. What I particularly admire, is that he has not only mastered the previous work, he has then taken it somewhere new and original.
He has decided to put Bond in period, and pulled it off brilliantly. He has come up with a strong, page turning, plot and characters Fleming would have been delighted with. This really is the old 007, not a reinvention. I think that is the right call - Bond is not a 21st century character, he is an unreconstructed buccaneer from the post WW2 era.
I think Boyd is right about the Jensen by the way. Bond of the books doesn't like temperamental cars. (So despite the 'affair' with the DB 2/4 MkIII he really isn't an Aston man.) He likes something that will do his bidding, with some class, a lot of power and a bit understated. If I had to be hypercritical, I still think that Fleming was the better travel writer, and Bond does the occasional thing an ex-military type wouldn't, but these are very very minor gripes. Ian Fleming would have been extremely proud of this book.
Ask Boyd to do another one imho! Soon.
Ian Fleming's Bond canon is not as crude and facile as some of his intellectual critics used to suggest before they attempted to do the same thing themselves. Boyd has carefully read and understood Fleming, and treats him with respect. For the connoisseurs, there are quite a few references you would need to know your Fleming to pick up. What I particularly admire, is that he has not only mastered the previous work, he has then taken it somewhere new and original.
He has decided to put Bond in period, and pulled it off brilliantly. He has come up with a strong, page turning, plot and characters Fleming would have been delighted with. This really is the old 007, not a reinvention. I think that is the right call - Bond is not a 21st century character, he is an unreconstructed buccaneer from the post WW2 era.
I think Boyd is right about the Jensen by the way. Bond of the books doesn't like temperamental cars. (So despite the 'affair' with the DB 2/4 MkIII he really isn't an Aston man.) He likes something that will do his bidding, with some class, a lot of power and a bit understated. If I had to be hypercritical, I still think that Fleming was the better travel writer, and Bond does the occasional thing an ex-military type wouldn't, but these are very very minor gripes. Ian Fleming would have been extremely proud of this book.
Ask Boyd to do another one imho! Soon.
Edited by cardigankid on Monday 13th April 08:42
Since then I hear that Anthony Horowitz has been commissioned to write the next book. Now, to me, Horowitz is a children's book author of admittedly considerable facility. I'm not sure that we are going to get much grittiness, but as I enjoyed Solo, I will give it a throw.
I suspect that you can tell how good the book is going to be by the choice of car. The idea that Bond would drive a Conti GT was ludicrous.
Also since Boyd was so good, thought that I would give Faulks book a go. Not an entirely awful effort, again in period, but it came across to me as Bond by numbers.
1. Grotesque villain like Goldfinger - tick
2. Reference to Bentley - tick
3. Sporting contest with villain - tick
4. Exotic second location - tick
5. Link to SMERSH - tick
6. Exotic Bond girl - tick - but I admit this one was good
7. Raffish Head of Station like Ali Kerim Bey - tick
8. Incident with gypsy girl - tick
9. Hi tech weapon - like Moonraker (imho the best Bond book) - tick
10. Plan to rule the world - tick
And so it goes on... Entertaining in a way and great for a car trip, but not Ian Fleming
Not up to Boyd's standard.
I suspect that you can tell how good the book is going to be by the choice of car. The idea that Bond would drive a Conti GT was ludicrous.
Also since Boyd was so good, thought that I would give Faulks book a go. Not an entirely awful effort, again in period, but it came across to me as Bond by numbers.
1. Grotesque villain like Goldfinger - tick
2. Reference to Bentley - tick
3. Sporting contest with villain - tick
4. Exotic second location - tick
5. Link to SMERSH - tick
6. Exotic Bond girl - tick - but I admit this one was good
7. Raffish Head of Station like Ali Kerim Bey - tick
8. Incident with gypsy girl - tick
9. Hi tech weapon - like Moonraker (imho the best Bond book) - tick
10. Plan to rule the world - tick
And so it goes on... Entertaining in a way and great for a car trip, but not Ian Fleming
Not up to Boyd's standard.
Edited by cardigankid on Thursday 7th May 20:38
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