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Comments
I like Raymond Benson's Bond novels too but I agree that there are few of us around here or elsewhere for that matter. I just hope that Anthony Horowitz writes as many Bond novels as a Benson or Gardner.
That said with the gaining popularity I am sure that had Fleming lived he might have been influenced by the movie series as well.
I guess most continuation writers have been influenced one way or another by the movie series. With some it shows more or less Bensons gift was his encyclopedia of 007 movies, which I still have somewhere among my books and his books are well written and show a gaining skill in writing fairly good thrillers. They are very entertaining that is for sure.
I liked Benson's ..they were honest efforts and he did seem a bit more creative than Gardner's later efforts.
As a writer his inexperience showed. Plus to me Benson always read as a Texan trying to write as an Englishman.
Benson is though I feel a good student of Bond just like Amis was. Just not quite the same calibre of writer at the time.
Thereafter I recommend you take on Gardner, read his books as a continuation in a "different universe". Don't think too much of his books in relation to how Fleming wrote. Read them as Gardners own take on Bond. Once you get into them they are a cracking read as well.
Good advice indeed.
Great stuff is also written by Christopher Wood whose two efforts prove a novelisation can be actually more than the movie. It has some excellent Flemingesque taste to it.
The Moneypenny trilogy is excellent as well written from the point of view by Moneypenny and a pretty decent thriller as well.
Benson as mentioned fairly decent and the Young Bond novels by Higson are surprisingly fun to read.
I will read it one day!
I know the feeling!
Yes, he is a nice guy. I met him at the TM launch in London and it was a real pleasure.
Can't say the same about Boyd I'm afraid. Talented he may be but he has an ego the size of an aircraft hanger !
Great that Horowitz is doing a prequel to CR. This is something I've banged on about for eons - if you'll forgive the pun. I always wanted Higson to cover Bond's war years but I'm more than happy for Horowitz to be the first to write a prequel.
Visiting Bond pre Fleming will allow Horowitz a huge amount of scope. PussyNoMore can't wait.
However Horowitz attempting to take on a prequel to CR does.
I thought Dynamite was planning along a similar timeline but they have had greater success with a contemporary Bond. Well only success I should say since the classic timeline hadn't started yet for them.
Throw me in to the Benson fan club as well. It's been a while since I've read them, but I loved them at the time. They were a fun combination of Fleming and cinematic Bond to me and the only ones outside of Fleming that I've read more than once...so far. One day I'll get to rereading the others. I'd like to read Gardner chronologically some day, but Fleming first!
"Life's too short for one day" stag. Actually it's "some day". :)
The Benson books are colourful and have some interesting, imaginative moments but they ultimately read like fan fiction. The dialogue leaves a fair amount to be desired. I also hate how Bond is a mix of literary and movie Bond. This just doesn't work in the novels. I can't remember whether this was IFP's silly wish or if Benson stupidly chose to write them like this.
I'm not sure if the CR prequel will necessarily be set during Bond's war years. Bond was with the service for a little while before CR I think. Well, this was the case in Pearson's biography. Fleming makes no mention of Bond having just joined the service in CR. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's implied either. I think it would be good seeing Bond in his last days of the war and then stepping into the service. If he was born in 1924 that would make him just 21. If Horowitz is going by this birth date (Pearson used 1920) then obviously Bond couldn't have joined the war in 39. Who knows, maybe it'll be set just a year before the events of CR in the early fifties.
How old is Bond supposed to be in Cole's young Bond books? 14 or 15? I read Shoot To Kill and am over halfway through Heads You Die. I thought STK was great and I'm enjoying HYD immensely. Cole's doing a wonderful job. There's only one thing I don't like so much and that's how James has been with friends most of the time instead of on his lonesome. I hope that most of the second part of HYD will find Bond largely on his lonesome. Can't wait to see what happens and then getting on to reading Strike Lightning!
In chapter 20 of CR - 'The Nature of Evil', Bond talks about his two kills, and how it earned him the 00 number, and how he's thinking of resigning. Mathis says, about his resignation wishes "....that was a brilliant thought of yours, a splendid start to your new career". Which has always had me thinking he was new to the 00 section, and had only killed twice. But Bond does say "In the last few years I've killed two villains". So he was working for the service, but not a 00 when he killed them.
Ah yes, well, the way I see it was that Bond had worked for the service for a while but had recently become a double O prior to CR. I think Pearson said that Bond had worked for the service for a while before he became a double O if my memory serves me. I've read the Fleming books 7 or 8 times but it's amazing how much I have forgetten. I think the last time I read CR was in 2009 or 2010.
I've been hanging out for a war novel for eons. The adventures Pearson wrote about regarding Bond in the war were wonderful and exciting. The fact that Horowitz's book is set before CR has me excited enough though. Maybe he'll actually cover Bond's two kills that were required for him to become a double O. I wonder if he's read Pearson's book. I'm inclined to say no. Higson refused to read it.
Don't think so but part of the appeal of the character for me is that he's a loner. I guess one could say that his experiences led him to become one later on in life but I like to think that he's always been one. I just like reading about Bond doing his thing alone for a good part of a Bond book.
I read a review on Amazon about Strike Lightning and it mentions how Bond is without friends for a decent part of the time or something like that which is good.
http://www.eastonpress.com/prod/D69/3283/ANTHONY-HOROWITZ--Trigger-Mortis--A-Signed-Edition?utm_medium=email&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=trans-conf&utm_content=Email1&source=CONF
Though a new Bond book by Horowitz will come out sometime in fall 2018.
That strikes me as quite expensive for what it is caveat emptor .
A beautiful looking book.