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Which Bond novel are you currently reading?

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  • RemingtonRemington I'll do anything for a woman with a knife.
    Posts: 1,534
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Remington wrote: »
    The only continuation novel I've read is Carte Blanche. It was enjoyable but not particularly memorable. Today I got Devil May Care, Solo, and Trigger Mortis in the mail. Colonel Sun is on the way as well. Which should I read first? Really excited, especially since I'm not really into reading like I used to be.

    You should wait and read Colonel Sun first. It's the original continuation Bond novel and it remains the best to this day.

    I was thinking that myself. Thanks my friend.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,270
    Remington wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Remington wrote: »
    The only continuation novel I've read is Carte Blanche. It was enjoyable but not particularly memorable. Today I got Devil May Care, Solo, and Trigger Mortis in the mail. Colonel Sun is on the way as well. Which should I read first? Really excited, especially since I'm not really into reading like I used to be.

    You should wait and read Colonel Sun first. It's the original continuation Bond novel and it remains the best to this day.

    I was thinking that myself. Thanks my friend.

    My pleasure. Obviously, the John Gardner Bond novels are working checking out too. ;)
  • RemingtonRemington I'll do anything for a woman with a knife.
    Posts: 1,534
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Remington wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Remington wrote: »
    The only continuation novel I've read is Carte Blanche. It was enjoyable but not particularly memorable. Today I got Devil May Care, Solo, and Trigger Mortis in the mail. Colonel Sun is on the way as well. Which should I read first? Really excited, especially since I'm not really into reading like I used to be.

    You should wait and read Colonel Sun first. It's the original continuation Bond novel and it remains the best to this day.

    I was thinking that myself. Thanks my friend.

    My pleasure. Obviously, the John Gardner Bond novels are working checking out too. ;)

    Of course. Everything from them to Young Bond to the Moneypenny Diaries are on my agenda. The films have gotten a little familiar so it's time to branch out. I'll remember to write a scathing review of Never Send Flowers.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,270
    Remington wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Remington wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Remington wrote: »
    The only continuation novel I've read is Carte Blanche. It was enjoyable but not particularly memorable. Today I got Devil May Care, Solo, and Trigger Mortis in the mail. Colonel Sun is on the way as well. Which should I read first? Really excited, especially since I'm not really into reading like I used to be.

    You should wait and read Colonel Sun first. It's the original continuation Bond novel and it remains the best to this day.

    I was thinking that myself. Thanks my friend.

    My pleasure. Obviously, the John Gardner Bond novels are working checking out too. ;)

    Of course. Everything from them to Young Bond to the Moneypenny Diaries are on my agenda. The films have gotten a little familiar so it's time to branch out. I'll remember to write a scathing review of Never Send Flowers.

    I feel the influence of @TheWizardOfIce here! ;)
  • RemingtonRemington I'll do anything for a woman with a knife.
    edited April 2018 Posts: 1,534
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Remington wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Remington wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Remington wrote: »
    The only continuation novel I've read is Carte Blanche. It was enjoyable but not particularly memorable. Today I got Devil May Care, Solo, and Trigger Mortis in the mail. Colonel Sun is on the way as well. Which should I read first? Really excited, especially since I'm not really into reading like I used to be.

    You should wait and read Colonel Sun first. It's the original continuation Bond novel and it remains the best to this day.

    I was thinking that myself. Thanks my friend.

    My pleasure. Obviously, the John Gardner Bond novels are working checking out too. ;)

    Of course. Everything from them to Young Bond to the Moneypenny Diaries are on my agenda. The films have gotten a little familiar so it's time to branch out. I'll remember to write a scathing review of Never Send Flowers.

    I feel the influence of @TheWizardOfIce here! ;)

    Oh dear me. :)
  • RemingtonRemington I'll do anything for a woman with a knife.
    Posts: 1,534
    Finally time to read Colonel Sun. :)
  • RemingtonRemington I'll do anything for a woman with a knife.
    Posts: 1,534
    Well, I finished Colonel Sun today. It had a solid start and great climax. However, the middle section seemed to go on forever so I would have edited it a bit. Overall, I'd give it an 8/10. Next up is James Bond:The Authorized Biography.
  • w2bondw2bond is indeed a very rare breed
    Posts: 2,252
    Just read Dr No. Had not read it for many years. Great read, and comparisons with the movie are inevitable. For the most part, the book is more thrilling particularly in terms of Dr No's motivations and the action at the end, but I can see why they couldn't/wouldn't translate to the big screen, especially as the first Bond film
  • RemingtonRemington I'll do anything for a woman with a knife.
    Posts: 1,534
    w2bond wrote: »
    Just read Dr No. Had not read it for many years. Great read, and comparisons with the movie are inevitable. For the most part, the book is more thrilling particularly in terms of Dr No's motivations and the action at the end, but I can see why they couldn't/wouldn't translate to the big screen, especially as the first Bond film

    One of Fleming's best. I love the breezy flow of the book.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,968
    I was going to start DAF this weekend but I actually went back and re-read the last few dozen pages of MR. Seems odd but I just loved this one so much, and it really stuck with me since finishing it several days ago. Such an incredible novel, already eager to read the whole thing in full again, but on to DAF either tonight or tomorrow.
  • RemingtonRemington I'll do anything for a woman with a knife.
    Posts: 1,534
    Has anyone read James Bond:The Authorized Biography? It's been a fun read so far.
  • peterpeter Toronto
    Posts: 9,509
    I’m in the midst of it @Remington ... I love it; think it captures Fleming’s creation quite nicely. A very worthy companion piece to the original novels.

    Next time I will read this after reading all of Fleming in order...
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,296
    peter wrote: »
    I’m in the midst of it @Remington ... I love it; think it captures Fleming’s creation quite nicely. A very worthy companion piece to the original novels.

    Next time I will read this after reading all of Fleming in order...

    I'm reading it as well. Well-written.
  • peterpeter Toronto
    Posts: 9,509
    I said on another thread that this bio should be required reading for all actors playing Bond. There are some wonderful ticks to the way he describes this character, fleshing him out...:

    “So this was Bond, this figure in the shadows. Until this moment I had taken it for granted that I knew him, as one does with any familiar character in what one thought was fiction. I had been picturing him as some sort of superman. The reality was different. There was something guarded and withdrawn about him. I felt that I was seeing an intriguing, unfamiliar face half-hidden by an image I could not forget.
    It was a strong face, certainly – the eyes pale-grey and very cold, the mouth wide and hard; he didn’t smile. In some was I was reminded of Fleming’s own description of the man. The famous scar ran down the left cheek like a fault in the terrain between the jaw-line and the corner of the eye. The dark hair, grey streaked now, still fell in the authentic comma over the forehead. But there was something the descriptions of James Bond had not prepared me for – the air of tension which surrounded him. He had the look of someone who had suffered and who was wary of the pain’s return. Even Sir William seemed to be treating him with care as he introduced us. We shook hands.”

    Brilliant stuff...
  • RemingtonRemington I'll do anything for a woman with a knife.
    Posts: 1,534
    peter wrote: »
    I said on another thread that this bio should be required reading for all actors playing Bond. There are some wonderful ticks to the way he describes this character, fleshing him out...:

    “So this was Bond, this figure in the shadows. Until this moment I had taken it for granted that I knew him, as one does with any familiar character in what one thought was fiction. I had been picturing him as some sort of superman. The reality was different. There was something guarded and withdrawn about him. I felt that I was seeing an intriguing, unfamiliar face half-hidden by an image I could not forget.
    It was a strong face, certainly – the eyes pale-grey and very cold, the mouth wide and hard; he didn’t smile. In some was I was reminded of Fleming’s own description of the man. The famous scar ran down the left cheek like a fault in the terrain between the jaw-line and the corner of the eye. The dark hair, grey streaked now, still fell in the authentic comma over the forehead. But there was something the descriptions of James Bond had not prepared me for – the air of tension which surrounded him. He had the look of someone who had suffered and who was wary of the pain’s return. Even Sir William seemed to be treating him with care as he introduced us. We shook hands.”

    Brilliant stuff...

    This made me think of Dalton even though I always see Connery as Bond in the novels.
  • peterpeter Toronto
    Posts: 9,509
    It made me see a meld of DC/TD Bond-- and no one else...
  • TorgeirtrapTorgeirtrap
    edited May 2018 Posts: 17,753
    Just started reading Dr. No again. Was originally planning on finish reading it last year, but didn't find the time, so I just stopped halfway through. Will give it another go as I've taken up reading in bed again.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Just read ( again ) Col Sun and Trigger Mortis
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Both of those started out pretty great, then deteriorated and ended up as disappointments for me.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    I love the brutal ending of Col Sun, Bond armed with only a Knife, and the torture scene.
  • TorgeirtrapTorgeirtrap
    edited August 2018 Posts: 17,753
    Finally got around to finish reading Dr. No. How it's taken so long, I really don't know.

    Bond in exotic locations is always a positive for me, both in the books and the films - this book no different. The story however, wasn't for me. It's good of course (it's Fleming, after all), but compared with the Fleming novels I've read before, this didn't offer much. Think I'll need to rank it last, behind Goldfinger.

    Before continuing with For Your Eyes Only, I'm going to read Anthony Horowitz's Forever and a Day.
  • Some_Kind_Of_HeroSome_Kind_Of_Hero
    Posts: 6,844
    Torgeirtrap wrote: »
    Finally got around to finish reading Dr. No. How it's taken so long, I really don't know.

    Bond in exotic locations is always a positive for me, both in the books and the films - this book no different. The story however, wasn't for me. It's good of course (it's Fleming, after all), but compared with the Fleming novels I've read before, this didn't offer much. Think I'll need to rank it last, behind Goldfinger.

    !!!

    Before this last Flemingathon, I actually had Dr. No ranked rather low. It felt like a real jumping the shark—squid?—moment for me in Fleming's oeuvre. As if Fleming had taken things far too far into the realm of the ridiculous. But this last go around, I was fully onboard with the adventure and the fantasy and enjoyed the hell out of it.

    Give it some time and give Dr. No another chance with a fresh mind slate.
  • jobojobo
    Posts: 7,507
    I would go as far as to argue that creating plots and story lines was never Fleming's strong point after all (with a few notable exceptions). So I wouldn't say Dr No stands out in that regard. However I agree that the ending, just like the one in GF, is overtly ridiculous. I do think it's better written though, and more suspensefull.

    I guess Dr No would be somewhere in the bottom five if I ever did a serious ranking of the novels.
  • peterpeter Toronto
    Posts: 9,509
    Much like the films, I don't know exactly what my top rankings are in order, since these novels are so bloody good they can change upon a read.

    (MR, CR, FRWL, OHMSS, TMWTGG (yes, I love it, love reading it, love Bond coming back under a spell, love the disgusting Scaramanga)..., and yes TSWLM (shoot me-- this was a risk and I love the noir feel to it)...

    I too would have DN in my lower five (I love the first two-thirds; the escape with the squid does veer OTT and Fleming's precise, crisp descriptions seems, to me, to become muddy and chaotic).
  • TorgeirtrapTorgeirtrap
    Posts: 17,753
    Some_Kind_Of_Hero wrote: »
    Torgeirtrap wrote: »
    Finally got around to finish reading Dr. No. How it's taken so long, I really don't know.

    Bond in exotic locations is always a positive for me, both in the books and the films - this book no different. The story however, wasn't for me. It's good of course (it's Fleming, after all), but compared with the Fleming novels I've read before, this didn't offer much. Think I'll need to rank it last, behind Goldfinger.

    !!!

    Before this last Flemingathon, I actually had Dr. No ranked rather low. It felt like a real jumping the shark—squid?—moment for me in Fleming's oeuvre. As if Fleming had taken things far too far into the realm of the ridiculous. But this last go around, I was fully onboard with the adventure and the fantasy and enjoyed the hell out of it.

    Give it some time and give Dr. No another chance with a fresh mind slate.

    I'm sure I will on a later reading, but for this time around it felt a bit boring, really. Never felt like the page turner I hoped it would be. Also, the giant squid was ridiculous. It almost felt like I was reading something completely different than a Bond novel.

    Dr No was bit interesting for me for something completely different than the story itself, though. My grandfather was a sailer (this must have been pre-1940), and one of the places he visited was Jamaica. Only a small coincidence of course, him having visited the location of the book. Even more a coincidence was the mention of the H.M.S. Narvik. My grandfather happened to be in the town of Narvik in 1940 during the Battles of Narvik.

    I don't know what connection the name of the H.M.S. Narvik has to the town of Narvik, though.
  • peterpeter Toronto
    Posts: 9,509
    Birdleson wrote: »
    And to reiterate, even the weakest Fleming (for me DAF and GF) are magic and better than just about anything else.

    I could never disagree with this statement. He was a unique voice that oozed silk and class, but the added dimension, I think, of the outsider. He was "allowed in" but his perceptions were never of the so-called "norm".

    He took normal and turned it upside-down and on its head.
  • SaintMarkSaintMark
    Posts: 7,653
    Colonel Sun but somehow the last third part of the book is difficult to get through, I find this first continuation novel a bit too rough for my tastes and have decided to rethink my initial opinion in that Amis did start great but his ending leaves a lot to be wanting.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,355
    I'm still ploughing through with all the novels and have now read up to Licence To Kill. It's great for Gardner to ditch his own formula for a while and use someone else's. I'll get to Brokenclaw when I can.
  • TorgeirtrapTorgeirtrap
    edited August 2018 Posts: 17,753
    Birdleson wrote: »
    And to reiterate, even the weakest Fleming (for me DAF and GF) are magic and better than just about anything else.

    Don't get me wrong, my opinion of DN is only within a "Fleming context". It was very enjoyable, but far from LALD for example, or FRWL.
  • jobojobo
    Posts: 7,507
    Torgeirtrap wrote: »
    Birdleson wrote: »
    And to reiterate, even the weakest Fleming (for me DAF and GF) are magic and better than just about anything else.

    Don't get me wrong, my opinion of DN is only within a "Fleming context". It was very enjoyable, but far from LALD for example, or FRWL.

    I think everyone who bothers to post on this thread do it because we are in love with Fleming's novels. I wouldn't doubt that a second!

    That is not to say we cannot be critical. True love after all is being aware of your lover's weaknesses and still except them. ;)
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