It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Maybe the fight would have gained a bit for me, if we hadn't known the plan from the SPECTRE side of things. If we go in as blind as Bond does and suddenly it's this group of 15 guys with gas pistols and curare tipped spears and all hell breaks loose. On the other hand, knowing what is waiting at the other side of the reef might ratchet up the tension. Like I said, it's hard to tell for me. I'll get back to all of these in a couple of years time, we'll see how I feel about it then. But it's good to hear that as a straight book experience at least your friend thought it was worthwhile.
I actually thought about the Petracchi siblings when writing this up and thought I must have forgotten some point where Domino makes the original contact to her brother or something because it struck me as so unrealistic that that would just be a coincidence. My thought was: How has MI6 or the CIA not done a background check and found Petracchi's sister, when they seem quite convinced that he was the one who took the plane (or is that in the SPECTRE letter? Anyway) and on the other hand how could Blofeld allow such an obvious connection between the field commander of his operation and the person who took the plane? But after now having read TB, OHMSS and YOLT I may have to commit heresy: Maybe Blofeld isn't the genius everyone makes him out to be? Sure the plans are pretty well thought out, but at the end of the day he gets foiled again and again by an angry Scottish guy with a gun. This might be a case of the old Von Moltke saying: "No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength."
And I loved that line from Felix! Before reading the novels I absolutely underestimated what a smart and funny guy Fleming was. To just put a line like that into the book basically right at the point where a literary critic would not down "unrealistic" in their notes. Fantastic.
I think in the pre-internet days such a background check might not have yielded results until after Bond was in the Bahamas, or after the entire Thunderball affair was over. There are less than four days between Spectre making its blackmail ransom and the bombs being recovered, and Bond flies to the Bahamas less than a day after Spectre gives its ultimatum. There's also the added complication of Domino using a stage name.
However, this does not let Blofeld off the hook. Shouldn't he have thoroughly vetted Largo's girlfriend's background? Probably, but then one asks if he would do the same for every member of Spectre and their associates. Presumably Blofeld trusted Largo to be a professional and pick his associates and ladies with care. So maybe Largo bears the most blame. Domino seems to think so: "He is only foolish in wanting his mistress...when so much else is at stake...These people have chosen badly. Largo cannot live without a woman within reach. They should have known that.''
On second thought maybe Blofeld is to blame after all. He should have realized women were Largo's Achilles heel.
You're probably right on the background check. I wouldn't have thought one could have a passport in a stage name (doesn't Bond have the local police check all the latest arrivals?) but this is nitpicking.
As for Blofeld: One could say the odds of Largo having a woman by his side backfiring so spectacularly are quite slim. Yes, him apparently not being able to go a few weeks without a mistress by his side should probably disqualify him but he did quite well up until the very last minutes there.
I have such a soft spot for Colonel Sun, can't really put a finger on why. It just fascinates me. It's not as vivid or imaginative or entertainingly fast paced as Flemings, but still a cracking read every single time! I've re-read Sun more often than some of Flemings.
Amis really gets Bond right, which the single most fundamental aspect of a continuation novel. His mindset, the way he thinks and talks; it's extremely flemingesque. The story in itself is slow and down-to-earth in a way Fleming never wrote, but it works well in its own right.
After the intriguing opening and the wonderfully icy dressing down Bond gets from M, the first third or so feels a bit like it’s hitting all the notes one would expect from these books at this point (which isn’t to say it’s not enjoyable all, I loved getting more time in Jamaica after how lovingly he described it in LALD). You’ve got the airport tail, the hotel with a great balcony view, and other pleasing but expected moments. The tense centipede moment gives a preview of things to come, however.
Once Bond and Quarrel get to Crab Key it’s off to the races. None of the other books thus far have really put Bond up against the elements the way this has, and I thoroughly enjoyed their trek through the swampy mangroves. Dr. No himself also makes a welcome return to the memorably singular megalomaniac villain that was missing in the last two books. He’s not quite as good as Drax or Mr. Big perhaps, but he cuts an iconic figure. It’s a bit of a shame his appearance in the book is crammed into a short amount of time which meant his section of the book is a bit too crammed with exposition, but by withholding him for so long (and using his name for the title) it builds up a lingering impression of him much like Kurtz in Heart of Darkness. The obstacle course sequence is a wonderful spin on the standard “Bond gets tortured” moment, and is one I wish made it more fully to the otherwise fairly faithful film adaptation. The only real weakness to the book is I think Honey is a bit too subservient and childlike at times to be believable, but all in all this book is one of my favorites of so far, and a perfect zig after FRWL’s zag. From here on out the rest of the series is uncharted territory for me. Next up is the last of Fleming’s 50’s output: Goldfinger.
I had heard from somewhere that Horowitz had the new Bond novel written already and that it would be set after Fleming's last Bond work The Man with the Golden Gun. It could be that Covid-19 has held up the news of its release and its actual release as with so many other things including of course NTTD. It could also be a load of old cobblers too but I remember reading it somewhere. I think Bond expert Ajay Chowdhury was the one I heard referring to it as he had either met or been in contact with Horowitz. I'm putting a health warning on this post so take it all with a pinch of salt if you so wish.
Well that’s a pretty good source for rumor... I had higher hopes after TM, but I’d still look forward to reading it. Maybe third time will be the charm and it will Horowitz best. It should be the barometer though if he continues. You would think books would get a boost not a delay during Covid, but I know supply chains are hit.
Yes, it was indeed his original title for Goldfinger. It's a good one too. He later revisited the sentiment behind it with The Man with the Golden Gun. Eon could always turn to the Fleming chapter titles as there are plenty of cracking titles there too. However, so far they have elected not to do so. They probably won't even consider it until they totally run out of original Fleming titles.
from Poems and quotes that could be used.
Nevertheless, there were many scenes I rather enjoyed, like the conversation with the barmaid at the playhouse and Scramangas first appearance. I like the fact that they talk about the local birds (did not like them going up in a feathery explosion) and that Bond cleverly manages to get hired by Scaramanga. Different to the film, Scaramanga is a much more youthful character, bragging with his shooting skills. He feels more like in his mid-twenties than Christopher Lee's 50 yeras of age in the movie.
The middle part with Bond spying on the party in the conference room has a very 1950's feel to it, with the cheap entertainment, the communists and gangsters.
It seems odd that his former secretary Mary Goodnight intrudes right in the lion's den, but then Fleming presents a satisfying explanation for it, and it is a prerequisite for waht happens in the finale.
The finale is a wild scene involving an old "funfair"-style train and a lot of shooting and hunting action. Now I get where the idea in CR came from to have Vesper lying on the road. The final showdown between Bond and Scramanga is a bit anti-climactic and I must say I have forgotten its details already.
All in all surprisingly enjoyable. I checked current pictures of Savanna-La-Mar, and it looks exactly as I imagined it after Fleming's vivid descriptions. Even the Frome Sugar Factory is still there and on Google Maps. I like that kind of realism, it helps to embed the more silly parts of the story into a realistic framework.
I wonder which novel to read next, though, as I started with the last one.
Go backwards, forwards quickly as a great sage once said. ;)
Another interesting scene in TMWTGG is a drunken Bond shooting a fake pineapple head-dress off an unsuspecting dancer. For me that was quite a bit out of character for the film Bond and certainly for today's times, but I can believe such things happen under those circumstances. It certainly was the inspiration to the "duel" that cost Severine's life in SF.
Yes, that's what I thought when I first saw that scene. Both are inspired by William Tell and the apple but the SF scene was definitely inspired by the scene in the TMWTGG novel. It is unusual to see Bond so drunk and reckless in that scene in the novel and it's all the better for being such a rare occurrence in my opinion. He raises the suspicions of Scaramanga in that scene, especially given the fact he is such a good shot.
It depicts one of my favorite scenes, leading up to the point where the flirtatious conversation between Bond and Tiffy is interrupted when Scaramanga shoots the blackbirds (named Joe and May).
This time I note the story has the element for the sale of fake prints as identified by the beautiful female character. A variation of that used recently in Christopher Nolan's Tenet.