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Comments
😂 😂 😂…
…. you’re funny!!….
You are joking…..
Right????
😨
😉
In the immortal words of Mr. Hinx:
……….
Sh!t!
Problem elimination. It's a tough job but someone has to do it.
😂 too true 😂
With my CV there's no better man for the job. B-)
I hope you do finish Double or Nothing, at least just to say that you read it. I do like the use of an ensemble cast.
I just finished License Renewed. A mixed bag, to say the least. There were A LOT of awkward moments. I don't know if it's because of some things going on in my personal life, or if I need a creative change, but this was hard to read at times. The pacing was off. After reading the Raymond Benson introduction, I am thankful he told IFP that he wanted to do more than a one off. No matter the quality of his Bond work. I also think that EON adapted more of LR than they care to admit. From Wikipedia:
Some key plot elements in Licence Renewed may have had some influence on subsequent Bond films; most notably Anton Murik's plot of a nuclear disaster with the aid of an infamous terrorist which was the basis of The World Is Not Enough. Other key elements from Renewed that appeared in future Bond films were Anton's cheating at horse racing, which Max Zorin did in A View to a Kill, and the obsession with weapons, not unlike Brad Whitaker in The Living Daylights.
I still give EON more and more credit for not taking the easy road and just adapting continuation novels. Overall, most series take time to find the right direction, and it seems that John Gardener and James Bond are no different to this usual situation. Also, I like the idea of a female Q. I just hope (and believe) that EON wouldn't be as awkward with the character(s) as John Gardener was with this idea!
I find it very difficult to even compare the source novels and the films, because they are very much their own thing. If trying to make a comparison between the novel and the film though, I think the points you highlight here makes the film adaptation of OHMSS an improvement on the novel.
If the novel lacked anything, it was these elements. The suspense following Campbell's capture was probably the highlight of the book for me.
And Tiffany Case, who have the best and most believable relationship with Bond so far.
I haven't gotten that far mind you, but the relationship feels less believable that I expected. She sort of just sees him in the mirror and then goes to dinner with him (where Bond spends most of the chatting about the Spangled Mob) and then kisses him. I'd imagine thought their relationship gets better the more the story continues
I also enjoyed Bond in Vegas, with him looking on at disgust with the world in front of him often with a Vodka Martini. However the novel suffers from the problem that Bond's work is ineffective: he smuggles the diamonds, gets paid, learns a bit about the racket, but no tension rises as he doesn't discover anything else, and he doesn't have to do much else. There's a certain point where he decides to just sack it off and gamble more money (supposedly to draw them out) but him and Curneo agree that it's a useless ploy because Spang is so rich. Instead he just gets caught by a telegram from London saying Franks is in prison (which feels like a desperate grab at a plot device). I feel like this information would have been better suited coming out a bit earlier and have a bit of cat and mouse going on. With the plot device, the rest of the story just seems like needless filler for Bond to get to Vegas and negates some of the interesting research and setting work Fleming did about diamonds.
The ABC/Rufus Saye/Jack Spang twist does feel a bit like something from a Gardner novel, and I also feel that he's a better villain than his brother but doesn't get enough screen time and also has a disappointing final confrontation with Bond.
In the end, I can appreciate Diamonds a bit more, but still incredibly disappointing.
I love how Bond becomes a lot more reckless when he gets to Vegas. Pretty much from the moment he steps off the plane he decides he's going to take a hit from a novelty oxygen mask/gets temporarily so high he doesn't realise one of the mobsters is taking his picture. Then there's him gambling with the Spang's money which really should be his downfall (as you said it could have used a bit more ironing out in terms of there being a cat and mouse element).
Me too, it's a great stripped back type of James Bond adventure.
Really is; I started yesterday, and I’ll finish it after my little work day today. Stripped back. Unique in the way Bond is reintroduced after his “death”, his “healing” and then being sent off to hunt down and kill Francisco Scaramanga.
I’ve always wanted to see this novel done properly; update it, of course. Make it feel more exotic, but the idea that Bond hunts down the number one assassin in the world, someone who is meddling in world affairs (his golden bullets have changed the course of history more than once, in this hypothetical film), and this assignment being a kamikaze mission for 007– not even M thinks Bond will make it out alive. Throw in a ticking time bomb, like a peace treaty meeting between two conflicting nations, with Scaramanga hired to kill one of these leaders, prompting a war between the countries, and see where a script like this could lead…
Or something…. I’d just love to see a real cat and mouse game between the best double O vs the best assassin which will lead to a climax of both men fighting to the death.
Currently reading Dr. No.
It's quite well written, but the plotholes and in-universe factual errors don't leave me with that satisfied "That was an amazing story" feeling I get from say OHMSS or Moonraker or Dr No or Thunderball. I think the difference is Fleming managed to make his outlandish plots fit exactly into a real world with real physics and genuine people who reacted with fear, love, passion and excitement. Just take a read of the plane being hijacked in Thunderball. It feels like your are sitting in an actual RAF plane in the year 1959 flying over the Atlantic and to the Bahamas. Fleming describes the tension and atmosphere so bloody well. Same for the Piz Gloria clubhouse in OHMSS. He gives a fantastic essence of actually being there. Faulks got close to this with the Paris sections of DMC but failed to sustain for the last two thirds. Amis got it pretty bang on in CS. Horowitz did a pretty good job too. Gardner achieved a decent level of it in the first three he did.
I honestly feel that DMC should have followed Colonel Sun. Not just for honoring Fleming’s 100th birthday, but the 40th anniversary of CS. Continuity wouldn’t be a big issue. I’m happy we got the novel, but even happier that it was a one time thing for Faulks. His successor Bond authors had more interesting things to say with their books.
Also, the Union I think has the worst qualities of a villainous organisation: it's both new and well-known about, which lowers its threat capacity.
There's also available Kindle Secret Chapters for free on Amazon.
US link
https://www.amazon.com/Moneypenny-Diaries-Secret-Chapters-ebook/dp/B08GTRRF7M/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2VI4E9SXEY4XG&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.cPVyzYySlVWUVpZz2VYPsi90urzXUA6x3lTobCkE82DnPm4XlCy8HSR1eMvznfZGJUGh_I52znR1xF7mhQ868goCM4NhNr75Srl1H9cs9QSGOAwlvrWDgOU8YqJyITZBw3CXIxKr6HY_-Zx9Yg3DLgyQ9CC_MfPPjSgcgM7-6VfWCk2-ChITJhCQi7NtRS8fmBMomEUktII9HliYiDkod9UGZv3jTfuPZX1K13OsvrY.85lz6fvKtwz7Bjgu912UaBpYLNdIeR_Av0UmW-DafHk&dib_tag=se&keywords=moneyPenny&qid=1720059615&s=digital-text&sprefix=moneypenny,digital-text,94&sr=1-1
The line between who's who is what's confusing me a little bit. London gangsters get killed on Bond's ferry to Brussels, some German gets killed in a car bomb on Brussels roads, a New York gangster is killed in Switzerland in Bond's hotel and then the rest gets muddled.
So after being briefed, Bond goes to Salzburg or somewhere near in Austria (I don't remember if he's going to see May or if he's still en route for Rome). Then the Union Corse try and fail to kill him in a car chase. SMERSH get involved next, kidnapping May and Moneypenny, and get a bent police officer to keep Bond. Surely this would break the "one man per organisation" rule? Or did Quinn (a traitor) falsely plant that bit of intelligence so Bond wouldn't suspect an organised team? Because the rule also limits the amount of danger SPECTRE can actually do to these groups (although maybe it was to lessen the workload on just one guardian angel).
Anyway, in an Austrian hotel, Bond gets attacked with a vampire bat (we learn from SPECTRE's guardian angel) but this also makes no sense. The guardian angel has pretty much 24/7 access of 007 and could surely use a better method of death that would be "under the radar." I suppose that this is similar to the Dr. No attempted murders.
So then SMERSH send Moneypenny and May off to Paris and plan to do the same with Bond, saying that SPECTRE mandate that the death must be in Paris, Berlin or London. But that doesn't make much sense either because the Union Corse were shooting to kill on the roads in Austria and that also makes the bat attack even more nonsensical. SMERSH also order for Bond to keep the two girls, which would make sense if they were SPECTRE and wanted to keep the guardian angel with Bond. But two women, who could potentially help Bond fight off any capture would be regarded warily by SMERSH and I don't know why they would be kept (wouldn't even serve as leverage for interrogation because Bond's death is imminent anyway).
Bond attacks the SMERSH base in Salzburg revealing that the Rome station chief is actually a defector. Bond enters and ties up Quinn (leaving him alive to keep up radio traffic), before leaving him with the doctor of the clinic, who he believes was being tortured but who actually is a part-time SMERSH agent. Quinn explains that the Dr was kept in torture gear due to suspicion that Bond would raid the base. But then surely it would make sense for Quinn to remain hidden so Bond doesn't detect the betrayal? And even so, the doctor still speaks as if he's a man in captivity, mentioning fears over being killed for what he's seen.
The climax is lovely, but also confusing and disappointing in equal measures. Bond magically, in addition to a Q-branch belt, has a Q-branch waistband as well which helps him get out, instead of something more ingenious (maybe while checking in on Moneypenny she gives him a magnesium hairclip so Bond can pick the lock and then light it to cause a distraction).
I also don't understand how May and Moneypenny are now in the captivity of SPECTRE. Did SMERSH send them over after flubbing their own chances? Did they send them over early for release? Or maybe for Bond to see them after his capture? That bit doesn't make sense at all.
In general, its a great novel, probably in the top 5 of all continuation novels, and has the Fleming Sweep that few other continuation novels have. The plot is interesting without need for a lot of exposition and probably one of the only times where the double crosses add to the story and don't subtract from them. The issues are only small and don't really get in the way of a very enjoyable read.