Anthony Horowitz's Bond novel - Forever and a Day

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  • edited April 2020 Posts: 17,756


    Really hope that Horowitz will write another Bond novel after his next Daniel Hawthorne novel.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    Fingers crossed, I'd be up for that.
  • Posts: 859
    Don't understand why the gap between novel because as wide as the (annoying) gap between film...
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    Don't understand why the gap between novel because as wide as the (annoying) gap between film...

    Well if they are sticking with Horowitz (and I think most would be happy if they did) he is a very busy writer.
  • Posts: 9,846
    I kind of want someone new to take over and give us a modern bond thriller

    James Patterson for example
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited April 2020 Posts: 7,547
    Not Horowitz, but what do you guys think of this?

    https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/books/article/tony-parsons-james-bond

    Never read anything by Tony Parsons but he seems very sure of himself, like it’s just a matter of time before the estate calls on him. Writing a novel to occur between OHMSS and YOLT seems especially risky, as it's an extremely important time period for the character.

    Has anyone read anything by him?
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Not Horowitz, but what do you guys think of this?

    https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/books/article/tony-parsons-james-bond

    Never read anything by Tony Parsons but he seems very sure of himself, like it’s just a matter of time before the estate calls on him. Writing a novel to occur between OHMSS and YOLT seems especially risky, as it's an extremely important time period for the character.

    Has anyone read anything by him?

    Never heard of him, but he can t be worse than Horowitz. Always Say Die as the title must surely be a joke?
  • Posts: 1,009
    I tend to put Colonel Sun and the two Horowitz novels into some kind of semi-canon inside Fleming's novels, and I can't help but express a controversial opinion: Are Amis and Horowitz, in a purely stylistic sense, better writers than Ian Fleming?
    Which doesn't mean I'm saying Fleming was bad, but that his secret was his fertile imagination, his first-hand knowledge of his time's history and magnetic personality, something that Amis and Horowitz can't beat.

    It's a bit like Tolkien but vice-versa: he had an extraordinary imagination and capacity to create fictional universes. He was pure magic. That's why I love LOTR, The Hobbit and the Silmarillion.But stylistically, he was like a Mr. Know-it-all who wants to overcomplicate things and say "Behold my expertise on old-fashioned English". And I think his poems are terrible to boot.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,547
    Not Horowitz, but what do you guys think of this?

    https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/books/article/tony-parsons-james-bond

    Never read anything by Tony Parsons but he seems very sure of himself, like it’s just a matter of time before the estate calls on him. Writing a novel to occur between OHMSS and YOLT seems especially risky, as it's an extremely important time period for the character.

    Has anyone read anything by him?

    Never heard of him, but he can t be worse than Horowitz. Always Say Die as the title must surely be a joke?

    I know, it’s real nasty.
  • Posts: 2,917
    Are Amis and Horowitz, in a purely stylistic sense, better writers than Ian Fleming?

    Many people would probably rate Amis as a better writer than Fleming, though I don't think Amis's prose in Colonel Sun is considerably better than Fleming's. Horowitz has a functional but colorless prose style, so he isn't better than Fleming.

  • Agent_99Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl
    Posts: 3,176
    Not Horowitz, but what do you guys think of this?

    https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/books/article/tony-parsons-james-bond

    Never read anything by Tony Parsons but he seems very sure of himself, like it’s just a matter of time before the estate calls on him. Writing a novel to occur between OHMSS and YOLT seems especially risky, as it's an extremely important time period for the character.

    Has anyone read anything by him?

    I've read Man and Boy, his supposedly comic novel about a custody battle, and I loathed it; a treacly story that made me dislike all the characters, and not well-written. Let's hope he's improved.
  • Posts: 4,044
    Not Horowitz, but what do you guys think of this?

    https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/books/article/tony-parsons-james-bond

    Never read anything by Tony Parsons but he seems very sure of himself, like it’s just a matter of time before the estate calls on him. Writing a novel to occur between OHMSS and YOLT seems especially risky, as it's an extremely important time period for the character.

    Has anyone read anything by him?

    I only remember him as a journalist for NME, which doesn’t scream that he would be a good fit.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    Birdleson wrote: »
    Yes, Amis is a genuine talent with some solid pedigree pre-Bond. I agree, not better than Fleming, but refreshing. He's a pleasure to read. Not someone who graduated from fan fiction (Benson), or wrote Young adult novels, some television and worked on a couple of existing properties in order to achieve recognition.

    Story matters, events matter, of course, but if you can't make those words sing and move me to at least a reasonable extent, why should I bother with the rest? I mean, can't you just read any given paragraph and find the disparity immediately?

    Colorless (translate to Colourless for you foreigners) is kind, I find Hororwitz's prose style uncomfortably clumsy; in the sense that it lacks any finesse.

    Have you read any Raymond Benson? :D
  • edited April 2020 Posts: 17,756
    I have no issues with Horowitz's prose style personally. I quite like it – both in his Bond books and other novels.
  • Posts: 623
    I tend to put Colonel Sun and the two Horowitz novels into some kind of semi-canon inside Fleming's novels.

    I'm the same. It's Fleming for the real stuff, Amis and Horowitz for sincere tributes worthy of Fleming, and the others are fun digressions with varying degrees of success.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited April 2020 Posts: 16,383
    Faulks' one is probably the most intentionally Fleming pastiche of all of them, the rest of them aren't going full-on impersonation. I still think Charlie Higson is probably the one who got closest to the tone of Fleming, funnily enough.
  • Posts: 7,653
    Risico007 wrote: »
    I kind of want someone new to take over and give us a modern bond thriller

    James Patterson for example

    Really and who will end up writing that book from the Patterson writing factory, it has been a long time ago the man actually wrote something himself.

    I would prefer Daniel Silva myself a lot more.
  • Posts: 2,917
    Back in the mid-90s Will Self wrote a Bond short story for Esquire that (if memory serves) did a good job of mimicking Fleming. Unfortunately it was also a rancid, hateful story made to humiliate Bond, put him in degrading positions, and express Self's hatred of the character. It was the first but not last time that I realized Self was clever but full of himself.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Birdleson wrote: »
    And I wouldn't want anyone to mimic Fleming. I want a strong writer, with their own style in place that stays true to Fleming's world.

    So far, the only continuation author I have enjoyed is Wood. Haven t read Benson, Deaver or Boyd. (or Higson)
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    Revelator wrote: »
    Back in the mid-90s Will Self wrote a Bond short story for Esquire that (if memory serves) did a good job of mimicking Fleming. Unfortunately it was also a rancid, hateful story made to humiliate Bond, put him in degrading positions, and express Self's hatred of the character. It was the first but not last time that I realized Self was clever but full of himself.

    Yeah I remember that, it was just a pisstake exposing some of Fleming's more shallow elements. I'm not big Self fan but I thought he had a point at the time.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited April 2020 Posts: 16,383
    Birdleson wrote: »
    And I wouldn't want anyone to mimic Fleming. I want a strong writer, with their own style in place that stays true to Fleming's world.

    So far, the only continuation author I have enjoyed is Wood. Haven t read Benson, Deaver or Boyd. (or Higson)

    Not exactly conclusive then! :D
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,547
    mtm wrote: »
    Revelator wrote: »
    Back in the mid-90s Will Self wrote a Bond short story for Esquire that (if memory serves) did a good job of mimicking Fleming. Unfortunately it was also a rancid, hateful story made to humiliate Bond, put him in degrading positions, and express Self's hatred of the character. It was the first but not last time that I realized Self was clever but full of himself.

    Yeah I remember that, it was just a pisstake exposing some of Fleming's more shallow elements. I'm not big Self fan but I thought he had a point at the time.

    Possible to read somewhere? I’ll google it later
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    edited April 2020 Posts: 13,789
    mtm wrote: »
    Revelator wrote: »
    Back in the mid-90s Will Self wrote a Bond short story for Esquire that (if memory serves) did a good job of mimicking Fleming. Unfortunately it was also a rancid, hateful story made to humiliate Bond, put him in degrading positions, and express Self's hatred of the character. It was the first but not last time that I realized Self was clever but full of himself.

    Yeah I remember that, it was just a pisstake exposing some of Fleming's more shallow elements. I'm not big Self fan but I thought he had a point at the time.

    Thanks for pointing that out @Revelator @mtm.

    Will Self's Bond story "License to Hug" is still available online for anyone interested.



  • Agent_47Agent_47 Canada
    Posts: 330
    As long as I find the experience gripping enough than I don't really care who writes it. I'm in it for some escapist entertainment, much like the films. While some authors are better than others that doesn't always equate to a more entertaining read.

    I'd probably faster pick up Raymond Benson's novel Zero Minus Ten than Fleming's You Only Live Twice. That doesn't reflect the quality of the writing, but it does show which I thought was more entertaining.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,270
    Revelator wrote: »
    Back in the mid-90s Will Self wrote a Bond short story for Esquire that (if memory serves) did a good job of mimicking Fleming. Unfortunately it was also a rancid, hateful story made to humiliate Bond, put him in degrading positions, and express Self's hatred of the character. It was the first but not last time that I realized Self was clever but full of himself.

    You could say that the clue to his true character was there all along in the form of his surname. ;)
  • Posts: 1,009
    Thanks for your answers, people. They have been pretty illustrative and educational.

  • DoctorNoDoctorNo USA-Maryland
    edited April 2020 Posts: 755
    I have no issues with Horowitz's prose style personally. I quite like it – both in his Bond books and other novels.

    I agree. I think he’s better than Amis too as far as prose. I find Amis a slog. Wood did a good job with prose and character, but the story is reading a movie script not a book. Where Horowitz falls down is characters. I think they’re diet version Fleming. His stories I think are good too but nothing great. Still there great passages in his books. I’m kind of ambivalent about his return for a third at this point though. Maybe one more chance to really deliver or it’s time for someone new to take a stab.

    I’d love to one day get a book I think can sit alongside Fleming. Even the best or most entertaining continuation novels are a shelf or two below Fleming imo. Fleming is an awesome writer, combining spectacular imagination with great plots and characters, great pacing, real world spy touches, vivid location description, insightful observations... all the while being breezy to read. No one comes close. He gets dissed by ignorant and pretentious people because his works are meant to be entertainment.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    mtm wrote: »
    Revelator wrote: »
    Back in the mid-90s Will Self wrote a Bond short story for Esquire that (if memory serves) did a good job of mimicking Fleming. Unfortunately it was also a rancid, hateful story made to humiliate Bond, put him in degrading positions, and express Self's hatred of the character. It was the first but not last time that I realized Self was clever but full of himself.

    Yeah I remember that, it was just a pisstake exposing some of Fleming's more shallow elements. I'm not big Self fan but I thought he had a point at the time.

    Thanks for pointing that out @Revelator @mtm.

    Will Self's Bond story "License to Hug" is still available online for anyone interested.



    Ah no, thanks for that- I'm mistaken. I was remembering another pastiche in a newspaper, afraid I can't remember much about it though.
  • Posts: 17,756
    DoctorNo wrote: »
    I have no issues with Horowitz's prose style personally. I quite like it – both in his Bond books and other novels.

    I agree. I think he’s better than Amis too as far as prose. I find Amis a slog. Wood did a good job with prose and character, but the story is reading a movie script not a book. Where Horowitz falls down is characters. I think they’re diet version Fleming. His stories I think are good too but nothing great. Still there great passages in his books. I’m kind of ambivalent about his return for a third at this point though. Maybe one more chance to really deliver or it’s time for someone new to take a stab.

    I’d love to one day get a book I think can sit alongside Fleming. Even the best or most entertaining continuation novels are a shelf or two below Fleming imo. Fleming is an awesome writer, combining spectacular imagination with great plots and characters, great pacing, real world spy touches, vivid location description, insightful observations... all the while being breezy to read. No one comes close. He gets dissed by ignorant and pretentious people because his works are meant to be entertainment.

    I think all the continuation books I've read are – one way or the other – a diet version of Fleming. But there's nothing wrong with that. I'd be interested by a third Horowitz book, because I felt that Forever and a Day was a better novel than Trigger Mortis, and I'd be interested to see what he could do with a third story.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    I think I preferred Trigger just because it was a nice rollicking fairly standard Bond plot, but I'd agree that Forever is a better novel, and I thought Sixtine was very well-drawn. I might even go as far as the most interesting and actually attractive Bond woman in any Bond novel, including Fleming.
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