WITH A MIND TO KILL by Anthony Horowitz (May 2022)

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  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,270
    My copy of With a Mind to Kill arrived in the post this morning so I managed to get it on the official day of publication, which was nice.
  • JustJamesJustJames London
    Posts: 216
    Well, that was not-bad to good. Bit predictable in a bunch of places, and think I would have preferred a different resolution to a couple of threads. The ending is… what it is. Shan’t give spoilers til someone else does. Gave it four stars. There’s nothing I didn’t like particularly (apart from things I am not supposed to like, but at least they weren’t gratuitous) and the things I did like could have done with a bit more… development.
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    Posts: 4,341
    I can live with not bad to good. Looking forward to my weekend-read!
  • ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
    Posts: 2,541
    Our review without spoilers (don't worry, it's in English): https://archivo007.com/trailer-avance-y-resena-exclusiva-de-archivo-007/
  • goldenswissroyalegoldenswissroyale Switzerland
    Posts: 4,483
    ggl007 wrote: »
    Our review without spoilers (don't worry, it's in English): https://archivo007.com/trailer-avance-y-resena-exclusiva-de-archivo-007/

    Thanks for the review. Which one of the Horowitz trilogy do you like the most?
    I'm a big fan of Trigger Mortis but also liked most of Forever and a Day.

    Should I read TMWTGG before this? I' ve read it twice but it was a few years ago.
  • edited May 2022 Posts: 17,756
    Still waiting for my copy. It was sent from Waterstones last weekend, but the post only go out on selected days here, so I won't get the book until next week. Probably.
  • JustJamesJustJames London
    Posts: 216
    ggl007 wrote: »
    Our review without spoilers (don't worry, it's in English): https://archivo007.com/trailer-avance-y-resena-exclusiva-de-archivo-007/

    I agree very much with your review here… you can definitely feel The Living Daylights, especially the film version once they hit Moscow. But the twists… telegraph themselves, and are always obvious, and things develop in a way that seems fast and contrived at times. There’s hefty doses of other books and films in there too, enough that anyone familiar with the wider genre is going to notice things — even if those things are rushed, particularly at the end. (Little dashes of, for instance, Harry Palmer, Bridge of Spies, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold — maybe even a dash of Atomic Blonde in a visual sense… not to mention elements of the non-Fleming Bond films, especially the Craig’s.)

    I liked the book, I have enjoyed all the Horowitz books to some extent (read them all in the last couple of weeks actually, having finally got round to them) but while they are *great near perfect* Fleming homages, I think that is also their weakness in that they aren’t necessarily as great as stories in and of themselves. The first one, for some reason, reminded me very strongly of Biggles books I read as a child.

    This one… well, I would have preferred a different end to the female lead’s tale, which would have required a longer book, and while I see *why* the book ended the way it did, I do not feel that it was particularly satisfying and again, it needed to be longer. Far far too much just left up in the air from the opening, but the ending was… well. The homage would have been less obvious had it not gone for what it was.
  • ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
    Posts: 2,541
    ggl007 wrote: »
    Our review without spoilers (don't worry, it's in English): https://archivo007.com/trailer-avance-y-resena-exclusiva-de-archivo-007/

    Thanks for the review. Which one of the Horowitz trilogy do you like the most?
    I'm a big fan of Trigger Mortis but also liked most of Forever and a Day.

    Should I read TMWTGG before this? I' ve read it twice but it was a few years ago.

    Trigger Mortis, although I loved Sixtine in FAAD.

    You don't need to reread TMWTGG, Horowitz reminds you everything you need to know ;)
    JustJames wrote: »

    I agree very much with your review here…

    Thanks. You are right. The story needed more pages...

    Anyway, Horowitz always hooks you. You read his books very easily and that's a great compliment. Magpie Murders, the Hawthorne series or Alex Rider are great entertainment.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    ggl007 wrote: »
    Thanks. You are right. The story needed more pages...

    Yeah I just popped it on the shelf and couldn't help but notice it seems much thinner than Forever And A Day.
  • goldenswissroyalegoldenswissroyale Switzerland
    Posts: 4,483
    Thanks for the reply @ggl007

    mtm wrote: »
    ggl007 wrote: »
    Thanks. You are right. The story needed more pages...

    Yeah I just popped it on the shelf and couldn't help but notice it seems much thinner than Forever And A Day.

    I already thought that FAAD was much shorter than TM...It's a pity when it feels too short but the other way round would be a bigger problem: too many pages without going on enough. Horowitz definitely never bored me a second so far.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    From a quick look I think FAAD is the longest by 20 pages or so, but I guess they might not be exactly comparable because of typesetting etc.
  • goldenswissroyalegoldenswissroyale Switzerland
    Posts: 4,483
    mtm wrote: »
    From a quick look I think FAAD is the longest by 20 pages or so, but I guess they might not be exactly comparable because of typesetting etc.

    Really? I only own the german translation (around 360 pages) of TM while I bought FAAD in English (around 280 pages). Both are paperbacks. Yes, the typesetting is different and the book of FAAD a bit higher but I was pretty sure that TM was longer.
  • Red_SnowRed_Snow Australia
    Posts: 2,538
    My copy arrived a week early, but was completely damaged in the post. Now waiting for my replacement copy to arrive next week :(
  • Red_SnowRed_Snow Australia
    Posts: 2,538
  • Posts: 2,599
    I’m re-reading all the Fleming books for the eighth or ninth time. I’m up to YOLT and I’m enjoying it immensely. I will read Horowitz’s third after reading TMWTGG again. I have enjoyed his Bond entries quite a lot but the detail isn’t up there with that of Fleming’s books. Then again, unfortunately today, everything has to be done with a faster pace. I have said to my parents that I wish I had been born in their generation a number of times for a few reasons. My father was born in 1946 and my mother, 1949.

    Horowitz has done the far best job since Gardner’s fifth or sixth Bond novel. It’s a pity this third one is his last.

    I won’t read any of the reviews - spoiler or non spoiler until I’ve read the book myself. The same goes for the films from now on. Even when people say, “non spoiler”, spoilers are involved.

    Happy Birthday Mr. Fleming!
  • Posts: 2,161
    Well, I ordered the special signed edition. I really do go into these hoping for the best, and I'm generally disappointed. But to have even a taste of some prior unseen Fleming Bond, I'll cough up the near 40 bucks American.
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 557
    I picked my signed copy and it does indeed have the 007 edge and the Fleming content, I think I am going to leave it until November to read it though. I've been anticipating Double or Nothing far more and with the my non-Bond tbr list I'm in no great rush but the cover and the edge design is rather nice to look at in the meantime.
  • Posts: 2,599
    I picked my signed copy and it does indeed have the 007 edge and the Fleming content, I think I am going to leave it until November to read it though. I've been anticipating Double or Nothing far more and with the my non-Bond tbr list I'm in no great rush but the cover and the edge design is rather nice to look at in the meantime.

    Do you really live in Pett Bottom? :)
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 557
    Bounine wrote: »
    I picked my signed copy and it does indeed have the 007 edge and the Fleming content, I think I am going to leave it until November to read it though. I've been anticipating Double or Nothing far more and with the my non-Bond tbr list I'm in no great rush but the cover and the edge design is rather nice to look at in the meantime.

    Do you really live in Pett Bottom? :)

    Sadly I do not, but it goes with the username 😄
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,270
    Bounine wrote: »
    I picked my signed copy and it does indeed have the 007 edge and the Fleming content, I think I am going to leave it until November to read it though. I've been anticipating Double or Nothing far more and with the my non-Bond tbr list I'm in no great rush but the cover and the edge design is rather nice to look at in the meantime.

    Do you really live in Pett Bottom? :)

    Sadly I do not, but it goes with the username 😄

    Petting bottoms is not encouraged these days. ;)
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,968
    Birdleson wrote: »
    Well, I ordered the special signed edition. I really do go into these hoping for the best, and I'm generally disappointed. But to have even a taste of some prior unseen Fleming Bond, I'll cough up the near 40 bucks American.

    That's the spirit, though I'm broke and figure I may just wait for a cheaper paperback version to release sometime next year. I guess I'm in no hurry, as eager as I am to see how this one pans out.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,355
    My thoughts on the novel:

    I didn't feel Bond did anything particularly Bond like in the story. It was quite drab.

    The villain's scheme seemed very low scale. It didn't grab me as a BOND story.

    Also I wish the end was less ambiguous although we all know how it turned out. An extra paragraph wouldn't have gonna amiss in my book.

    Despite being amazingly well written it didn't reach the highs I wished it did.
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,629
    How long until we can talk about spoilers? I’d give it a month.
  • Posts: 2,599
    I better stay away then. I won’t be reading this book until after I’ve read three or four others.
  • Posts: 1,630
    Is anyone else disappointed in the title ? It seems to me to cross the line past "evocative of a Fleming title" into the area of "a Fleming title with a change of a word." What would be next ?
    Silverfinger ?
    From China, With Love ?
    The Man With the Golden Bullet ?
    or, going past Fleming:
    Colonel Moon ?
  • Posts: 1,078
    I'm starting mine tomorrow. I've got the day off, I'll pick it up from Waterstones and take it to a nice cosy pub up town. I re-read TMWTGG last weekend so I'm primed.
  • JustJamesJustJames London
    Posts: 216
    Since62 wrote: »
    Is anyone else disappointed in the title ? It seems to me to cross the line past "evocative of a Fleming title" into the area of "a Fleming title with a change of a word." What would be next ?
    Silverfinger ?
    From China, With Love ?
    The Man With the Golden Bullet ?
    or, going past Fleming:
    Colonel Moon ?

    Combo titles for sure.
    The Man with the Golden Ball.
    From Octopussy With Love.
    On Russia’s Majesty’s Secret Service.
    Live and Let Her.
  • Posts: 2,599
    I'm starting mine tomorrow. I've got the day off, I'll pick it up from Waterstones and take it to a nice cosy pub up town. I re-read TMWTGG last weekend so I'm primed.

    Reading it in a nice cozy pub. That sounds really nice.

    I don’t think much of the title.

    Everyone should check out the Chinese film (with English subtitles), ‘From Beijing With Love’. It’s a parody of the Bond films and it’s hilarious. You even see a clip of Moonraker on the TV in the film. Highly recommend it. Not sure where you’d find it. I hired it from a DVD rental store many years ago. You can buy it on DVD from Amazon though. It’s a keeper!
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    JustJames wrote: »
    Since62 wrote: »
    Is anyone else disappointed in the title ? It seems to me to cross the line past "evocative of a Fleming title" into the area of "a Fleming title with a change of a word." What would be next ?
    Silverfinger ?
    From China, With Love ?
    The Man With the Golden Bullet ?
    or, going past Fleming:
    Colonel Moon ?

    Combo titles for sure.
    The Man with the Golden Ball.
    From Octopussy With Love.
    On Russia’s Majesty’s Secret Service.
    Live and Let Her.

    Finger Your Eyes With Love
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,789
    Silvertoe
    The Dame with the Silver Knife
    Silvernose

    Live and Let Kill
    Tomorrow Never Kills
    Kill Another Day
    No Time To Kill

    Easy.
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