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And a recommendation to buy this.
https://thetimes.co.uk/article/double-or-nothing-by-kim-sherwood-review-007-is-missing-presumed-dead-7x3mr3lvp
I tried reading it, but it’s something that I want to subscribe to. Can you please put up the whole review?
England's last great defense against illiteracy.
I thought she would do that. She is very open about her love for that Bond media as well.
Mary Ann Russell.
Thank you for the information! It’ll be a while before I read it.
No problem! I'm pro spoilers myself. I like to know what I'm getting into. So I don't mind sharing since I got the book a little bit early.
As much as I would have preferred a Bond centric book, I am definitely getting more caught up in this story as it progresses.
I would still prefer a new modern Bond series focused on Bond himself to this. But this is what we're getting, so I'm going to enjoy it for what it is. I will be pre-ordering the next book whenever it's available.
As for the mole storyline and reveal... MAJOR SPOILERS WARNING!!!!!
AGAIN, MAJOR SPOILERS, BE SURE YOU WANT TO CLICK!!!!!
https://www.thejamesbonddossier.com/content/review-double-or-nothing-by-kim-sherwood.htm
Here you go. Mild spoilers.
Moneypenny’s in charge in this latest 007 instalment. But Robert Crampton misses the main man (The Times, Aug. 26)
This latest instalment in the 007 continuation series has been criticised, sight unseen, by some purists as the wokeification of Bond. Then again, diehards have been slagging off Bond for going all PC ever since Daniel Craig got a bit introspective in Casino Royale.
The truth is, Bond needed to upgrade his manners. Remaining a xenophobic snob wasn’t an option. If some readers get upset because in Double or Nothing one of the “double-0s” introduced here is a gay black chap, and another is an Anglo-Indian maths genius, and another, gasp, possibly attended state school, that’s their problem. I bet the real MI6 is chock full of Anglo-Indian maths geniuses. I hope so.
Also, I like it that Moneypenny is now in charge. Nice touch that, especially since she must be closing in on her 100th birthday. Social mobility, feminism and anti-ageism ticked off in one character. M is still hanging in there, wearing red Converse these days. If Moneypenny is nearly ton-up, old M must be about 130.
The problem I had with Double or Nothing isn’t Kim Sherwood’s cultural update, it’s that James Bond, missing presumed dead, isn’t in it. So we get a Bond book without Bond. Which means we get a decent but nothing special spy thriller, better than Fleming in one way (because Fleming was a mediocre writer), but far inferior in the only way that matters. Because Fleming had one stroke of genius, namely creating this one fabulous character, the premier fictional star of the late 20th century. And Sherwood chooses to place this star, this legend, this 101-year-old king of cars and costume, coitus and cloak and dagger, not to mention luxury travel, off stage. Weird one.
The plot doesn’t compensate. I don’t mind admitting I didn’t always understand what was going on. There’s a Wagner group-style international gang of evil mercenaries with the thrillingly Nazi-style name of Rattenfanger, which translates as rat-catcher and sounds like a German death metal band, which in fact it is. And there’s an overall big baddy plutocrat, who isn’t even a little bit reminiscent of Elon Musk, who says he is fighting climate change, but — guess what? — the spooky bugger is actually accelerating it!
Felix Leiter, 35 when Fleming introduced him in Casino Royale in 1953 and thus now 104, turns up, very sprightly considering his age and that he was half eaten by a shark in Live and Let Die in 1954. Good old Tiger Tanaka, the head of the Japanese secret service from You Only Live Twice, has a cameo too, at the age, I estimate, of 98. It’s decent fun, but in a very crowded thriller market, by no means a must-read.
One further point. The Bond films are often slated for excessive product placement, and Sherwood falls victim to the same temptation. Her thing isn’t booze or suits, it’s watches. The obsession starts innocently enough with a plain old Casio, then moves via a Garmin MARQ Commander to a Richard Mille RM 11-05, “the cogs turning beneath a new material that combined the lightness of titanium with the hardness of diamond”, which reads like a lift from the brochure. Moneypenny sports a “Nanna Ditzel for Georg Jensen in silver with a satin finish”, which, hilariously, she strokes and thinks “of Harwood’s watch by Hermès”. Harwood, meanwhile, “glanced at her enamel Hermès watch by Anita Porchet” (a bit pricey for a humble civil servant, I’d have thought) and so on.
All rather odd. And while I was happy to further my knowledge of the luxury chronograph market, this didn’t make up for the absence of the guy who favours the Omega Seamaster while reliably saving the world every other year.
James Bond will return? I bloody well hope so, and soon.
The watch thing sounds a bit weird too, although I am quite taken with the name of the evil group: that could be a novel title in itself.
Interesting! I actually found Dryden the most compelling of the three new Double-Os. He seemed the most his own character. Whereas Bashir and Harwood felt more like they were riding Bond's coattails.
1. Do you get a sense of Kim Sherwood’s James Bond 007?
2. Does Bond get mentioned at all?
Thanks
I wasn't going to cut this, but got worried. Could be mild spoilers.
Sherwood's Bond seems relatively in line with a modernized Fleming Bond. He's got the comma hair description, philosophy of living extravagantly because of a likely short life, and is torn between wanting to retire and not being able to let go of being an agent.
He's specifically aged 45 and had moved to a combination role of training agents and intermittent missions.
It's mentioned he's had two great loves in his life. Vesper is mentioned by name, could assume the other was Tracy. His feelings for Harwood are implied to be on that level. Which is the main part I was iffy about because while we do get some flashbacks of them together, it wasn't enough for me to be convinced their feelings were worth that status.
Without going into major spoilers territory with the details, we do get information on the mission where he went missing, too.
Ok Becaue of this I will pick up double or nothing whenever I get around to finishing With a mind to kill…
The book so far has been flowing like a melodramatic love triangle from a soap opera and it feels so off.
The bits with Dryden are great so far though.
Dryden's parts were the most engrossing for me, too.
It isn't specifically set up that Felix and Tanaka will have bigger roles, but the possibility is open.
None of them were mentioned. Trigger from The Living Daylights was, though. She's apparently still around taking shots at people, despite the injury Bond gave her, so she could pop up again later.
I agree that it seems some version of the Fleming novels and possibly some of the movies took place in the more recent past in these books.
Thank you for your help!
Another great interview to check out!
There’s an interesting discussion about Bond continuity midway through between Sherwood and the interviewer, where she describes the pre-Craig films as having a bit of a ‘‘fairytale’’ element. She then basically states (not in so many words) that her books have a ‘floating timeline’ in place where some version of the events of Fleming’s books happened in the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s…but also some of Bond’s Cold War-era history and experience has now been transplanted to her version of M.
She also talks about how she wants to honor the film version of Bond as well, much like how Fleming himself did in his later books (by making Bond Scottish like Connery for instance). And the interviewer sort of hints that her book is inspired significantly by the Brosnan era.
Towards the end of the video, she confirms she is almost done with book two. She also said it should be out by the end of next year.