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Comments
As for a novel from him I'd pick Icebreaker (1983) as I need to re-read it for an article I want to write on the novel and I consider it to be the best of his first three contracted Bond novels. It was also Gardner's favourite of his Bond novels up until TMFB.
You need to read Never Send Flowers some time. I'm in that one. I think you'd probably like Icebreaker too. :)
With a few exceptions (Nobody Lives Forever), Gardner's novels get (much) worse as he goes on. I think the first three are strongest. When he gets into Eurodisney and the royal family, you really have to wonder what he was thinking.
I appreciate Benson's Bond scholarship at a time when there wasn't much, but there's something fanboyish about his books.
Since those two (and of course Amis), I haven't bothered with continuation writers. I'd rather just go back and reread Fleming.
Must admit though, I've never been a fan of many of the continuation Bond novels, and I much prefer to revisit Fleming as well. CS is was enjoyable though, and I'm liking my first read of Forever and A Day so far. I find both better than Gardner and Benson.
Benson came in my later years and while I enjoyed those books something was "lacking" not sure what. I remember enjoying "High Time to Kill" though the details are now lost in the cobwebs of my mind.
So purely for sentimental reasons I am picking Gardner and I would most likely settle upon one of his novelizations of the films (LTK or GE)
With Licence Renewed, I envisioned a generic Bond, not Roger. With Benson I would naturally imagine Brosnan, since the author's novels run parallel. Back in 1997 I had a chapter of Zero Minus Ten taken from a magazine, it featured an image of Brosnan in suit with maybe a briefcase or glasses, standing against a Shanghai backdrop, looked very cool. That image is burned into my memory.
Yes, Icebreaker is the best of Gardner's first three Bond novels in my opinion and one of his best Bonds overall. It's well worth a read. I obviously can't agree about NSF being awful - I've rather staked my reputation upon it being good. The villain is actually one of Gardner's best and most memorable in my opinion. It was all part of the more experimental approach Gardner took in his 1990s Bond novels.
Yes, the Benson novels were conceived as being closer to the films and as a sort of companion piece to the then contemporary Pierce Brosnan Bond films. I think that association worked quite well and it hopefully drew in some new fans to the literary Bond who then went on to read the original Fleming Bond novels too.
I agree about NSF too, for me the best part of it was Flick Von Grusse, she's one of the Best Literary Bond Girls.
I also agree about Benson, I also felt that his novels were a bit underrated that it can be some sort of introduction to the new Bond fans who were only familiar with movies, to engage themselves into the literary Bond before diving in more deeper to the Fleming books.
Yes, I do get a good bit of stick for liking NSF, particularly from the much missed @TheWizardOfIce. He does still slag me about it on Twitter on occasion though, so it's not all bad news. ;)
Anyway, I hope you get the chance to read all of the Gardner novels - there are some good plots, characters and situations in them.
This was a hot button for a bit with the age of continuity and universes! So what would you rather for the new Bond?
Would you rather Craig's Mi6 staff return for the new Bond OR recast them all?
MI6: bring in a new Bond and keep the rest.
All of this is beside the likelihood that any returning actor would play a different person just as Dench seemed to be in CR. No, I prefer to start afresh, but I'm also all for the long tradition of one returning actor to link it all together - how about the old woman who drops her fruit basket off the stairs?
Then again, I can almost hear the complaints from some fans already, about how it makes no sense and is part of some kind of Marvel parallel universe thing and whatnot. I wouldn't go there myself, but I agree that it's probably a lot cleaner to simply recast.