Reporting For Duty
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
Is there anyone who thinks that Fleming was not the best Bond author?
Just curious. I think Fleming is the best but does anyone disagree? If so, why?
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Fleming was best with plots
Gardner was best with characters and interactions
Benson was best with emulating the film's atmosphere
Faulks was best with descriptions of clothing and food
I've not yet read Amis, Wood or Deaver, so I can't say anything about them.
I have not read all the continuation authors, though. I thought Deaver was pretty bad, I have read some Benson and Gardner and liked them okay. And I enjoyed Devil May Care by Faulks, but felt it was not great, just enjoyable (I liked it a good deal better than Carte Blanche).
I read all of the Fleming books as a teen, then re-read them when I was in my early 20s. I was at my girlfriend's parents' place a year ago and noticed that her Dad had all of the Fleming Bond books, very early editions. Knowing he was a big fan of the early films I made some comment about how much he must have enjoyed the books. To my surprise, he said "Oh, Fleming was a *terrible* writer. He was garbage!" At first I was taken aback, then a little defensive. But then I thought, you know, it's been 20 years since I read the books. I wonder what I'll think of them now?
So over the course of a few months I re-read them all and was pleasantly surprised with CR, then aghast at LALD. I thought that MR was an absolutely fantastic book - Bond book or not - but noticed the quality of the books noticeably decreasing after that. Fleming had characters speak in exposition, not dialogue, and increasingly relied on coincidence to drive the plots forward. He repeated scenes and sometimes even the same lines or turns of phrase. And yet all the books were eminently readable and engrossing.
I read some of the Gardner books and really did not like them - they were okay at best - and I felt that the Benson books (at least the couple that I read) were so bad to be embarrassing. I haven't read Carte Blanche or Devil May Care (best post-Fleming title by a mile IMHO) but I've heard dire things about them.
Does anyone else see this as contradictory? Surely an author should be creating his ownb atmosphere not a films?
Faulks was a tedious writer. I gave up on Carte Blanche half way through because it was so dreary. And Faulks was just copying Fleming in the descriptions. Nothing beats Flemings description of the "butter stone crabs" in GF.
The only author I have found with the same breathless Fleming sweep is Christopher Wood.
I think it was Devil May Care. To be honest both were forgettable.
Fleming was very smart of making Bond and his adventure, but that doesn't mean he's the greatest, he had his up and down.
For the other Bond authors:
John Gardner: I bought 3 of Gardner's Bond books, I haven't read them yet but from reading couple of spoilers, it looks like Gardner had his up and down when writing the Bond novels.
Raymond Benson: Now I praise him for keeping Fleming Bond with a modern touch, I read 2 of his Bond novels and I don't find it confusing like when I read Fleming's Bond novels.
Jeffrey Deaver: I think he did his best as a author. He had some flaws but I like the plot for Carte Blanche.
On the contrary I don't think people are harsh enough. DMC is an appallingly lazy piece of work (especially considering the amount he was paid) by a bloke who arrogantly thought he could emulate Fleming in his sleep but who ended up delivering the DAD of Bond novels.
If DMC had been fan fiction posted here I still would have rated it as distinctly average. To think someone got paid for it is frightening.
Fleming might not have been the greatest author in history but, as thelordflasheart succinctly put it above, he was the best Bond author and for all Faulkes thinks he's better than Fleming with his awards it will be Ian who is remembered long after Sebastian is gone and forgotten.
Neither is bad, but Fleming made you feel Bond's world.
Oh, really? (Moore raised eyebrow.)
For me, Fleming's strength is those very descriptions, above character and certainly above plot.
I too have only read the Fleming novels thus far but I'm intrigued as to the others and their interpretations of the character and his world. As a Bond fan I can't ignore them without at least giving them a go.
Gardner was a very capable writer, but the Bonds aren't his best work, though I still retain some affection for Licence Renewed. I haven't tried Raymond Benson, though I own a few of his. Any recommendations of his work?
Fleming is the only author who has, for me, written really satisfying James Bond novels. Whether that makes him a better professional author is another matter.
I say this because it's easier, for me, to marry the film Bond to the book Bond when reading Benson.
Faulks was a tedious writer. I gave up on Carte Blanche half way through because it was so dreary. And Faulks was just copying Fleming in the descriptions. Nothing beats Flemings description of the "butter stone crabs" in GF.
The only author I have found with the same breathless Fleming sweep is Christopher Wood.
[/quote]
Well, the clothing and food were very well described in Devil May Care, that's why I said that.
Fleming was good at them, but it was easier for me to imagine the clothing and food in Devil May Care than in any Fleming book.
Unfortunately some of the attempts to "pay homage" to Fleming's way of writing feel clumsy and don't quite work IMO.
Which sounds better?
"'The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are quite nauseating at three in the morning"
Or:
"the smell and noise and confusion of a hallway full of schoolboys can be quite awful at twenty past seven in the morning".
How about "The scent and smoke and sweat and noise and confusion of a hallway full of schoolboys at a casino can be quite awful and nauseating at twenty past three in the morning"?
Good god that's terrible. I get the noise and confusion of schoolboys but the smell first thing in the morning? Did they have Axe back then when Bond was a schoolboy?
Something more like:
"the noise and rush and confusion of a school hallway can be crushing at seven in the morning".
That's not great either though.
I edited your post slightly so it made more sense. Hope you don't mind.
Other than Amis, none of the other writers came anywhere close to capturing the brilliance of Fleming. The last 2 official novels were dreadful, and I've tried on numerous times to read a Benson, Gardner and Wood novel, and I can get about 3 chapters through before throwing the books down in utter disgust.
Anyone who thinks there were better writers than Fleming to write a Bond novel should leave this forum right now, and follow another franchise.
This is Bond blasphemy of the highest order!!!