Reporting For Duty
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
Who Should Write the Next Bond Continuation Novel?
007InVT
Classified
My clear choice for this right now is Charles Cumming.
He's ex-MI5; has written cracking spy thrillers with 'Trinity Six'; 'A Foreign Country'; 'Typhoon' and 'A Spy By Nature'; he's a fan of Fleming and all the great spy novelists such as Greene, Le Carre and Ambler.
He gets my vote.
Other considerations?
Stella Rimington - a woman writing a Bond novel for a change?
Alan Furst
William Boyd - Again?
Charlie Higson - Of Young Bond fame
Ian McEwan
He's ex-MI5; has written cracking spy thrillers with 'Trinity Six'; 'A Foreign Country'; 'Typhoon' and 'A Spy By Nature'; he's a fan of Fleming and all the great spy novelists such as Greene, Le Carre and Ambler.
He gets my vote.
Other considerations?
Stella Rimington - a woman writing a Bond novel for a change?
Alan Furst
William Boyd - Again?
Charlie Higson - Of Young Bond fame
Ian McEwan
^ 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
He would probably be the best choice. He would probably have been the best choice for the Young Bond books (Alex Rider feels more like novels about a young Bond than the Young Bond novels do).
Are those worth reading? I watched Stormbreaker a few weeks ago and I thought it was pretty good.
That is perhaps the best reason for him not doing any Young Bond novels, but have him take a shot at an adult 007 novel. I did enjoy his House of Silk.
I feel they are. Take everything you like about James Bond, hand it off to a 14 year old kid, there you go.
That sounds mad, but you actually make a good point. Hence, rather than going for a "name" author or a prestigious author, the Fleming estate would do better to find a writer--no matter how obscure--who actually understands and loves Fleming's Bond.
They are great books that actually have a very good story arc, however once you read them you will hate what they did to the Stormbreaker film. I know I did.
What, exactly, do you speak of? I love the books and the film.
The overall general tone of the film which was more akin to Agent Cody Banks than James Bond. The forced inclusion of the Sabina character even though there was absolutely no need for her to be there. The transformation of Alan Blunt from a socially awkward but deadly serious intelligence officer to a bumbling idiot. Damian Lewis was pretty much the only casting choice that was bang on the money.
I've never seen Agent Cody Banks (and I do not regret that decision in any way), so I can't speak for the tone of the film. It may just come with the territory, making a film about a teenage spy. I'm certain Sabina was placed in the film (remember, Horowitz was actually the film's screenwriter) to set up her character in further films. Her introduction in Skeleton Key was pretty much, "Hey, Alex has been here a while and he made a friend!" No real weight behind it, and then she becomes an important character. Alan Blunt seemed pretty socially awkward to me, just based on his speech patterns and his movements. Bumbling... yeah, maybe. Perhaps you could just blame that on Bill Nighy's acting. And I am so going to disagree with you about the casting. Damian Lewis, yes, was perfect. But so was Ewan McGreggor. May have been a small part, but he did great in it. Mickey Roarke was great as Sayle (though I don't really understand why they changed his character from Egyptian to American; maybe Roarke's casting affected it, I don't know), and Stephen Fry makes the perfect Q... okay, maybe he's wrong for the character he's playing (which I will say nothing more about, because of spoilers), but he was a great gadget master.
And now, I'm going to stop, because maybe we should make an Alex Rider thread.
I liked Stormbreaker. It was pretty much just a Bond film but with a teenager. There were some cheesey, crap bits that didn't even need to be in the film (what was the point in the horse riding bit? Or the Oddjob rip off at the end? Or that fight scene in the house with the American girl?) but overall I thought it was fun.
The horse riding bit (so I've heard) is because Alex couldn't legally drive a car, so they couldn't have a car chase between Alex and Sayle.
The Oddjob rip off, probably just to have an Oddjob rip off get his nuts kicked twice.
The fight scene with Jack (American girl) and the German woman, probably just to have a chick fight to appeal to men (what can I say, it worked, but then again, I like Alicia Silverstone, not much of an actress, but damn fine to look at).
Oh she's fit, don't get me wrong, but that whole bit was just really cheesey imo, especially when the German woman started doing the karate poses.
Eisler is the writer of the great 'John Rain' series and he is extremely Flemingesque in his approach. His books are terrific. Laced with sex, violence and spookery. Great stuff!
Apart from being a great book in its own right (think Trevanian, Le Carre, Fleming on steroids) it's a fabulous mechanism to introduce new readers who will doubtless go on to buy the others.
Why on earth don't IFP do the intelligent and obvious thing by getting Higson, Cumming or Eisler to write a prequel to 'Casino Royale'?
If the artistic merits of this route don't resonate with them, perhaps their insatiable appetite for our wonga will lead them to see the commercial advantages!
I'll have to give Eisler a try soon.
It is called the Young Bond series and has with Charlie Higson already 5 installments, and a new one coming up soon by Stephen Cole.
Young Bond by Higson was terrific but was 'Young'. Obviously we are talking adult prequel in this context.
Featuring a young, dynamic Bond in his '20s.
In one of the Young Bonds there was a short chapter with James Bond as a youngish secret agent. It read nicely and I would not have minded Higson doing 007 in the beginning of his carreer. Especially as he got the period feel down very well.