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I think you probably don't need 'James Bond' on there because everyone knows 007, but I'd agree that there's room for improvement. The typography is fine, and I prefer it to the US version, but it's not quite fully beautiful. And I still think the No Time To Die logotype was one of the best bits of graphic design the Bond world has had in many years. I really liked how the typography was done on the Orion covers in fact- really nice. A hint more danger here and there- yeah I'd go for that too although I'm not sure it's essential on all.
I'd forgotten about this 'There is only one Bond' run of covers. A bit boring and slightly naff.
Imagine so. Both books are part of this release of books though, so there won't be any trouble getting hold of a copy of them!
The primary reason for suggesting 'A James Bond novel', is that it's used on a lot of covers from other releases – like the continuation novels. And also just to leave no doubt about what series of books these are. But it might be a bit overkill, I admit.
I really like those Orion covers. It's minimalism done right, and the typography is on point. The simple imagery on these covers made me think of these Norwegian releases from 1970. They are a bit strange in that they all feature the same imagery on the front, and there's no mentioning of Ian Fleming. Still quite nice, I think; I got one of them myself.
Those 'There is only one Bond' however, are really not nice. The contrast is also an issue with some of the titles and the background…
Thought I recognised the title. I have that one in paperback with a dragon's red claw on the front. No mention of Colonel Sun either, come to think of it. The Dreyer paperback edition does have the credit Robert Markham on the front cover though and at the top of the book's spine.
I was thinking the same thing, they look great.
The thing is, that this is the case on all the books in this release (to my knowledge), and not just Colonel Sun. My copy of LALD from the same set does not mention Ian Fleming on the cover.
That description sounds familiar. Is it this one?
Yes, that's the one, @Torgeirtrap! I like the addition of the Chinese text on the dragon's arm but I've unfortunately no idea what it says.
I bought it last year from eBay. I collect foreign editions of some of the Bond novels, mostly my favourites and I have a few for Colonel Sun: French, German, this Norwegian edition and one from 1990 written in a Cyrillic language which may be Russian. Yes, I'm quite, quite mad. :)
The original UK 1st edition only had the two stories, and Property of a Lady was added afterwards, (with the publication pf the first paperback edition I think). If Folio go with the 1st edition text, then it'll be a slim volume with just two stories in. And it also means people (like me) with a complete collection of Folio editions will be missing a Bond story.
And of course, there's 007 in New York as well, which featured in later editions of O&TLD.
That's very... of its time! :D Not sure I love it, almost feels more Avengers than Bond, but it's striking and amusingly retro.
I'll put another post about it on that thread.
Would be great information to have!
@Dragonpol Can't help you there, unfortunately! It's a nice touch, for sure.
That's an interesting collection. I've spent some time looking at vintage Bond books on Ebay throughout the week, and there are some nice foreign releases among the listings. I don't know a lot abut the Norwegian editions of Fleming books, as the majority of these were published decades before I was born. As for Dreyer and these paperback releases, this is the information I could find:
These editions of Bond books appear to be the most complete collection of Bond books released in Norway, with twelve books in total – in the following order:
James Bond og Dr. No (Dr. No, probably 1966)
Med hilsen fra Moskva (From Russia, with Love, probably 1966)
Casino Royale (probably 1966)
Å leve og la dø (Live and Let Die, probably 1966)
Diamanter varer evig (Diamonds Are Forever, probably 1966)
James Bond og Operasjon Tordensky (Thunderball, probably 1966)
Goldfinger (1966)
James Bond i Japan (You Only Live Twice, 1967)
Måneraketten (Moonraker, 1967)
I hemmelig oppdrag (On Her Majesty's Secret Service, 1966)
James Bond og mannen med gullpistolen (The Man with the Golden Gun, 1967)
James Bond på Drageøya (Colonel Sun, 1968)
Most of these covers, possibly all of them, were designed by Danish-Norwegian designer Hans Jørgen Toming. At the end of the 60's, or at the start of 1970, the remaining copies were bought by Nasjonalforlaget, and released as the golden hardback books of which the Colonel Sun edition pictured above is from.
Edit: according to one source, Hans Jørgen Toming also designed the golden hardback covers, but the source dates the year as 1968, which is wrong.
Yes, I noticed that too. The dimensions are 198 x 129 mm, according to waterstones.com.
It takes it all to hold that large 007 logo but I will say they don't actually look too bad now I've seen them as actual paperback covers. Sometimes it's hard to tell from a static image. Paperbacks do seem to have been getting bigger across the board since at least the 1980s if one considers how relatively compact the old '50s and '60s Pan paperbacks were by comparison.
Yes, I noticed during the release of Anthony Horowitz's Forever and a Day (2018) there was a smaller paperback, a bigger kind of trade paperback and the hardback edition. I remember they all seemed to be released at the same time, something I've not noticed happening with with Horowitz's follow-up novel With a Mind to Kill (2022). I think the bigger trade edition is so-called as it's the edition they sell overseas in the colonies such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Seeing the product up close can make a huge difference, as static images often don't do book covers justice. It's not my favourite by far, but the gold colour and texture on the Goldfinger cover seems to have a nice shine to it, looking at Higson's Twitter video.
Having a look at my paperback collection, I notice there's quite a variance in size. Many of my English and American paperbacks are on the smaller side – at least no bigger than the dimensions of these Bond paperbacks. Some of my Norwegian paperbacks however, are noticeably bigger. My Norwegian paperback copy of Ben Macintyre's The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War is 220 x 150 mm, which is essentially the size of a hardcover book.