Who Should Write the Next Bond Continuation Novel?

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  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,431
    So not a new novel, but new hardback editions with covers from Michael Gillette again.

  • LucknFateLucknFate 007 In New York
    edited May 28 Posts: 1,651
    Some fun new 007 graphic work. Is that supposed to be some sort of union jack motif or am I confused? Will these be the recently censored words?
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,431
    Yeah it's a nice bit of art, isn't it?

    I'm kind of ambivalent: I think it's nice for new artists to have a go, but then Gillette was so good last time I can't complain too much.
  • LucknFateLucknFate 007 In New York
    edited May 28 Posts: 1,651
    Is that pending plain cover with the handwritten 007 supposed to be Fleming's handwriting?

  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    LucknFate wrote: »
    Is that pending plain cover with the handwritten 007 supposed to be Fleming's handwriting?

    Yes, I believe so.
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,638
    mtm wrote: »
    Fleming's birthday today which they like to mark, so fingers crossed for something.

    If it was a truly new book, they would have teased it, in advance, by at least a week. I think IFP wants to finish Kim Sherwood's Double-00 trilogy, honestly.
  • I hope we get a regular author who can give us a novel once every two years. I don't think Sherwood is a regular full time author of sorts (only two non-Bond novels that I see to her name) but I do think Double or Nothing gave us a readable and entertaining spy story. Maybe she stays on for another 2 or 3 after the Double O series ends?
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,638
    I hope we get a regular author who can give us a novel once every two years. I don't think Sherwood is a regular full time author of sorts (only two non-Bond novels that I see to her name) but I do think Double or Nothing gave us a readable and entertaining spy story. Maybe she stays on for another 2 or 3 after the Double O series ends?

    Maybe, I'd be ok with Kim Sherwood staying on. She's a fan, she knows her Bond knowledge, and has improved her writing. She keeps speaking about Bond, which is awesome.

    If not her, I nominate Charles Cumming and Charlotte Philby. Sorry to repeat myself.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,823
    Bonus content, huh.

  • Posts: 2,000
    Risico007 wrote: »
    That hurt

    On the plus side i am going to read Toys by James patterson its supposedly more action packed then Bond or Bourne so i shall read it and let people know if i want Patterson to write bond

    Do yourself a favor and pass.
  • MaxCasino wrote: »
    I hope we get a regular author who can give us a novel once every two years. I don't think Sherwood is a regular full time author of sorts (only two non-Bond novels that I see to her name) but I do think Double or Nothing gave us a readable and entertaining spy story. Maybe she stays on for another 2 or 3 after the Double O series ends?

    Maybe, I'd be ok with Kim Sherwood staying on. She's a fan, she knows her Bond knowledge, and has improved her writing. She keeps speaking about Bond, which is awesome.

    If not her, I nominate Charles Cumming and Charlotte Philby. Sorry to repeat myself.

    Which novels of your two nominees should I read to get their "Bond" sense? I read "A Spy By Nature" and it didn't move me much and "The Spanish Game" remains DNF'd relatively early.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    MaxCasino wrote: »
    I hope we get a regular author who can give us a novel once every two years. I don't think Sherwood is a regular full time author of sorts (only two non-Bond novels that I see to her name) but I do think Double or Nothing gave us a readable and entertaining spy story. Maybe she stays on for another 2 or 3 after the Double O series ends?

    Maybe, I'd be ok with Kim Sherwood staying on. She's a fan, she knows her Bond knowledge, and has improved her writing. She keeps speaking about Bond, which is awesome.

    If not her, I nominate Charles Cumming and Charlotte Philby. Sorry to repeat myself.

    A James Bond novel written by a Philby? Could be interesting!
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 557
    I suggested Philby as a Bond author ages ago, but that was before I read the final book in her triptych, 'The Second Woman' and I thought it was one of the worst books I've ever read and genuinely made me wonder whether the other two books were any good or whether she was just trading off the family name.

    I would love to have more Bond books from Sherwood though, but at the same time I'm happy for her to do whatever she wants next, I think after the Double O trilogy she deserves a well-earned break.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    I suggested Philby as a Bond author ages ago, but that was before I read the final book in her triptych, 'The Second Woman' and I thought it was one of the worst books I've ever read and genuinely made me wonder whether the other two books were any good or whether she was just trading off the family name.

    I would love to have more Bond books from Sherwood though, but at the same time I'm happy for her to do whatever she wants next, I think after the Double O trilogy she deserves a well-earned break.

    Oh so she's related to Kim Philby then? I didn't realise that! I'm sure Ann Fleming wouldn't have approved as she thought that Kingsley Amis would turn her late husband's character into a Philby Bond who would sell out his country!
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,431
    To be fair, I think 007 actually does end up helping the Russians in Colonel Sun, doesn't he? And it's not a novel filled with anti-Soviet opinions as I remember.
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,638
    MaxCasino wrote: »
    I hope we get a regular author who can give us a novel once every two years. I don't think Sherwood is a regular full time author of sorts (only two non-Bond novels that I see to her name) but I do think Double or Nothing gave us a readable and entertaining spy story. Maybe she stays on for another 2 or 3 after the Double O series ends?

    Maybe, I'd be ok with Kim Sherwood staying on. She's a fan, she knows her Bond knowledge, and has improved her writing. She keeps speaking about Bond, which is awesome.

    If not her, I nominate Charles Cumming and Charlotte Philby. Sorry to repeat myself.

    Which novels of your two nominees should I read to get their "Bond" sense? I read "A Spy By Nature" and it didn't move me much and "The Spanish Game" remains DNF'd relatively early.

    I honestly haven’t read any of their books, lol🤓. However, they have experience with spy novels and they have talked about Bond before. I’d like to them get a chance.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,823
    Has Martin Amis been suggested?

    He's a successful writer, done some Bond-related blogs due to his father Kingsley's novel. Not sure his interest or abilities.

  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,306
    Has Martin Amis been suggested?

    He's a successful writer, done some Bond-related blogs due to his father Kingsley's novel. Not sure his interest or abilities.

    Umm...

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Amis
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited May 29 Posts: 18,283
    Has Martin Amis been suggested?

    He's a successful writer, done some Bond-related blogs due to his father Kingsley's novel. Not sure his interest or abilities.

    There's one small problem there. He's dead.

    That aside, he was on record as saying to Charlie Higson in a BBC Radio 4 programme back in 2007 that he'd only think of writing a Bond novel if he had suffered a brain aneurysm. He also said the same to Sebastian Faulks back in 2011 about writing a children's book. So I'd take that as a "no".

  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,431
    Has Martin Amis been suggested?

    He's a successful writer, done some Bond-related blogs due to his father Kingsley's novel. Not sure his interest or abilities.

    I think it's fair to say both are quite limited :)
  • I think he'd rather sit the job out: he's just dead.
  • edited May 29 Posts: 4,174
    I don't think Martin shared his father's interest or enthusiasm for Fleming's Bond, or at least not to the same extent. Nabokov seemed to be more his thing.

    Must admit I haven't read all that many of his books, but I enjoyed the ones I did. Not sure if he was suited for Bond. I've met one person who knew him a bit from his tenure as head of Creative Writing (or whatever it was) at Manchester Uni. Apparently he wasn't great at that role, but I really don't know.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    edited May 29 Posts: 13,823
    Yeah I could add his passing with On This Day.

    Better question was he ever interested, or in his style could he possibly have taken on such a thing? Maybe not, it's good he did the podcasts recognizing his father's contributions.

  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,431
    I remembering listening to that conversation with Higson: he was certainly not enamoured with Bond at all.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,823
    Okay that paints the picture yes.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    Yeah I could add his passing with On This Day.

    Better question was he ever interested, or in his style could he possibly have taken on such a thing? Maybe not, it's good he did the podcasts recognizing his father's contributions.

    I think he thought that writing about James Bond would've been below him and not something corresponding to his literary station. His father Kingsley was that rare person who was both literary and a big fan and defender of genre fiction too. He even wrote his fair share of it.
  • Posts: 9,848
    CrabKey wrote: »
    Risico007 wrote: »
    That hurt

    On the plus side i am going to read Toys by James patterson its supposedly more action packed then Bond or Bourne so i shall read it and let people know if i want Patterson to write bond

    Do yourself a favor and pass.

    What is wrong with patterson
  • SeanoSeano Minnesota. No, it's not always cold.
    Posts: 44
    Risico007 wrote: »
    What is wrong with patterson

    Patterson's mostly a brand now, isn't he, with the heavy lifting coming from his co-authors?

  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,638
    Seano wrote: »
    Risico007 wrote: »
    What is wrong with patterson

    Patterson's mostly a brand now, isn't he, with the heavy lifting coming from his co-authors?

    Plus, I think he'd (or his coauthors) want more creative control than IFP would allow. My two suggestions (Cumming and Philby) I think would. After meeting him last earlier this month, I also want to suggest John Jackson Miller as an author. He has written many Star Wars and Star Trek books, Iron Man comics, a comic book adaptation of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and coming in October, Batman: Resurrection, set between Batman and Batman Returns. He does a lot of world building, namely in action. He would be an interesting choice.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,283
    mtm wrote: »
    To be fair, I think 007 actually does end up helping the Russians in Colonel Sun, doesn't he? And it's not a novel filled with anti-Soviet opinions as I remember.

    Yes, that's true. There was more political intrigue in Colonel Sun than Fleming would've ever been interested in. Ariadne also extols the virtues of communism and debates it with Bond and Litsas. Although he was by this stage moving to the right politically Amis was a communist himself in his younger days.
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