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Comments
I've got Devil May Care on my shelf but haven't got round to reading it yet.
All great reads (except for DMC) and I'm still 14!
As far as I'm concerned, the Fleming books are unbeatable, the Gardener ones I've read are decent, the Benson felt rather lifeless and Faulks' was almost an insult.
Frankly, for me, if you read all the Flemings, then there's little need to read any others. Looking forward to finding out what Deaver's thing'll be like though. And, to that end, keeping a perfectly open mind about it too...
James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 (Pearson)
Also have the unofficial novel 'The Killing Zone' by Jim Hatfield.
While I appreciated that "Devil May Care" was set in the 1960s, otherwise it was dreadfully bad.
I read my first Bond book in the year 1971 (can't remember which one it was though) at the age of 10, though I didn't understand much of it. In the summer and autumn of 1988 I read all the Flemings from CR through OP but since then I've re-read them on and off in no particular order.
TB, OHMSS, YOLT, TMWTGG, CR, MR, FRWL: 7 novels
FAVTAK, FYEO, OP, TPOAL, TLD: 5 short stories
By Wood: JBTSWLM, JBAM(I think. It's been a long time so I can't remember if I read all or just part of it): 2 novels
By Gardner: LR, GE: 2 novels
By Benson: ZMT, TFOD, TND, TWINE, DAD: 5 novels
So 21 Bond novels and 5 short stories over all
There are Ian Fleming Novels.
The answer is ONE.
I read Dr. No for an 8th Grade Book Report back in 1962.
The NOVELS are not really any good.
THE MOVIES are what got Ian Fleming a Mansion in Bahama Islands.
It's called a SCREEN PLAY.
If you can take a Novel or Story and make it a MOVIE....THEN you become BOND.
No one goes to the MOVIES to see a BOOK.
I don't think so.
In my opinion the NOVELS are very good.
Ian Fleming didn't have a mansion in the Bahama Islands, his Jamaican home 'Goldeneye' was a modest medium sized bungalow on a couple of acres of land by the sea, and as for being bought with the movie royalties, it was purchased in 1946, and it was here he wrote his very first James Bond novel 'Casino Royale'
I concede people don't go to a cinema to read a book (I believe they use libraries for that!), but they do go to see adaptions of books, the idea of saying Bond is not authentic until he reaches the celluloid screen is simply ludicrous, by your reckoning does this mean that the 'Da Vinci Code' was not a popular thriller until it was made into a film?
Fleming left approximately £200,000 from his estate when he died and that included a sizeable sum left to himself by Mrs Val [His mother] when he died. Although Fleming benefitted in the very twilight of his life from a deal done with Eon, he didn't really get to enjoy it for both his health deteriorated and he was to fight a lengthy legal battle with one of the joint writers of the screenplay of Thunderball, which he borrowed heavily from for the novel.
So, in fact, he was lucky not to lose everything down to the very FIRST original screenplay to be written for cinema.
Swot up, Old Boy.
Although I can't claim full completeness. There are two Benson short stories and both MP Diaries shorts that I have not read.
Otherwise
14 Fleming plus OO7 in New York -check
14 Gardners- check
6 Bensons- check
1 Colonel Sun- Check
1 Pearson Bond Authorized Bi0- check
1 Devil May Care- check
7 Screenplay Adaptations- check
5 Young Bonds and YB Dossier with short story- check
3 MP Diaries- check
1 Benson Short published in Playboy- check
Based on this data Carte Blanche will be the 53rd full length Bond adventure book to be published spanning 10 different authors.
I have all the Fleming titles and various Benson and Garnder novels along with Devil May Care and Carte Blanche. I also have the 5 Young Bond novels as part of the collection I have.
I am at the point now where I feel that I MUST read them and wondered if there was a definitive guide anywhere that I can have a look over to see the best order in which to read them, including all non-fleming titles.
It may be that it is actually on the forum and my apologies if I have missed it somewhere but any help would be much appreciated.
Many thanks
Good luck