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Which Bond novel are you currently reading?

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  • Risico007Risico007
    Posts: 9,853
    Immensely enjoying Double Shot thinking of Doing never dream of dying next
  • Ed83Ed83
    Posts: 1,181


    From riches to rags.[/quote]

    Hehe. I hear ya, I've never read any of the Gardner novels, and I've been buying some old copies I found so I figured I'd try them out.
  • Tounet77Tounet77
    Posts: 68
    Just finished Solo. Not so bad ! After all the bad reviews I had read on this forum, I was expecting much worse ...
  • SirHilaryBrayOBESirHilaryBrayOBE Chez Hilly, Portsmouth
    Posts: 66
    Onto John Gardner's "Never Send Flowers" after reading all the rest for the better part of a month. Thanks to a charity shop managed to get Benson's too. Sort of for completion's sake.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,823
    I'm sort of struggling with Licence Renewed... twice now I've sat down with it & I'm only 50 pages in. Even DMC hooked me better than that.
    I will finish it, though. It's not bad by any means; maybe I just have to get used to the style of writing (& the SAAB, & no Walther, & Q'ute, etc.)...
  • mirandafrostmirandafrost
    Posts: 368
    Reading From Russia With Love. Got it for my birthday and love it. :)
  • MrcogginsMrcoggins Following in the footsteps of Quentin Quigley.
    Posts: 3,144
    I'm sitting down to read my new copy of Dr No this afternoon it's my only First Edition of Fleming .
  • daltondalton
    Posts: 1,631
    Solo was the last one that I sat down and tried to read. As with the other post-Benson continuation novels, I put it down before finishing it.

    Might give Colonel Sun a try sometime here in the near future. Bought the Kindle edition of it last year but haven't found the time to actually start it yet.
  • supinumsupinum
    Posts: 2
    I am currently reading Live And Let Die (The swedish translation). And I smile a little at times over how changed the perception of people is. The kind of language that fleming is using is not ok today.

    But I think the book is good and exciting!
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,250
    @supinum,

    I know that LALD upsets people nowadays which is why I hope they realise two things:

    A) LALD was written in the 1950's, not in the 2010's
    B) by a man who grew up and lived in a world that was pretty racist and homophobic by any modern definition of the words.

    I too feel rather uncomfortable at times, especially when reading GF. Bond turns the lesbian Pussy because he is the "first real man" she's ever met. Fleming describes it as if Bond cures her from some sort of a disease. I don't follow the PC guidebook myself but that had some strong subtext right there to the point where I can see many people easily offended by it. Again, those were different days.
  • fromswedenwithlovefromswedenwithlove
    Posts: 654
    supinum wrote: »
    I am currently reading Live And Let Die (The swedish translation). And I smile a little at times over how changed the perception of people is. The kind of language that fleming is using is not ok today.

    But I think the book is good and exciting!

    Oh, a fellow swede!
  • supinumsupinum
    edited July 2014 Posts: 2
    @darthdimi
    Yes, those were different days alright! I appreciate the differences and think it's important that we remember our history, so to speak :)

    @fromswedenwithlove
    Japp :)

    @tounet77
    I agree with you. I think SOLO was a solid Bond-book and I appreciated it!
    I got both the book and audiobook, so that I could listen in the car, to and from my meetings, at work! :)

    Mod edit: @supinum, please use the edit button. Thank you. =)

  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    supinum wrote: »
    @darthdimi
    Yes, those were different days alright! I appreciate the differences and think it's important that we remember our history, so to speak :)

    Unlike Pippi Longstockings which has been edited according to pc views in your and her home country. Like putting a hijab on Mona Lisa if you ask me.
  • DoggieGaloreDoggieGalore
    Posts: 86
    MooseWithFleas wrote: »
    Reading From Russia With Love now. What a tremendous piece of literature. The way Fleming builds the villains of Grant, Klebbe, Kronstein, General G is just brilliant. On page 70 something and Bond still hasn't appeared. Glad they reflected that in the film as it paid off quite well.

    You know...I wished they filmed the meeting scene between Tatiana and Klebb the way it was written in the novel!
    :>
  • SirHilaryBrayOBESirHilaryBrayOBE Chez Hilly, Portsmouth
    Posts: 66
    Having done the Gardner's moved onto the Benson's. I managed to get two anthologies for less than a couple of quid and so moved onto the first. Zero Minus Ten was the only one (bar the TND novelisation) I've ever read. Beyond this, I now moved this week onto Facts of Death and Man with the Red Tattoo...I don't know, something feels off. This Bond is definitely more Brosnanesque and the depiction of Felix in Facts of Death just...well, feels off. Doesn't seem right somehow.
  • Villiers53Villiers53
    Posts: 802
    DoggieGalore wrote: »
    MooseWithFleas wrote: »
    Reading From Russia With Love now. What a tremendous piece of literature. The way Fleming builds the villains of Grant, Klebbe, Kronstein, General G is just brilliant. On page 70 something and Bond still hasn't appeared. Glad they reflected that in the film as it paid off quite well.

    You know...I wished they filmed the meeting scene between Tatiana and Klebb the way it was written in the novel!
    :>
    How right you are @DoggieGalore;355907 - FRWL is indeed a phenomenal piece of literature and IMNSHO (in my not so humble opinion) way above anything else that Fleming wrote.
    With FRWL he really joined, albeit temporarily, his literary heroes, Graham Greene and Eric Ambler as a serious contemporary novelist that happened to write thrillers. Sadly he never rescaled those giddy heights with the possible exception of OHMSS that just missed the mark due to its slightly ludicrous central plot.
    Sadly the publishing cycle was such that he didn't know how well FRWL would be received before he pumped out his next one.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    valentinzukovsky wrote: »
    Devil May Care was good, not great. Nothing memorable about it, but a fun read while it lasted.

    I enjoyed parts of it, and I definitely liked it better than Carte Blanche.

  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,823
    Birdleson wrote: »
    back in 1977, when I was 15
    Why, you're just a baby. I got my driver's license that year!
  • Mark_HazzardMark_Hazzard Classified
    Posts: 127
    Been going trough Diamonds Are Forever again. I've always been fond of the way Fleming wrote about Tiffany Case. There's something special about her that puts her on par with Vesper and Tracy. Personally I feel those three were Bond's only serious love interests.

    It also tells us more about Bond. Especially the conversation between her and Bond over dinner gives an interesting look into his, and possibly Fleming's as well, thoughts about relationships and children.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,250
    I think the novel grew out of Fleming's personal interest in the diamond smuggling business. He wrote The Diamond Smugglers, a non-fictional work, and much of what he had investigated for that book also inspired him for DAF.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,250
    @Birdleson

    http://www.bookdepository.com/Diamond-Smugglers-Ian-Fleming/9780099578192
    (Free shipping!)
  • timmertimmer
    edited July 2014 Posts: 4,622
    BeatlesSansEarmuffs wrote: »
    Tried a few of the Gardner novels but could never really get into them, probably because he's writing them as mystery novels. The Bond series are thrillers, not mysteries -- there's a difference in the two genres, and I don't think Gardner ever really got that idea.
    This is a real distinction. I noticed that too when plowing through the Gardner books. They are not thrillers in the Fleming tradition. Still, they are quite readable. I enjoyed them all, but they aren't quite Fleming style thrillers.
    Deaver's book, Carte Blanche, is the most radical departure from Fleming, I think. The constant twists and turns get quite annoying after a while. I guest Carte Blanche is a Deaver mystery thrillers first. A Bond book second.


    Still reading Gardner's Goldeneye screenplay novelization. It works with the movie plot reasonably well. I am revisiting the screenplay novelizations. GE represents 4th of 7. The 3 Benson's are next, TND, TWINE and DAD.
    One thing about the Broz era. All four of his movies got novelized by the Bond writer of the day.
  • SirHilaryBrayOBESirHilaryBrayOBE Chez Hilly, Portsmouth
    Posts: 66
    Die Another Day's novelisation had a good line about coming in on a cello case. Think it was during the paragliding sequence.
  • fromswedenwithlovefromswedenwithlove
    Posts: 654
    Just finished MR. I did a short review of it on my Bond-blog:
    http://jamesbondcollection.bloggplatsen.se/

    So I'm thinking of starting with DAF tonight. Is it any good??
  • Ed83Ed83
    Posts: 1,181
    I finished Licence Renewed a few days ago and I just started For Special Services. I'm about 80 pages into it, but so far so good.
  • ThighsOfXeniaThighsOfXenia
    Posts: 1,596
    Ed83 wrote: »
    I finished Licence Renewed a few days ago and I just started For Special Services. I'm about 80 pages into it, but so far so good.

    Been reaading Licence Renewed myself. I've read one Gardner before but decided it was time to go through them chronologically.

  • AceHoleAceHole Belgium, via Britain
    Posts: 1,731
    Octopussy (1965) - I wanted to read up on Oberhauser and how he might fit into the SP screenplay. Can't say I'm any the wiser so far...

    But Fleming's plotting and slow revelations are masterfully done - I really think he had the smart, character driven thriller genre down to a 't' in his later years. I love the short stories more than the novels, personally.
  • jobojobo
    Posts: 7,507
    I am rereading The Man with the Golden Gun at the moment, and having a great time with it! I only wonder if I should continue with the non Fleming novels afterwards or not. If I do, it would be my first time trying them out.

    Should I read them? Are they worth it, or will I just end up disappointed?
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    jobo wrote: »
    I am rereading The Man with the Golden Gun at the moment, and having a great time with it! I only wonder if I should continue with the non Fleming novels afterwards or not. If I do, it would be my first time trying them out.

    Should I read them? Are they worth it, or will I just end up disappointed?

    Not read many myself. Christopher Wood s TSWLM novelization was a great read. The first three or four Gardner books were pretty bad compared to Fleming. This is all I have read and just my personal opinion.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Birdleson wrote: »
    The only ones I can hardily recommend are COLONEL SUN and the first of the Wood novelizations (TSWLM).

    Have you read all the others? I would love to get hold of Colonel Sun. It is the only book I am sorry I have not read.
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