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Comments
It's true that not everything is perfect and Ms.Seberg was American albeit the error is perhaps understandable as she was often heavily associated with French movies particularly in the UK.
A little less forgivable is the fact that Horowitz has Bond driving down a British Motorway when the first section of the first British Motorway, the M1, didn't open until 1959 and then it was in the north of England not the South !
That said, these are small errors and don't detract from the overall period feel of the novel.
They do, for me however, demonstrate an interesting point insomuch as I do think that authors tend to make more factual errors when dealing with the near history. Horowitz is 60 and I think there is a tendency to misremember events that took place in your life time and are perhaps more rigorous when writing about events before your time.
Another TM news is that my good friend Villieurs53 has awarded the novel his cherished four star review and asked me to post it in these column inches.
I respectfully had to decline because, as per normal, his review is peppered with politically incorrect statements and I didn't want to risk loosing my licence. That said, I'm sure that readers would want to know that such a renowned Bondologist rates this novel so highly!
He also does a nice line in brooms!
:))
I wouldn't expect you or Villiers to make the lose/loose mistake ;)
Oh no! I hate it when this sort of thing happens and have been kicking myself around the block.
Thanks for pointing it out. I've only just got on top of where,were and wear.
Thankfully Villiers53 (he prefers his full title) would never make this type of error.
I apologise and it won't happen again.
Have you read 'Colonel Sun' ?
In TM's not so humble opinion, it's the only adult Bond continuation that is in the same league.
The first four or five Gardners are worth while but something was lost with the '80's reboot.
As for Benson and the rest - mon Dieu!
read Col Sun again ( just to make sure), and the first five or six Gardner's
Are good. Benson's are very, very bad. I found Solo boring, the other two
I found to be entertaining but, just lacking something.
TM was the first I've read in a long time which I really enjoyed and thought
I was reading about Fleming's Bond and not someone else's interpretation
or reinvention of him.
I agree. It really feels like Fleming. He's done a very good job.
Have a great flight. I'd love to know what you think about CS. I envy you not having read it.
If I compare the two as being very equal albeit, I did find CS a little more adult in terms of style and content.
Is the American version a little different from the British version?
Would anyone get in trouble if they were to take a photo of the Fleming treatment and post it on these threads?
That was John Gardner's For Special Services (1982). It has a James Bond Jnr feel to it, yes. That said, it's widely considered to be one of his best Bond novels so if you didn't like it...
I gave up reading Gardner then. Just blood awful. He seemed to be trying to please the literary fans and the films fans and failing miserably. Although actually read the novelisation of Licence To Kill, and…oh dear things hadn't improved.
I'm looking forward to TM, I've just got to finish my current novel, then I'm into it. I've read the first few chapters and it's very promising.
i didn't mind his film tie-in for TWINE... i think i actually liked his novel better than the actual film. lol.
To be fair Raymond Benson also added in some interesting extra background detail (not to be found in the film script) for main villain Elliot Carver in the Tomorrow Never Dies novelisation as well...
At points this novel seems a bit thin and breezy, whereas other times it displays a fair amount of detail. It has all the markings of an author who is both a fan of Fleming's novels and the films. There are more than a few spots where it feels we've seen some of this in a film. Not a big fan of coincidence and perfect timing, which I think there is too much of. Too many times where Bond is just too damn lucky. For me that more than strains credibility.
SPOILER ALERT!
This is not a perfect novel, but a far sight better than we've seen in a long time. I hope Horowitz is not a one and done author. After the previous three authors, I did not
want to read another Bond novel from them. Horowitz, I look forward to.
Hmm, the background artwork for the French version is identical to what we received in Canada, only that here the colour scheme is turquoise instead of bronze (gold?).
Presuming AH writes another, you said that you hope he makes the next one more adult in nature. I take it, it was too tame in terms of violence and sex? Or just the latter?
Am enjoying this very much. It has a nice flow about it.
I wouldn't mind a one-off Bond film set back in the 1960s or even mid 50s! Sort of Trigger Mortis in vibe. I reckon it would do well at the box office.
I'm two books behind now. Still haven't read Cole's Shoot To Thrill either.
Essentially, how important is it that a continuation novel 'read like Fleming'?.
Many writers, directors, score composers and set designers have taken on the mantle of creating the Bond films and while they share similar DNA, they don't exactly always look or sound alike. Yet, a recurring argument I keep hearing and reading when the literary 007 is discussed is that it must read like Fleming. If a book is well received, as is evidently the case with TM, a popular comment is that it 'reads like Fleming.' When a book is not well received, I hear and read that it's not enough like Fleming.
So, how much does that barometer matter to you, fellow MI6 forum members?
TM might be the closest yet, but I haven't read it.
Closest I've found is The Pearson book, thus it's my favourite.
Only continuation that I think is real stinker is Deaver's Carte Blanche as Fleming's Bond is barely recognizable.
The rest IMO are at least readable Bond adventures.
The problems start right away for me with the prologue, which isn’t that interesting and a bit too long, and which turns out to be rather unnecessary to the story. I could’ve done without it.
Then the story picks up with Bond in London with Pussy Galore. I usually don’t like it when the continuation authors picks up Fleming characters that were clearly intented for that isolated story. Benson fell into the same trap with René Mathis and Marc-Ange Draco in Never Dream of Dying and Faulks with Mathis in Devil May Care. Felix Leiter is of course fine, as he’s a recurring character in Flemings novels as well (he would’ve suited this story, wouldn’t he?).
The biggest fault isn't the use of Pussy though, but her characterization. I don’t recognize her. In Goldfinger she’s a tough gangster leader and I feel nothing of that here. Just an appendage to Bonds London life. And when she’s later kidnapped, taken to some Stonehenge-esque site (I can’t find the word for it...) and painted gold, Horowtiz has lost me. It’s too much of a pastische, almost parody, for me.
The next problem, which is much harder for me to accept, the story. It moves much too fast. As reader I want to spend more time at the training race track, I want to spend more time in Nürburg and the Nürburg ring, more time in the german castle, at the rocket base in the U.S. and at Jason Sins hideout outside of New York.... Trigger Morits suffers from the same problem as Diamonds Are Forever actually. The novel never seem to settle in and the writer never have the time to introduce locations and atmospheres before having to move the story along. Because of it Trigger Mortis feels fragmented and episodic to me.
Sadly I don’t care much for the plot either. The two major plot pieces – the Nürburg race and the rocket launch/destruction of Manhattan – doesn’t seem to fit together. Horowitz hasn’t connected the two pieces well enough for my taste.
I would have been more than satisfied with a simplistic spy story involving Bond and SMERSH and the Nürburg race. I think it would’ve been possible to stretch it into a whole 200 pages novel.
Alternatively just let the story pick up in New York after the events in Goldfinger (then the Fleming Murder on Wheels-story couldn’t have been used of course). Was Goldfingers mission to collect money and fund Jason Sins operation? And was that the reason why Goldfinger used so many Koreans? There are some interesting possibilities that Horowitz could’ve used, I wouldn’t have mind those!
It’s fine to not have an amazing plot as the basis of your novel, many of the previous authors have failed in that regard (Fleming as well), but you can write a succesful and intruiging story nonetheless, as long as there are enough elements that entertain. Fleming, and Gardner to some extent as well (I admit it, I am a big fan of his), could save their books with fantastic dialogue, thrilling action or amusing characters. Horowtiz doesn’t really manage that.
But just as Fleming managed to save Diamonds Are Forever with a real nail-biter of a climax I truly hoped Horowtiz would do that as well, but I never get invested. It never gets exciting enough for me, which of course is a result of not being intruiged by the story earlier. It’s difficult to just switch the interest on suddenly, especially when I think the villain could’ve executed his plan better. Why not just fly over New York with a plane and drop the fake rocket full of C4? Wouldn’t that have worked, instead of going by train, using fake witnesses and so on?
Now it sounds like I’m really tearing this book apart, there are some elements I enjoy. Jason Sin is a nice villain, I especially like his backstory, and the chapter when he tells it to Bond over dinner I love. Classic Bond! Jeopardy Lane is also an interesting girl, tough and smart in a believable way without being forced into the story. The two of them are fun to read about for the moment, but I don’t think I would call them memorable. Time will tell.
To sum it up, I do feel Horowtiz managed to instill the novel with a feel reminiscent of Fleming, both when it comes to descriptions, dialogue and characters, but the story is really limping and doesn’t have a natural development, and that over-shadows the book for me.
I actually find Trigger Mortis a bit weaker than Solo, I guess I'm alone about that as well?