It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Faulks
Wood
Gardner
Pearson
Benson
Amis
Haven't read others.
Boyd
Gardner
Faulks
Wood
Benson
Deaver
I'm interested in the board's low opinion on Benson. For someone who knew the character of Bond perhaps as well as anyone, based on The James Bond Bedside Companion, it was surprising that his stories were not as good as some thought they should be.
In a recent interview, (on the James Bond Radio podcast) he mentioned that he was somewhat directed to use Brosnan's Bond as the model for his stories. He said he tried to compromise by using Fleming's Bond in Brosnan-like stories. Seems like a tough formula.
The Christopher Wood novelizations are interesting. Wood actually said he was more of a fan of Roger Moore's Bond than he was of Fleming's Bond, but for the sake of the books, he wrote them as Fleming's Bond - and I think did a nice job with them. He made that Moonraker movie script into a semi-serious novel.
I appreciate Gardner for picking up the torch after more than a decade of no Bond novels and trying to start afresh. Some of his books were very good.
The more recent continuation novels...I dunno. Hard to judge on one go-round. I thought Faulks and Boyd were OK, didn't like the approach of Deaver, even though his writing was pretty good. I think I'm a sucker for period pieces and not bringing Bond into the "modern world."
So, after all that, I guess I go:
Amis
Wood
Benson
Gardner
Faulks/Boyd
Deaver
1. Kingsley Amis
"Colonel Sun" is almost up there with Fleming's best. To this day, Amis is the novelist who came closest to capturing the spirit of Fleming's books. Should have done more!
2. John Gardner
Mostly for his first five or so, but they were all enjoyable; scores additional points for his long-time effort. Gardner's Bond was very much his own creation, yet he had a talent for writing page-turners similar to Fleming - at least until "The Man from Barbarossa". His best work was "Icebreaker", no doubt. I'm a fan.
3. Charlie Higson
The "Young Bond" books are more in line with Fleming than what most other continuation authors came up with. I also like the horror elements Higson includes that give his books a very unique flavor.
4. Christopher Wood
Good, but a little overrated among many Bond fans! He was not an overly talented prosaist, his writing is very abrupt and his dialogue, especially in "Moonraker", almost Moore-level cringeworthy. Still, his first one, a classic Bond adventure, captures Fleming's tone quite well and is certainly among the better continuation novels. And, hey, there's the Lotus, there's Jaws and there's Anya Amasova.
5. Anthony Horowitz
A half-decent Fleming imitator, but really doesn't go below the surface - and he's so tame, so politically correct! As Horowitz said, he wants so see Bond "act, kill, win". I excepted more from "Trigger Mortis"; "Forever and A Day" is a vast improvement, while still very superficial and quite predictable.
6. Steve Cole
After Higson's splendid contribution to the Bond world, Cole further explored the "Young Bond" - and it's rather disappointing. His Bond is a hollow character; it's all action, action, action and sometimes borderline trash. You finish his series asking: Why? It actually added nothing. Enough of teenage Bond, let's have him have sex, drinks and assignments!
7. Raymond Benson
At least he tried. His prose, however, never rises above the quality of fan-fiction. It's a shame, because his ideas and plots are really interesting - they just weren't executed well: Zero talent for character-development, embarrassing encounters with women, dialogue at Purvis-and-Wade-level... Benson is a low point.
8. Jeffery Deaver
The polar opposite of Benson: Deaver IS a good author, but his Bond character has nothing to do with Fleming's beloved creation - at all. His Bond comes across as a boring metrosexual, politically overcorrect, left-wing radical who accuses everyone of being racist. I didn't finish the insult that is "Carte Blanche".
9. Sebastian Faulks
2008 was a strange year for James Bond: To direct the movie "Quantum of Solace", the producers hired an artsy director who had never directed an action movie and didn't even like James Bond.
To write the next Bond novel, Ian Fleming Publications hired an author who had never written a thriller or read (!) Ian Fleming's books.
Both, as expected, failed miserably.
10. William Boyd
Bond novels are supposed to be entertainment. Boyd, however, decided to write a horrifyingly dull yet at the same time needlessly depressing and surprisingly disgusting book. Boyd is also a socialist, which is at odds with being a Bond author.
Not included is John Pearson, since his "Authorized Biography", while highly recommendable, is not a novel or a real story. The same applies to the team of Jim Lawrence and Yaroslav Horak, whom, if they could count, I would have put at number 2 right after Kingsley Amis; they truly understood Bond's character; their comics are brilliant and they capture the Fleming spirit better than anyone else. But we're talking about novels here.
I'd rank my favourite continuation authors as Horowitz and Amis. But I've only read one Gardner, perhaps I should give him another try?
1. Christopher Wood
2. Kingsley Amis
3. John Gardner
4. Sebastian Faulks
2= Amis & Horowitz - blistering worthwhile contributions.
4= Higson - evoked the atmosphere and zeitgeist in a great way.
5= Kate Westbrook - truly fabulous take on things.
6= Gardner - first few were readable. His heart wasn’t in the rest.
7= Boyd - there was something vaguely interesting but he tried to turn Fleming into Le Carre
8= Faulks - the first forty pages were good - then he took the money and ran.
9= Wood - Not PussyNoMore’s cup of tea
10= Deaver - what a mess. Bond for the lobotomised.
11= Benson - beyond risible.
Phyllis Bottome lol
2. Benson
3. Gardner
4. Horowitz
5. Amis
6. Faulks
7. Boyd
8. Deaver
You learn something new every day, don't you?
I suppose you could say he continued after 1953.
Monsieur or Madame Thunderfinger,
Was L&LD not a continuation from CR ?
Was MR not a continuation from L&LD etc..?
To continue, you don't have to morph into somebody else.
PussyNoMore finds the concept of continuation relatively easy to understand.
Ugh! Thunderfinger gets it now. Thinkum with backside of scalp.
Though I would agree that the Bond Continuation of course actually refers to Amis-Horowitz. Any other reading of the term to include Fleming is surely disingenuous.
Agatha Christie. The Rajah's Emerald to be precise. Found in The Listerdale Mystery. One of the adventures Bond had before the war, I presume.
Just read a synopsis online. How interesting, and I never knew Bond was in a cycling club as a teenager.
Another Mystery solved then.
Daniel Craig returns as Agatha Christie's James Bond in....
Obviously intended to be a completely different character, mind. I still remember when I found that story in a book in my house in around 2002. It was quite a shock to see that character name!
Bond would have been 10 then though, or 16 using the older Fleming timeline.
You say it yourself. Even within the Fleming canon, the timeline fluctuates. Or canon, really? I would say Christie is the only canon when it comes to Bond now. Fleming is just fan fiction.
Mr or Mrs Dragonpol,
For the protocol associated with this thread, PussyNoMore would refer to the start post.
Thunderfinger has accepted their faux pas. The only thing disingenuous is your posting.
The Pussy places great store on manners.
PussyNoMore
I would suggest then that the OP was the one who made the mistake initially with including Fleming as a continuation Bond author. It doesn't mean he has to be followed, but I will now depart as clearly I'm not well enough versed in the literary Bond continuation to contribute any further.
And it's the Lord Dragonpol. ;)
Legally speaking if one owned the film rights to The Rajah's Emerald could you then, as long as obviously don't feature M or the gunbarrel or the Bond theme, make a loose adaptation of the story and ramp up the action and pass it of as a James Bond film?
At the very least you could garner enough publicity through stunt casting of say Idris Elba as Bond that you'd get a return on a modest investment surely?
2 Anthony Horowitz
3 Kingsley Amis
4 John Gardner
5 Sebastian Faulks
Wood remains the only one I am happy with. TM started out well, but like others deteriorated into a boring, useless experience. I am talking about both the language and the plot. The only memorable thing was Jason Sin s deck of cards. Have no interest in FAAD.
.Pearson
.Faulks (blasphemy I know)
.Amis
.Boyd
.Horowitz
.Deaver