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How many Bond novels have you actually read?

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  • RossiRossi
    Posts: 157
    Blood Fever, Silverfin, Licence Renewed, For Special Services, Icebreaker, Role of Honour, No Deals Mr. Bond, Licence To Kill, The World Is Not Enough, Moonraker (Wood), Colonel Sun, Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, From Russia With Love, Dr. No, Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Octopussy & The Living Daylights. So much more to read.
  • SharkySharky
    Posts: 266
    I've read all of Fleming. I have now purchased Col Sun, Moonraker (Wood), the first 5 John Gardner, Devil May Care, Carte Blanche and Solo.

    I am going to complete the collection and then read them all, I am currently reading Roger Moore: My Word Is My Bond, it is a great read and very funny. once I finish that I will be starting Col Sun.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Birdleson wrote: »
    Interesting tidbit, COLONEL SUN, DEVIL MAY CARE and SOLO (completely unconnected to one another) each pick up after the events of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. It's like multiple choice for post-Fleming Bond.

    The only one that interests me and sounds half legitimate, would be CS.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,270
    Thunderfinger wrote: »
    Birdleson wrote: »
    Interesting tidbit, COLONEL SUN, DEVIL MAY CARE and SOLO (completely unconnected to one another) each pick up after the events of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. It's like multiple choice for post-Fleming Bond.

    The only one that interests me and sounds half legitimate, would be CS.

    Have you read it yet? It's a great book!
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    I have never gotten hold of a copy.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,270
    Thunderfinger wrote: »
    I have never gotten hold of a copy.

    You must. It really is very good - by Kingsley Amis writing under the pseudonym Robert Markham. I'm writing something about it called 'The Strange Death of Colonel Sun'.
  • JohnHammond73JohnHammond73 Lancashire, UK
    Posts: 4,151
    I'll be honest, I haven't read any novels (I know, I'll goto my room). However, I do have copies of them all, as well as many other continuation novels by different authors. I aim to change it soon and start reading them. I also have them all now on my Kindle too, so really, I have no excuse. Very soon though, I will be starting at the beginning with Casino Royale and get through them all.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,270
    Shark_0f_Largo wrote: »
    I'll be honest, I haven't read any novels (I know, I'll goto my room). However, I do have copies of them all, as well as many other continuation novels by different authors. I aim to change it soon and start reading them. I also have them all now on my Kindle too, so really, I have no excuse. Very soon though, I will be starting at the beginning with Casino Royale and get through them all.

    Enjoy! You've got a lot of good reading ahead of you!
  • JohnHammond73JohnHammond73 Lancashire, UK
    Posts: 4,151
    Can't wait to get started. Hopefully over the weekend, time permitting....
  • Jazz007Jazz007 Minnesota
    edited July 2015 Posts: 257
    Casino Royale
    Live And Let Die
    Moonraker
    For Your Eyes Only
    The Spy Who Loved Me
    Octopussy & The Living Daylights

    A little light, I'll admit. Casino Royale is one of the best novels I've ever read though - I continued through Fleming's 2nd and 3rd follow up to it a few years back (I remember reading Live and Let Die in the hospital when my first was born; got impatient for the short stories (The Living Daylights was especially fun to read) and I don't remember why The Spy Who Loved Me made it in before any of the other ones, I think I found a cheap copy and pounced. I know a lot of people don't like that one very much but I thought it was very well written.

    I recieved Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service as gifts once upon a time but I kind of want to read the rest in chronological order... We'll see. Haven't gotten back to Fleming in a while because... Well, that first child kept me busy but the second keeps me booked; it's hard to find time to read these days.
  • WalecsWalecs On Her Majesty's Secret Service
    Posts: 3,157
    14 (Fleming's) + Higson (2) + novelizations (7) + various continuation novels (4) = 27
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,423
    All the Fleming's naturally. Plus John Pearson autobiography, and Raymond Benson's novelizations of GE through to DAD
  • SharkySharky
    Posts: 266
    @Birdleson thanks for the tidbit, I might read them in that order as I have all 3 of those and then read the Wood Novels (I will have to purchase TSWLM) and then the Gardner Novels.

    If I read the 3 post TMWTGG it gives me time to purchase the others I need to complete the collection and there is a little bit of continuity too.
  • BangOnTimeBangOnTime
    Posts: 58
    I've read Casino Royale, and finished Goldfinger this morning, so that makes it two.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    All of Fleming.
    Kingsley Amis COLONEL SUN
    Christopher Wood s JAMES BOND, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
    John Gardner s first three, LICENCE RENEWED, FOR SPECIAL SERVICES and ICEBREAKER
    Sebastian Faulks DEVIL MAY CARE
    Anthony Horowitz TRIGGER MORTIS

    Adds up to 19 so far. Only non-Fleming I can recommend of those is Wood s contribution.
  • QQ7QQ7 Croatia
    Posts: 371
    Croatian translations, so:

    Diamonds Are Forever
    Casino Royale
    Live And Let Die
    Octopussy & The Living Daylights

    I'm kinda too lazy to read the rest on English, but I might soon.
  • timmertimmer
    edited August 2018 Posts: 4,622
    I've read them all. There are 60 total including the latest from Horowitz.

    Here's the breakdown

    14 Fleming
    14 John Gardner originals
    6 Raymond Benson originals
    2 Anthony Horowitz
    1 Kingsley Amis
    1 John Pearson
    1 Sebastian Faulks
    1 Jeffrey Deaver
    1 William Boyd
    7 screenplay novelizations (2 Christopher Wood, 2 Gardner, 3 Benson)
    9 Young Bond ( 5 Charlie Higson, 4 Steve Cole)
    3 Moneypenny Diaries by Samantha Weinberg

    60 books: 14 Fleming originals + 46 combined continuation efforts contributed by 12 others.


    Of the continuation writers, the most prolific being Gardner with 16 titles followed by

    Benson 9
    Higson 5
    Cole 4
    Weinberg 3
    Wood 2
    Horowitz 2
    Amis 1
    Pearson 1
    Faulks 1
    Deaver 1
    Boyd 1

  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    timmer wrote: »
    I've read them all. There are 60 total including the latest from Horowitz.

    Here's the breakdown

    14 Fleming
    14 Gardner originals
    6 Benson originals
    2 Horowitz
    1 Amis
    1 Pearson
    1 Faulks
    1 Deaver
    1 Boyd
    7 screenplay novelizations (2 Wood, 2 Gardner, 3 Benson)
    9 Young Bond ( 5 Higson, 4 Cole)
    3 Moneypenny Diaries by Weinberg

    60 books: 14 Fleming originals + 46 combined continuation efforts contributed by 12 others.

    Impressive. I will never reach that number.
  • timmertimmer
    Posts: 4,622
    But you read about 3 books a day, so you should be able to burn through them all in no time :)
  • mybudgetbondmybudgetbond The World
    Posts: 189
    I have read every Fleming as well as every continuation book including Pearson and Wood as well as the Canadian short story collection that came out. I’ve read the first 2 Young Bonds as well as a few Fan fiction novels.

    So at this point well over 40 books. And I want more:-)
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    edited August 2018 Posts: 4,629
    Do the comics (namely Dynamite) count? When it's a story line connection? If so, I'm reading Case Files, from Dynamite. It's the closest thing we've had to 007 short stories in a while. I just finished Case Files, the Dynamite people get James Bond more than the average EON screenplay writer and IFP continuation author. We may not have a possible movie security, but we do have two James Bond story arcs to read until the movie comes out. Dynamite has had better quality than EON has lately, that’s for sure. I have read all of Dynamite comics stories, minus The Body, Carte Blanche, Solo and Trigger Mortis. I enjoyed them all in their own little way, but I'm easy to please. As long as we get more adventures, I'm happy.
  • vzokvzok
    edited August 2018 Posts: 4,044
    mybudgetbond wrote: »
    I have read every Fleming as well as every continuation book including Pearson and Wood as well as the Canadian short story collection that came out. I’ve read the first 2 Young Bonds as well as a few Fan fiction novels.

    So at this point well over 40 books. And I want more:-)

    Any fan fiction you recommend?

    what was the Canadian book like?
  • GerardGerard
    Posts: 5,993
    For now, the only Bond novels I haven't read are the last two Cole Young Bonds, as well as Horowitz's latest.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    timmer wrote: »
    But you read about 3 books a day, so you should be able to burn through them all in no time :)

    The thing is, I am not interested in reading any more Gardner or Horowitz books.
  • timmertimmer
    edited August 2018 Posts: 4,622
    MaxCasino wrote: »
    Do the comics (namely Dynamite) count? When it's a story line connection? If so, I'm reading Case Files, from Dynamite. It's the closest thing we've had to 007 short stories in a while. I just finished Case Files, the Dynamite people get James Bond more than the average EON screenplay writer and IFP continuation author. We may not have a possible movie security, but we do have two James Bond story arcs to read until the movie comes out. Dynamite has had better quality than EON has lately, that’s for sure. I have read all of Dynamite comics stories, minus The Body, Carte Blanche, Solo and Trigger Mortis. I enjoyed them all in their own little way, but I'm easy to please. As long as we get more adventures, I'm happy.

    I think you make great points re the comics. I've read exactly one Bond comic Permission To Die, which I must have stumbled across in some store and compulsively bought it, being a Bond fan.
    A few posts back, I simply itemized the officially sanctioned Bond novels that have been issued post-Fleming.
    The comics though are a different medium. Personally I did enjoy Permission To Die.
    The comics are actually on my List of Bond Things To Do, ie buy a whole load of them and go on a big Bond comic reading binge.
    I love reading Bond, so I know it will be time well spent.
    The Cdn short stories; they're something I've also been thinking about checking out.
    Are these worth reading?
    Passable fan fiction, that managed to get published?
    Thunderfinger wrote: »
    timmer wrote: »
    But you read about 3 books a day, so you should be able to burn through them all in no time :)

    The thing is, I am not interested in reading any more Gardner or Horowitz books.

    I don't blame you. All of the continuation stuff requires a level of adaptability, if that word makes sense.
    ie none of it comes close to Fleming.
    Amis and Pearson IMO come closest, but they had the advantage of being Fleming contemporaries, and both had authored respected published works concerning Fleming and his creation.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,117
    Only the Fleming ones, with the exception TSWLM. Can’t seem to get into it.

    Are the other authors worth my time?
  • TorgeirtrapTorgeirtrap
    Posts: 17,753
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    Only the Fleming ones, with the exception TSWLM. Can’t seem to get into it.

    Are the other authors worth my time?

    I like Horowitz myself, but then again, I've always liked his writing. Him writing Bond is double the joy for me!
  • mybudgetbondmybudgetbond The World
    Posts: 189
    The Candian one has a few good stories but most aren’t great. They bring Bond in contact with Cthulu & the apocalypse. Weird. There’s a good story set in Cuba though.
  • jobojobo
    Posts: 7,507
    I have read all of the Flemings obviously. Also tried Trigger Morris. Was reasonably enjoyable but not enough to wet my appetite for the other continuiation novels... Any of them I definitely should read?
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited August 2018 Posts: 18,270
    jobo wrote: »
    I have read all of the Flemings obviously. Also tried Trigger Morris. Was reasonably enjoyable but not enough to wet my appetite for the other continuation novels... Any of them I definitely should read?

    I'd say that the first one, Kingsley Amis' Colonel Sun (1968), is an absolute must-read. It's the original one, and also the best of the lot. It probably helps that Amis knew Fleming briefly and was a serious scholar of his Bond work (The James Bond Dossier and The Book of Bond or Every Man His Own 007 both having been published by Jonathan Cape in 1965).

    It's also the only other Bond novel beside those of Fleming to have been written and published in the 1960s so that certainly adds to its feel of authenticity. Unlike the modern Bond novels of Faulks, Boyd and Horowitz, Colonel Sun is period set as it was written in the actual period! For me, that makes all the difference.

    Colonel Sun has also been used extensively in the Bond films, culminating in the use of its infamous torture scene in the last Bond film Spectre (2015), and it even received a credit to the Amis Literary Estate. That and its authentic 1960s flavour, a great villain and an interesting location and plot mean that Colonel Sun is as near to an honorary Fleming Bond novel as we are ever likely to get! It's therefore very much "the Leader of the Pack" when it comes to the literary Bond continuation novels.
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