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What hasn't gotten much play is the decision by the Fleming estate to keep passing Bond around. Anyone have any insight on this? Is it novelty, a way to generate periodic interest? It stands to reason a continuation author will eventually settle in.
Here's hoping the next novel succeeds and also bears a title that sounds as if it could be a Bond novel.
And they can read too. Surely they picked up themselves, on what was lacking with these later books.
I think its just the Wint and Kidd approach...if at first you don't succeed, try try again.
==Bond in the world of Formula One Racing circa the 1950s; being a race-car driver in that era was as dangerous as Bond's profession.
And yes, that would be a great touch to pen a villain in the Bernie Ecclestone image.
That would be a howl. :))
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29442143
"Set at the Nurburgring in Germany, Murder on Wheels would have seen 007 thwart a Russian plot to cause racing legend Stirling Moss to crash.
The treatment saw Moss appear as a character, with Bond's superior M and M's secretary Miss Moneypenny also featuring.
Horowitz, who resurrected Sherlock Holmes in his 2011 novel The House of Silk, is the latest in a series of high-profile authors to have penned new Bond novels.
Sebastian Faulks, Jeffery Deaver and William Boyd have also written "official" Bond novels, while Charlie Higson has penned a series of 'Young Bond' books about the character's teenage exploits.
While promoting his Sherlock Holmes novel The House of Silk in 2011, Horowitz suggested to the BBC News website he would be prepared to take on the task.
"I can't think of any other character in literature - except maybe James Bond - who would have tempted me," he said of Holmes, who will return later this year in his second Holmes novel, Moriarty."
Stirling Moss competing at the Nurburgring in 1958.
I agree. I like period pieces too though and reading a Bond period piece, providing it is well written, feels more atmospheric to me.
I'm glad it won't be called "Murder on Wheels". That title is a little too simple and cheesy for my taste.
I wonder how many unpublished works Fleming has or at least plot outlines. I don't want to know though. I loved how IFP kept this a secret and sprung it upon us. A nice surprise. Or maybe it is just me who hadn't heard of 'Murder on Wheels'. Either way, I hope for future Bond novels, that there will be extensions on Fleming's writing too. I hope his words are kept for this novel and weaved into the book nicely.
I also read in The Times last night that Fleming's grand niece said that Fleming's original TV script treatment entitled 'Murder on Wheels' would be included as an appendix to the novel if fans so desired so let me add my voice to the campaign to make this so as this would be a Bond fan's dream come true - to read a new Fleming Bond piece - for the first time since November 1999 when forgotten Fleming short story '007 in New York' came in The Sunday Times Magazine.
I second this. Also, EON should get the rights to those scripts.
It was first published in the New York Herald Tribune in October 1963, according to wikiBond, although I never got around to reading it until it turned up in the expanded Bond short-story collections circa 2008.
Oh, yes that was what I meant by "forgotten" - that was the first time I had heard of it anyhow. But yes, it was originally published in the American edition of Fleming's Thrilling Cities as an apologia for Fleming's harsh comments on New York in the travel book (and nothing more really) as Bond obviously enjoyed the city more than his creator did! In effect it was a sop to the American public.
Yes, and here is my The Bondologist Blog also on the topic of unpublished Bond short stories by Fleming - this was originally written for CBn in 2007:
http://www.thebondologistblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/ian-flemings-second-uncompleted-short.html
Incidentally, this is my 5000th post on MI6 Community - more than on any other site on which I am or was a member. That says something about the quality of this community and its members.
Further trivia note; We got the name Solange, which turned up in CR 2006, from the "007 in New York" story.
@birdleson Thanks for that link. The famous Fleming Scrapbook. Good read.
Fodder for maybe more Horowitz efforts?
There is also the fabled Moonraker script/treatment Fleming wrote...
Confidence is high for Horowitz, so if he knocks it out of the park I could see him writing more.
Pardon me, I will first read the book before complimenting the writer.
Horowitz has already tweeted that he will not be using this title anyhow so I doubt if it ever came to be filmed Eon would either; it's not particularly inspired perhaps but bear in mind it was merely a TV episode title from the 1950s so the target audience may have been different...
The scrapbook is just a collection of notes and ideas, musings etc which only really plant the germ of an idea.
The stories themselves still have to be written by others, but that said, growing fresh stories from Fleming seeds could be a wonderful thing.
@dragonpol, love the new avatar - charles gray blofeld affecting a Fleming pose.
Sounds a lot more like an Agatha Christie novel rather than a James Bond story.
Indeed it does - a bit too obvious sounding. Fleming actually mentions Agatha Christie in his OHMSS novel. It could be a Columbo episode title too! I'm a big fan of the Man in the Mac.
They're really good, very Bond inspired (although it's more film Bond than book Bond). The best thing about them is the action (there are loads of tense, violent action scenes) and the villains. Anthony Horowitz seems to be really good at creating great Fleming esque villains: well fleshed out psychos, really bizarre, nasty evil psychos with physical deformities and interesting backstories.
EG- The last one I read was Crocodile Tears (the second to last book), and the villain in that is a former boxer who's lived a difficult life and has had loads of botched plastic surgery (trying to fix damage from fights), who went to prison for fraud, pretended to become born again Christian (even becoming a reverend) and then set up a charity called First Aid which is always the first on the seen to disasters: because they create them. The reverend bloke, the villain, wears crucifix earings, has a messed up face as a result of the surgery and spouts bible quotes and is obsessed with becoming rich because he knows that money gets you respect (something he had little of throughout his life) and that nobody cares who you are or where you come from if you have money.
There are loads of great villains like this throughout the books so I'm excited to see what he comes up with for Bond.
Great review of the books and Crocodile Tears sounds a tad like John Gardner's Scorpius (1988) with Father Valentine (tka Vladimir Scorpius) of the Society of the Meek Ones. I have a few of these but I really need to dig them out and get the rest and read them. Is the film Stormbreaker any good?
Yes, dammit, yes, yes, yes! Unread Fleming is more exciting than any continuation novel.
The Fleming website states that TLD was also based on a TV treatment. Since TLD postdates FYEO, which contained at two other stories based on treatments, I wonder if Fleming would have turned the remaining treatments into short stories if he'd lived longer.
Or as I like to call it, the Holy Grail! Imagine if that was found and published in a collection containing the TV treatments, Fleming's notebook, and his initial Thunderball script. Call it Bond on Film: The Lost Adventures. That would be the publication of a Fleming fan's lifetime.
Actually, considering all the hope and promise and interesting background, that has been revealed in this thread and elsewhere, I have already elevated the book to 2nd on my Bond continuation novel rankings, behind only Pearson. :P
1. Pearson, James Bond Authorized Biography
2. Horowitz, untitled
3. Gardner, License Renewed.
For you and everybody else I do hope the book lives up to your expectations. I will only admit like the previous three I will pre-order the book, as it is a 007 novel.
The Fleming website states that TLD was also based on a TV treatment. Since TLD postdates FYEO, which contained at two other stories based on treatments, I wonder if Fleming would have turned the remaining treatments into short stories if he'd lived longer."
I don't agree if it's just a TV script.
The fact that so many fans always wanted Horowitz for the job makes me feel a little more positive than what I otherwise would have been if another celebrity author not mnetioned by the fans had have been chosen, but I still won't be getting my hopes up. For the past three books we've heard the same positive comments and look at how the books have turned out. One can only hope the positive vibe will generate a well written book this time around.