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
Here you go:
https://www.mi6community.com/discussion/13898/the-man-with-the-golden-typewriter
On the not starting threads until you've searched to see if it's already there point that is good practice. You can always check on Google by typing in, for this example The Man with the Golden Typewriter and then "mi6 community" beside it in quotation marks and it will bring up any relevant threads on that subject. I'm sure you can appreciate that the mod team wish to cut down on duplicate threads and this is the best way of making sure one doesn't double up on a topic. :)
Speaking of doubling up on a topic.... ;)
Oh dear. I spent a while typing my reply and in the interim you had posted! Ah, well. At least I hope it illustrates the fact we're a helpful enough bunch when we want to be! :)
I thought the book was a new book, but it's six years old. Anyway, I'll use that thread to put my thought on, it seems not many here have posted on this book.
I did do a search using the forum search, and nothing came up. I'll do a google search next time, thanks for the tip!
For sure! Not sure why our own search is not so useful, but it’s a shame.
Now we're getting a third, are we to think of Horowitz as the new continuation author, like Gardner and Benson?
Not that it matters either way, I really like his Bond books and rate them higher than Gardner's and Benson's.
It seems to only search for the words you type in that appear in the main body of the thread and not for specific thread titles. It's always been like that but the Google tip is one handy way around it at least.
I will agree with that, but I still don't think highly enough of his writing to heartily recommend them, and have only been buying them for the unused Fleming. But I do seem to be in the minority on here. He has quote a vocal fanbase among the MI6 Community.
I think by consensus COLONEL SUN by Amis wins out, after that it varies. I would say Horowitz would probably be the next most highly regarded on these boards, regardless of my personal preferences. The Wood adaptations are beloved as well, if not widely read. I certainly place him right after Amis, who I feel is the best thing next to Fleming that we’ve had.
I also recommend Boyd’s SOLO. Like CS, the author’s bare bones approach serve it well.
Colonel Sun, Trigger Mortis and Forever and a Day for me, as the essential ones. They're all placed in the Fleming era too. CS takes place after TMWTGG, Trigger is after Goldfinger, and Forever and a Day is before Casino Royale.
The Benson and Gardner novels take place in the era they're wrote in. I haven't read all of them, but they can be fun too.
edit - I think Faulk's Bond was the only other continuation novel that was placed in the Fleming era? I could be wrong.
When it comes to Gardner/Benson, I have to say I prefer to read Benson, although Gardner would be viewed by most as the better writer. I think I cut Benson a lot of slack because I loved his Bedside Companion book, and his Bond knowledge meant he could put lots of little details in his books that linked back to Fleming.
A friend recently sent me the hardback of Benson's Never Dream of Dying, which I've not read. I'm looking forward to that one. It's the third in the 'Union Trilogy' I think.
Forever and A Day, Solo and Colonel Sun have been on a mental shortlist for a while, so maybe I will actively look into acquiring those.
Colonel Sun probably also makes sense as a companion to this upcoming Horowitz book, right? Given that they occupy similar or possibly even the same timeframe. Do we know whether Horowitz considers that book canon?
On another note, Wood's James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me is, more than any other continuation novels, written in a Fleming's way, so it can be quite pleasing for a literary Bond fan.
Give each of the authors a try
For me I love Benson and later era Gardner I like Amis. I don’t get the love of Horrowitz I felt Trigger Mortis had a bad teen mom subplot and as for forever and a day bond getting high made me throw the book across the room…
Maybe the third book is where his real talent will lie
I recently re-read Colonel Sun and it does not match the writing of Ian Fleming anywhere, I even prefer Flemings' TSWLM more than CS simply because Fleming did an excellent experiment with writing a noir Fleming style.
I think it might, no? Isn't Horowitz' book meant to take place after TMWTGG?
If you’re happy with the central concept, I find that Higson’s Young Bond novels capture the feel of Fleming, in a slightly modulated way, more than any other author south of Amis does.
I re-read CS and thought the same. I must admit, when I first read it years ago I thought it was very much Fleming, but my opinion changed too when reading it again. The biggest issue with the book is the fact that Amis doesn't really go into Bond's head, his everyday thoughts, like Fleming did.
It's the one thing I'm grateful to Horowitz for, is that he tries to also do this with his books - get inside Bond's head. That to me is the biggest letdown with CS, because other than that it does feel like a Fleming book, but more like the short story OP, where we see Bond from a distance. That was the only other time Fleming experimented with the character after TSWLM, where we lived in Viv's head. In OP, we live in the Major's head, and Bond becomes a character we see from afar.
I agree, although CS starts great.
If I were to include it in my ranking, I would rank Per Fine Ounce higher than it. What let PFO down, at least in the 2nd Edition which I have, was the abysmal lack of editing throughout the book. If I talked about it all day, but you wouldn't believe me until you read it yourself. I could overlook one or two mistakes, but not when it's at least one mistake per chapter.
:))
Yes I know what you mean. That was my experience when reading it too. It feels like a battle, a struggle to digest it properly. I often found myself re-reading several sentences again as they didn't communicate effectively first time round.
Bit of a rubbish secret agent then! :)
To be fair, he gave up doing that at the end of the novel Casino Royale. ;)
I wonder if there will references/homages to Skyfall and No Time To Die, based on how Bond’s world has changed around him. I am curious as to what Anthony Horowitz has thought of Daniel Craig’s 5 films.
I don't know what it is. It's not the violence, I have seen and read worse.
I plan on reading the Bond books again in the coming weeks (I had started them earlier this year, but had to put them on the back burner when I moved). Whether it will be 3rd times the charm, or another tedious read, we'll see.