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
Just finished DAF. Slightly a step down from the first 3 books, namely in the main villains department. However, it definitely has the strongest written Bond Woman at this point. EON should definitely use the handcar on the train tracks at some point in the future!
AVTAK?
For all it's fault, I really love TMWTGG. Maybe because of its faults? I love how Bond tries to kill M at the beginning, and then the more stripped down story-telling that leads to the one on one battle between Bond and Scaramanga.
I really do love it!
I had gotten back into Bond through a combination of hype for NTTD and somehow finding the Dynamite Bond comics. After I've read those, including Casino Royale and LALD, I thought I should go for the novels. With CR being the first, I thought I should start there, but after finishing that I felt the comic adaptation was quite close, so I jumped the LALD novel and went straight to MR. Loved that, so DAF and FRWL soon followed. Starting DN with the Strangways murder and then Quarrel entering the scene I felt I missed a connection to the characters, somehow.
So now I'm back to LALD the novel (currently in Big's office and Solitaire has just entered the picture) and technically 4 or 5 chapters into DN, although I will start that fresh once I'm done with the earlier book.
I love that brief glimpse that Bond gets of Mr. Big in the back of the car (being driven about my a woman decked out in full chauffeur uniform); I keep picturing Big as Bill Duke (but with paler skin and a larger head)...
I have included this into my Bondathon, even though it is more of an oddity than a legitimate part of the cannon. My 2nd attempt, and I don't believe I got this far the last time. I have never read a book before with so many mistakes. One or two... ok, but this is starting to take the proverbial.
Finished today. I have never read a book that was so riddled with grammar errors and contradictions. The thing is, I actually enjoyed the story, and the character of Peace. I also liked the villain of the book having some unusual pets. If this became a series, I would follow it. But the ammount of mistakes.... it boggles the mind. Someone should lose their job. It is such a popr quality that if it were a plane, the pilot would nose dive into the ground, right after takeoff.
I would assume a lot of ink (or pixels or whatever) has been spilled about LALD from the perspective of the modern reader. All I am going to add to this is that I find the way Fleming writes what I assume to be Jive or something (?) and other ethnic dialects (specifically Quarrel's) to be really hard to read. Not because I have some moral problem with it, just straight up understanding what people are saying is hard sometimes. Well I also wince a bit at the extreme othering of black and other minority characters, but I just accept that as Fleming in the 50s just portraying the massive gulf between the life he led (and ergo Bond leads) and what he perceived the lives of others to be.
Other than that I mostly enjoyed the book, but would say that my original thought was correct that the comic adaption is faithful enough to the novel (at least in the text, that specific book has some weird picture/text differences, but here is not really the place to discuss that).
So now I'm back with Dr. No with the slightly strange added effect, that in my botched reading order, was basically just in Jamaica in LALD and all the "ah yes that treasure business five years ago" comments are slightly funny. I again have the small problem with understanding Quarrel sometimes, but other than that I like the set-up so far.
And which one is that?
I have to say even though reading contemporary reviews of the book showing a very hostile reception, I probably enjoyed it now more than the first time.
I wasn't around when Fleming published his books so the narrative of negativity doesn't really make sense to me. Much like how some of my favourite Agatha Christie novels on Hercule Poirot were panned by reviewers at the time.
I think 'the spy who loved me' as a stand-alone spy thriller would be greatly received in today's era. I have read several spy thrillers like this where the hero does not appear until well into the book. It would make a good movie in a faithful adaptation if you ask me.
The rest of Moonraker delivered for me. Both adaptations were fantastic. TSWLM provided more backstory, deviations from the film, but MR delivered as well. Was surpised with how straight MR read and not silly, despite the novel playing out very similar to the film. I give TSWLM an A- and MR a B grade.
I just wrapped up Moonraker too. Wood's greatest strength and weakness are one and the same: his elaborate descriptive writing. When he's on, he's really on (much of The Spy Who Loved Me for instance). But when he's writing with his left hand or creatively tapped, those pages upon pages of tedious description can make the experience a chore (much of the latter half of Moonraker in particular). His tendency toward hyperbole can spill over into the absurd at times as well, as in Moonraker's "Her smile challenged the sun." But when Wood is in top form, his style makes for an engaging read.
Didn’t Saltzman want that to be film for 1971 and not diamonds?
Also still on Death is forever it’s actually kind of interesting I am realizing later gardener is better then early Gardner
I reeally liked DN. The sequences after they get captured by the dragon are really good and I like the weird "clinic" cover. Nice shift in mood and really disconcerting to go from the fight with the dragon and Quarell's death to suddenly being in the lobby of an upscale spa. The good Doctor's challenge run is also a really good read.
Goldfinger is probably the "classic" film I know the best, so for me a lot of intrigue came from recognition or difference. I must say, I sometimes find it hard seperating the villains in the books. Of course, I often have the actors who portrayed them in my minds eye, but to me they often read very similar. Am I wrong or is Goldfinger's speech about achievements in crime very similar to somthing Mister Big says in LALD?
As for the rest of GF. I liked it, although I felt it has lengths in the third section. Operation Grand Slam itself is over so quickly, it feels a bit weird. Although the feeling evoked during the "Journey into Holocaust"-chapter is quite chilling.
Of course the overt racism and the ideas about sexuality are annoying, but easy enough to just breeze past in these two.
So, on to For Your Eyes Only. The first of the books, where I have no idea what's coming..
GF is my favourite book. FYEO starts off weak, but each short story is better than the previous, and so it ends on a very strong, high note.
This third novel is really showing a writer coming into his own.
I do believe that is correct. I might be wrong, but I think Brocolli wanted to adapt Colonel Sun, but Saltzman blackballed the idea. Then when Saltzman wanted to adapt Per Fine Ounce, Brocolli blackballed that. I think this is mentioned in one chapter of Some Kind Of Hero.
I am still reading Colonel Sun. I am struggling to stick with it. I am not giving up, as I have only a few chapters left, so I am nearly done with it.
I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts when you're finished. I re-read Colonel Sun myself this past summer. Amis did some bold things with his one crack at 007, but it's not without its faults.
I don't know if you felt this way, @MajorDSmythe, but a lot of people seem to find the middle section of the novel set on board The Altair to be where the story loses steam somewhat. You could say that Amis is all at sea at that point in the novel. ;)
I think they may be on to something with that. In any event, I still consider Colonel Sun to be the best Bond continuation novel of them all by a wide margin.