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Heres my ranking (with appropriate gaps to simulate the drop off in quality).
1. Nobody Lives Forever
2. Licence Renewed
3. No Deals Mr Bond
4. For Special Services
5. Role Of Honour
6. Win Lose or Die
7. Death Is Forever
8. Scorpius
9. Icebreaker
10. The Man From Barbarossa
11. Brokenclaw
12. Seafire
13. Never Send Flowers
14. Cold (Cold Fall)
The last 3 in particular I remember as being appaling. I notice that although our rankings are broadly similar you have Seafire relatively high up. What was it about? Only read it once and all I can remember it it read like a fan fiction effort and was pretty dismal. What are your reasons for elevating it above Icebreaker and Death is Forever?
our rankings are broadly similar you have Seafire relatively high up. What was
it about? Only read it once and all I can remember it it read like a fan fiction
effort and was pretty dismal. What are your reasons for elevating it above
Icebreaker and Death is Forever?
Seafire while deeply flawed at least is written in the formula of the earlier Gardner efforts and a final memory of better efforts, the novels I've listed below it especially 'Death is Forever' suffer from a bored Gardner's attempt to experiment with the formula and create books that suffer greatly from having too little involvement from Bond and story structure that is highly unsuitable for a Bond adventure. Icebreaker while admittedly is more of a traditional 'Gardner Bond' adventure story it suffers greatly from highly implausible multi characters constantly swapping and re swapping sides. For the record I don't think Seafire is very good and agree with you that it reads like 'dismal fan fiction', it's just unfortunately still much better than some of his other attempts...IMHO of course. :)
For Special Services
License Renewed
Nobody Lives Forever (actually I can't really decide which ranks higher, LR or NLF)
Scorpius
No Deals Mr Bond
Role of Honour
Win Lose or Die
Icebreaker
Never Send Flowers
Death Is Forever
The Man From Barbarossa
Seafire
Cold
Brokenclaw
http://www.klast.net/bond/nov_gard.html
It surprises me he gave Win Lose or Die 4.5/5. I would give this novel 3/5 at best. There are some good scenarios but it lacks suspense. The end scene on the ship is too rushed.
I can't wait to reread the Gardner novels, actually, and read the ones I missed from the 90's.
Bond is wholled up in the villain's headquarters where he is disguised as a camera man. This part drags a bit. I think I recall the other parts of the book being more exciting. Quite possibly it could rank a little higher on my list. I would have to read this book and three or four of his others that I also don't remember as well, again. The top 5 books and bottom 3 books on my list are definitely accurate in terms of their ranking.
Yes, I think TMFB would have to atleast rank higher than Death is Forever now that I think about it again.
1. Nobody Lives Forever (phenomenal!! One of my absolute favorite novels written for the Bond canon.)
2. SeaFire
3. For Special Services
4. Win, Lose or Die
5. Never Send Flowers
6. Role of Honour
7. Death is Forever
8. Licence Renewed
9. Cold
10. No Deals, Mr. Bond
11. Scorpius
12. The Man from Barbarossa
13. Brokenclaw
This probably will change when I start my Gardner marathon, but only by a few spaces or so!
Apologies Saunders, I've been a poor apprentice..... I promise to try harder and do a re read (although because of a different thread of yours, I started Benson (spit) afresh...)
1. For Special Services
2. Licence Renewed
3. Icebreaker
4. Nobody Lives Forever
5. No Deals Mr Bond
6. Role Of Honour
7. Win Lose or Die
8. Scorpius
9. Death Is Forever
10. Seafire
11. Never Send Flowers
12. The Man From Barbarossa
13. Brokenclaw
14. Cold Fall
I'm also struggling to get through Raymond Benson's (spit!) first effort 'Zero Minus Ten' but I'll save slagging it off for the other thread. :)
I don't remember having this problem the first time around, but I suppose that was a lot of years ago now.
Also, finishing it will force me to read the next... and the next... even though I don't want to...
Might just go back and read Gardner instead, at least until Carte Blanche.
Or there's always Hatfield's 'Killing Zone'......
I have to admit to my deep shame I neither own nor have ever read 'The Killing Zone', I've found a website that has the whole book to read on screen, but the completest in me needs a real copy. So if anyone knows where I can buy/steal/kill for one, please let me know as it's my most sought after Bond item.
The sad part is, of my whole Bond collection that's the item I paid the most money for!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/12/john-demjanjuk-convicted-_n_860960.html?ncid=webmail
Right out of the book!
I want to find the Pearson "bio" after I finish this one...
For Special Services
No Deals Mr Bond
Role Of Honour
Icebreaker
Win, Lose or Die
Nobody Lives Forever
Death Is Forever
Scorpius
Seafire
The Man From Barbarossa
Never Send Flowers
Brokenclaw
Cold Fall
I don't think he "destroyed" the image of Bond. He simply made the books a little more realistic in terms of Bond's follies, adapting his habits for the more health conscious eighties when the dangers of smoking and drinking too much were more readily apparent. Certainly there are downsides to his novels. One example is the Saab which I'm not a fan of and Brokenclaw is certainly the worst Bond novel for me. Don't like it at all. Half of them are thoroughly enjoyable books however with some very Bondian moments but with less drinking and smoking (albeit it would have been nicer if he had have drunk a little more). Deaver has cut out the smoking too. There are other facets to Bond's personality aside for the drinking and smoking which Gardner did not overlook. "Destroy" is something he didn't do. That's much too harsh a word. I would pick a Gardner book over Faulks's or Bensons's fan fiction anyday. Amis's Colonel Sun is overrated I feel. It drags in the second half. A third of the Gardner books outrank it in my opinion.
I finally got a hold of JB and Moonraker by Christopher Wood through Amazon. Looking forward to reading this. Wood's TSWLM is on it's way. Don't know why I didn't order these books ages ago! :)
If Deaver does a good job with this book I'm going to wish he would write all of the Bond books! I reckon Samantha Weinberg would be a good choice. Loved her Moneypenny Diaries.
Alright, back to John Gardner... ;-)