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Is "Colonel Sun" the single greatest Bond novel ever written?


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#1 Loomis

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Posted 20 August 2003 - 02:42 PM

Having recently re-read it, after reading all the Flemings (but admittedly only one Gardner and four Bensons), I've come to the conclusion that it may very well be.

It's a gripping thriller brilliantly written (Amis' writing skills were far above those of Gardner, Benson and even Fleming), with all the tough, violent thrills one expects of a great Bond book, but without the boorishness and digressions often found in Fleming.

Amis' use of locations is superb - one finishes the book with the feeling that one has learned a great deal about Greece and the Greeks. The violence is still unsettling, and - while lacking the explicit prose of Benson's "Never Dream of Dying" (thank God) - "Colonel Sun" must surely be the sexiest Bond novel ever.

What really stakes a claim for the book, though, is the characterization. Even the minor characters are three-dimensional and memorable. Sun is a disgusting and terrifying villain, Ariadne a desirable and resourceful heroine (and is she the first ever "kick-***" Bond girl? She calls another woman a "bitch" and punches her out - very Jinx, no?), and Litsas a splendid ally. As for Bond, Amis gives us a more introspective and sympathetic character than the unthinking, coldhearted hero of the Fleming novels or the cardboard action hero of most of the films and many of the other continuation novels. (It's the Bond that Brosnan and Purvis & Wade seem determined to give us, except their efforts are hamfisted.)

#2 Loomis

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Posted 27 August 2003 - 03:30 PM

Bump. Is no one with me on the all-conquering majesty of "Colonel Sun"?

#3 Mister Asterix

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Posted 27 August 2003 - 03:54 PM

I didn’t think Amis quite caught the Bond novel feel or the element of the bizarre. That said Colonel Sun is a great Bond book and on par with many Fleming novels.

#4 Loomis

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Posted 27 August 2003 - 06:12 PM

Originally posted by Mister Asterix

I didn’t think Amis quite caught the Bond novel feel or the element of the bizarre. That said Colonel Sun is a great Bond book and on par with many Fleming novels.  


It lacks the wild and woolly fantastical elements often found in Fleming, but bizarreness is certainly provided (although not perhaps in the same large, strong measure as Fleming would have provided it) by Sun, a man of almost superhuman physical resilience who tarts up his games of torture with pseudo-intellectual babble. But, yes, Amis' writing style doesn't really echo Fleming's (not, of course, that it ought to have done).

Neither does Amis' Bond echo Fleming's, or at any rate Fleming's Bond pre-"You Only Live Twice". Evidently, Amis really took account of Fleming's final three novels, which is another thing I love about "Colonel Sun".

#5 Mister Asterix

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Posted 27 August 2003 - 06:30 PM

Originally posted by Loomis (edited)
Neither does Amis' Bond echo Fleming's, or at any rate Fleming's Bond pre-"You Only Live Twice". Evidently, Amis really took account of Fleming's final three novels, which is another thing I love about "Colonel Sun".


Very true. Amis’ Bond is definitely a post You Only Live Twice Bond. Amis kept the character changes that Fleming was developing. It does feel that there is something missing though with Colonel Sun. It’s not Amis’ fault, but it felt like Fleming had some change planned Bond—some crucial moment in Bond’s life—for the book to follow The Man With The Golden Gun and it just doesn’t happen in Colonel Sun. I wish Amis would have picked up on that. Or maybe it’s just me.

#6 Loomis

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Posted 27 August 2003 - 06:48 PM

Originally posted by Mister Asterix

It’s not Amis’ fault, but it felt like Fleming had some change planned Bond—some crucial moment in Bond’s life—for the book to follow The Man With The Golden Gun and it just doesn’t happen in Colonel Sun. I wish Amis would have picked up on that. Or maybe it’s just me.


Ah, yes, the question that will forever remain unanswered: what (if anything) had Fleming planned for James Bond? A second marriage? Being reunited with Kissy Suzuki and his son? Very serious injury? Death?

Maybe Amis did kick around some ideas for something big to happen to Bond, but Glidrose wouldn't allow them - I'd find that very easy to believe (apparently, John Gardner wanted to use the James Suzuki character but Glidrose wouldn't let him).

Or perhaps, out of respect for Fleming, Amis decided not to attempt to write the sort of life-changing episodes for Bond that Fleming might have written.

#7 sharpshooter

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Posted 15 February 2008 - 06:33 AM

Colonel Sun is an absolutely brilliant novel. I agree with Loomis's assessment.

#8 Skudor

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Posted 15 February 2008 - 07:03 AM

I've only read Colonel Sun once, and haven't been able to read a Fleming in a while (all still boxed up in the loft!) - but I have to admit that I wasn't too impressed with Amis's efforts. It's not bad, but it lacked something to really make me go 'wow'.

Having said, that, I think some of the action in the books is very well written and executed - in particular the kidnapping at the beginning and Bond's surveillance of Sun's house.

I wasn't at all impressed with Ariadne.

#9 Loomis

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Posted 15 February 2008 - 12:28 PM

Funny to see this thread resurrected after nearly five years. Don't know what I was on about when I wrote of "the unthinking, coldhearted hero of the Fleming novels" and implied that Fleming's Bond wasn't particularly introspective or sympathetic - in the Fleming novels he's often both.

Still love COLONEL SUN, though, and hold it in higher regard than any of the other continuation novels, although I've a strong feeling that DEVIL MAY CARE will be even better.

#10 MarcAngeDraco

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Posted 15 February 2008 - 01:03 PM

I personally rate Colonel Sun as the best continuation novel (by far), and would even rate it above a number of Fleming's novels.

If you have avoided the continuation novels for any reason, I'd very strongly suggest giving Colonel Sun a shot.

#11 ACE

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Posted 15 February 2008 - 07:07 PM

I wonder if anyone out there thinks that only Kingsley Amis writing as Robert Markham writing as Ian Fleming could have written as superb a continuation Bond novel as Colonel Sun was in 1968? After all, who else could have done and done it better? Surely no one... Certainly, no-one knew their Bond as well as Amis and was as good a writer.