Posted 28 August 2005 - 12:47 PM
A one-off James Bond novel in 2008 for the centenary of Fleming's birth? Written by a big-name author? A (to quote Zoe Watkins of IFP) "major departure from the light-hearted nature of the films" (and of the post-"Colonel Sun" continuation novels?), marking "a return to the dark, complex character of the early novels"* (read: a return to "literary" Bond and "quality" - again, in contrast to the post-CS novels)?
I've been championing precisely that idea for a couple of years here on CBn. Not claiming cause and effect, of course, but it must be pretty rare for a fanboy to get exactly what he's been calling for on a fansite.
Excellent news. Seems a bit strange to get it in 2005, though (has anything ever been announced so early in the world of Bond?), but never mind.
*Not sure that the Bond of "Casino Royale" or "Live and Let Die" is particularly dark or complex - without wishing to come across as dissing Ms Watkins, it sounds a bit like the sort of stuff you hear from people who've never actually read Fleming, e.g. "Fleming wrote serious and ultra-realistic literary fiction about a cold-blooded assassin", but, again, never mind. I guess Fleming's Bond is as dark and complex as all get-out when compared to, say, the hero of "High Time to Kill". As the publication date for this 2008 book draws nearer, no doubt we'll be reading a lot of marketing hype about how terribly gritty and complicated the Flemings were. Am I alone in thinking that CBn's Jim's James Bond character and his 007 fiction (which is more than worthy of publication and may prove superior to what we'll get from IFP in 2008) are considerably darker, more complex, more gritty, more cold-blooded, ruthless assassin, etc. etc. than anything Fleming ever wrote? Actually delivering the qualities ascribed to the Fleming adventures? Or am I just forgetting the Benzedrine-crazed worst excesses of Fleming's Bond, blocking my mind to some truly nasty stuff in the '50s and '60s novels?
