31 replies to this topic

[AMC Hornet]

Without listing them all, I would rank Licence Renewed very highly as a perfect reintroduction of 007 in the eighties (Benson's Zero Minus Ten ranks just as highly in the same category). About Win, Lose or Die I would say what reviewers said about OHMSS at the time of its release: "(John Gardner) has never written anything better."

Next comes Nobody Lives Forever, Icebreaker Scorpius and Brokenclaw.

Of course I don't expect anyone to concur with my ranking, or with my assertion that For Special Services and Benson's The Facts of Death both suffered from the same '"overdose of bombois" (I can see the reps at Glidrose/IFP telling the authors "your first book was great! For the next one let's see more of this and this and this..." These could be the same people who encouraged EON to make Moonraker 'bigger' than TSWLM).

[dlb007]

Gardner is a writer that definitely had a roller-coaster run as the Bond novelist, but for the most part I think he did a pretty good job. Updating Bond was the right way to go and he did it rather well. I appreciated that Bond had a little tradecraft. I think we can all agree that the names of some of his characters and his repetitive plots were one of the downsides, apart from not a single memorable villain. Having finished my rant, I'd say that for me, For Special Services was my favorite Gardner. I would have liked a more fitting ending or at least for Spectre to play a bigger role in his series. Instead, it feels like he was told, "Include Spectre, because it could help sell a few more books." Overall, I enjoyed Gardner's series of Bond novels. It is much more easier to appreciate Gardner if you don't compare him to Fleming, which he thankfully never set out to be.