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[Harry Fawkes]

Assault

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[spoiler]The alarm clock shattered the silence by going off at precisely seven o

[Harry Fawkes]

H A R R Y F A W K E S

T R O O 7 U B L E S H O O 7 T E R

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[size=5]A Daring Kidnap

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[chrisno1]

Dear Harry,

I love reviving old threads! Not much to do between Murray winning the tennis and the first semi final of the Africa Cup of Nations, so I read Spearhead.

I won’t go into huge detail, Harry, but I really enjoyed this. It didn’t have much of a Fleming stance to it; indeed, other than Bond being the central character, it hardly read like a 007 story. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

For me, I was most reminded of the war novels of Alistair MacLean (e.g. Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare) which feature a clear mission and a hero at odds with himself and the nasty business of death and destruction. You captured that 100%.

There was also a fine introduction to Col Jackson (later your M) and I enjoyed the scene between him and Sir Miles.

I felt the romance was a little out of place, but it didn’t hurt the piece.

I thought you caught the dread of anticipation and the chaos of battle really well.

The high body count, while distressing, clarified the horror of combat and the hard, almost callous attitude of the men who are the weapons of war. I loved the succinct way Bond simply says “don’t think about it” when the team consider the number of corpses.

Over all Spearhead was a very fine piece. Thanks.

Chris.