8 replies to this topic

[Qwerty]

How old were you when you first read John Gardner's SeaFire, one of the recent selections in the mblbc.gif. Was it your first Gardner Bond book?

Like many of the other Gardner Bond books, I picked this one up (a US Berkley paperback) in a nearby bookstore sometime around 2004 or so. As this was his second last Bond novel, I ended up holding onto it for a while since I wanted to try and go through the Gardner era in a relatively chronological order.

Although it seems to get it's fair share of criticism amnongst Bond fans (like pretty much every other Bond novel in the second half of Gardner's run), I actually rank it as one of his better ones. The plot wasn't too convoluted and Sir Max Tarn was one of the more memorable villains.

Certainly worth a re-read here and there.

And you?

[quantumofsolace]

It was late 96 or early 97 when i got a copy from the library. I'd seen all the films but only read one other Gardner and no Fleming novels. When I took it back there was another Gardner Bond returned on the shelf, so i borrowed that and enjoyed it. I can't remember which one it was but this was enough to get me buying all the Bond books. I've got them all now and have read them all and enjoyed them all.
So, Gardner was very important for me because without him I wouldn't have ever read Higson or perhaps even Fleming. I think the early Gardner books are good and I go back to them often.
As for SeaFire? It is decent but like most of his latter Bond efforts, i don't think he wanted to be doing this anymore. It's readable because he was too good an author to write a bad novel but it's nothing memorable.

[MkB]

I think I read it two years ago, at 29, quite early in my process of discovering the literary Bond, and it must have been one of the first Gardners, if not the first. I had decided to read the Fleming novels in chronological order, but for the continuation novels I had no rule except to read what I could grab.

[Qwerty]

Bumping this one up.

[dogmanstar]

I'm pretty sure Seafire is either the last or one of the last Gardner books I read. So, I would say I was 33 or 34--I remember being reasonably impressed. The mood was pretty good, a lot of tension in the novel. Didn't care for Flicka, though.

[dee-bee-five]

I can't recall how old I was but, hell, I sure felt that I'd aged considerably while so doing. Of all the Gardner abominations, I feel this was one of the worst.

[dogmanstar]

I can't recall how old I was but, hell, I sure felt that I'd aged considerably while so doing. Of all the Gardner abominations, I feel this was one of the worst.

Really? I thought the Man From Barbarossa was worse and the one that ends at Disney--which one was that?

And No Deals, Mr. Bond--blech.

Edited by dogmanstar, 11 December 2008 - 11:08 PM.

[dee-bee-five]

I can't recall how old I was but, hell, I sure felt that I'd aged considerably while so doing. Of all the Gardner abominations, I feel this was one of the worst.

Really? I thought the Man From Barbarossa was worse and the one that ends at Disney--which one was that?

And No Deals, Mr. Bond--blech.

The Disney one was Never Send Flowers, wasn't it? I forget because I found them all pretty dreadful and haven't read any of them for years.

[00Twelve]

Not sure yet, but I'll guess somewhere around 37.