58 replies to this topic

[Xenobia]

Wait a minute, you own 8 copies yet you have not read it yet!?

LOL.

Pathetic, I know.

I will start reading it this weekend, I promise.

Hmmm...I hope one of those 8 are an acceptable "reading copy."

Dude...you have eight copies of a book you have not read?

I love you...but seek help.

-- Xen

[Qwerty]

but seek help.

NO WAY! Cheers for buying them all!

[Tanger]

I decided to go back to this book after being away from it for a few weeks and I zipped right through from chapter 6 to chapter 11. I'm thoroughly enjoying it now and am really into it. I definitely recommend it!

[Atticus17F]

Yeah, I was prompted to re-read it again after this thread. Some parts of it confuse me, though, and I can't see Pearson's reasons behind them. The little things, like having Bond born in Germany and moving Aunt Charmian's cottage from "hard by" The Duck Inn, to "a few hundred yards from" The Duck Inn. And for no good reason, as far as I can tell. I've visited that pub and the only houses around the area are huge, very expensive properties, not humble cottages by any stretch.

Sloppy research or just Pearson's way of emphasising that the "real" Bond has only subtle differences from the literary one?

[deth]

well, I'm nearly finished it now........ I am enjoying it......... but I don't like how Pearson is making almost every Bond book into a totally real event. We KNOW that they aren't, so it's stupid to even pretend. In fact, Pearson contradicts things he writes in his Fleming bio as a result, which is unfortunate, and takes away some of the realism of this book.

[Tanger]

You just have to treat it as fiction deth. I've really gotten into this book. I can't stop reading it. It's so good that I think once I've finished it, I'll read it again so I get any bits that I missed or might have forgotten.

Also deth, not all of the assignments are "real". Moonraker was completely made up, to keep up the pretence that Bond was a fictional character. I like the way that Pearson sets some of the short stories at an earlier period too, stating that Fleming changed the time periods to suit his own chronology. That was quite clever I felt.

[zencat]

I'm reading this book now and I'm really enjoying it!

[Tanger]

I finished this on Wednesday. Boy was it a good read. By the ending, I got the feeling that Pearson was planning a Volume 2 as very little info is given on the Colonel Sun mission and there were still a few questions unanswered. Also he probably would have covered the mission that Bond was leaving for at the end (I won't spoil it for you Zen ) and a few others perhaps. It certainly seemed as though the story was incomplete.

[Blofeld's Cat]

By the ending, I got the feeling that Pearson was planning a Volume 2 as very little info is given on the Colonel Sun mission and there were still a few questions unanswered.

Perhaps Glidrose only allowed him to cover the Flemings, but he included these little loose ends in the hope there was to be a vol. 2. Either way, they were allowed to stay in the final print.

Mind you, at that time there was only one continuation novel so a vol. 2 was most likely not on the cards anyway.

I've got the first Pan edition paperback sitting right in front of me, and as I've just started re-reading the Flemings in uninturupted order, I may just read the odd early chapter or two to see what Charlie Higson may end up writing about.

[zencat]

Half way through...this book is freakin' excellent!

[trevanian]

It is strange how the first book you read on a subject helps form the impression for all time. Even though GOLDFINGER in the theater is one of my first memories from just before turning 4, I really started getting into Bond in my early teens (early 70s) ... the Pearson was the FIRST Bond book I read, even before finding all the Flemings at various used bookstores.

As a result, the single sentence that sticks in my mind about Bond most is from Pearson, a description (I'm paraphrasing from memory) that had him as a man who knew pain, and was wary of its return. A pretty far cry from Moore's portrayal, but something that really hit home with me when Dalton got in.

The one part I really liked about Pearson was that he had a showdown between Bond and the SMERSH guy who cut him in CR. That's probably the one element that would HAVE to be added if QT actually got to adapt CR as a Fleming-heavy Bond film, some kind of payoff with the SMERSH guy (perhaps Bond would encounter and kill him, then return to the villa and find Vesper having committed suicide in his absence, that way the film could still end with, "The Bitch is dead."
(I know, I'm dreaming, but I'd really like a faithful CR adaptation.)

[zencat]

Well said, trevanian.

Welcome to CBn.

[SnakeEyes]

They would never in 1 million years, paid a million pounds per year, end a Bond film with 'The bitch is dead'; heck, they probably wouldn't dare kill the Bond girl after OHMSS...

I would so totaly love it, but it's just a painfully false dream

[Blofeld's Cat]

The one part I really liked about Pearson was that he had a showdown between Bond and the SMERSH guy who cut him in CR.

I'm currently reading Casino Royale for the first time in 30 years and I've just read up to this part of the book. What an interesting episode for Pearson to create a denouement for. Excellent!

Welcome to CBn Trevanian. Are you a fan of the author?

[trevanian]

Yeah, I've been reading Trevanian avidly since catching hold of THE MAIN around 1979 or so. Read and loved SHIBUMI and the SANCTION books right away, then was blown away by SUMMER OF KATYA (even spent awhile trying to find money to option the film rights during a period of delusional optimism.)

Kind of a reasonable outgrowth, since I had plowed through Bond a few years earlier in my mid teens, when I made my obligatory Super-8 Bond parody mini-epic. I also remember really liking early NOVEMBER MAN spy novels as well, as well as a pair of spy novels HAMLET WARNING and HAMLET ULTIMATUM that greatly influenced some of my own early attempts at writing, but Trevanian I just kept rereading and re-enjoying.

Only just came across info on his real name (rod whitaker) and the fact he publishes occasionally under another name )Nic Seare, I think) ... am intrigued by but dread reading the Seare work, cuz I have no idea if it measures up to the 'Trevanian' standard. Might be a kind of Richard Bachman/Stephen King thing (but in that instance, I always figure whether it is King writing as Bachman or King writing as King, it is King borrowing heavily from Richard Matheson.)

[deth]

You just have to treat it as fiction deth.
Also deth, not all of the assignments are "real". Moonraker was completely made up, to keep up the pretence that Bond was a fictional character. I like the way that Pearson sets some of the short stories at an earlier period too, stating that Fleming changed the time periods to suit his own chronology. That was quite clever I felt.

of course, of course....... I realise that. But still, I think a bit more consideration should have gone into making Bond a REAL character....... not just slightly different but almost the same as Fleming's. I mean....... common....... THUNDERBALL...... everyone knows the story behind that........ it's ridiculous to even pretend that it's a totally real event.


That said, I think the stuff about M is good....... even if I disagree about the choice to actually include "M"...... I think it should have been somebody else........ perhaps "C" (which, I believe is what the actual head of SIS is called)

[Cesari]

I realy love this book. Excepted the story of M being blackmailed about a picture of him nude!! Pfff!!!!

[Xenobia]

I have read it. Some parts of it are cool, some parts of it are not, but it is definitely worth the read.

-- Xenobia

[Qwerty]

All of it....no.

As soon as I get the chance, I'm going to buy a first edition of it on eBay.

[Blofeld's Cat]

I voted "yes," but as it was 30 years ago I don't remember a thing about it now other than when someone mentions something in the forums that jogs my memory.

I plan to re-read it after all the Flemings and Colonel Sun.

How's the book zencat? Is it a worthy Bond novel or is it more a fun curiosity in the world of the literary Bond?

[Bon-san]

Read it. Liked it a lot.

[deth]

it's worthy of being called a Bond novel, even if some parts are rather lame and totally uncredible.

[zencat]

How's the book zencat? Is it a worthy Bond novel or is it more a fun curiosity in the world of the literary Bond?

Yes, I think it very worthy of being called a Bond novel. It right up there with my favorite continuation novels. I love it!

(btw, when I merges these topics I lost the poll -- in case you were wondering.)

[Tanger]

...I think it very worthy of being called a Bond novel. It right up there with my favorite continuation novels. I love it!

I'm so thrilled you said that Zencat! I feel exactly the same way, I'd definitely count it as a continuation novel.
It's only a shame that many other people here don't like it that much.

[zencat]

...I think it very worthy of being called a Bond novel. It right up there with my favorite continuation novels. I love it!

I'm so thrilled you said that Zencat! I feel exactly the same way, I'd definitely count it as a continuation novel.
It's only a shame that many other people here don't like it that much.

This thread inspired me to read it, and now review it. I just threw up a little review/overview on the main page HERE.

I really think this book needs to be rediscovered (or in most cases, discovered!) by Bond fans.

[Tanger]

Dr. Shatterhand has expanded his literary section over at the Botanical Garden to include this. He scored it a 9/10 and seems to agree with me and you zencat, that it should be considered a proper continuation novel.

[zencat]

Dr. Shatterhand has expanded his literary section over at the Botanical Garden to include this. He scored it a 9/10 and seems to agree with me and you zencat, that it should be considered a proper continuation novel.

That Dr. Shatterhand is a smart man. We're also going to be adding a section on this book.

[Tanger]

It's shocking that there wasn't one before.

[Qwerty]

Well I think 007: A report and Kingsley's Amis's book served as this sort of book up until Pearson's.