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Skeletons of Yesterday


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#31 Trident

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Posted 27 November 2008 - 05:40 PM

I have tinkered with it a bit; not radically but a lickle bick of tweaking.



Why the hell did you do that? To annoy me? Make my day a visit to the dentist? With root-canal treatment? You ought to know that I was about to review it (*wads all his previous 296 pages of notes, quotes, comparisons, gives them a Mathis-treatment in the wastpaper bin and sets again to work on a daunting task*).


Grammatical errors only. Something was irritating me.


Next time, you tell me before my drooling dog decides to chew on my notes. Have to dry the slobber and iron them now.

Ok, I'll publish by Sunday or perish by Monday...


Btw: he found 'Skeletons of Yesterday' tasty. :(

#32 Trident

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Posted 30 November 2008 - 07:56 PM

Ok, I'll publish by Sunday or perish by Monday...



Edit: I'll publish by Sunday Tuesday or perish by Monday Wednesday...

Sorry, loads of presents to buy, wrap, give, get, unwrap and trash. But Wednesday it is at the latest, I assure you, cross my heart, big promise,...,...,...,

#33 Trident

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Posted 02 December 2008 - 05:36 PM

Now, here is something, finally, that I’ve really wanted to do already since last August. You may ask now what kept me from doing so? Well, actually, reviewing one of Jim’s works is in itself a daunting prospect. Daunting, because there really, really is so much symbolism, so many allusions, such a trail of innuendo to be found in his pieces that you may read them five times and still can have the distinctive feeling to have missed a vital part of his intellectual cat-and-mouse play, finding yourself all of a sudden in the role of the mouse. Daunting, because his pieces are so excellently written that I feel…, no, not just feel, rather am. Am incompetent to review them. Jim offers such a high level of literacy, such a playful easiness in his infinitely complex language, that there really is no question for me. I feel compelled to quit writing fanfic (ha, ha, big deal with barely three sentences under my belt!). Quit writing at all, even shopping lists. Quit for good and kill my time with a Playstation. I mean, what reason is there to keep on? Really, what reason? With Jim somewhere out there, casually punching out these, sometimes short, sometimes novel-length, gems? Bring me my Dual Shock Controller!

But first…


Look in my face; my name is might have been.
(Dante Gabriel Rossetti)


What might have been? Indeed, what if…?

What if Fleming had lived on? Had managed to write some more Bond. Go beyond TMWTGG, or at least go beyond TMWTGG‘s chapter three, as some might have a case claiming the remaining thirteen chapters would have looked entirely different, had Fleming not been fatally ill. What would we have gotten? An older Bond? World-wearier? More cynical? We don’t know. All we can do is speculate.

Really? Well, for me speculating time is over. There is a Bond after TMWTGG, and even if his life isn’t chronicled by Fleming any more, it’s still very much Bond. And I think, once you’ve read ‘Skeletons of Yesterday’, you’ll agree with me. It’s Jim’s very own version, yet it also is Bond, beyond a doubt.

Now, in particular, what do I get in ‘Skeletons of Yesterday’?

You get:

A meditation on the subject of change in one of the best Bond-ponders-his-surroundings-in-general-and-life-in-particular scenes I’ve ever read (surpasses ‘Goldfinger’s IMHO)

An invitation to the canteen on the eighth floor of that tall grey building overlooking Regents Park (‘factory of deception and death‘, wonder what passers-by would make of that if the UNIVERSAL EXPORTS plate was replaced with this description? ); a place normally not accessible to us ordinary mortals, where you can observe your tax money having its lunch break and cigarettes.

Another glimpse on the nature of Bond’s paperwork. A disturbing glimpse, keeping the reader (and Bond) alternately intrigued, appalled and fascinated in equal measures; two back stories that itself are sufficient material for a novel.

A truly brilliant character study, based on appearance, bearing and language that is by and far one of the best supporting characters I’ve read about. A particularly nice touch is Bond’s immediate disgust on what he realizes could easily become himself in a matter of years. And his forgiving mildness towards the same character once he catches a glimpse of his past.

An ingenious little criminal plot that is all the more fascinating as the very same plot is played today in every supermarket between here and Hammersmith on all of us!

The most unlikely confession scene in any Bond story, with M being the one confessing, Bond the confessor and an only too true WWII story the sin that needs more than just remission. Also a small indication of M’s WWI experience in the Jutland battle.

A nasty little secret, kept so long in the cupboard that it easily might have become a skeleton over the years. And must become one now very fast.

A Bond covering his :(. Not to aspire higher echelons of the service, but to stay in his current calling, fearing replacement. And ending up saving M’s in the bargain.

A Bond fearing a crisis in faith. Not his own, but M’s faith in his talents.

A Bond scrutinizing his own doubts, satisfied when he decides that these stem only from the details his mission forces upon him. Particularly fitting is the justification ‘He was only obeying orders.’. Most likely, that’s exactly what Stendahl might have said too.

A trip with the tube. Mind the gap!

A revelation. Almost an apparition. In a pair of sliced tyres.

And an end with a beginning.


You also get:

A service that has finally arrived in the trite political reality, M busily covering his very own. An atmosphere of unwelcome change has invaded Bond’s world. And he feels challenged to secure his own place in this world by making himself useful. Useful in the only manner he knows for sure will buy him more time. There is a feeling of depression and deficiency hanging around in Bond’s thoughts. He realizes he may be in need of repair. But in this modern world, repair is no longer an option.

The mission he finally gets is not sufficient to console his current state of mind. Instead, he’s troubled that the chore he’s given his only a minor delivery. There is more to it than meets the eye though. And Bond really has to deal with unexpected things. He does so routinely, even if you can feel a pounding in the temples that suggests anything but cold blood.

In the end Bond finds an excuse. No solace, no salvation. But an excuse. That’s all Bond really needed in the first place.


‘Skeletons of Yesterday’ is a great read. It’s filled to the brim with ingenious little hints most of which I probably missed (see Stendahl/scarlet-black ribbon; thx for the tip!) or misunderstood (the Flagrante in Edgware Road, is it a Chapman/Agent Zigzag reference?), with a rich educated voice that compliments Fleming’s own without condescension or travesty. I’m not exactly able to nail it down with a citation for it‘s certainly not the language, but at times I feel also reminded of Graham Greene. Is it the emphasis on internal life, the sense for omnipresent sin, human deficiency, the religous metaphors? Can’t really put a finger on it. Perhaps all of the above, or nothing.

Anyway, I enormously enjoyed ’Skeletons of Yesterday’. It opens doors, answers questions, shows previously unseen, unsuspected sides of Bond and his world. But actually, it asks more questions than it answers. In showing new sides it also hints at shades in the shadows, in the darkness. It really keeps you wondering. About the tube, about the fate of Stendahl. Most of all, about

The Beginning



#34 Jim

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Posted 03 December 2008 - 07:35 AM

I'm not sure what to say, save that this is extremely kind of you and I'm glad that you enjoyed it. Many thanks!

Actually, that return of the compliment is fundamentally inadequate and I apologise. Bit lost for words.

Can happen.

#35 Trident

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Posted 03 December 2008 - 05:08 PM

I'm not sure what to say, save that this is extremely kind of you and I'm glad that you enjoyed it. Many thanks!


To the contrary, I have to thank you for a great read. Keep going!

Actually, that return of the compliment is fundamentally inadequate and I apologise. Bit lost for words.

Can happen.


LOL! Lost for words. You. And gravity running out of weights...


Btw: Was I right about Eddie Chapman? Or am I already a victim of the fatal internet-disease that sees signs, no rather SIGNS in every second word?

#36 Jim

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Posted 03 December 2008 - 05:34 PM

Btw: Was I right about Eddie Chapman? Or am I already a victim of the fatal internet-disease that sees signs, no rather SIGNS in every second word?


Not one of my more conscious (i.e. contrived) references; very sure it wasn't what I thought I was getting at but a happy little accident if there was an echo.

#37 George88

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Posted 21 February 2010 - 12:00 PM

Another tremendous piece. Will post a review later but am very impressed, again.

#38 Automan

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Posted 21 February 2010 - 12:11 PM

Another tremendous piece. Will post a review later but am very impressed, again.


yeah great piece of writing, sometimes its good to go over the old story to see how they stand up Jim's always do.
a bit like Fleming actually

#39 Jim

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Posted 01 March 2010 - 06:15 PM

Very kind, both of you. I thought people may have forgotten this one. I had.

#40 Jim

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Posted 25 July 2010 - 05:55 PM

As I'm mucking about with covers, thought I would try one for this.

Attached File  12121a.jpg   1.16MB   18 downloads

#41 chrisno1

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Posted 10 October 2010 - 10:31 PM

Always late to the party...

Skeletons of Yesterday

A short story of much depth and insight, Skeletons of Yesterday is much more accessible than The Heart Bleeds Ice, a novella I found too intricate and a shade over indulgent.

Here JIM is telling a short potent story of political intrigue. Bond is at the blunt end of the tale, ordered to hand over the war criminal Stendahl to Mossad or risk his exposure by the Russians, whose tentacles are spreading across London thanks to a pair of gangster brothers, the Peals. While the obvious Kray Twins homage is fun, it is also inconsequential, but it adds flavour to a piece which otherwise might have become rather staid; after all, the story does in the main take place in M’s office and James Bond’s predisposed thoughts.

Once again however, I am battling topsy-turvy emotions regarding JIM’s better than fine prose. His artistry in the sentence is never in doubt. Right from the off, where Bond surveys the staff canteen which “harboured the smells of hurried meals, consumed in the fastest hour of the day amidst rushed office gossip” I understood the world our hero inhabits. He neatly alludes lunchtime chatter to the game of espionage, an “amusing mess of truths that are and truths that should be.” This sets the tone of the story as Bond recognises things are never as they appear be.

So, the man from Customs and Excise is subject to the “well-padded years of London desk living,” yet Bond learns he fought in the war, is impressed by his authoritive manner, the “short gun-spats” of his sentences, and eventually realises the man is still building his future, while he [Bond] is a sinking passenger to his own. A bottle of wine has been relabelled and resold. A respectable import and export company is a front for an ex-SS informer. People’s shoes “tell their own tales,” more so than their faces. Even M’s door has become a phantom, no longer bearing the solid reliable panels that spoke with an “element of certainty, of assurance, about whatever mission he had been given,” no longer the door which says “I’ll be here when you get back.”

While I cannot but admire the myriad of similes and metaphors, and the healthy dosage of alliterative sounds, adjectives, and carefully rhythmic sentences, I still wonder why we need so much detail. This is a very literary form of prose, but I find it points the reader in the direction the author wants you to think, there is little room for doubt in the narrative; what vacillation there is come from Bond’s thoughts and actions, and even then, it is clear agent 007 has a unique defined view of his world, slit eyed almost, and blinkered. It binds him to his work. Death is Bond’s profession so he is incredulous when told not to kill his target: “[It] had been ticking over for too long; now it was time to accelerate. Killing the man, saving M. A reasonable proposal... Bond raged, inwardly. What the hell was this? Had the old man finally lost faith in him?” The wider picture, the shadows of his profession are inconsequential to this James Bond.

Towards the end, as Bond prepares to commit murder, the author shortens the sentences and admirably builds the suspense. Bond himself wants to be “rid of this torpor” and you wonder if the author too has decided to throw off the shackles. Here he allows visible contradictions in both his central character and in the action we read, for it is very unclear how the situation at the underground station has resolved. Bond is unscathed, but what of the young man? It’s curious that while so much of Skeletons of Yesterday is not in doubt, the moment which should crystallise the persona of James Bond is.

There is one paragraph that physically encapsulates Bond’s feelings about the mission and his role in it (“pre-emptive necessity, remove a threat... get the blood running, the oxygen flowing, need to show he can still function... you can feel it now, can’t you, that charge, that current shooting through you...") yet it is possibly the poorest paragraph in the whole story (and that says a lot when the quality is nominally so high) relying on the “clack-clack, clack-clack” of the train for suspense.

There is an add-on, which seems to suggest a turning point for this Bond, a moment when he no longer regards the orders of his superiors as sacred, where betrayal of one’s country, one’s husband, is all “half-truths and whole-lies... the black treachery... a savage mocking of that [wartime-domestic] sacrifice” and this is effective, but feels rather forced. The eventual denouement of the tale never comes and we are left with James Bond angrily drawing his weapon of death, adrenalin rushing.

Sadly, I felt cheated, as I was expecting to discover the aggression and bitter rage that is haunting 007. Instead I was left with the author’s slightly mocking summary: “New rules.” A thriller without the thrills, then. Is there a sequel I need to digest, I ask myself?

Skeletons of Yesterday is well worth a read. It is short, concise and textured. There are moments in the prose when I was smiling at the artistry of a wonderful wordsmith at work, but, like The Heart Bleeds Ice before it, I stumbled at the finish. It didn’t feel like a thriller to me. It has the hallmarks of Chandler about it, the concentration on things, people, surroundings, everything with a meaning and a subtext. It lacks Chandler’s humour and his grip, but it is whole heartedly and vociferously written.

I feel JIM’s soul is in this work, this text, and he’s giving much. My disappointment is possibly in my own expectations, which while admiring what I read, wants the joy, the thrill and the bare faced nakedness of thudding violence. It’s a diverting hour and I’d wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who wants an alternative view to the usual blood and thunder of Fan Fiction. It is shorter and less elaborate than The Heart Bleeds Ice and is far more adroitly concentrated and attentive in its structure and tone.

I enjoyed it and anyone who reads my reviews knows that’s high praise indeed!

#42 George88

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Posted 27 October 2010 - 07:50 AM

While I cannot but admire the myriad of similes and metaphors, and the healthy dosage of alliterative sounds, adjectives, and carefully rhythmic sentences, I still wonder why we need so much detail. This is a very literary form of prose, but I find it points the reader in the direction the author wants you to think, there is little room for doubt in the narrative; what vacillation there is come from Bond’s thoughts and actions, and even then, it is clear agent 007 has a unique defined view of his world, slit eyed almost, and blinkered.


Another really interesting review and one that of itself gives field for discussion. I was going to review Skeletons of Yesterday myself but I think you have drawn out the main points and, indeed, my own extremely positive thoughts about it.

Interesting that you should pick up on the above. However, I think it is Jim playing another little game with his reader . So overpowering, so smothering is the detail and the expression in the first section - and it contains lovely detail and - more than just an abundance of stuff, it is exquisitely written in places - that then, when it comes to the incident in the underground, Jim does indeed let go and it's up to us to draw our own conclusions. Led by the nose, then suddenly abandoned at a key moment. Can't be anything other than deliberate under-detail. The whole piece looks so thought-through, so crafted, that it's not just casual or anaemic writing - it is an entirely intended break in the structure. We are never told whether Bond does or does not kill the man, and the skill is that the remaining parts of the story play out either as a man excited by a kill and re-energised, or a man grateful and thankful for his own mercy - it's a very deft piece of prose that plays out either way. The skill is not so much in the incident but in the aftermath.

It's left to us to decide, based on what we think James Bond to be. There are few answers in re-reading the early part of the piece - evidently Jim does ramp up the torpor and the bleakness in Bond's character to bring the later incident into doubt, but in his ultimate reaction of (for Bond) warmth towards the visitor and his tale, he's not a monster.

The ambiguity is deliberate. I can understand that it will leave people cheated, although I for one was again immensely satisfied by another witty playing with structure and form and tone and mood, another example of this style of distancing the reader (which could become an overplayed hand so it will be interesting to see where Jim goes next). The "mocking summary" encapsulates a lot. For us to get to the "end" and have it established that it was only ever the prologue to some untold adventure is a neat little cliffhanger.

True, for thrills, it's not "He punched the man. The man fell over. The man was dead" sort of rubbish, but as a literary confection hidden inside a spy story, it's rather thrilling to see it done.

Another winner. My one discordant note is that through his three excellent pieces - The Heart Bleeds Ice, this and the mammoth and overwhelming Just Another Kill, Jim has pushed a vision of Bond as a very dark and troubled man. Would be nice to see if something a bit more straightforward is on its way - something akin to the plainer fifties Bonds than the doomy sixties ones?

#43 MkB

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Posted 23 December 2010 - 07:45 PM

chrisno1, your reviews are a highlight of the FanFic forum :tup: