40 replies to this topic

[zencat]

IFP have launched a completely redesigned website. It's very well done with lots of info on ALL the books, etc. Also some good media galleries with pics from the Centenary events, etc.

There's also some intriguing news buried in the new site.

Whilst Ian Fleming Publications generally works in partnership with publishers around the world, in 2008 Ian Fleming’s Bond novels were published in e-book form for the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle in America under Ian Fleming Publications' own imprint, and this year Ian Fleming Publications is producing its own hardback editions of Thrilling Cities and The Diamond Smugglers. More of the titles will be released as e-books this year, and their availability will be extended around the world.

and

Ian Fleming Publications is constantly considering new ways to extend the Bond brand, and plans for James Bond following Ian Fleming’s Centenary are well under way.

"Plans are well under way." I like the sound of that!

Edited by Qwerty, 06 June 2009 - 04:28 PM.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Like the logo.

[zencat]

So what do we think these "plans" are? Young Bond 2? War Bond? More Moneypenny? Devil May Care 2: Electric Boogaloo?

[sharpshooter]

So what do we think these "plans" are? Young Bond 2? War Bond? More Moneypenny? Devil May Care 2: Electric Boogaloo?

Not sure. Hopefully a Young Bond continuation of some sort. We'll have to wait and see.

[[dark]]

Very happy to see Thrilling Cities and The Diamond Smugglers will be republished this year. I suppose it makes sense for IFP to have held off on those releases to give them a bit extra to go with in 2009.

I hope they still use the new cover art that was featured in the Tribute to Ian Fleming gala programme - a nice, classy pair of matching covers.

According to the new site, Thrilling Cities will feature a new introduction by Jan Morris and The Diamond Smugglers will have a new intro by Fergus Fleming. Looking forward to it!

[Byron]

Very happy to see Thrilling Cities and The Diamond Smugglers will be republished this year. I suppose it makes sense for IFP to have held off on those releases to give them a bit extra to go with in 2009.

I hope they still use the new cover art that was featured in the Tribute to Ian Fleming gala programme - a nice, classy pair of matching covers.

According to the new site, Thrilling Cities will feature a new introduction by Jan Morris and The Diamond Smugglers will have a new intro by Fergus Fleming. Looking forward to it!

How about a cheaper copy of "TALK OF THE DEVIL"!!! For those that don't fancy paying megabucks for the ultra rare edition. Or another book on Fleming's journalistic and other work.

Or maybe "Per Fine Ounce" will finally see the light of day.

[marktmurphy]

So what do we think these "plans" are? Young Bond 2? War Bond? More Moneypenny? Devil May Care 2: Electric Boogaloo?

I want War Bond or more from Higson in some way. He's the definitive Bond continuation author for me.
I suppose it's not really surprising that they have plans for James Bond: they don't exactly have too many other money spinners!

[MkB]

I now I'm not with the mainstream of this website, but I'd appreciate a "present days" Bond continuation novel (but no novelisation, please): let's not restrain Bond to the 50s/60s! IMO, there is room for parallel series of Bond continuations, as period pieces like DMC, or as contemporary spy novels. And no, because it's set nowadays it doesn't have to be crap (and vice versa...)!

I'd also like Sam Weinberg to give another try at the Bond universe. I don't think there's room for another Moneypenny book, since she brilliantly concluded the trilogy, but she did such an amazing job with her series that I would like to see what she'd come up with, had she the possibility to have another take on Bond. I'd be really interested if she were to pen an official adult Bond continuation novel!

[Qwerty]

Ian Fleming's 'The Diamond Smugglers' And 'Thrilling Cities' Coming This Year

'...plans for James Bond following Ian Fleming's Centenary are well under way'

[zencat]

Nice roundup of news there Qwerto. Seeing as you point fans to this thread to "vote" on what they'd like to see next, maybe we can work up a poll?

EDIT: Oh, you said "voice", not "vote." Sorry.

[Qwerty]

Nice roundup of news there Qwerto. Seeing as you point fans to this thread to "vote" on what they'd like to see next, maybe we can work up a poll?

EDIT: Oh, you said "voice", not "vote." Sorry.

Nonetheless, that's a good idea, zen. Any ideas on some options?

-Another "one-off" Bond novel
-More Young Bond from Charlie Higson
-Adult Bond from Charlie Higson
-Adult Bond from a new author
-More Moneypenny Diaries from Samantha Weinberg

...?

[zencat]

How about this?

Young Bond The Fettes Years
More Monenypenny
War Bond
Another one-off adult novel from a new author
More Fleming collections
Devil May Care 2: Electric Boogaloo
Enough already!

[Qwerty]

Looks good.

[Tybre]

Quite giddy to see them reprinted. Been wanting to read Diamond Smugglers especially. As for the poll, voted War Bond. Might be nice. Though personally I'd just like to see more normal Bond adventures. Maybe by Faulks? Still have yet to read Devil May Care, or any continuation novel for that matter, but it might be nice to see another Gardner/Benson situation.

[Bill]

A World War II Bond would be ideal, with Higson writing.

And I join in the call for another adult contemporary Bond, continuing in the same vein as Raymond Benson left off. If Raymond wants to, he should be allowed to continue. If not, then another author, but, please not Faulks. Someone decent who is willing to continue with the same continuity as Gardner and Benson established. The Gardner and Benson books can still be seen to be a true continuation of Fleming. If an author writing a Bond adventure set in 2009, he may be tempted to somehow tie it into the current film timeline--in other words make it an early mission for 007 but set today. This should be avoided at all costs. Instead, a present day mission but with Bond as the seasoned veteran that we all know and love.

Another idea is perhaps the exploration of the lives of some of the supporting characters--maybe not the pseudo factual writings of Pearson and Weinberg. A Felix Leiter adventure would be great. Bond could still have a cameo, but maybe a more taut 24 type story with Felix as the main protagonist, and one where the true evils of Islamofascist terrorism could be detailed.

Just my two cents--

Bill

Edited by Bill, 05 June 2009 - 07:41 PM.

[zencat]

I think we have to let go of the idea of a contemporary Bond adventure. Note how they begin their new bio of Bond on the site:

Ian Fleming’s James Bond was born in the early 1920s to Andrew Bond of Glencoe and Monique Delacroix, from the Canton de Vaud in Switzerland. When he was six days old, James’ name was put on Eton’s general admissions list by his father. Bond received a conditional place at Eton in the early 1930s, just before his parents died in a climbing accident in France.

Unless they something like this, I don't see the lit Bond ever traveling beyond the 20th century.

[Bill]

Zencat, once again, good idea on the paperbacks. I had forgotten about that, and I stand by my earlier response from December.

I would still want to see a new straight literary contemporary novel--not one necessarily in the same vein as the Craig paperback proposal. However, if one could be written to tie everything together like I suggested before, http://debrief.comma...showtopic=52514, that would be wild!

Bill

[TheSaint]

I think it's a mistake not to do a Bond novel set in contemporary times but that's my opinion.

[[dark]]

I think only Young Bond II would be a guaranteed solid gold hit (presuming Charlie Higson is at the typewriter).

I have no doubt Samantha Weinberg would pen another winning Moneypenny novel, but The Moneypenny Diaries: Final Fling closed the trilogy so perfectly a fourth book isn't necessary. And Sebastian Faulks' Devil May Care proved that even an acclaimed author is still a wildcard when it comes to adult Bond adventures. War Bond is an intriguing prospect, but it makes sense to tackle that after Young Bond II.

[DamnCoffee]

I chose 'No Opinion', I don't really have a preference. I'm fine with anything.

Except maybe Devil May Care 2.

[MkB]

I think it's a mistake not to do a Bond novel set in contemporary times but that's my opinion.

I agree with that. The period Bond continuation novels are a good thing, but there's no need to limit Bond to the 50s/60s. It would 1) deny Bond the status of timeless spy he acquired thanks to the success of the film franchise 2) cut the literary Bond too drastically from the fanbase who came to Bond from the films, and think of him as a contemporary figure.
As long as they steer clear of novelisations, that are generally below par, I believe IFP should commission contemporary continuation novels. They shouldn't abandon completely period novels, but it seems to me rather difficult to have another long series of period Bond novels tying in with Fleming, given the chronology of the character.

[Professor Dent]

Nice website - like the Fleming header banner logo.

I voted for the "Another one-off adult novel from a new author" option.

[zencat]

Two impossible dreams for me would be for IFP to find and publish Per Fine Ounce, and restore the original computer game chapter(s) in John Gardner's Role of Honor.

But my vote is, of course, for more Young Bond.

[Matt_13]

War Bond for me.

[marktmurphy]

Yeah, I think if you're going to do more James Bond it probably needs to have a factor which distinguishes it from Fleming's books- Devil May Care was just pastiche and went nowhere: pastiche is mainly pointless. So either do Bond in a period of his life we haven't seen before (obviously Young Bond and, hopefully, War Bond) or do him in the present day and, as Zen says, that means use Daniel Craig's Bond. He isn't after all exactly a million miles off Fleming's Bond and he's the one that millions of people know from watching the movies. How about a prequel to CR where we see CraigBond's rise through the special forces etc.? Probably a prequel too far if they're also doing Young Bond, but it'd be fun to build on the new Bond's tougher personality.

Perhaps that would be a step backwards after the massive success of Devil May Care and having their own 007 success entirely separate from the films, but I don't think they could replicate that very easily: that was a success that was built on its one-off nature.

[Loomis]

Well, if it were up to me (which it isn't), I'd choose a followup to DEVIL MAY CARE by Sebastian Faulks, but this time with Faulks writing as Faulks and not "writing as Ian Fleming" (which was just false advertising anyway), and taking some risks with the material.

I know that this won't happen. Faulks will never write another Bond novel, either as "Fleming" or as himself, but it's what I'd choose.

[tdalton]

My choice would be to have them bring in a writer who could finally deliver us a truly great Bond novel. I'd have them disregard DEVIL MAY CARE from the timeline, and have the new writer pick up from where The Man With the Golden Gun left off, with Bond having to deal with the consequences of his actions at the beginning of that novel as well as having to deal with some kind of new threat.

[Revelator]

How about a cheaper copy of "TALK OF THE DEVIL"!!! For those that don't fancy paying megabucks for the ultra rare edition.

AMEN! It's shameful that the first "new" Fleming book in years, the one of most interest to genuine Fleming fans, is the least accessible and affordable of the lot, while Bond pastiches flourish endlessly. And there's still more Fleming material in the vaults--unfinished Bond short stories, the scripts from the aborted Bond TV show and Fleming's early drafts of what became Thunderball.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Well, if it were up to me (which it isn't), I'd choose a followup to DEVIL MAY CARE by Sebastian Faulks, but this time with Faulks writing as Faulks and not "writing as Ian Fleming" (which was just false advertising anyway), and taking some risks with the material.

I know that this won't happen. Faulks will never write another Bond novel, either as "Fleming" or as himself, but it's what I'd choose.

If he wanted to return to literary Bond, but I'm not sure he wants to, perhaps he can be given the job of rewriting the supposedly "unpublishable" Per Fine Ounce.

[K1Bond007]

Well, if it were up to me (which it isn't), I'd choose a followup to DEVIL MAY CARE by Sebastian Faulks, but this time with Faulks writing as Faulks and not "writing as Ian Fleming" (which was just false advertising anyway), and taking some risks with the material.

I know that this won't happen. Faulks will never write another Bond novel, either as "Fleming" or as himself, but it's what I'd choose.

Hard to take this position, but I do agree. Faulks could totally deliver an amazing though different take on Bond if he really tried and was really given free reign (formula aside). I read his French trilogy prior to the release of DMC, and it was nothing short of phenomenal. Birdsong is one of my favorite novels of all time. If he could write a Bond novel like that, it'd be amazing. It'd be different and a lot of the formula fans (the same that were not cool with Casino Royale in 2006) would probably not like it, but it would be one hell of a read.

I think Higson will return and write maybe 2 or 3 of Bond at Fettes and then transition to War Bond where Higson may or may not continue. Someone will. This is a huge treasure trove to explore. I also think they'll get someone else and continue on post-DMC at the same time. That someone could be Higson too. I wouldn't mind an adult Higson novel coming next that ties into Bond's first year at Fettes. Not a huge adventure. Just something small like Casino Royale and then half the book deals with Bond reflecting on that first year. Maybe Bond and the villain went to Fettes together. Kind of like Double or Die, but more fleshed out. It could serve as a bridge.