48 replies to this topic

[Turn]

I was going through my Bond paperbacks and noticed "No Deals Mr. Bond." I've owned this book for probably 20 years and read the first 2 or 3 chapters at least 4 times but never gotten any further.

I hate to admit I've never finished Dr. No. I always seem to end up where they get captured on Crab Key. Meanwhile I've read CR and a couple of others multiple times.

Anybody else have this happen?

[[dark]]

Yeah, Licence Renewed. To be honest, I find most Gardners a struggle to get into. Unlike Fleming, Gardner tends to deliver chapter after chapter of briefing scenes - the meat of his story doesn't usually begin until the second act, if you're lucky to make it that far.

That said, I've just started the much-maligned The Man From Barbarossa and I'm rather enjoying it so far.

[jaguar007]

Devil May Care.

[Major Tallon]

Never. There are flaws in some of the books, but I enjoy them, one and all.

[JimmyBond]

The only Bond novel I've ever started and never finished was Devil May Care.

Sure there's been other's that I've started and didnt finish, but those were books I had already read previously.

[K1Bond007]

Yeah, Licence Renewed. To be honest, I find most Gardners a struggle to get into. Unlike Fleming, Gardner tends to deliver chapter after chapter of briefing scenes - the meat of his story doesn't usually begin until the second act, if you're lucky to make it that far.

They're real drab. I have the same problem. The first few weren't so bad and then... I don't know.. it became a chore to read his Bond books.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

I started Casino Royale as a twelve year old, but discovered I was simply not old enough to enjoy it. Then read it again some four years later. Loved it. Read it a second time when the movie came out. Loved it even more. I'm considering reading it for a third time before too long.

[sharpshooter]

They're real drab.

That they are. I just cannot be bothered with the majority of them.

[Roebuck]

The Man with the Golden Gun. All that malarkey with the cyanide gun before Bond finally sets off after Scaramanga drags on too long for my liking.

[Turn]

I also have never finished Devil May Care. I bought it last year to go on a summer vacation, got maybe a third of the way through, lost interest and haven't picked it up since.

It's like if I want to read Fleming, I will read Fleming, not someone imitating him with what seem like unused ideas and way too much deja vu. Fleming's latter Bond novels seemed to progress into making you look forward to picking up the next one, whereas the early ones were basically stand-aloens. Devil May Care is like an earlier novel.

[Quantumofsolace007]

I started Casino Royale as a twelve year old, but discovered I was simply not old enough to enjoy it. Then read it again some four years later. Loved it. Read it a second time when the movie came out. Loved it even more. I'm considering reading it for a third time before too long.

Me too I started it at 16 and couldn't get into it i read it at 20 and Loved it.

[dinovelvet]

I was going through my Bond paperbacks and noticed "No Deals Mr. Bond." I've owned this book for probably 20 years and read the first 2 or 3 chapters at least 4 times but never gotten any further.

LOL, I too struggled with that one. I got a few chapters in, and continuing was like struggling through quicksand. I did come back and finish it later just for completion's sake, I can barely even remember what it was about though. Bond goes to Ireland and Hong Kong? Or is that another book?

[terminus]

Never had an issue with any of the Gardner or Benson novels, Devil May Care or any of the five Young Bonds, but I've never been able to read a Fleming novel all the way through except TMWTGG. I just find Fleming's style incredibly dry and boring.

[singleentendre]

I could never finish Diamonds Are Forever. After the sheer joy that CR, LALD and especially MR were to read, DAF seemed so boring and uninspired.

[DouglasJ]

I can honestly say no. However, Icebreaker is a hell of a chore for me. I understand it's generally thought to be one of the better Gardner books, but in my attempt to read through them all this year (I did so last year as well) it was this one that stumped me.

Even Fleming's worst is always re-readable.

[Peckinpah1976]

Never had an issue with any of the Gardner or Benson novels, Devil May Care or any of the five Young Bonds, but I've never been able to read a Fleming novel all the way through except TMWTGG. I just find Fleming's style incredibly dry and boring.

Burn the heretic!

Never tire of Fleming (or Higson) and once started I always finish them, a lot of the Gardner books I threw aside; never even tried Benson. Devil May Care was a disapointment but those who haven't finished it should give it another go as the middle third is really rather good (when the plot moves to Iran it becomes it's own thing and not merely a Fleming pastiche) only to lose it agan once Dr.Monkey-Claw's plan is revealed.

[Jaws0178]

For some reason, I have the hardest time starting The Spy Who Loved Me. I'm not quite sure why though is the problem.

[codenamel]

I think I first started reading the Signet edition of DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER around 1967. I wanted to like it because of the great cover and title, but the book seemed much too mundane for a Bond novel with nothing of the fantastic or sensual. It was more than 30 years before I finished this novel and today I can appreciate it for its facinating portrait of America in the 1950s and its noir, almost Chandleresque style. It now stands as one of my favorite Fleming efforts, but it took decades and multiple attempts to convince me of that.

I have never had a problem finishing any of the continuation novels. I remember really enjoying the first six John Gardner efforts and being slightly disappointed with the last eight. However as time passes, Gardner seems to be getting better and better for me and I am rereading many of his novels with a new appreciation. He was a highly underrated spy novelist, much better in my opinion than the more highly regarded Len Deighton. Never in the wildest dreams of my misspent youth did I dream that one day there would be 40 original novel-length James Bond adventures on my bookshelf by Fleming, Amis, Gardner, Benson, Higgins and Faulks. And I treasure them all.

[killkenny kid]

For me isn't Colonel Sun. But, after three attempts I'm almost there.

[Tybre]

Colonel Sun took me a while to get into. I didn't read chapter one, start over, etc. But yeah, it's slow going at first. Very well written and certainly entertaining as time goes on. But she's a slow starter, bless her.

[Turn]

I can honestly say no. However, Icebreaker is a hell of a chore for me. I understand it's generally thought to be one of the better Gardner books, but in my attempt to read through them all this year (I did so last year as well) it was this one that stumped me.

Even Fleming's worst is always re-readable.

I also found Icebreaker to be rather plodding. It's all not so clever twists and betrayals and by the end predictable. I much prefer Nobody Lives Forever.

[OmarB]

For me it was Devil May Care. What a chore that was to get through. Took me a whole week of false starts and such.

I've never had a problem with Gardner's books. I love them almost as much and in a few rare cases more than Fleming's. Many people complain about the slowed pace of the later books like Man From Barbarossa, but I quite enjoy the later books, we saw someone take risks with Bond, grow him up.

Can't say I had a problem with any book other than DMC. All the authors were good and bad in their own ways. Benson I started out just not liking at all, but grew to enjoy them quite a bit.

[Perilagu Khan]

Only started and then stopped reading a Bond novel once. Before I had ever read a single Bond novel I picked up OHMSS, read a couple of pages, put it down, and didn't actually read the novel until several months later. Instead, YOLT turned out to be the first Bond novel I read in full.

[Ambler]

Never happened with a Fleming. However, the only continuation novel I've finished was Colonel Sun.

I've thrown most of the others across the room, tho.

[Perilagu Khan]

I've thrown most of the others across the room, tho.

You've known them more intimately than I, then.

[AMC Hornet]

I found the first chapters of Thunderball tough sledding when I was thirteen or fourteen. On my third try, once Bond was out of Shrublands, the story took off for me.

The only continuations that were disappointing for me were The Man From Barbarossa, Never Send Flowers, COLD, The Facts of Death, Doubleshot, The Man with the Red Tattoo and Devil May Care - the last one being the only one claiming to be written by someone as Ian Fleming. IFP should have resurrected the Robert Markham psuedonym for that one (although it would have been an insult to Kingsley Amis)

That said, my disappointment hasn't prevented me from rereading them occasionally.

[Dr.Fell]

Pretty much all James Gardner books I bought or borrowed from the library remained unfinished. I just find his work so boring and his Bond deprived of all of Fleming's qualities and left with just a grumpy facsimile.

I never finished Christopher Wood's The Spy Who Loved Me novel but only because I had such a terrible copy. I think it's actually better then any other continuation novel made afterwards.

I also never finished Devil May Care. After about the billionith past reference to a previous Fleming novel, I gave up.

Edited by Dr.Fell, 07 January 2010 - 06:43 AM.

[Walecs]

Devil May Care, Licence to Kill, Die Another Day. I picked them only to abandon them after few chapters. I had to force myself in order to complete the first two.

[glidrose]

Possibly Thunderball, Death is Forever, Carte Blanche. Still don't know if I've ever read the first two in their entirety. Know for a fact that I didn't finish the third title.

 

Read the first couple of Benson books, but had to skim the rest. Also skimmed the first of the Westbrook Moneypenny Diaries.

[tdalton]

Yes.  The last two of the recent efforts, Devil May Care and Carte Blanche.  Tried exactly twice to make my way through both of them.  Couldn't do it, they were both terrible.  Haven't even bothered with Solo yet.