48 replies to this topic

[AMC Hornet]

Now I have a hankering to read Icebreaker again.

[OmarB]

Icebreaker is the one Bond book I have read the most, regardless of author or era.  I've had to have read that book 9 or 10 times now.

 

As for the topic itself.  No I've never put down a Bond novel.  Licence Renewed was a slow starter so I wasnt hooked till into the second chapter.  Man From Barbarossa was slow going, but it's the best of the "different" Bond books, beating out TSWLM in my opinion.

[Turn]

Devil May Care seems to get a lot of mentions. I recall buying this just before I went on a vacation, trying to into it and not being able to go any further. While I appreciate the attempt to try to be like Fleming it just felt like warmed-over Fleming, all the familiar elements without anything fresh, like ideas he discarded.

 

That's why it's set on one of my bookshelves for the past 5 years.

[AMC Hornet]

Licence Renewed was a slow starter so I wasnt hooked till into the second chapter.

You should have been there in 1981, when this was the first original story in eight years (since Pearson's Authorized Biography). I ate LR up in two days.

 

The only reason I didn't start Icebreaker right away was because it was released a week before Octopussy premiered. I shelved it until the middle of summer, so it could tide me over until the premiere of NSNA.

 

Those were the days.

[Turn]

 

Licence Renewed was a slow starter so I wasnt hooked till into the second chapter.

You should have been there in 1981, when this was the first original story in eight years (since Pearson's Authorized Biography). I ate LR up in two days.

 

The only reason I didn't start Icebreaker right away was because it was released a week before Octopussy premiered. I shelved it until the middle of summer, so it could tide me over until the premiere of NSNA.

 

Those were the days.

 

Ah yes. While it's great we can discuss Bond 24-7 now and get news on new projects faster than ever, we still only get a new novel every 2-3 years and a film every 3 years.

 

You got a different appreciation for things back then when these modern conveniences were only the stuff of sci-fi.We got the films every two years like clockwork, but only scant production information from magazines like Starlog or the fan club publications, which had more detail but often months after the fact.  We also got a new Gardner novel every year, and if you didn't own the hardback of one you could look forward to the paperback release of the previous novel. Add to that the magical 1-2 punch of OP and NSNA in '83. It's cool to have been a part of that and now the new era.

[Guy Haines]

I've never not finished a Bond novel yet, by any author, but I've found some more of a struggle than others. As a teenager I could read Fleming novels at one sitting, but - maybe it's just a sign of getting older - now I read a couple of chapters, leave it alone, then go back and read some more a few days later.

 

Plus I tend to have more than one book "on the go" at any one time, on different subjects, both fiction and non fiction.

 

I found some of the continuation novels a bit of a struggle, because I think they were sometimes too over complicated for their own good. I missed the straightforward, mostly linear structure of the Fleming books.

 

I agree with one of the contributors above about the Christopher Wood novelizations - I think they were pretty well written and, when you consider the two films they were based upon, quite dark and serious at times. A hint of what the author thought the two films could have been?

[AMC Hornet]

I thought JB:TSWLM was well-written, in that it read more like a book that the film was based on, rather than vice-versa. My only complaint is that Wood employed too many damn similes. Moonraker was hampered by its own bonkers plot and that curse of the second novelization - less time, care and attention paid to it, just like with GE and TWINE.

[SILVERTOE]

I think the only one I have sort of not given a proper chance, is the novel of GOLDENEYE, it maybe because I am seeing the movie in my head, when i read the book (ifthat makes sense? ) i didn't have this problem with TND, TWINE or DAD though. in fact, DAD kept me company on a trip to Australia. I had seen it twice at the cinema, bought the book to take to Australia with me, and the pre-orderd DVD was waitng for me when i returned home, only trouble was, i was too jet lagged to watch it properly, and i was So hoping the cut scene where bond exits the plane at heathrow, that was still in the book, and made a lot more sense, would be included as one of the extras

[tdalton]

Guess I'll have to add Solo to this list as well.  Finally picked up a copy of the novel a couple of weeks ago and read a bit of it, only to put it down and completely forget about it for a couple of weeks.  Can't say that I'm all that eager to go back to it, based on what I read, but I'll probably end up giving it another go.

[SILVERTOE]

I am off to germany for christmas, so i am hoping to buy it tax free, at the airport, and read it while i am over there, as quit frankly, christmas day afternoon on a river cruise is a bit boring, so at least i can put my feet up, and have a read

[Professor Pi]

I started The Man with The Golden Gun in the fourth grade as there was a Bond film festival and that was the only one I hadn't seen.  Then in high school my mom bought me Licence Renewed in a successful effort to get me to read more.  Then read all of Fleming one summer, starting with FRWL then in proper order including TMWTGG this time.  My English teacher in the fall asked me what happened as my writing evidently took a big leap in vocabulary and flow from sophomore to junior year.  Thanks, Ian!

 

Since then read each Gardner and Benson hardback as they were released, Icebreaker in just two sittings, and all the novelisations.  Last one I read was DAD, though.  Re-read CR in 2006, QoS short story in 2008 (which sadly described my marriage at the time), and enough passages of YOLT, albeit out of order, to count as a second reading.  Can't get past chapter 2 of Devil May Care.  Bought most young Bonds but haven't read them yet.  Haven't bothered with Carte Blanche based on most of the reviews here, and waiting to see about Solo.  Hope to re-read all of Fleming again one day, in order this time, as different themes resonate as an adult reader than as a teenager.  Colonel Sun will probably be only continuation novel I'll re-read.

[SILVERTOE]

Personally I have never bothered with the YOUNG BOND novels. If at the time i had been up to date with all the aduly james bond novels, I probably would have, if i see them for a stupid prive on e-bay, i may get them one day., like i did with the 2 1970's film adapation novels

[SILVERTOE]

Well, i certainly did buy SOLO at the airport, for £13.99 it was an airport edition so a large format paperback, I could have got the hardback for the same price on the high street! Oh well, we live and learn I suppose!

[kaiserthegreat]

I've read three Bond novels, the first three.  For each one, I'd get half way through and be derailed for one reason or another.  For CASINO, I started it over and got through it on the second pass.  For LALD, I tried multiple times to complete it and failed, sometimes rereading CASINO again before starting LALD over just because it'd been so long. I finally muscled through it last year.  (BTW, this isn't me saying these books are bad, I just have a habit of abandoning books.)  For MOONRAKER, after getting about halfway through and then not picking it up for six months, I decided to ignore my OCD and not reread the first two or even the first half of MOONRAKER again, but rather pick it up where I left off, hoping I would remember what was going on.  That strategy worked out, and I finished that book a couple weeks ago.  On to the next!

[Zen Razor]

I've read part of Casino Royale and another half of Live And Let Die those two novels are fairly good but I am not much of a reader surprisingly I was able to understand both. I'll probably end up reading it one day again and ordering some more.

[ChickenStu]

Yep. Gave up twice on Live And Let Die. Third time was the charm! 

[archer1949]

TMWTGG for me. It took me three times to get through it. It starts off with a bang and just dribbles off into silly nonsense. I could feel Fleming's boredom with the whole thing emanate through every page after the first couple chapter.  

[Double Naught spy]

I've never put one novel down... EVER.  As a 45 year old, I became aware of the 007 books in 1980 and, while I was catching up on my Fleming novels, I eagerly awaited Mr.Gardner's latest entries into the series.  Although being a 12 year old at the time and having no reference point to the fact that it had been many years since a new novel had been written (again, I was still discovering the Fleming books at the time), I agree with AMC Hornet's comment about the excitement over the knowledge that new novels were being written each year by Mr. Gardner.  And throughout all these years, whenever I got ahold of the new 007 adventure (whether it be Gardner, Benson, Higson, Weinberg, or Faulks), I was excited as hell to get another 'chapter' from the world of 007.

 

That all changed with Carte Blanche.  Once I realized that this was "Ultimate" James Bond (Marvel Comics fans will get the reference), my interest immediately waned.  None-the-less, I still hung in there and read it without pause, even though the novel amounted to basically 007 vs. Fred Sanford!  It was even more painful than reading Faulks's ho-hum villain and his rants on the evils of the UK's foreign policy (blunders?) for the last 100 years (as if ONLY Western nations are guilty of these kind of things!).  It's probably unfair of me, but the foul taste in my mouth after Carte Blanche led me to NEVER want to read anything more from Jeffery Deaver again.  It's as if he took the paycheck and, instead of "reinventing" 007, he then decided to just piss all over us fans all the way to the bank.

[Juraquagmire]

For me, it's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "Colonel Sun", I only start first 2 or 3 chapter and get bored and skip to last 4 or 5 chapter.

 

I had read all other Fleming's Bond. Finished Faulks'. I don't have chance with John Gardner and Raymond Benson (should I read them, if so which one I start with?)

I never want to read The Moneypenny Diaries or Young Bond.

 

I hesitant to read Carte Blanche, because of reviews.