311 replies to this topic

[zencat]

One more "yes" vote pushes us to 92% in favor. Anyone?

[Simg]

Good to see voting is going well on another note news of the return of The Liquidator at www.john-gardner.com hope no one minds me promoting a bit of Boysie amongst The Bond :-)

[zencat]

That's fantastic news about The Liquidator. The great JG renaissance has begun!

[Simg]

That's fantastic news about The Liquidator. The great JG renaissance has begun!

Here's hoping Zencat! Been in conversation with people today and had some
positive comments made about the site and what you guys are doing as well.
Many Thanks

SRJG

[DAN LIGHTER]

Ha! Fancy that! I only heard of The Liquadator a few days ago via Jeremy Duns article and now its being re-released!

Congratluations to you and your Family Simon. I look forward to reading this. Wonderful news!

[Simg]

Ha! Fancy that! I only heard of The Liquadator a few days ago via Jeremy Duns article and now its being re-released!

Congratluations to you and your Family Simon. I look forward to reading this. Wonderful news!

Thank You Dan it is good to start seeing interest again in my father's work.
it may be an up hill struggle but there is a whole new generation of readers out there who have not read any of his work, so it is the least i can do to keep it alive!

SRJG

[DAN LIGHTER]

This should be front page news here. hint hint nudge nudge Qwerty

[Qwerty]

This should be front page news here. hint hint nudge nudge Qwerty

John Gardner's The Liquidator to return in 2010

James Bond author's first novel to be reprinted this year

[Righty007]

How about a main pager about this campaign with a link to the poll and GardnerRenewed.org?

[DAN LIGHTER]

You work to hard Qwerty. Nice front page spread!

[Simg]

This should be front page news here. hint hint nudge nudge Qwerty

John Gardner's The Liquidator to return in 2010

James Bond author's first novel to be reprinted this year

You do me a great service and honour guys

Thanks again

SRJG

[Qwerty]

How about a main pager about this campaign with a link to the poll and GardnerRenewed.org?

An excellent idea - will definitely put something together fairly soon.

You work to hard Qwerty. Nice front page spread!

Cheers, Dan.

This should be front page news here. hint hint nudge nudge Qwerty

John Gardner's The Liquidator to return in 2010

James Bond author's first novel to be reprinted this year

You do me a great service and honour guys

Thanks again

SRJG

Happy to!

[Righty007]

How about a main pager about this campaign with a link to the poll and GardnerRenewed.org?

An excellent idea - will definitely put something together fairly soon.

Thanks!

[Qwerty]

Here's to spreading the word...

James Bond fans unite to get John Gardner's 007 back in action

A licence to renew John Gardner's licence to thrill

[Righty007]

Here's to spreading the word...

James Bond fans unite to get John Gardner's 007 back in action

A licence to renew John Gardner's licence to thrill

You're the man, Qwerty!

[DAN LIGHTER]

Wow very cool Qwerty!

[Simg]

Here's to spreading the word...

James Bond fans unite to get John Gardner's 007 back in action

A licence to renew John Gardner's licence to thrill

GOOD JOB!

SRJG

[Simon]

Apologies if already mentioned, but some more Fahey work would be good to further the tie in and marketability angle.

Not sure if this then becomes blasphemous towards the Fleming body of work, but I would support this angle.

I understand the previous tailing off of sales towards the end of the intial run but 'things' are always getting revisited and reappraised. Why not Gardner's?

[DAN LIGHTER]

Apologies if already mentioned, but some more Fahey work would be good to further the tie in and marketability angle.

Not sure if this then becomes blasphemous towards the Fleming body of work, but I would support this angle.

I understand the previous tailing off of sales towards the end of the intial run but 'things' are always getting revisited and reappraised. Why not Gardner's?

I would love to see some Gardners by Fahey, with a 80s feel. Imagine that.

[Syndicate]

It be nice, if the publishers are having new cover arts for novels, they should let fans vote on the ones that would fit each of the novels. And they should have like three choices to vote on for each novels.

[DAN LIGHTER]

Nice idea Syndicate. It's quite exciting to imagine what could be. Be nice to see some fan art.

[OmarB]

I have not posted in months, but when I saw the news story on the main site about fans wanting the Gardner novels reprinted I had to jump in.

Hell yes, I'm all for it! Gardner and Fleming in my eyes have always been neck and neck. Both have strong books, both have weak books, their writing styles are different enough that you know JG is not simply copying but doing new stuff his way.

[OmarB]

It's interesting you say Icebreaker was your first Bond book. It was my first Gardner book and overall my 3rd Bond book. I was going through the Fleming series in order and chanced upon Icebreaker in a book store, it was the only copy so I grabbed it up. I was hooked. I finished the Gardner series before I finished Fleming's.

[DAN LIGHTER]

Okay, dang-it, enough is enough. I say it's time to reprint the Gardner Bond novels, and what better time to do than next year for the 30th Anniversary of License Renewed. Call them "The 30th Anniversary Editions" -- a reprinting of the entire series with new uniform cover art and, yes, Role of Honour will be a "restored edition" containing the original excised chapter with Bond and the villain dueling via computer game.

I think it's a cracking good idea.

ICEBREAKER was the first 007 novel I read. The book made a huge impact on me at 12, as I was just coming into Bondage back in 1983, with Octopussy being my first Bond movie and all. ICEBREAKER continues to be not just one of my favorite Bond novels, but one of my all time favorite novels.

I've also been a long-time critic of EON's decision not to adapt the Gardner novels, as many are well aware. There are some very interesting characters, situations, titles, action sequences, etc...in the Gardner novels that could easily be adapted by EON.

I'd like to see some beautiful, unique cover-art for the reprint editions, like we got with the recent Penguin releases of Fleming's work; none of that standard silhouette stuff we saw in the 80's.

I've enjoyed Gardner so much over the years that I have even bought the non-007 Gardner novels such as The Werewolf Trace, The Secret Generations, Maestro, and The Secret Houses.

Another one on here who came to Gardner's Bond first then Gravity. You will be excited about the news of the re-release of The Liquidater then?

[DAN LIGHTER]

Very open-minded attitude Gravity. For me,as someone who has yet to read all the Gardner's, it's refreshing to hear someone say they never had a problem with the Gardner output.

[Simg]

Apologies if already mentioned, but some more Fahey work would be good to further the tie in and marketability angle.

Not sure if this then becomes blasphemous towards the Fleming body of work, but I would support this angle.

I understand the previous tailing off of sales towards the end of the intial run but 'things' are always getting revisited and reappraised. Why not Gardner's?

Okay I am going to show my ignorance here 'Fahey' I presume one of the early jacket designers? I will come clean here... I do not (used to) have a complete set in paperback or hardback of my Father's Bonds. Also nearly all editions that were signed to me have disappeared over the years, so I keep a watchful eye on Ebay in case they turn up.

SRJG

It be nice, if the publishers are having new cover arts for novels, they should let fans vote on the ones that would fit each of the novels. And they should have like three choices to vote on for each novels.

In a perfect world that would be great. In the real world of publishing getting a big enough budget to commission one good illustration per jacket is hard enough. Trust me I used to have to do it!

SRJG

[Righty007]

Apologies if already mentioned, but some more Fahey work would be good to further the tie in and marketability angle.

Not sure if this then becomes blasphemous towards the Fleming body of work, but I would support this angle.

I understand the previous tailing off of sales towards the end of the intial run but 'things' are always getting revisited and reappraised. Why not Gardner's?

Okay I am going to show my ignorance here 'Fahey' I presume one of the early jacket designers? I will come clean here... I do not (used to) have a complete set in paperback or hardback of my Father's Bonds. Also nearly all editions that were signed to me have disappeared over the years, so I keep a watchful eye on Ebay in case they turn up.

SRJG

Between 2002-2004, an artist named Riche Fahey designed the cover art for the paperback reprints of all 14 of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. In 2008, a 15th was released for a collection of short stories called Quantum of Solace.

The cover art can be viewed here.

In my opinion, he would do fantastic retro 1980s cover art for your father's novels. They would complement the Fleming paperbacks very well.

[Syndicate]

One thing for sure, reading Fleming or Gardner novels, people are taken away from what one have to understand or really like. If not then it be boring on all 656 pages or 798 pages. Say like in spy novels like,

The Cardinal of the Kremlin
The American military discovers through "National Technical Means" that the Soviets were working on a ABM defense system—an equivalent to the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative—based at Dushanbe in Tajikistan. Unbeknownst to most of the protagonists, the CIA has deployed a liaison, one Emilio Ortiz, to the region to aid the rebels. One Mujahideen groups leader, a man known only as "The Archer," is questioned about a strange light he witnessed (after a Soviet test of their weapon, which devastated an obsolete satellite). The Archer, noting the fear that the Americans have of the light in their questions, determines that the installation is a threat to him and his people, and tasks his group with attacking and pillaging the installation. In the end, the guerrillas partially succeed, destroying a large amount of equipment, though most of the scientific staff survive, and the Afghans suffer horrendous losses, including the death of The Archer.

Eventually, Filitov's identity is uncovered by the KGB, and he is subsequently arrested while attempting communication with his control officer, Mary Pat Foley. However, Ryan concocts a plan to secure the return of both Filitov and arrange the defection of the sitting KGB Chairman, Nikolay Borissovich Gerasimov.

Clear and Present Danger

EAGLE EYE involves dispatching F-15s to intercept drug flights verified as originating from Colombia and identified as carrying narcotics. These drug flights are scouted by a completely Hispanic light infantry force which has been drawn from the various units that the U.S. Army has at the time of the novel.
Operation: RECIPROCITY is the fourth operation formed as a part of the new War on Drugs. As the name suggests, it is a reciprocal attack on cartel operations as a result of the assassination of sitting FBI Director Emil Jacobs, the Director of the DEA and the U.S. Ambassador to Colombia during a visit to the Attorney-General of Colombia.

The assassination is made possible by a Cuban national named Félix V. Cortez. Cortez is a former member of the Cuban DGI in the employ of the cartel, and specifically Ernesto Escobedo, as their Chief of Security and intelligence operative/analyst. Cortez turns the widowed aide of Director Jacobs, Moira Wolfe, into an unknowing agent by feigning romantic interest. She unknowingly reveals information regarding the date and time of Jacobs' official visit.


The Sum of All Fears
A small group of Muslim extremist terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are not pleased though. With a lasting peace looming around the corner and the state of Israel still in existence, they are looking at a failure in their campaign. Their anger is directed towards the U.S. which has supported Israel throughout the years and now is instrumental in creating a lasting peace that makes it impossible to eradicate the Jewish state.

When the terrorists come across the lost Israeli bomb, they manage to recover it and construct their own version using the plutonium as fissile material. They also enlist the help of a disenfranchised East German physicist named Manfred Fromm. Fromm, an expert on nuclear technology, agrees to help the terrorists because their plan is designed to exact revenge on those responsible for the downfall of East Germany and the unification of his country into a capitalist, democratic state. With Fromm's expertise, the group is able to enhance the weapon and turn it into a thermonuclear device. The terrorists decide to use the weapon at the Super Bowl in Denver, Colorado, while also planning a false flag attack on U.S. forces in Berlin by East Germans disguised as Soviet soldiers.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Approximately a year before Prideaux's return Control, the aged Circus Chief, suspects that one of its leaders is a Soviet mole. Earlier, in response to an unhappy Czech Army general offering to reveal the mole’s identity, Control privately launches “Operation Testify”, dispatching veteran fieldman Jim Prideaux to rendezvous with the general at Brno. Instead, Prideaux is ambushed, shot twice in the back, and captured.

In his London flat George Smiley finds his former protégé, Peter Guillam, awaiting his arrival home, under orders to deliver him to a secret meeting at the house of Oliver Lacon, the Civil Service officer responsible for the Circus.

Enroute they discuss the aftermath of the failed Operation Testify: Control’s disgrace, dismissal, and death shortly afterwards, and Smiley’s forced retirement from the Circus for proposing that Prideaux’s ambushing signalled in-house treason. Control suspected that the mole was one of the current Circus leaders handling “Source Merlin”: Percy Alleline, Bill Haydon, Roy Bland, Toby Esterhase — or his own deputy, George Smiley.

Control’s politically ambitious arch-rival, Percy Alleline, succeeded him as Circus Chief, because of the confluence of a high rate of operational failures and the acquisition of “Source Merlin”, a mysterious fount of top-grade Soviet intelligence, dubbed “Witchcraft”, which Alleline provided to his Whitehall and military allies.

The Fourth Protocol
In Moscow, the British traitor Kim Philby drafts a memorandum for the General Secretary (Soviet president) stating that, if the Labour Party wins the next general election in the UK (scheduled for sometime in the subsequent eighteen months), the "hard left" of the party will oust the moderate, populist Neil Kinnock in favour of a radical new leader who will adopt a true Marxist-Leninist manifesto, including the expulsion of all American forces from England and the country's withdrawal from and repudiation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In conjunction with a GRU general, an academic named Krilov and a master strategist, Philby devises "Plan Aurora" to ensure a Labour victory by exploiting the party's support for unilateral disarmament - although it is noted that Krilov has come up with most of the plans strategy.

MI5 officer John Preston, who was exploring hard left infiltration of the Labour party, investigates the stolen documents and finds that they were leaked by George Berenson, a passionate anti-communist and supporter of South Africa. Berenson passed on the documents to Jan Marais, a man he believes is a South African diplomat, but Preston discovers he is actually a Russian false flag agent. SIS chief Sir Nigel Irvine confronts Berenson with the truth and "turns him", using him to pass disinformation to the KGB.


Their novels don't make certain group of readers feel like they are almost reading nonficton spy books. It takes readers away from all that, even when it still spy stuff. No one needs to know all the terms and what it means, the type of weapones use by the military, does that really happen as the author say, understanding the chain of command and each countary's intelligence community. NOT everyone in these kind of spy novels. James Bond and one like James Bond like is all they'll read.

As for me, I have no problem with them. James Bond started it, but I'm a little more into those kinds.

[OmarB]

It's funny you bring up Clancy and LeCarre, I love them both. It's not fair comparing them to Fleming and Gardener because those guys are going in a completely different direction.

Also, about the Gardner novels cover art. What I would love is all of them being the same color, or at least a less garish color. I swear those hardcovers on the shelf practically glow! I nice subdued uniform gray with the Bond silhouette on the front reflecting some element of the story would be nice.

Edited by OmarB, 01 May 2010 - 05:13 PM.

[DAN LIGHTER]

Apologies if already mentioned, but some more Fahey work would be good to further the tie in and marketability angle.

Not sure if this then becomes blasphemous towards the Fleming body of work, but I would support this angle.

I understand the previous tailing off of sales towards the end of the intial run but 'things' are always getting revisited and reappraised. Why not Gardner's?

Okay I am going to show my ignorance here 'Fahey' I presume one of the early jacket designers? I will come clean here... I do not (used to) have a complete set in paperback or hardback of my Father's Bonds. Also nearly all editions that were signed to me have disappeared over the years, so I keep a watchful eye on Ebay in case they turn up.

SRJG

It be nice, if the publishers are having new cover arts for novels, they should let fans vote on the ones that would fit each of the novels. And they should have like three choices to vote on for each novels.

In a perfect world that would be great. In the real world of publishing getting a big enough budget to commission one good illustration per jacket is hard enough. Trust me I used to have to do it!

SRJG

I thought if one person had them all in Firsts and signed it would be you Simon. I wonder who has all Firsts signed. I bet it's Zencat!