15 replies to this topic

[MichaelB]

I have just finished re-reading all of Mr Gardner's Bond novels and am confused. Throughout all of them he has been accurate in technical, character and storyline details but in his later work there are huge mistakes in storylines, technical details and characters.

For example, in Never Send Flowers there is a gaping error in the story line - When the Mark Fish is shot, "The window fragmented..." but a couple of paragraphs on ""Mark Fish had rolled down his window...." so how could the window fragment if it had been rolled down?
In Death Is Forever, James Bond's ASP pistol is described as a Browning Based pistol when it is Smith adn Wesson (Model 39) based
In Seafire, it is the "Browning ASP" again but the character from The Man From Barbarossa returns with a different name - In Barbarossa he is Pete Natkowitz - In Seafire he is Steve Natkowitz. Interestingly enough, this appears in the UK edition. In the US edition he IS Pete Natkowitz.

Was it only poor proof reading?

[Dustin]

Sounds like minor things that got confused along the way to the final print run. I seem to remember Gardner had to cater to Glidrose, to the UK publishers and to the US publishers with his work being sent to and fro numerous times. If for some reason the persons involved had to leave, or new personnel coming aboard, well, that could surely result in the odd mistake. I remember Modesty Blaise having a French friend at the Deuixieme Bureau being named Rene Vobois. Until he became Leon Vobois for some reason.

[Jim]

I'm sure he did both.

[doublenoughtspy]

For example, in Never Send Flowers there is a gaping error in the story line - When the Mark Fish is shot, "The window fragmented..." but a couple of paragraphs on ""Mark Fish had rolled down his window...." so how could the window fragment if it had been rolled down?

I would not characterize a simple continuity error as a "gaping error in the story line."

Nor do I see how these small, nitpicking mistakes lead you to believe Gardner didn't write the stories.

Fleming is chock full of continuity mistakes, btw.

[zencat]

What doublenoughtspy said.

[Loomis]

There's no excuse for poor proofreading.

[Jim]

There's no excuse for poor proofreading.

I can think of dozens.

And, if over the course of fourteen novels there are a couple of minor issues (which may have been an editor/subbie rather than the author) then that's no real dilemma. To leap from that to a suggestion that the author did not write his works is a bit much frankly.

[Matt_13]

Nobody is perfect. Hell I found typos in Higson's work. It happens.

[Jim]

In Death Is Forever, James Bond's ASP pistol is described as a Browning Based pistol when it is Smith adn Wesson (Model 39) based
In Seafire, it is the "Browning ASP" again but the character from The Man From Barbarossa returns with a different name - In Barbarossa he is Pete Natkowitz - In Seafire he is Steve Natkowitz. Interestingly enough, this appears in the UK edition. In the US edition he IS Pete Natkowitz.

Was it only poor proof reading?

The word "and" in "Smith and Wesson" - please proof-read your work. If you wrote it.

[Loomis]

There's no excuse for poor proofreading.

I can think of dozens.

And, if over the course of fourteen novels there are a couple of minor issues (which may have been an editor/subbie rather than the author) then that's no real dilemma. To leap from that to a suggestion that the author did not write his works is a bit much frankly.

Good points.

[mccartney007]

In Death Is Forever, James Bond's ASP pistol is described as a Browning Based pistol when it is Smith adn Wesson (Model 39) based
In Seafire, it is the "Browning ASP" again but the character from The Man From Barbarossa returns with a different name - In Barbarossa he is Pete Natkowitz - In Seafire he is Steve Natkowitz. Interestingly enough, this appears in the UK edition. In the US edition he IS Pete Natkowitz.

Was it only poor proof reading?

The word "and" in "Smith and Wesson" - please proof-read your work. If you wrote it.

This may be the finest post the world has ever seen.

[Mark_Hazard]

There's no excuse for poor proofreading.

Don't blame the proof-readers. Amongst a number of books, a few years ago I proof-read a book about Pinewood Studios, pieces that I had "corrected" were ignored and appeared in the published book in their uncorrected state.

[Simg]

Don't blame the proof-readers. Amongst a number of books, a few years ago I proof-read a book about Pinewood Studios, pieces that I had "corrected" were ignored and appeared in the published book in their uncorrected state.
[/quote]

Totally agree with this comment. I can assure you my Father wrote and proof read all is work. The fact of the matter was that at times
for whatever reason (and we never found out the reasons) corrections that had been marked to be made never happened.
It seems this occurs on a regular basis with any industry that involves more than one person writing and editing 'content'.
When I worked as a book jacket designer in the 1980's/1990's I witnessed the wrong blurb being given to the wrong jacket
on many occasions. Most of the time we caught this but there were times we missed it and paperbacks went out into the market with totally the wrong
information on them. Right title, wrong storyline on the back.

SRJG

[AMC Hornet]

Good to see you back, Simon.

Also, I'm delighted to see your father's 007 novels being reprinted this year.

Don't anybody bother holding your breath, expecting these editions to contain corrections - I expect they will be printed from previously-existing proofs.

As for books 6-14, will the cover art be the same as the original Hodder & Stoughton editions? I wasn't too impressed with some of them.

[Simg]

As for books 6-14, will the cover art be the same as the original Hodder & Stoughton editions? I wasn't too impressed with some of them.
[/quote]

As far as I am aware ORION/SWORDFISH are only printing the first five JG Bonds in hardback. These as you probably are aware have the original J. Cape jackets.
All of the continuation novels will be published in the UK in paperback starting in 2012. The paperbacks will have brand new artwork. The US Pegasus re-prints have yet to be finalised regarding publication dates and jacket artwork.

SRJG

[glidrose]

Here's a quote from “Bruce Montgomery/Edmund Crispin: A Life in Music and Books” By David Whittle, pub. Ashgate Publishing, 2007.

“Montgomery was a stickler for accuracy, and this did not always go down well with authors. Reviewing John Gardner's Madrigal, Montgomery referred to `errors [...] abundantly in evidence'. Gardner wrote asking for clarification. By this time Montgomery had lent his copy to a friend and had to make his points from memory. Even so, he managed eighteen errors (mostly concerned with French and German spelling and accents, and Ben Johnson spelled as Johnson), `and I think it fair to say that if I went through the book I could more than double it. [...] I did feel, however, that since your book makes rather a point of knowledgeability, the mistakes in it were far too numerous.' Gardner was not placated, claiming that these were typographical errors which had not been corrected from his galley proofs, and should have been stated as such.”