72 replies to this topic

[Dustin]

Doh! Indeed, that sounds a bell.

[ACE]

Colonel Sun is my favourite Continuation Bond.

 

The Authorised Biography is often overlooked as a Continuation novel but I consider it so and consider it to be one of the best. A clever, imaginative piece of writing - up there with the best of them.

 

The first few Gardners are great. I even like COLD because Gardner (et al who helped write it) got a chance to experiment with structure.

 

The Union Trilogy of the Benson cycle are splendid.

 

Devil May Care - Emperor's new clothes.

Carte Blanche - very entertaining but, for me, falls for being too time specific in the updating unlike Gardner's sleight-of-hand treatment of the passing of time.

Solo - best Bond writing since Amis - Boyd, IMO, really got Bond's characterization. The story meandered a bit though.

Really enjoy the Moneypenny Diaries and Higson's Young Bond cycle. Steve Cole's Shoot To Kill was fun in a Rocketeer-y sort of way but less accomplished than Higson.

Looking forward to the Horowitz Project One.

 

I tend to separate the film novelizations from original Continuation Bond novels but the Christopher Wood books are a must for Fleming fans. 

ANY endeavour to keep literary Bond legitimately alive is worthwhile and all the books have their strengths.

I'd love a Continuation Bond novelist to be given a series to write and to be able to experiment like Fleming did. The short stories are particularly evocative and palette cleansing.

 

I think thriller writer Jeremy Duns and Charlie Higson should write an adult Continuation Bond novel. 

[Major Tallon]

Nor  have I, Ace.  I'm intrigued.

[sharpshooter]

I think Colonel Sun and James Bond: The Authorized Biography are the best Bond novels. And this all happened early on in 1968-1973. Admittedly, I haven't read much of the Gardner novels. I find them a chore to get through. 

 

I think Colonel Sun is easily the best adult Bond continuation novel, and it was the first. Nothing has come close. Bond's character progression from the events of OHMSS, YOLT and TMWTGG is natural, and the plot is straightforward but satisfying. I think that's an important point.

 

The Authorized Biography is just a fun read. This one has a clever premise and feels fresh. It has a clear reason for being and for the most part it succeeds. It's about lifting the veil on the 'truth', with the real and fantastical blurring. I'm hesitant to call it canon, but as a concept book and a read in general, it's great.

 

After those two, I'm all about Higson's Young Bond series. He was very consistent and didn't write one dud. 

[Double-Oh Agent]

Here are my top 10 continuation novels (in publication order):

 

1. Colonel Sun (1968-Kingsley Amis) Probably the closest to Ian Fleming. A good villain and torture scene.

2. James Bond: The Authorized Biography Of 007 (1973-John Pearson) Unique and interesting premise. Pearson comes up with some very entertaining ideas and mini-missions. Very underrated.

3. License Renewed (1981-John Gardner) Welcome back, Mr. Bond. Gardner brings Bond into the '80s complete with a mad villain and imposing henchman.

4. For Special Services (1982-John Gardner) The welcome return of a Bond nemesis. Great opening chapters.

5. Icebreaker (1983-John Gardner) Unique setting, terrific title, and the originator of what would become a Gardner trademark.

6. Role Of Honor (1984-John Gardner) Interesting idea of putting Bond with the bad guys. Nicely done.

7. Nobody Lives Forever (1986-John Gardner) Hands down the best continuation Bond novel. Great read.

8. Zero Minus Ten (1997-Raymond Benson) Nice historical backdrop. Benson may not be the best writer, but he does do great plots.

9. High Time To Kill (1999-Raymond Benson) Great setting, McGuffin, plot, girls, villains--you name it, this book has it. Benson's best novel. Another great read.

10. Blood Fever (2006-Charlie Higson) Best of the Young Bond books. Higson captures the period and does a great & believable job of showing what the future 007 was like as a kid.

 

A few other noteworthy items:

 

James Bond And Moonraker (1979) is my favorite Christopher Wood novelization. It's not as silly as the film and adds a couple of extra scenes that really add to the experience I think, namely Bond's space walk.

 

Licence To Kill (1989--John Gardner) Great novelization--the best of the bunch in my opinion. Of course, LTK is my favorite film, but Gardner does a great job fleshing it all out on the page. A very enjoyable book.

 

Both Scorpius (1988-John Gardner) and Doubleshot (2000-Raymond Benson) are the two books that have continued to grow on me over time. While I enjoyed both as I read them, it was only after I had finished with them and thought about them over the next few days/weeks/months that I grew to appreciate them even more. Scorpius was way ahead of its time. It's arguably even more timely now than it was then. And Doubleshot just has such a unique premise and it's used so well by Benson that I really enjoy it.

 

All the Charlie Higson books are good, solid reads. He really gets Bond even if he's only a kid. I wasn't liking the idea of Young Bond when we first heard about it, but Higson did such a good job, he won me over from the very first book.

 

Samantha Weinberg does a great job with The Moneypenny Diaries, the best being Guardian Angel (2005).

 

The more recent authors--Sebastian Faulks, Jeffrey Deaver, and Stephen Boyd all lack something in their tellings. Deaver plays up Bond's parents' deaths as mysterious which only serves to make Bond's backstory more soap opera-like and melodramatically derivative like many fictional narratives told today (which is not a good thing). I do like the book, but it could have been better and, as a result, rests in the bottom half of the continuations. Nevertheless, it is easily the best of the three recent continuation efforts. Faulks fails to follow through on his story. When one of his characters mentions they made up a story told to Bond, it just totally undermines all that has gone before bringing the book down like a house of cards and leaving the reader feeling betrayed. Boyd, meanwhile, presents a largely uninteresting story with little action that makes one wonder when IFP will get a good, solid continuation writer again. Hopefully, he is coming in the form of Anthony Horowitz.

[Leigh Burne]

Out of the continuation novels I've read, Colonel Son was far and away the best. I think I may even have preferred it to a couple of the Fleming books.

 

I started reading the Gardener books, and did the first five or so, but honestly lost interest in continuing. They certainly weren't bad, they just didn't grab me.

 

I really enjoyed Solo though. I hope Boyd gets to do a follow-up.

Edited by Leigh Burne, 11 April 2015 - 09:58 AM.

[Odd Jobbies]

I'm surprised License Renewed scored highly - reads like a Roger Moore cheese fest written by Barbara Cartland for a low rent sunday night itv potboiler slot.

 

And the same goes for Carte Blanche - Deaver managed to turn Bond into a 'by-the-book' slave to his training and dull procedural details. The story and villain weren't bad. but Bond was a total bore.

 

Solo had a more engaging Bond, but the story and pacing were more Graham Greene than Fleming and without Bond's character motif's to play with would've been an all together pointless read.

 

As for Devil May Care, i think Faulk's was taking the pi$$ !  If you read it as a satire it's interesting, otherwise it's a cartoon. It's nearer the original 1967 Casino Royale movie than to Fleming's Bond.

 

Just shows how irreplaceably unique Fleming's voice really was.

 

The only claim to the throne is the opening sequence of Amis' Colonel Sun - if i didn't know better i'd have believed it's visceral immediacy must've surely been written by Fleming. Sadly the rest of the novel never lives up to that opening.

[sharpshooter]

Trigger Mortis is now on my list:

1. Colonel Sun
2. Trigger Mortis
3. James Bond: The Authorised Biography
4. Blood Fever
5. Double or Die
6. By Royal Command
7. Silverfin
8. Hurricane Gold

[Mendalla007]

I haven't read the later ones (I stopped near the end of Gardner's run and only read one Benson after that) but I checked off Colonel Sun (which I quite liked) and some of the better Gardner's. I liked Gardner early on but he kind of ran out of steam. The only novelization I checked off was License to Kill which I did like but not as much as the movie.

[Leigh Burne]

Looks like the excellent Colonel Sun is finally getting a reprint, at least in the UK, and as an added bonus the artwork looks to be done to match the recent Fleming reissues, which I rather liked.

 

On Amazon UK here:

http://www.amazon.co...rds=colonel sun

[sharpshooter]

Looks like the excellent Colonel Sun is finally getting a reprint, at least in the UK, and as an added bonus the artwork looks to be done to match the recent Fleming reissues, which I rather liked.
 
On Amazon UK here:
http://www.amazon.co...rds=colonel sun

That's excellent news, and the cover art is nice. I'll be ordering a copy.

[Karloff]

 

Looks like the excellent Colonel Sun is finally getting a reprint, at least in the UK, and as an added bonus the artwork looks to be done to match the recent Fleming reissues, which I rather liked.
 
On Amazon UK here:
http://www.amazon.co...rds=colonel sun

That's excellent news, and the cover art is nice. I'll be ordering a copy.

 

 

The cover looks great. I have the whole Fleming Vintage set and love the covers. They have good retro feel. CS looks to be getting one of the better ones.

 

BTW, during the last 18 months I have read all Fleming, Benon, Gardner and one-off novels. After finishing each book I placed the title on a ranking list I made in my iPhone. Thought I'd post it here. So here it is - my list of the Bond books I've read (starting at the bottom):

 

1 out of 5: Painful

46. Die Another Day (Benson)* - I try not to, but I really hate all things DAD

45. The Facts Of Death (Benson)

44. The Man with the Red Tattoo (Benson)

 

1,5 out of 5: Worthless

43. Role of Honour (Gardner) - Bond a hacker?

42. COLD (Gardner)

41. BFTP/MND/LAF (Benson)

40. Never dream of dying (Benson) - Bond's incompetence makes him kill a little girl! What was Benson thinking?!

 

2 out of 5: Acceptable

39. The World Is Not Enough (Benson)*

38. Carte Blanche (Deaver) - not Bond

37. Licence to Kill (Gardner)*

36. GoldenEye (Gardner)*

35. Tomorrow Never Dies (Benson)* - better than I expected

34. BrokenClaw (Gardner)

33. For Special Services (Gardner) - overrated

 

2,5 out of 5: Okey

32. Scorpius (Gardner)

31. Never Send Flowers (Gardner)

30. Win, Lose Or Die (Gardner)

29. The Man from Barbarossa (Gardner)

28. SeaFire (Gardner) - underrated

27. DoubleShot (Benson) - the best intro since TMWGG, but the twins are too much Austin Powers

 

3 out of 5: Good

26. High Time To Kill (Benson)

25. Zero Minus Ten (Benson) - loved the mahjong game

24. Death is Forever (Gardner) - intense, brutal

23. No deals, Mr. Bond (Gardner) - intense and entertaining

22. Licence Renewed (Gardner) - solid

 

3,5 out of 5: Very Good

21. The Authorized Biography (Pearson) - some of the anecdotes could be Fleming short stories

20. Icebreaker (Gardner) - would have been his best, but one or two twists too many

19. Octopussy and The Living Daylights - two great shorts stories and two awful ones

18. Nobody Lives For Ever (Gardner) - just pure entertainment

17. Dr No - self parody?

16. Devil May Care (Faulks) - why all the hate?

15. Trigger Mortis (Horowitz) - somewhat unremarkable, but solid

14. Goldfinger - the ending is rushed

13. Diamonds Are Forever

 

4 out of 5: Classic

12. Solo (Boyd) - really tried to develop the Bond character

11. The Spy Who Loved Me - an interesting experiment more hit than miss

10. The Man with the Golden Gun - underrated

 

4,5 out of 5: Magnificent

9. Colonel Sun (Amis) - the only continuation novel that really feels like Fleming

8. You Only Live Twice - dark and mythical

7. Casino Royale - a bit overrated, has problems with the dramatic structure

6. Thunderball

5. For Your Eyes Only - great character study of Bond and his world

 

5 out of 5: Masterpiece!

4. Live And Let Die - take out the racism and it could be a winner!

3. Moonraker

2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

1. From Russia, with Love - the best!

Edited by Karloff, 23 September 2015 - 09:05 PM.

[glidrose]

Looks like the excellent Colonel Sun is finally getting a reprint, at least in the UK, and as an added bonus the artwork looks to be done to match the recent Fleming reissues, which I rather liked.
 
On Amazon UK here:
http://www.amazon.co...rds=colonel sun

Finally - Amis has his name on the cover. No more of this Robert Markham nonsense.