33 replies to this topic

[Orion]

Title says it all. Glad to see continuity in writers returning to the Bond novels.

 

http://www.thebookse...han-cape-404116

[Messervy]

Cool! I thoroughly enjoyed TM, so I'm all for a second round!

[sharpshooter]

It's a welcome surprise to hear this. Trigger Mortis was a pleasure to read. It will be good to have consistency in authors again, and Horowitz deserved the opportunity to write another. They say it's another period piece with unused Fleming content. I wonder if it's set in-between the Fleming timeline again? I'm guessing it will be. 

[Matt_13]

Awesome.

[Simon]

Splendid.  Think he truly deserved it, if it was what he was wanting.

[Dustin]

Can't say it does anything for me. I liked Horowitz other work but TRIGGER MORTIS was less than satisfying for me, to say the least.

Still, others liked it so it's probably okay that he gets another shot. I shall pass however, much too many other things to read.

[TheREAL008]

I'm not happy about it. Given his past remarks about the films and other authors I feel he shouldn't have ben given a second chance. 

[DavidJones]

I'm not happy about it. Given his past remarks about the films and other authors I feel he shouldn't have ben given a second chance. 

 

What did he say?

[Marcin]

Although I wasn't particularly pleased with Trigger Mortis; it was a fun but somewhat flawed read, I'm glad Horowitz will write another one.

I'd be more pleased if he was offered a contract for more than just one novel. Maybe we wouldn't have to wait two or three years for another one.

[saint mark]

Happy he is writing a second one, less pleased it will take another year. And are getting Donald Westlakes' dismissed Brosnan 007 script in Book release earlier the same year.

[glidrose]

No surprise there. I've know about it for some time. Couldn't say anything.

 

An acquaintance asked me "Are you still into Bond?" "Yes." "Anthony Horowitz is doing a second Bond novel." "Oh. (pause) That doesn't surprise me." "You don't sound terribly excited." A long-winded speech by yours truly about what I felt about AH's bloodless debut effort. (You can read my review here.) Acquaintance clearly didn't want to hear it and so cut me off. Several other details. None of which I can share. Can't say anything else. No, I'm not connected. Just a fluke I happen to know someone who knows someone, etc, etc in the know as they say.

 

Still keeping my fingers crossed that it will take more chances, be more experimental just as his second Holmes novel was apparently a lot more experimental than his first Tho' not that experimental, mind you.

[Dustin]

I just remember some of my gripes...

Let's hope he will improve on his second try. Though I probably will not make reading it a priority, there is still War and Peace, there are some James Ellroys, The Tin Drum, some Stephen Kings. And I could reread some Fleming, too.

[DaveBond21]

Good news. I liked Trigger Mortis.

 

I also liked his Sherlock Holmes novel, the House of Silk.

 

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[SecretAgentFan]

I just remember some of my gripes...

Let's hope he will improve on his second try. Though I probably will not make reading it a priority, there is still War and Peace, there are some James Ellroys, The Tin Drum, some Stephen Kings. And I could reread some Fleming, too.

 

Good choices all around!

 

While I do like continuity with authors continuing to write Bond I am not sold on Horowitz either.  For me, TRIGGER MORTIS was a structural mess that never really took flight, and the use of "a previous Bond girl" did not pay off for me either since it was half-hearted and then abandoned.

 

Well, as long as anything Bond-related is released next year... 

[Harmsway]

I am interested to see what Horowitz will do with a second novel. This is the first time in a while that a novelist has been given the opportunity to develop what they did in a previous instalment.

TRIGGER MORTIS was a brisk, entertaining read, if altogether kind of messy and disposable. He might make something better of it this time.

[Dustin]

The mention of material again that wasn't previously published leaves a bit of an aftertaste. Why not give him free rein to fire away on his own? Horowitz isn't that bad at making up his own stories.

[Harmsway]

The mention of material again that wasn't previously published leaves a bit of an aftertaste. Why not give him free rein to fire away on his own? Horowitz isn't that bad at making up his own stories.

True, though the Fleming material in TRIGGER MORTIS was quite fun.

[Orion]

I think it's more a good selling point than a comment on Horrowitz as a writer.

[Dustin]

I thought it was largely an idea that went into the drawer for good reason; not terribly bad but hardly worth digging it out for the sake of selling this TM-thingy.

I would rather prefer if a writer doesn't have to include 'genuine sentences as lathed by The Holy Fleming' ™ © to sell the tome. It all smacks a bit pseudo-religious, the deposition of relics in a vault of paper - that is then sold for £ 12.99 at Waterstones or £ 9.99 at Tesco.

This continuation business should be a reverence to Fleming, honest or tongue-in-cheek fun or anything in between. I don't think it's really in good taste to turn it into some look-what-we've-found business plan. You get to use the characters created by Fleming - or let's say you get to use the names; seldom in the official continuations do the actual characters turn up - that should be plenty of a head start, especially for somebody who, like Horowitz, however you look at it, already used a big deal more than characters for his own work.

I realize that I come across as probably too harsh with Horowitz; sorry for that if you happen to read this, sir. But I'm serious here, I believe Horowitz can do much better - and the first step in the right direction would be to leave out any 'original material, previously unpublished.' If necessary, let yourself inspire - but write your own book. Let them publish the fragments in its own tome.

[Tiin007]

I'm with you on that, Dustin, and I really enjoyed Trigger Mortis.

 

This whole conversation reminds me of how Sebastian Faulks was "writing as Ian Fleming" when he penned Devil May Care-- he even claimed to have been on the same daily schedule as Fleming. All too gimmicky, if you ask me. (And again, I actually enjoyed Devil May Care more than most.) 

 

Fleming was perfect as Fleming.

 

When I read Faulks or Horowitz, I'd much rather read unadulterated Faulks or Horowitz. Forcing them to be someone or something they aren't, even if they can do a good job at it, just doesn't sit well with me. Gardner and Benson each did a fine job taking Bond in their own direction (even if some of their efforts were subpar)-- it's a mode the literary Bond should return to.

 

In fact, I'd argue that EON made the same mistake in trying to make Lazenby too much like Connery. (Or maybe it was Lazenby himself who was the driving force behind all this.) It wasn't until Moore that the Bond actors were able to put their own take on the character. 

[Orion]

Tbh Horrowitz DOES write as himself, there are many similarities to Alex Rider (the blatant Bond pastiche Horrowitz wrote) and I love that! (giving away my age there) Yes, there is a tenuous quality and occasional temptation to be like Fleming, but mostly he wrote his own novel, using only an idea of Fleming's to write a single chapter, as I'm sure this new book will be.

[sharpshooter]

I couldn't tell the difference between the Fleming and Horowitz material, which is a credit to him. I don't have a problem with it. 

[billy007]

So what's the second round of "previous unpublished material"?  Per Fine Ounce?

[Dustin]

I don't think that was announced yet. One assumes perhaps another piece written for the TV series. As far as we know the main part of Fleming's material concerning Bond was done during his holidays on Jamaica, working on a book at a time. Most of it is published by now.

The TV series COMMANDER JAMAICA - and I believe a second project that fell through - would have called for a lot of smaller pieces, most of them were included in FOR YOU EYES ONLY and DOCTOR NO subsequently. If there was really a lot of publishable material left I'm sure it would have long since been compiled in another short story tome.

Fleming did also some work on the early script of what came to be THUNDERBALL later. Could be there is something left that justifies including it in Horowitz' next book. The early stages of the story were vastly different from what we know.

[Single-O-Seven]

It could be as simple and minor as Horowitz working in the two short stories that Fleming started, but never completed more than a few paragraphs for. One involved Bond being tutored by a Greek cardsharp, and the other had Bond waking in the morning, dreading the blandness of the average English morning ritual. I think they appeared in Pearson's biography of Fleming, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Dustin]

Good call on that, could well be. Though I think that would then really leave a pretty clean barrel...

[Single-O-Seven]

Good call on that, could well be. Though I think that would then really leave a pretty clean barrel...

 

 

Yeah, there seems to be little else that we know of. Other than some basic ideas that Fleming scribbled in a journal, like the name "Szasz", or Bond battling a villain below Niagara Falls, and line, "she had a proud mouth like a half-healed wound," and "pain is a private address - only those who've been there know how to find it," or something along those lines.

 

I used to read a bit of Bond fan fiction years back. I enjoyed quite a bit of it, but found that these lines, and the examples I gave earlier, frequently popped up and got absorbed into it. If Horowitz uses any of it then, for me, it will have that recycled fanfic feeling all over again. Otherwise, I enjoyed Trigger Mortis a lot, and look forward to reading more of his take on Bond, just as I enjoyed his takes on Holmes and Moriarty.

[glidrose]

It's a working holiday in Sri Lanka this Christmas for Horowitz.

"As always, I'll be spending Christmas abroad - this year in Sri Lanka - which means two long flights and hours on the beach."

http://www.mirror.co...festive-9378251


Sri Lanka (a.k.a. Ceylon) had some juicy conflicts with the UK and the US during the 1950s and 1960s.

https://en.wikipedia...inion_of_Ceylon


Horowitz was also recently in Paris.

http://www.telegraph...ain-with-paris/


And he was in New Orleans last year.

http://www.telegraph...me-in-30-years/


I urge one and all to read AH's article, if you haven't already. Tell me if you don't think it sounds like Fleming, albeit softer.

http://www.anthonyho...raordinary-city

choice excerpts:

"There were people everywhere, enjoying themselves in the street, many of them carrying oversized cocktails in plastic cups. Snatches of jazz, of course, coming from courtyards, from clubs, played by buskers – brilliantly – at every corner. A profusion of wrought-iron balconies. Gas lamps burning above the doorways. Old-fashioned shops full of things you don’t need but will probably buy: masks, voodoo products, bad art, antiques, hot sauces, even sexually explicit cakes. Quirky wooden houses that suddenly give way to mansions, such as the Supreme Court Building, taking up a whole block.

"Inevitably, I found myself in Jackson Square, named after the US president who beat off the British in 1812. There are tarot-card readers everywhere. A magician performs the cup-and-ball trick. Crowds stream in and out of the bars and restaurants. More jazz. Two black kids are tap-dancing on manhole covers. A woman passes me – rolls of fat squeezed into Lycra – wearing a feathered mask. I sneeze and an old guy taps me on the shoulder. 'God bless you, buddy.' The square is grassy. It’s a nice place to be.

"The food is delicious – but trust me, it will kill you. Everything is fried. The two biggest delicacies in Louisiana are “pralines” and “beignets”, the first being fried sugar, the second fried dough coated in sugar for extra heart trauma. Beignets are served under a green and white striped awning at the Café du Monde on Jackson Square; people will queue for more than an hour each morning just for the experience. Tip: go late at night when you can walk straight in. Or better still, don’t go at all.

"Everyone has their favourite bar or restaurant and the lines are long. A few recommendations: fried oysters at Stanley’s, fried chicken at Willy Mae’s in the heart of Tremé, an area considered so dangerous that punters arrive and leave by taxi."


 

No surprise there. I've know about it for some time. Couldn't say anything.
 
An acquaintance asked me "Are you still into Bond?" "Yes." "Anthony Horowitz is doing a second Bond novel." "Oh. (pause) That doesn't surprise me." "You don't sound terribly excited." A long-winded speech by yours truly about what I felt about AH's bloodless debut effort. (You can read my review here.) Acquaintance clearly didn't want to hear it and so cut me off. Several other details. None of which I can share. Can't say anything else. No, I'm not connected. Just a fluke I happen to know someone who knows someone, etc, etc in the know as they say.
 
Still keeping my fingers crossed that it will take more chances, be more experimental just as his second Holmes novel was apparently a lot more experimental than his first Tho' not that experimental, mind you.

[Dustin]

Thanks for pointing to these pieces, glidrose; very entertaining reads that had escaped my attention. You can practically hear Horowitz shaping up for the job:

'Bond often wondered how many divorces must have started with a wet weekend in Paris...'


On a sidenote: it's funny how the Torygraph's website insists that I am a British expat in Germany and could get a better £ 70k pension...

[Dustin]

So The Spy Command/HMSS (https://hmssweblog.wordpress.com/) picked up a Horowitz interview on BBC. As some have speculated, it seems the 'new' Fleming material are indeed leftovers (although the meal was never served; can it be called 'leftovers' then?) from TV project(s). Supposedly four remaining storylines have been found recently:

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New post on The Spy Command


Horowitz: Four Fleming unused story lines remain
by The Spy Commander
"Sounds like a jolly good time."
Ian Fleming

007 continuation author Anthony Horowitz told the BBC today there are four remaining unused Ian Fleming story lines from an unproduced television project.

"There were five that were discovered quite recently in a bottom drawer," Horowitz said in an interview. "One of which had to do with motor racing, which of course I used in Trigger Mortis but that left four more."

Trigger Mortis was published last year. It was a period story, set in 1957 and picked up shortly after Fleming's Goldfinger novel. Horowitz incorporated Fleming's auto racing plot. Fleming also included the basic racing idea among notes (written on 11 telegram blanks) he submitted to television producer Norman Felton for The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Ian Fleming Publications has retained Horowitz's services for a new and yet untitled Bond novel, due out in 2018.

Of the four Fleming story lines, "I'm going to use one of them, I haven't decided which one yet, as an opening chapter or second chapter," Horowitz told the BBC.

"There is nothing more exciting in the world than to read something that nobody else has read," Horowitz said of the Fleming storylines.

To read more about the BBC interview, CLICK HERE. It incudes an audio clip running almost two minutes.