13 replies to this topic

[jwheels]

Could somebody please explain to me why 'The Killing Zone' was never published? I have it from the Russian web site, but it is not the same as having an actual book. And seeing Zencat owning 1 of 2 of 'The Killing Zone' makes me very envious.

[zencat]

The Killing Zone was not an official book in any sense. It was part of some scam concocted by the author, Jim Hatfield (a notorious con-man who was eventually imprisoned for murder). The nature of the scam is unclear. The few copies that do exist where self-published, but meant to be passed off as the real deal (Hatfield even thanks Glidrose in his acknowledgements).

[clinkeroo]

Despite the spiel at the beginning, Glidrose did not authorize the book. The hard copies were self-published by the late Mr. Hatfield and are pretty hard to come by. It was really nothing more than well-publicized fan fiction.
My question for you is, did you actually enjoy it and find it well done?

clinkeroo

[zencat]

That's the funny thing about The Killing Zone, it's pretty good! What most bizarre is how similar it is to LTK.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Originally posted by zencat
The Killing Zone was not an official book in any sense. It was part of some scam concocted by the author, Jim Hatfield (a notorious con-man who was eventually imprisoned for murder). The nature of the scam is unclear. The few copies that do exist where self-published, but meant to be passed off as the real deal (Hatfield even thanks Glidrose in his acknowledgements).

Could make for an interesting movie ala Catch Me If You Can."

[jwheels]

I haven't actually read it yet, but I plan to. That is an interesting story. Did Gildrose sue Hatfield for using the Bond character?

[doublenoughtspy]

Um, what Russian website? Is there some place to download this fan fiction?

Thanks

[doublenoughtspy]

Love that Google.

http://ianfleming.narod.ru/tkz.htm

[zencat]

Originally posted by jwheels57
I haven't actually read it yet, but I plan to. That is an interesting story. Did Gildrose sue Hatfield for using the Bond character?

Not as far as I know. I wonder if they even know about it?

[doublenoughtspy]

Nothing about it was in the Glidrose files that I went through with the IFF. Most likely, things like that and Holmes Meets 007 were too small to appear on the Glidrose radar.

They did however go after some German publishers (who didn't even put Fleming's name on the books), and some other Swedish comic strip hardcover collection publishers who hadn't negotiated the rights.

[Blue Eyes]

Any other interesting stories like that doublenoughtspy?

[General Koskov]

Haven't finished my downloaded copy, but it seems to be a collection of well-placed 'quotes' from Fleming's books. The story is alright so far, but it doesn't even read as well as Death is Forever! Ouch!

[clinkeroo]

The way I became aware of it was several years ago when Raymond Benson was inquiring on the newsgroup if anyone knew anything about "The Killing Zone" by Jim Hatfield. It was a very short post, and I had to search out the details for myself. One would think that if Benson knew about it, that Glidrose did as well.
I didn't have a copy until our Russian friends published it last year on the web.
Didn't like it much myself. The prose was awkward, there were loads of Fleming continuity mistakes (we can break these down if the thread goes on, I suppose), and the non-original characters were severely off mark, including Bond.
This said, Hatfield did do a nice job with the locations and his original characters. I'd say it qualified as creative typing, with some decent research.

clinkeroo

[Matt Helm]

I did not enjoy the book either. Like clinkeroo, I had to download it as I couldn't find a hard copy anywhere. After reading it, I'm sort of glad that I didn't pay an outrageous amount to get a copy. I agree that the writing was bland with each action sequence just bleeding into the next. It's as if Hatfield was writing storyboards for a comic book rather than an official novel. After reading good reviews from "The Bond Files" and 007Forever.com, I was itching to dive in. Unfortunately it was not worth the hype. The Killing Zone is basically just an average piece of Fan Fiction with a really dumb ending. For a good read for real Fleming fans, look no further than From Death's Door.