A subreddit to discuss anything and everything related to Ian Fleming's James Bond 007.
I'm a book and a half into Raymond Benson's continuation novels from the 90s and while they're up and down in quality, I generally think he does a solid, entertaining job of blending the classic Fleming character and world with the more action-packed, gadget-laden high tech world of the movies.
I do think it's odd that more authors don't try and do this, instead of the straight "Ian Fleming Cosplay" we usually get. As much as we love the books, it's fair to say that the films have had far more of a cultural footprint and it's strange that the books don't attempt to tie in to those elements more often (even if there's certain elements that they're probably not allowed to use like explicitly calling Boothroyd 'Q' for example).
James Bond has reached the point where he has truly become a mythic British icon, comparable to Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood and King Arthur - the films celebrate this all the time, it feels odd that the books are so beholden to the Cold War setting of Fleming's original books. I didn't love Charlie Higson's "On His Majesty's Secret Service" but I admire the writer (and Glidrose) for at least attempting to do another modern Bond story.
Would you like to read more Bond books set in the modern day or should they always revert back to the Cold War?
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Yeah, I'm hoping the next Bond continuation novel is set in the present-day. Kim Sherwood has already set the stage for it with her 00 series (the second installment is due to release shortly) which does a great job updating Fleming's Bond canon to the present-day. Whether its in the same continuity, or a different one, I do hope the next Bond author sticks to the present-day.
I need to read Sherwood's novel, it's a really intriguing premise and she seems like a huge fan. People have been a bit mean about the first one, but it feels like all the complaints are from the same old anti-woke brigade who complain about everything.
Honestly, apart from one bit where Moneypenny goes on a bit about climate change, there's nothing particularly 'woke' about the novel. Sherwood has gone on record to defend Ian Fleming and the Bond franchise from the woke crowd.
i'm happy that the books at least are willing to examine a retro era of bond. i wish the movies were able to take an approach like that instead of being tethered to modern times. how cool would it be to have a movie showcasing bond's wartime adventures for one thing?
With the exception of the Faulks and Horowitz entries every novel had been set in contemporary times.
William Boyd's Solo wasn't contemporary.
Nor were the Moneypenny Diaries or Young Bond.
The only contemporary Bond novels in the last 20 or so years have been Jeffrey Deaver's Carte Blanche, and the Kim Sherwood Double O series (which technically are 'Bond universe' novels rather than Bond novels). Oh, and Charlie Higson's On His Majesty's Secret Service, if that counts.
John Gardner's novels were contemporary for the times they were written in: 80s and 90s.
Actually what the books cannot the comic books did. Specially the Dynamite Bond comics. They are set it modern time. Of course they are not as good as the books are like the movies but they are good among themselves. Infact I would argue that they do some aspects better than the movies do for Bond. While they are intertwine stories with modern time they have never lost the touch of Bondness in them.
I've yet to read any really good Bond comics by Dynamite to be honest, with the sole exception of James Bond Origin which was fantastic (but again set in a retro WWII time period)
The Body is a good comic it deals with seemingly anthology style of stories where everything ties up at the end.
Hammerhead is also good, its more Brosnan like
But mh favourite is Vagr
The John Gardner books are good especially The Man from Barbarossa.
I put it down to the fact that the hyper connected internet world we live in has actively eroded traditional espionage. Just check reports bellingcat are putting out every week about spies they are routinely uncovering using some internet sleuthing. You can’t get away with a universal exports business card anymore as a believable legend. And to move away from that is in my eyes, eroding what makes bond media bond media.
I don’t want to read about him applying tradecraft to evade mobile phone detection, because that’s what you get in the latest treadstone books, which are distinctly not bond like. Otherwise they become slow, kinda boring plots like modern le carre novels are.
Basically bond can only exist the way he does in a time capsule. As M says in the goldeneye movie, he is a dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War. That is the setting he belongs in and the setting he thrives in.
The Daniel Craig movies, and Kim Sherwood's 00 novels, say otherwise.
And the Craig films don’t hold up when you factor in modern tech…
Modern world sucks anyways.
I have come to the conclusion that characters should die with the author. Nothing has been written by Robert Parker or Tom Clancy yet authors are living off of characters they developed. Seems both lazy and false to me, but that’s my opinion