It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Not far into the book yet, but it takes place in the 1930s and is so far interesting.
The first in the Matt Helm series. I am not that far into the book, so I can't say much. But I have the next book in the series, The Wrecking Crew, on order.
Dracula (1897)
In my opinion still the quintessential vampire story - although Le Fanu's Carmilla comes close - Dracula is as much entertaining as it is mandatory reading for true horror fans. Inspiring countless film and television adaptations, graphic novels and more, Dracula remains a fairly hot property. One might of course argue that all those adaptations in different media make the source novel obsolete, but even then I believe that reading Stoker's novel is very much worth the effort. The book is beautifully written, at times pretty tense and even humorous, and it perfectly captures the Zeitgeist.
To be honest, this wasn't my first ever attempt at reading Dracula. In my early youth I tried a first time and couldn't get past the first 40 or so pages. Since we're dealing with a collection of letters and diary excerpts, all of them told from the first person perspective, the pacing is already a bit slow. Add to that the typical vocabulary and sentence building of the time, the lack of dialogue and the poorly nuanced good-versus-evil plot, and it's understandable that any modern reader may struggle with reading this classic.
It is of course helpful to bring the right mindset to this trip. To blame Dracula for not being as sophisticated as some of its modern "updates", like Stephen King's Salem's Lot, would be quite unfair. Dracula clearly is a product of the late 19th Century. Good people are uniformly good; not a single naughty thought in their mind to spice things up. Doesn't that make the book a bit dull? Of course not; just come prepared.
Since I've seen many of the movie adaptations (Browning's Dracula with Bela Lugosi, Fisher's Dracula with Christopher Lee, Badham's Dracula with Frank Langella, Coppola's Dracula with Gary Oldman, Saville's Dracula with Louis Jourdan, Curtis' Dracula with Jack Palance, Franco's Dracula with - again - Christopher Lee, the Nosferatu's, and many more), the story of Dracula by now had no surprises in store for me. But even then I still found reading this book rewarding. At the very least I now know what screenwriters made up and what was lifted directly from the pages of the Stoker novel.
I had a great time reading Dracula, despite its virtual outdatedness. I wholeheartedly think it is a novel to be respected and cherished. Either directly, or through its adaptations indirectly, it did influence writers, filmmakers and artists in general. Its legacy cannot be overstated. So if you ever entertained the thought of reading Dracula, I recommend you do so. It was a very good book when it got published in 1897 and it still is a very good book today.
Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make.
Automatically, I can't help but hear Lugosi's voice in my head when reading that line.
No adaptation ever comes close to the genius of the novel. I am one of the few people who first came to Dracula reading it, having seen none of the movie adaptations before. Apart from the gamebook Dracula's Castle, I had not read any other book adaptation either. It was an eye opener to what vampire and Dracula truly represented. Still, one of my favorite novels.
Tom Waits as Renfield, Richard E. Grant as Dr. Seward, Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing, ... it really is an interesting cast. :-)
None of them play their role right, except maybe Tom Waits, but Renfield is badly rewritten. Nowadays, Simon Russell Beale or Brendan Gleeson would make excellent Van Helsings, far more true to the source character, who is basically a kind hearted Victorian superhero.
having gotten thru season 4 of the show, i just started the first book and though it seems that the show follows the book closely and I have a good idea of what's going to happen, I am still enjoying the book.
Really clears up some things that the TV series has to gloss over.
Was knocking down 200/pages a day.
The young King in his very early prime could sure tell a tale and scare the poop out of you.
And yes, it really is a riff on Stoker's Dracula, as @Dimi suggested in another thread.
Have since read Kay Hooper's latest Bishop paranormal Crime thriller novel, Haunted.
Now catching up with Stephen King's newer works..Almost done 2013's Joyland. He has a long Goldfinger referenced passage in this book.
I'll detail it later in the cultural references thread
Again we go back in time. The Kennedy Assassination book (2011) involved time travel back to the '60s.
Joyland is a 70's lookback tale from a current vantage point.
Next up, I am going to plough thru King's next 4 offerings, Dr. Sleep (sequel to The Shining), Mr.Mercedes, Revival and the latest and second in the Mercedes trilogy, Finders Keepers.
I thought Salem's Lot was one of the two scariest books I ever read. (Peter Staub's Ghost Story being the other one).
It is by far the scariest book Stephen King ever wrote (sorry you fans of "The Shining" but Salem's Lot trumps all in terms of sheer horror. )
I have a hunch @MajorDSmythe had the movies in mind while typing this. Swap DAF for TMWTGG.
Ian Fleming’s James Bond Titles
1. Casino Royale - 1953
2. Live and Let Die -1954
3. Moonraker - 1955
4. Diamonds Are Forever -1956
5. From Russia With Love -1957
6. Doctor No -1958
7. Goldfinger -1959
8. For Your Eyes Only (short stories) -1960
From A View To A Kill
For Your Eyes Only
Quantum of Solace
Risico
The Hildebrand Rarity
9. Thunderball - 1961
10. The Spy Who Loved Me - 1962
11. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - 1963
12. You Only Live Twice -1964
13. The Man With The Golden Gun -1965
14. Octopussy & The Living Daylights -1966
(short stories) Octopussy
The Living Daylights
The Property Of A Lady
007 in New York
- See more at: http://www.ianfleming.com/books/#sthash.CoQM3Ffi.dpuf
Happily say ( being advised by others ) that reading them in the order they
Were written, is the best way to do it.
You'll notice Fleming growing as a writer and Bond as a character. :)
The dedicated Bond reader of the day, would have been tracking the stories down as they were published
I think the 3 of them all came out, in and around the release of TSWLM, but before OHMSS.
I'd have to get on the Google, but the exact publishing dates for the later short stories are all readily available.
OP, the story, was the last Fleming yarn published I believe.
I can't do it now....due to frustration w cellphone surfing.
Sadly I musn't be a true fan only reading them as Published books. :( I'll know
In future to keep my opinions on the literary Bond to myself.
To quote Harry Hart. ;)
" There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self "