WITH A MIND TO KILL by Anthony Horowitz (May 2022)

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Comments

  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,727
    Gerard wrote: »
    I was talking about the numbers. But your version is at least as funny as mine.

    I aim to please. ;)
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,050
    https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/bond-books-anthony-horowitz-ian-fleming

    I don’t think AH will skip over CS after saying it was one of the best novels, even over Fleming’s novels. I do remember that AH said that he didn’t like Devil May Care or Carte Blanche for unknown reasons. He said that he was a bit fond of Solo though, from Bond’s character standpoint.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,727
    MaxCasino wrote: »
    https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/bond-books-anthony-horowitz-ian-fleming

    I don’t think AH will skip over CS after saying it was one of the best novels, even over Fleming’s novels. I do remember that AH said that he didn’t like Devil May Care or Carte Blanche for unknown reasons. He said that he was a bit fond of Solo though, from Bond’s character standpoint.

    The only way he could skip over it is if his new Bond novel takes place before the events of Colonel Sun which it sounds like it might. I do agree though that Colonel Sun has a pedigree that no other Bond continuation novel since has ever attained. It's as close to canon and an honorary Fleming Bond novel as we're ever likely to get. The fact it was written in the 1960s not long after the Fleming Bond novels certainly helps its prestigious status among the continuation novels. It has that air of authenticity about it that no later attempt at a period set novel can accurately replicate. There's no beating the real thing!
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,050
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    MaxCasino wrote: »
    https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/bond-books-anthony-horowitz-ian-fleming

    I don’t think AH will skip over CS after saying it was one of the best novels, even over Fleming’s novels. I do remember that AH said that he didn’t like Devil May Care or Carte Blanche for unknown reasons. He said that he was a bit fond of Solo though, from Bond’s character standpoint.

    The only way he could skip over it is if his new Bond novel takes place before the events of Colonel Sun which it sounds like it might. I do agree though that Colonel Sun has a pedigree that no other Bond continuation novel since has ever attained. It's as close to canon and an honorary Fleming Bond novel as we're ever likely to get. The fact it was written in the 1960s not long after the Fleming Bond novels certainly helps its prestigious status among the continuation novels. It has that air of authenticity about it that no later attempt at a period set novel can accurately replicate. There's no beating the real thing!

    Quite true when it comes to the real feeling, when something was truly made in it’s time! Also, for those of you hoping for Rosa Klebb to come back, it sounds like he already tried in Trigger Morris, and was told no. But people can change their minds overtime. Maybe it might be someone from the movies: Alec Trevelyan, Elliot Carver etc. However, I hope it’s a drugs or a doomsday machine villain’s plot AGAIN. In the last five books the villains plot has alternated between drugs or a doomsday machine. Please be a bit more original this time Mr. Horowitz!
  • Posts: 2,594
    Excellent news. Yesterday - May 28, I was thinking, what is significant about this day? It never came to me. Funnily enough, after reading about Amazon buying out MGM, I thought about the adult and young literary Bond and how we hadn’t heard anything in a while. I never put two and two together though. LOL. In terms of Bond encountering an old enemy, I just hope the story won’t be written with too much of a personal angle. Of course, I’ll have to read TMWTGG again. :) I hope this won’t be the final Bond book by Horowitz. I won’t get my hopes up though. In terms of adult Bond, there aren’t any multi book deals these days.
  • edited May 2021 Posts: 2,594
    “He said that he was a bit fond of Solo though, from Bond’s character standpoint.”

    I agree with Horowitz in terms of ‘Solo’.

    Oh, Happy belated Birthday, Mr. Fleming!

  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    MaxCasino wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    MaxCasino wrote: »
    https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/bond-books-anthony-horowitz-ian-fleming

    I don’t think AH will skip over CS after saying it was one of the best novels, even over Fleming’s novels. I do remember that AH said that he didn’t like Devil May Care or Carte Blanche for unknown reasons. He said that he was a bit fond of Solo though, from Bond’s character standpoint.

    The only way he could skip over it is if his new Bond novel takes place before the events of Colonel Sun which it sounds like it might. I do agree though that Colonel Sun has a pedigree that no other Bond continuation novel since has ever attained. It's as close to canon and an honorary Fleming Bond novel as we're ever likely to get. The fact it was written in the 1960s not long after the Fleming Bond novels certainly helps its prestigious status among the continuation novels. It has that air of authenticity about it that no later attempt at a period set novel can accurately replicate. There's no beating the real thing!

    Quite true when it comes to the real feeling, when something was truly made in it’s time! Also, for those of you hoping for Rosa Klebb to come back, it sounds like he already tried in Trigger Morris, and was told no.

    Really? That’s interesting, thank you.
  • ImpertinentGoonImpertinentGoon Everybody needs a hobby.
    Posts: 1,351
    Wasn't Horowitz's problem with many continuations and specifically Carte Blanche that he thought it doesn't make sense to port Bond into our timeline? I remember reading that somewhere.

    As for the "old enemy", by far the best speculation I have read so far is Colonel Boris who brainwashed him between YOLT and TMWTGG. In the timeline he isn't that old of an enemy but it would make sense to go after him right after he has successfully completed his "redemption mission" of killing Scaramanga.
  • Posts: 3,273
    Wasn't Horowitz's problem with many continuations and specifically Carte Blanche that he thought it doesn't make sense to port Bond into our timeline? I remember reading that somewhere.

    As for the "old enemy", by far the best speculation I have read so far is Colonel Boris who brainwashed him between YOLT and TMWTGG. In the timeline he isn't that old of an enemy but it would make sense to go after him right after he has successfully completed his "redemption mission" of killing Scaramanga.

    Good shout. That would make sense, going after Colonel Boris. Maybe he tails him down in Hong Kong, and secretly kills him without disclosing it to M. Then covers up the mission in Hong Kong, when he says to Tanner in CS that nothing much happened, and it was a bungled operation.

    I'd love a 60's period piece set in Hong Kong, as it's my favourite city.
  • As for the "old enemy", by far the best speculation I have read so far is Colonel Boris who brainwashed him between YOLT and TMWTGG. In the timeline he isn't that old of an enemy but it would make sense to go after him right after he has successfully completed his "redemption mission" of killing Scaramanga.

    Indeed, this seems to be the most likely prospect. I easily imagine that Colonel Boris could also lead Bond back to Kissy Suzuki and her son. Such horizon is truly exciting as it could close Fleming's storyline.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    Wasn't Horowitz's problem with many continuations and specifically Carte Blanche that he thought it doesn't make sense to port Bond into our timeline? I remember reading that somewhere.

    As for the "old enemy", by far the best speculation I have read so far is Colonel Boris who brainwashed him between YOLT and TMWTGG. In the timeline he isn't that old of an enemy but it would make sense to go after him right after he has successfully completed his "redemption mission" of killing Scaramanga.

    Good shout. That would make sense, going after Colonel Boris. Maybe he tails him down in Hong Kong, and secretly kills him without disclosing it to M. Then covers up the mission in Hong Kong, when he says to Tanner in CS that nothing much happened, and it was a bungled operation.

    I'd love a 60's period piece set in Hong Kong, as it's my favourite city.
    As for the "old enemy", by far the best speculation I have read so far is Colonel Boris who brainwashed him between YOLT and TMWTGG. In the timeline he isn't that old of an enemy but it would make sense to go after him right after he has successfully completed his "redemption mission" of killing Scaramanga.

    Indeed, this seems to be the most likely prospect. I easily imagine that Colonel Boris could also lead Bond back to Kissy Suzuki and her son. Such horizon is truly exciting as it could close Fleming's storyline.

    These are great thoughts. Even if this book isn’t about those I’d like to see them explored in another!
  • Posts: 2,594
    Good idea there...and I also love Hong Kong.

    Outside of Fleming, I only consider Colonel Sun, Pearson’s Biography of Bond and Horowitz’s work as part of the Bond canon.
  • edited May 2021 Posts: 2,594
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    How do you mean? Sun doesn’t seem to set directly after, does it?

    Well there's the firm evidence on the first page of Colonel Sun with that line about Bond being shot by Scaramanga's Derringer as occurring "last summer" so I take that to mean the year before. The year before was 1964 when TMWTGG took place so that means Colonel Sun is set some time in 1965. ......... So neither of them negated Colonel Sun occurring directly after TMWTGG in the same way as this new Horowitz Bond novel might. Only time will tell of course in how it will be handled by Horowitz.

    But if CS is set the year after TMWTGG it's not really happening 'directly after'. It's clearly at least several months later, as you say. The new Horowitz starts only days after the events of TMWTGG, so unless the rest of the story unfolds over the course of a year or so -which would be pretty unusual for a Bond story- it doesn't seem likely to negate CS, surely?

    Ah, I see. A very good point. You're quite right. I hadn't read that the new Horowitz Bond novel was set only days after TMWTGG. So it can fit quite snugly between TMWTGG and what happens in Colonel Sun. I'm relieved to hear that from a literary Bond continuity point of view!

    Yes, all we know about it at the moment is how Horowitz has described it: "I am very excited to have started my third Bond novel with the continuing support of the Ian Fleming estate. Forever and a Day looked at Bond’s first assignment. Trigger Mortis was mid-career. The new book begins with the death of Scaramanga and Bond’s return from Jamaica to confront an old enemy."

    Ah, yes! I see what you mean about the level of immediacy in terms of it directly following the events of TMWTGG. That's the era I'd most like to see Bond's adventures continued into (apart from the modern day) so it's great news for me.

    Actually I might be wrong: caractcus potts on AJB has made a good point about an exchange in Colonel Sun (I think when Bond is chatting to Tanner at the golf club) about what Bond has done since TMWTGG:
    "What have I done this year? One trip to the States, on what turns out to be a sort of discourtesy visit, and then that miserable flop out East back in June.'

    Bond had been sent to Hong Kong to supervise the conveying to the Red mainland of a certain Chinese and a number of unusual stores. The man had gone missing about the time of Bond's arrival and had been found two days later in an alley off the waterfront with his head almost severed from his body. After another three days, memorable chiefly for a violent and prolonged typhoon, the plan had been cancelled and Bond recalled.

    So actually that doesn't leave a lot of room for an unseen adventure, unless Bond is lying or has forgotten it! :) Or perhaps this American visit will play a part in the new story. 'Discourtesy visit' is a nice Flemingy turn of phrase I think, but perhaps not quite enough for a book title.

    He should just be setting it post Colonel Sun. :) Bond returns from Greece to encounter an old enemy. It’s quite possible that Horowitz has disregarded anything post Fleming.

    This gives him between around August, 1964 and January of 65 (around four months) to get himself into trouble...or maybe I’ve missed something. Four months could be fine obviously depending on the nature of his adventure.
  • Posts: 1,693
    Bounine wrote: »
    “He said that he was a bit fond of Solo though, from Bond’s character standpoint.”

    I agree with Horowitz in terms of ‘Solo’.

    Oh, Happy belated Birthday, Mr. Fleming!

    Solo, Napoelon Solo, Fleming's other spy always comes to mind when I hear this title.
  • edited May 2021 Posts: 2,594
    I can’t believe I never knew that Fleming created Napoleon Solo. How did I miss that one?! Well, if it was mentioned in Lycett’s biography of Fleming then I would have known at one point but obviously forgot.

    Leaves of autumn tones, clinging to the window under the battering of the 64 rain, obscured the otherwise arresting view from M’s ninth floor office... ;)
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    I thought it was quite a neat idea to call that book Solo as Fleming obviously liked that word, what with Napoleon and Mr Solo from Goldfinger.
  • Posts: 17,241
    mtm wrote: »
    I thought it was quite a neat idea to call that book Solo as Fleming obviously liked that word, what with Napoleon and Mr Solo from Goldfinger.

    Yes, it's a nice title actually.
  • Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    How do you mean? Sun doesn’t seem to set directly after, does it?

    Well there's the firm evidence on the first page of Colonel Sun with that line about Bond being shot by Scaramanga's Derringer as occurring "last summer" so I take that to mean the year before. The year before was 1964 when TMWTGG took place so that means Colonel Sun is set some time in 1965. ......... So neither of them negated Colonel Sun occurring directly after TMWTGG in the same way as this new Horowitz Bond novel might. Only time will tell of course in how it will be handled by Horowitz.

    But if CS is set the year after TMWTGG it's not really happening 'directly after'. It's clearly at least several months later, as you say. The new Horowitz starts only days after the events of TMWTGG, so unless the rest of the story unfolds over the course of a year or so -which would be pretty unusual for a Bond story- it doesn't seem likely to negate CS, surely?

    Ah, I see. A very good point. You're quite right. I hadn't read that the new Horowitz Bond novel was set only days after TMWTGG. So it can fit quite snugly between TMWTGG and what happens in Colonel Sun. I'm relieved to hear that from a literary Bond continuity point of view!

    Yes, all we know about it at the moment is how Horowitz has described it: "I am very excited to have started my third Bond novel with the continuing support of the Ian Fleming estate. Forever and a Day looked at Bond’s first assignment. Trigger Mortis was mid-career. The new book begins with the death of Scaramanga and Bond’s return from Jamaica to confront an old enemy."

    Ah, yes! I see what you mean about the level of immediacy in terms of it directly following the events of TMWTGG. That's the era I'd most like to see Bond's adventures continued into (apart from the modern day) so it's great news for me.

    Actually I might be wrong: caractcus potts on AJB has made a good point about an exchange in Colonel Sun (I think when Bond is chatting to Tanner at the golf club) about what Bond has done since TMWTGG:
    "What have I done this year? One trip to the States, on what turns out to be a sort of discourtesy visit, and then that miserable flop out East back in June.'

    Bond had been sent to Hong Kong to supervise the conveying to the Red mainland of a certain Chinese and a number of unusual stores. The man had gone missing about the time of Bond's arrival and had been found two days later in an alley off the waterfront with his head almost severed from his body. After another three days, memorable chiefly for a violent and prolonged typhoon, the plan had been cancelled and Bond recalled.

    So actually that doesn't leave a lot of room for an unseen adventure, unless Bond is lying or has forgotten it! :) Or perhaps this American visit will play a part in the new story. 'Discourtesy visit' is a nice Flemingy turn of phrase I think, but perhaps not quite enough for a book title.

    Yes, when I was flicking through my 1970 Pan paperback copy of Colonel Sun earlier today I saw that bit that appears early on in the novel. You're write in that it doesn't leave a lot of wriggle room for Horowitz to fit his new Bond novel into. He'll either find some way around it or just ignore Colonel Sun altogether and proceed as if he's writing the first Bond book after Fleming. I hope he does the former rather than the latter!

    If IFP have given their writers carte blanche to ignore the work of all other continuation authors that would include ignoring Colonel Sun. Personally, I would prefer that all of the work of the continuation authors be held as canonical and treated as such in new installments, unless a new author were to regard their book as some kind of an Elseworlds Bond tale.

    Things did get weird when Benson started having Fleming's Bond interact with the likes of Rene Mathis and Tiger Tanaka in the late 90s and early 00s when they all would have been quite, quite elderly, but other than that everything up through the end of Gardner's run holds up. For modern literary interpretations of Bond set in the present day, I'd prefer they go the route of Deaver and make Bond a modern agent, appropriately aged, without some Methuselahen legacy of spy work behind him.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    How do you mean? Sun doesn’t seem to set directly after, does it?

    Well there's the firm evidence on the first page of Colonel Sun with that line about Bond being shot by Scaramanga's Derringer as occurring "last summer" so I take that to mean the year before. The year before was 1964 when TMWTGG took place so that means Colonel Sun is set some time in 1965. ......... So neither of them negated Colonel Sun occurring directly after TMWTGG in the same way as this new Horowitz Bond novel might. Only time will tell of course in how it will be handled by Horowitz.

    But if CS is set the year after TMWTGG it's not really happening 'directly after'. It's clearly at least several months later, as you say. The new Horowitz starts only days after the events of TMWTGG, so unless the rest of the story unfolds over the course of a year or so -which would be pretty unusual for a Bond story- it doesn't seem likely to negate CS, surely?

    Ah, I see. A very good point. You're quite right. I hadn't read that the new Horowitz Bond novel was set only days after TMWTGG. So it can fit quite snugly between TMWTGG and what happens in Colonel Sun. I'm relieved to hear that from a literary Bond continuity point of view!

    Yes, all we know about it at the moment is how Horowitz has described it: "I am very excited to have started my third Bond novel with the continuing support of the Ian Fleming estate. Forever and a Day looked at Bond’s first assignment. Trigger Mortis was mid-career. The new book begins with the death of Scaramanga and Bond’s return from Jamaica to confront an old enemy."

    Ah, yes! I see what you mean about the level of immediacy in terms of it directly following the events of TMWTGG. That's the era I'd most like to see Bond's adventures continued into (apart from the modern day) so it's great news for me.

    Actually I might be wrong: caractcus potts on AJB has made a good point about an exchange in Colonel Sun (I think when Bond is chatting to Tanner at the golf club) about what Bond has done since TMWTGG:
    "What have I done this year? One trip to the States, on what turns out to be a sort of discourtesy visit, and then that miserable flop out East back in June.'

    Bond had been sent to Hong Kong to supervise the conveying to the Red mainland of a certain Chinese and a number of unusual stores. The man had gone missing about the time of Bond's arrival and had been found two days later in an alley off the waterfront with his head almost severed from his body. After another three days, memorable chiefly for a violent and prolonged typhoon, the plan had been cancelled and Bond recalled.

    So actually that doesn't leave a lot of room for an unseen adventure, unless Bond is lying or has forgotten it! :) Or perhaps this American visit will play a part in the new story. 'Discourtesy visit' is a nice Flemingy turn of phrase I think, but perhaps not quite enough for a book title.

    Yes, when I was flicking through my 1970 Pan paperback copy of Colonel Sun earlier today I saw that bit that appears early on in the novel. You're write in that it doesn't leave a lot of wriggle room for Horowitz to fit his new Bond novel into. He'll either find some way around it or just ignore Colonel Sun altogether and proceed as if he's writing the first Bond book after Fleming. I hope he does the former rather than the latter!

    If IFP have given their writers carte blanche to ignore the work of all other continuation authors that would include ignoring Colonel Sun. Personally, I would prefer that all of the work of the continuation authors be held as canonical and treated as such in new installments, unless a new author were to regard their book as some kind of an Elseworlds Bond tale.

    I’m not really sure how you do that, especially with all of the different timelines. Plus you have Benson erasing all of the stuff Gardner set up with Captain Bond, Microglobe One etc so they don’t even really fit with each other. Best not to worry too much.
  • mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    How do you mean? Sun doesn’t seem to set directly after, does it?

    Well there's the firm evidence on the first page of Colonel Sun with that line about Bond being shot by Scaramanga's Derringer as occurring "last summer" so I take that to mean the year before. The year before was 1964 when TMWTGG took place so that means Colonel Sun is set some time in 1965. ......... So neither of them negated Colonel Sun occurring directly after TMWTGG in the same way as this new Horowitz Bond novel might. Only time will tell of course in how it will be handled by Horowitz.

    But if CS is set the year after TMWTGG it's not really happening 'directly after'. It's clearly at least several months later, as you say. The new Horowitz starts only days after the events of TMWTGG, so unless the rest of the story unfolds over the course of a year or so -which would be pretty unusual for a Bond story- it doesn't seem likely to negate CS, surely?

    Ah, I see. A very good point. You're quite right. I hadn't read that the new Horowitz Bond novel was set only days after TMWTGG. So it can fit quite snugly between TMWTGG and what happens in Colonel Sun. I'm relieved to hear that from a literary Bond continuity point of view!

    Yes, all we know about it at the moment is how Horowitz has described it: "I am very excited to have started my third Bond novel with the continuing support of the Ian Fleming estate. Forever and a Day looked at Bond’s first assignment. Trigger Mortis was mid-career. The new book begins with the death of Scaramanga and Bond’s return from Jamaica to confront an old enemy."

    Ah, yes! I see what you mean about the level of immediacy in terms of it directly following the events of TMWTGG. That's the era I'd most like to see Bond's adventures continued into (apart from the modern day) so it's great news for me.

    Actually I might be wrong: caractcus potts on AJB has made a good point about an exchange in Colonel Sun (I think when Bond is chatting to Tanner at the golf club) about what Bond has done since TMWTGG:
    "What have I done this year? One trip to the States, on what turns out to be a sort of discourtesy visit, and then that miserable flop out East back in June.'

    Bond had been sent to Hong Kong to supervise the conveying to the Red mainland of a certain Chinese and a number of unusual stores. The man had gone missing about the time of Bond's arrival and had been found two days later in an alley off the waterfront with his head almost severed from his body. After another three days, memorable chiefly for a violent and prolonged typhoon, the plan had been cancelled and Bond recalled.

    So actually that doesn't leave a lot of room for an unseen adventure, unless Bond is lying or has forgotten it! :) Or perhaps this American visit will play a part in the new story. 'Discourtesy visit' is a nice Flemingy turn of phrase I think, but perhaps not quite enough for a book title.

    Yes, when I was flicking through my 1970 Pan paperback copy of Colonel Sun earlier today I saw that bit that appears early on in the novel. You're write in that it doesn't leave a lot of wriggle room for Horowitz to fit his new Bond novel into. He'll either find some way around it or just ignore Colonel Sun altogether and proceed as if he's writing the first Bond book after Fleming. I hope he does the former rather than the latter!

    If IFP have given their writers carte blanche to ignore the work of all other continuation authors that would include ignoring Colonel Sun. Personally, I would prefer that all of the work of the continuation authors be held as canonical and treated as such in new installments, unless a new author were to regard their book as some kind of an Elseworlds Bond tale.

    I’m not really sure how you do that, especially with all of the different timelines. Plus you have Benson erasing all of the stuff Gardner set up with Captain Bond, Microglobe One etc so they don’t even really fit with each other. Best not to worry too much.

    Like I said, things got weird when Benson took over. But you were never going to be able to bring Fleming’s Bond into the new millennium and have it make sense, age-wise at least. I’m referring more to if new authors, like Horowitz, want to go back in time and insert new Bond adventures into the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s. I’d prefer they respect all that’s been written for those time periods already, regardless of whether Fleming wrote it or not.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited May 2021 Posts: 17,727
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    How do you mean? Sun doesn’t seem to set directly after, does it?

    Well there's the firm evidence on the first page of Colonel Sun with that line about Bond being shot by Scaramanga's Derringer as occurring "last summer" so I take that to mean the year before. The year before was 1964 when TMWTGG took place so that means Colonel Sun is set some time in 1965. ......... So neither of them negated Colonel Sun occurring directly after TMWTGG in the same way as this new Horowitz Bond novel might. Only time will tell of course in how it will be handled by Horowitz.

    But if CS is set the year after TMWTGG it's not really happening 'directly after'. It's clearly at least several months later, as you say. The new Horowitz starts only days after the events of TMWTGG, so unless the rest of the story unfolds over the course of a year or so -which would be pretty unusual for a Bond story- it doesn't seem likely to negate CS, surely?

    Ah, I see. A very good point. You're quite right. I hadn't read that the new Horowitz Bond novel was set only days after TMWTGG. So it can fit quite snugly between TMWTGG and what happens in Colonel Sun. I'm relieved to hear that from a literary Bond continuity point of view!

    Yes, all we know about it at the moment is how Horowitz has described it: "I am very excited to have started my third Bond novel with the continuing support of the Ian Fleming estate. Forever and a Day looked at Bond’s first assignment. Trigger Mortis was mid-career. The new book begins with the death of Scaramanga and Bond’s return from Jamaica to confront an old enemy."

    Ah, yes! I see what you mean about the level of immediacy in terms of it directly following the events of TMWTGG. That's the era I'd most like to see Bond's adventures continued into (apart from the modern day) so it's great news for me.

    Actually I might be wrong: caractcus potts on AJB has made a good point about an exchange in Colonel Sun (I think when Bond is chatting to Tanner at the golf club) about what Bond has done since TMWTGG:
    "What have I done this year? One trip to the States, on what turns out to be a sort of discourtesy visit, and then that miserable flop out East back in June.'

    Bond had been sent to Hong Kong to supervise the conveying to the Red mainland of a certain Chinese and a number of unusual stores. The man had gone missing about the time of Bond's arrival and had been found two days later in an alley off the waterfront with his head almost severed from his body. After another three days, memorable chiefly for a violent and prolonged typhoon, the plan had been cancelled and Bond recalled.

    So actually that doesn't leave a lot of room for an unseen adventure, unless Bond is lying or has forgotten it! :) Or perhaps this American visit will play a part in the new story. 'Discourtesy visit' is a nice Flemingy turn of phrase I think, but perhaps not quite enough for a book title.

    Yes, when I was flicking through my 1970 Pan paperback copy of Colonel Sun earlier today I saw that bit that appears early on in the novel. You're write in that it doesn't leave a lot of wriggle room for Horowitz to fit his new Bond novel into. He'll either find some way around it or just ignore Colonel Sun altogether and proceed as if he's writing the first Bond book after Fleming. I hope he does the former rather than the latter!

    If IFP have given their writers carte blanche to ignore the work of all other continuation authors that would include ignoring Colonel Sun. Personally, I would prefer that all of the work of the continuation authors be held as canonical and treated as such in new installments, unless a new author were to regard their book as some kind of an Elseworlds Bond tale.

    I’m not really sure how you do that, especially with all of the different timelines. Plus you have Benson erasing all of the stuff Gardner set up with Captain Bond, Microglobe One etc so they don’t even really fit with each other. Best not to worry too much.

    It was even a tad more complex than that when it came to Benson. He was told he could keep or discard what he liked from Gardner. Benson had a kind of pick 'n' mix attitude to the Gardner novels by which I mean he kept what he liked and discarded that which he didn't like or wanted to change. Benson does refer back to the Gardner novels at times but where it threatens to tie his hands (such as Gardner stating in Nobody Lives Forever that Marc-Ange Draco was dead) he clarifies that that was a false rumour and that Draco's still alive in order to bring the old Fleming character back in Never Dream of Dying (2001). However, as you say @mtm, it's very difficult if not close to impossible to reconcile all of the different timelines of the now many hands involved in the Bond continuation novels. It's probably best to take a laissez-faire attitude to continuity in the Bond continuation project if you want an easy life!
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited May 2021 Posts: 14,861
    There was that famous thing that Gardner wrote in the Licence To Kill novelisation that Felix had his other leg bitten off after the same thing had happened to him in Live And Let Die! :D it’s maybe best not to worry about trying to join everything up too much.
  • Leiter's case of lightning—or rather Great Whites—striking twice was certainly one of the more egregious examples of forced continuity!
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited May 2021 Posts: 17,727
    mtm wrote: »
    There was that famous thing that Gardner wrote in the Licence To Kill novelisation that Felix had his other leg bitten off after the same thing had happened to him in Live And Let Die! :D it’s maybe best not to worry about trying to join everything up too much.

    Yes, and I'm on record as saying on the Spybrary podcast on the John Gardner Bond novels that I appeared on in 2019 that that was a step too far in terms of continuity and trying to tie everything up. Logic and rationality are more important things than strict continuity and that is the best example of how not to do it. Common sense must prevail and though lightning can strike twice it is surely a rare enough occurrence not to feature in two separate narratives in the same book series.

    Raymond Benson once said in an interview that he viewed his three Bond film novelisations as being separate from his own original Bond novels. To be honest I think that's the best way of viewing them as the Bond films and the Bond novels have at times been so divergent in style, tone and sensibility. Gardner seemed to take the opposite view to Benson on this issue and his obsessiveness with continuity between the film novelisation and his original novels. This obessiveness with continuity at all costs carried over into GoldenEye as well, though without as obvious an example as the repeat Leiter shark attack in Licence to Kill!
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    I think maybe you could tell Benson didn’t want to put that much thought into his novelisations: it felt like he’d had to write them in an afternoon! Dreadful stuff.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,727
    mtm wrote: »
    I think maybe you could tell Benson didn’t want to put that much thought into his novelisations: it felt like he’d had to write them in an afternoon! Dreadful stuff.

    Perhaps though he did have to wholesale invent a background for Elliot Carver that didn't feature in the TND film script. I'm thinking about the stuff with Carver's father, Lord Roverman, and how Carver took over control of his media empire. There's always a certain amount of filling in of the blanks involved in writing up a film script into a novelisation as they're two completely different mediums. Gardner had to do the same with his film novelisations For example explaining how Bond had to take a charter flight to another country in his Licence to Kill novelisation whereas in the film it just cuts neatly from scene to scene. That can't be done as easily in a book. More in the way of exposition and explanation of how Bond got from A to B is required than the knowing assumptions of a cinema audience watching an edited film with a set running time.
  • His Tomorrow Never Dies adaptation is probably one of the better things he wrote for Bond.
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,050
    His Tomorrow Never Dies adaptation is probably one of the better things he wrote for Bond.

    I think it should have been used a bit more for the movie. Namely, Elliot Carver’s backstory.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited May 2021 Posts: 17,727
    MaxCasino wrote: »
    His Tomorrow Never Dies adaptation is probably one of the better things he wrote for Bond.

    I think it should have been used a bit more for the movie. Namely, Elliot Carver’s backstory.

    The problem was it wasn't in the original film script but was purely the inventiom of Raymond Benson. That's not to say that it wasn't very good and gave some much needed background and motivation for Carver's villainy in the film. It would've been nice indeed to have seen some of that in the finished film.
  • edited May 2021 Posts: 2,594
    I’m more of a fan of Gardner’s first five Bond novels than I am of Colonel Sun but I don’t consider Gardner’s books to be part of the canon for the simple fact that Bond is too old to be a field agent in the 1980’s. Post Amis, it’s a license to implement poetic license... :)
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