Gardner's Goldeneye novel- Bond's past in Cuba?

timmer

Re-reading John Gardner's Goldeneye novelization.
Page 186. Bond and Natalya are relaxing in bed post-coitus. We all know the scene from the film. Gardner writes the dialogue much differently though.
Bond says that in some ways there is a reason for him to hate it (the country Cuba) but now there is a new reason for him to love it (talking about Natalya).
Then he explains that there was a woman. He's talking about some episode in his past. He says she may never walk again and "we were dealing with a very bad man."
Hunh?

What is he going on about? Anyone know? This is John Gardner writing. He is either linking movie continuity, as this is a screenplay adaptation that he has written. Or he is linking to Fleming, or he is linking to one of his own Bond continuation novels.
Off the top of my head, I am very familiar with both Fleming and the films, yet I can't make a connection here.

So I am wondering if he is linking with one of his own books. I have read them all. But only one time each, and back when they were published, so they aren't fresh in mind.

I am stumped.

Dragonpol

It is a reference back to Fredericka 'Flicka' von Grusse who was battered by a villainess at the end of the preceding SeaFire (1994) by John Gardner. I think this all occurred on Puerto Rica and not Cuba but I'd have to look back. Like the Leiter "lightning really does strike twice" shark mauling episode in the LTK novelisation this is a loose end Gardner tries to tie up in GE although Flicka eventually dies in the next novel Cold (1996). Hope that helps.

timmer

OK thanks, that rings a bell. That's what I thought.He must referencing his own novels. In GE ( movie and novelization), Bond and Natalya are quite clearly in Cuba, correct......... or have I got that wrong, and they are actually lounging about somewhere else, planning to go to Cuba. Maybe they are in Peurto Rico which I think is the Seafire setting.
I am sketchy on the Seafire details but the Flicka thing rings a bell ( I really must go back and do a Gardner re-readathon, which I do plan on doing after finishing the 7 film novelizations). Whose the "bad man" Bond is talking about. The lead villain from Seafire I guess, Maxwell Tarn.
What's the Leiter reference you are talking about in Gardners LTK novelization? Is that some sort of in-joke from Gardner, that this scenario originally happened in Fleming's LALD?
Interesting in the Eon series, original pre-Craig continuity, we never saw Leiter again, after he got mauled by the shark in LTK. He essentially got replaced by Jack Wade. But Fleming kept him quite active, post mauling.

Agent007391

Cold takes place before GE, doesn't it? There's a reference to Dench's M as being new in the final chapter.

timmer

Cold was Gardner's final Bond book published 1996 after Goldeneye (1995) and Seafire (1994).
I think @dragonpol hit on it. Gardner was slipping his GE screenplay-novelization in with his own original novel continuity. I guess with Cold he is incorporating GE M into his final entry.
The only thing I am not clear on is where Bond and Natalya are during that little romantic interlude before they go looking for Trevalyan's base. Are they in Cuba or Puerto Rico, which is an American territory in the Caribbean? And in what locale does Bond lose Flicka, thus cementing the Seafire-Goldeneye connection.
The question is easily answered though by reviewing the film and novels in question.

Chevron

timmer wrote: »

What's the Leiter reference you are talking about in Gardners LTK novelization? Is that some sort of in-joke from Gardner, that this scenario originally happened in Fleming's LALD?

In the Gardner books it's the same Bond as in the Fleming books and Gardner makes it the same "literary" Bond character when we get to his LTK novel. So poor old Felix is actually being fed to the sharks twice, the first time in the novel LALD and then again in LTK.

I think Gardner writes that sometimes lightning does strike twice to explain this, which doesn't really work for me. I think in LTK he should just have made it a slightly different continuity where it was happening for the first time.

timmer

Well at least Gardner is consistent. If he was intent on making his screenplay novelizations part of the broader Fleming, and his own Bond literary universe, then you have to use the lighting-strikes-twice approach with Felix and the shark.
Although, I can't say he overplayed this angle, as I have read LTK twice and neither time did I get that he was linking with Fleming continuity. I thought this was first time for Felix. Guess, I was glossing through the book too quickly.
I just assumed his novelizations co-existed with film continuity. Apparently not, as there is not doubt he was tying his GE in with Seafire.

I don't believe Wood tried to connect his screenplay books with Fleming continuity. Couldn't very well have, as Drax was already dead.
I'll be re-reading the three Benson screenplay novelizations shortly, and given the Gardner revelations, willl be on the lookout for any Benson attempts at literary continuity, as opposed to film continuity.