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When did Gardner jump the shark?
echo
007 in New York
For me, it was when he started choosing boring locations, especially American locations that did not feel exotic at all. Didn't he go to South Carolina in one? For the love of god, why? He was a writer; he could have chosen the most far-flung and exciting locations possible without regard to budget.
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I read it many times as a younger and now bitterly reproach myself doing so.
It was awful.
Secondly, I think writers do have write about locations that they know and have seen and all the rest. Pre-google maps/earth this would have had to be through tour books but for a character like Bond who is so particular about what he does and consumes, a tour book might not have been enough for things like how the restaurants are or the quality of hotels and the rest. A lot of authors don't even see Google Earth as enough! Gardner, living in the US for a long period, must have just travelled short distances considering the turnaround time on his novels.
Thirdly, Bond still goes to pretty interesting/new locales in the back half of the Gardener catalogue; San Francisco and Victoria BC (Brokenclaw), Russia (Barbarossa), Puerto Rico (Seafire), as well as the standard European locales like Venice, Berlin, Paris and Zurich.
That's Seafire. Probably sits near the bottom of all continuation novels
It's interesting because as an teenage reader I'd literally take any of those European destinations over anywhere in the Americas. Bond works best for me when he's in Europe, preferably with Cold War echoes.
This is a good point. I haven't read Boysie Oakes or seen the Jill St. John movie but they were essentially hiring a Bond parody writer, no? So it's kind of unsurprising that, after the careful/Glidrose-overseen Licence Renewed, Gardner would pull the series in his own stylistic direction, that is, toward parody. I don't mind For Special Services because it's kind of a bonkers DAF-ish plot. It has an energy that the latter half of his novels lacked for me.
Wonder if Bibi Dahl ever got a scoop
I am not sure if IFP was the one pushing the output or whether Gardner pushed back on the quantity being asked of him. I understand that Fleming was also doing one a year but as the creator of the character I think it was a trifle easier.
I enjoy the Gardner books. They are not always well done but they do entertain to some degree.
It sounds like it was a mix of both Gardener and IFP wanting to just keep the books coming. This is according to Gardener's son Simon in Keeping 007 Alive by Mark Edlitz. He wanted to beat Fleming's record and he did.
As for him jumping the shark, I'd say that for FSS is when he arguably did. It's still enjoyable, but he did make some jokes about the legacies of some Fleming characters. Some of his plots make the sillier Moore and Brosnan movies look as dark and serious as a Dalton or Craig movie.
I agree. When I saw Cedar Leiter, I thought, "oh give me a break." Bedding his best friend's daughter.
Bedding his best friends daughter...what the hell was going through Gardner's head on that one. And if I were Felix, James Bond's death would have come long before NTTD rolled around...
I would dearly love to read such a chapter.
The weird part of that story is the last chapter, where Leiter sends him a letter saying "The Gift of a Daughter" or something like that, basically giving Bond permission to do what he likes. Bond still turns down the offer, however.
Been ages since I read it. I thought at the end, it’s heavily implied they got together? Apologies if I’m misremembering (saying that, I do remember lots of flirting, which is enough to at least lay a beating on Bond?).
Through the chapter preceding they are sharing a hotel room and arguing over whether they should or not. Bond threatens to spank her, which I think was probably a bit outdated for the 80s in a non-sexual sense, but beyond that I remember that Bond was interested in Blofeld's daughter for the majority of the story.
This is a little ambiguous with it left as, they’re both as stubborn as mules.
But even worse is Felix is kind of pimping-out his daughter to his friend.
Man, I just cleaned my eyeballs, and tried pouring bleach into my ears, hoping it’d reach my brain, 😂…
When I read that book as a teenager, I thought the Blofeld daughter twist was neat, but after reading that excerpt above, I’ll stick with Ice-Breaker as my favourite Gardner book (and think it could make for a pretty awesome flick).
Anyway, I agree about Felix. He comes off the worst of the three in this novel and I believe that was his only appearance in Gardner's work (apart from Licence to Kill).
It is a shame because FSS does hold up as a relatively good, if weird, novel. The henchman is good, the setting bizarre and the whole thing is genuinely intriguing.
I can't recall if it was Cedar or Q'ute who Bond slept with...maybe just the latter? Either way, it gives ick.
I do think Icebreaker is one of the best ones (especially the title), along with the one where they have a bounty on Bond's head. Something different, with Bond on the defensive.