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Would you rather watch Dalton's Bond get revenge in LTK OR Craig's Bond get revenge in QOS?

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Comments

  • MSL49MSL49 Finland
    Posts: 605
    Modern time.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,684
    Contemporary.
  • BT3366BT3366
    Posts: 1,984
    CommanderRoss wrote: »
    Modern day Bond. The character (if understood) can easily be transferred to our day and age, and modern-day writers have trouble understanding the fifties and sixties of the last century. I think the last one I read going utterly wrobng like that was 'Devil May Care', in which Bond hardly knew anything about Iran, and the 'Caspian Sea Monster' was a surprise to him. Well, both are ubeleavable for a spy at MI6. They were heavily involved in Iran, and the Caspian Sea Monster was well known in intelligence services as it was seen as a big threat.

    But getting the character right has been the biggest challenge to continuation novelists, and the only one that got close, I think, was Horowitz.

    I was excited to buy the book to take on my vacation in the summer of 2008 and right off it just seemed more like fan fiction than a professional continuation of a Bond adventure set in the '60s with a stereotype villain with a physical deformity, a sport to test Bond and so on that smacked more of the expected formula of the film series than the tribute to Fleming as it was supposed to be. I finished the first few chapters, set it aside and have never to this day revisited.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited September 21 Posts: 19,138
    I tried reading it again recently, and although there’s nothing really wrong with it, it all feels just too close to pastiche and formulaic that there didn’t seem to be any point reading it. I think it was around the point that Bond went to Tehran and meets not-Kerim Bay, and is guided through the mathematically appropriate amount of local customs and colour, and I just gave up with it. It’s like an AI Bond book.
    Horowitz’s books feel like sincere attempts to make Bond thrillers, Devil May Care has the slightest whiff of an author sneering at the material and, ironically, failing to match up to it.
  • 007HallY007HallY
    Posts: 5,963
    I've only read DMC once, but I definitely found it a strange book to read. The ending is pretty mind boggling too.
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 573
    I can't even remember the ending of DMC, such a disappointing book. I agree that it's paint by numbers Bond book written by someone who thinks himself above it. I though Scarlett was something of a bright spot but then the twist actively made her less interesting.

    As to the question, I think on balance contemporary. I do really like historical fiction as a genre, having hindsight can be quite rewarding, it's one of the reasons I think Trigger Mortis is the best of Horowitz's run. I think with Bond especially, it's the same argument we have with the film series, they were written as contemporary thrillers and if want a 60s set Bond, I'll re-read Fleming rather than something that's 60 years divorced from that context.

    I think it'll be interesting to see how Bond is handled in Hurricane Room, obviously he's going to be playing second fiddle to the other 00s but it'll be the first adult Bond since On His Majesty's in print, and there's First Light's new take a couple months before that. Exciting times.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,684
    I want to say there was one scene with Bond drinking with Felix that sticks out in my memory from DMC, but I may even be wrong about that; an unmemorable book for sure!
  • 007HallY007HallY
    edited September 22 Posts: 5,963
    CharmianBond wrote: »
    I can't even remember the ending of DMC, such a disappointing book.

    It's one of the only things about the book that stuck with me. You get this weird twist where it's revealed the Bond girl is a 00 and, under M's orders, has been pretending to be involved with the main villain and posing as twins the entire time.

    Personally, I find the implication that M's gone completely mad and is sending his agents on these weird (and rather pointless) side missions unknown to each other quite funny.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 6,116
    Nice to see the different views of our members with regards to the novels. Lets hope IFP is listening.

    Would you rather watch Dalton's Bond get revenge in LTK Or Craig's Bond get revenge in QOS?

    Many hold Tim's second movie in high regard. Bond isn't on a mission for Her Majesty. This time it's personal and Bond is undertaking a mission for a friend. This was the Bond movie that earned a 14A rating. It was a quantum leap from AVTAK in a short 4 years. This Bond movie broke the mold!

    OR

    The revenge movie from the Craig era. After the devasting loss of his love Vesper. Bond is full of steam and ready to avenge her death. Bond hunts down leads and it all leads to a mysterious organization called Quantum. This Bond didn't get the girl and didn't crack wise.

    So which revenge based flick are you throwing on the TV?
  • 007HallY007HallY
    Posts: 5,963
    LTK by default because QOS isn’t a revenge film ;) and I think LTK is a better film.
  • ToTheRightToTheRight
    Posts: 16,709
    Dalton in LTK without hesitation.
  • 007ClassicBondFan007ClassicBondFan
    Posts: 2,677
    Dalton and LTK. It just gets better and better with each viewing.
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