What are you Currently Reading?

18911131417

Comments

  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,644MI6 Agent
    edited July 2017
    Barbel wrote:

    Ha ha! I was one of the people credited with discovering that over on CBn back in 2004 when the membner Simon Bermuda first posted it. I get the credit here:

    http://commanderbond.net/2323/moonraker-the-forgotten-1956-film-version.html]

    To be honest, I kind of believed it at the time, or more likely hoped that it was true as Moonraker has always been my favourite Bond novel. I was a bit miffed to find out I'd been duped all along. :#
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • HachiHeadHachiHead Posts: 5MI6 Agent
    Moonraker. Particularly enjoy it because it's the first of the series that focuses on Bond at home, at the office, interacting with M, rather than globe trotting. It's a nice reprieve after the thrill ride that is Live and Let Die. I still have no idea how Fleming managed to make such involving drama out of a game of bridge.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    I just finished Pearson's The Life of Ian Fleming (1966)

    I'm going to quit worrying about whether the films are true to Fleming. Fleming was working his connections for a Hollywood film deal before Casino Royale was even published, talking about his own books as his scheme to get rich quick, and following the McClory debacle did not care what prospective filmmakers did with the property just so long as he could sell the rights for big money. I'm sure he would not mind the hollowed out volcano or indestructible henchmen at all.

    I have a question for those who might know:
    Pearson mentions many things Fleming wrote that were either unpublished or are long out of print ... did these ever get printed in the years since, or otherwise circulate amongst collectors' circles?
    -several creative writing exercises from his teenage years, including a gothic thriller in serial form about the lord of a castle with lots of torture
    -an authorised translation of one of Carl Jung's essays
    -several lengthy articles for the Sunday Times that he travelled to research: one about Jacques Costeau, one about digging for medieval treasure on an English beach, and another about exploring caves in Spain
    -a London Times article about riots in Instanbul while he was there for an Interpol conference
    -a weekly gossip column (!) under the penname of Atticus
    -a whole book about Kuwait that was suppressed by the Kuwaiti government (apparently they own the rights)
    ....I'm sure there's several more I've forgot

    but most of interest to us,
    -a 28pg pilot script for Commander Jamaica (recycled as Dr No)
    -at least six outlines for episodes of a James Bond TV series (three of which were recycled in For Your Eyes Only, meaning three more completely unknown to us)
    -early versions of what would become Thunderball, the earliest with completely different plots (presumably McClory's property, not Fleming's, but still of interest)

    also two uncompleted story fragments
    -Bond wakes up and scorns the lives of normal people who are married and commute to boring normal jobs
    -Bond meets a real life gambler named Zographos (1 1/2 pgs)

    I am also now reading a collection of Robert E Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories: it includes a half dozen incomplete story fragments or synopses. They read fine, and they further flesh out the saga which is episodic anyway. If there are any incomplete or abandoned Bond stories, film scripts, or just plain notes, that Fleming has left behind, they should be published ... maybe pad out Octopussy, which is very short and is itself a collection of leftovers ... or else put out a new book of Fleming odds and ends, I have a similar book of Chandler fragments and while hardly essential it is cool for us completist/obsessive types
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    -at least six outlines for episodes of a James Bond TV series (three of which were recycled in For Your Eyes Only, meaning three more completely unknown to us)

    Anthony Horowitz is in the process of converting these into novels, the first being Trigger Mortis and the second should be with us soon.
    There's a thread somewhere discussing this (ie, exactly how many outlines Fleming wrote and what was done with them) but I can't recall the title of it.

    Edit: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/44503/anthony-horowitzs-trigger-mortis-2015-discussion-thread/
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    I have a similar book of Chandler fragments

    Me too- LOVE Chandler!
  • RevelatorRevelator Posts: 556MI6 Agent
    edited July 2017
    MrGore wrote:
    Richard Burton was still the right age around the mid fifties. He'd have been good

    Fleming would have agreed with you--Richard Burton was his first recorded choice for James Bond, and I wish journalists would emphasize that, instead of his later suggestion of David Niven.
    I'm going to quit worrying about whether the films are true to Fleming. Fleming was working his connections for a Hollywood film deal before Casino Royale was even published, talking about his own books as his scheme to get rich quick, and following the McClory debacle did not care what prospective filmmakers did with the property just so long as he could sell the rights for big money. I'm sure he would not mind the hollowed out volcano or indestructible henchmen at all.

    I think he would. True, Fleming was hungry for Hollywood dollars, and after heavily involving himself in the McClory fiasco he left film-making to EON and company. But he nevertheless cared about the results--he suggested Berkely Mather as a screenwriter for Dr. No, and we know from Pearson and Lycett that Fleming was concerned by some of the changes made by the filmmakers (such as the deletion of the scene where Honey is menaced by crabs). Fleming also showed his interest by accompanied the crew to Istanbul during the filming of FRWL and visiting the set of Goldfinger, whose script he'd read beforehand. Fleming was content to let the filmmakers do their job, but nevertheless monitored them, and I think he would have been upset and embarrassed by the filmmakers tossing out his work, especially since the first three films had adhered so well to it. I also think Broccoli and Saltzman would have been less eager to toss the originals had Fleming still been around.
    I have a question for those who might know:
    Pearson mentions many things Fleming wrote that were either unpublished or are long out of print ... did these ever get printed in the years since, or otherwise circulate amongst collectors' circles?

    Two thirds of Fleming's Sunday Times journalism, and several of his pre-Bond creative writing exercises, were published in Talk of the Devil, which is only available as part of special edition of Fleming's complete works published in 2008 by Queen Anne Press (http://www.queenannepress.co.uk/books.html#IFlimited). The cheapest binding is £2,000, so pretty much no one has seen Talk of the Devil. However, the Fleming Bibliography lists much of its content:

    “A Poor Man Escapes” (short story, 1927)
    “The Dieppe Raid.” (1942/1961)
    "Partner! You Have Trumped My Ace.” [Review of The Complete Card Player] Daily Graphic, 28th Sept. 1949.
    “The Shameful Dream” (short story, 1951)
    “Diving through 22 Centuries. An Underwater Report on Mediterranean Treasure.” The Sunday Times, 19th April 1953.
    “El Dollarado--A Transient’s Scrapbook from New York.” The Sunday Times, 28th June 1953.
    “Treasure Hunt at Creake Abbey.” The Sunday Times, 26th July 1953.
    “The Caves of Adventure, Part One.” The Sunday Times, 16th Aug. 1953.
    “The Caves of Adventure, Part Two.” The Sunday Times, 23rd Aug. 1953.
    “The Secrets of Interpol.” The Sunday Times, 4th Sept. 1955.
    “The Great Riot of Istanbul.” The Sunday Times, 11th Sept. 1955.
    “Delinquents and Smugglers.” The Sunday Times, 18th Sept. 1955.
    “Birth Pangs of a Thriller.” W. H. Smith’s Trade News, 31st March 1956. Original manuscript, (titled “Bang Bang, Kiss Kiss--How I Came to Write Casino Royale”) reprinted in Talk of the Devil.
    “London’s Best Dining.” Holiday, April 1956. Original manuscript (titled “When Did You Stop Eating Your Wife?”) reprinted in Talk of the Devil.
    “Adventures in the Sun: The Remora’s Fearful Kiss.” The Sunday Times, 1st April 1956.
    “Adventures in the Sun: Blue Mountain Solitaire.” The Sunday Times, 8th April 1956.
    “Adventures in the Sun: To Flamingo Land.” The Sunday Times, 15th April 1956.
    “Dangerous Know-How” [review of Scarne on Cards]. The Sunday Times, 22nd April 1956.
    “More Adventures in the Sun: My Friend the Octopus.” The Sunday Times, 24th March 1957.
    “More Adventures in the Sun: Treasures of the Sea.” The Sunday Times, 7th April, 1957.
    “More Adventures in the Sun: He Sells Sea-Shells.” The Sunday Times, 14th April 1957.
    “Nightmare Among the Mighty.” The Sunday Times, 30th June 1957 (aka “My Golfing Nightmare”).
    “The Tragic Spy” [review of The Spy’s Bedside Book]. The Sunday Times, 17th Nov. 1957. [aka “The Heart of the Mata”]
    “The Secret of Edgar Hoover” [review of The FBI Story]. The Sunday Times, 15th Dec. 1957. [aka “The Great Policeman”]
    “Treasure Hunt in Eden: Pirate Gold.” The Sunday Times, 17th August 1958.
    “Treasure Hunt in Eden: Butterflies & Beachcombers.” The Sunday Times, 24th August 1958.
    “Treasure Hunt in Eden: Gold or No Gold.” The Sunday Times, 31st August 1958.
    “Trouble in Havana” [review of Our Man in Havana]. The Sunday Times, 5th Oct. 1958.
    “If I Were Prime Minister.” The Spectator, 9th Oct. 1959.
    “Raymond Chandler.” The London Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 12, Dec. 1959.
    “Russians Makes Mistakes Too.” Esquire, Nov. 1960. (aka “Soviet Espionage, Inc.”)
    “Gary Powers and the Big Lie.” The Sunday Times, 11th March 1962.
    “The Guns of James Bond.” Sports Illustrated, Vol. 16, No. 11, 18th March 1962.
    “The Art, or Craft, of Writing Thrillers.” Oxford student body lecture from May 1962.
    “Intrepid.” The Sunday Times, 21st Oct. 1962. Reprinted as introduction to Room 3603.
    “The Case of the Painfully Pulled Leg--Some Caen--Some Cain’t.” San Francisco Chronicle, 16th Sept. 1963.
    “Ian Fleming’s Jamaica.” The Sunday Times, 15th Aug. 1965.

    Fortunately most of these items can be tracked down if you have access to a good library that has access to the British newspaper databases. I have managed to collect all of Fleming's Sunday Times material (including the third that isn't in Talk of the Devil) and most of his other published articles.

    As for the Atticus columns, they haven't been reprinted (though Devil might feature a couple). Fleming apparently worked on the column from November 1953 to sometime in 1956, having switched the subtitle from "People" to “People and Things," since he didn't care much for pure gossip.
    Fleming's Kuwait book State of Excitement has never been printed--though I hope someone can strike a deal with the Kuwaitis! In the meantime, the manuscript can be read in the Fleming collection at the University of Indiana.

    The ultimately Holy Grail of unprinted Fleming would be the script for Moonraker, which wrote for the Rank organization. Unfortunately, no one has any idea what's become of it.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    wow thanks for that huge list Revelator
    and you're right, I'm not going to be able to get that Queen Anne Press collection ... that Talk of the Devil volume included is the only part I would want (the other 17 volumes being the same books we all already have), and of course they're not selling that separately ... analogous to when a band like Pink Floyd puts out an expensive box set full of all the same old albums, which you have to buy again just to get a few previously unreleased bonus tracks

    I just noticed, this Queen Anne Press is mentioned in Pearson: it was once owned by Lord Kemsley, Fleming's boss, "the literary policy of which Fleming himself was directing" ... no wonder they have exclusive rights to publish the Rarities volume
    Revelator wrote:
    True, Fleming was hungry for Hollywood dollars, and after heavily involving himself in the McClory fiasco he left film-making to EON and company. But he nevertheless cared about the results
    that's good to hear, since I tend to rate the films according to Fleming content. Pearson moves very fast once Casino Royale gets published, and the deal with Saltzman seems to come and go in a couple paragraphs before the final heart attack. I don't think Pearson mentioned any involvement with the filmmaking, nor reaction once the first two films had come out (Pearson just says he attended both premieres, and started to make a lot more money). Also the many long quotes from Fleming's correspondence are so self-deprecating it is hard to tell how seriously he takes his own creation.
    Revelator wrote:
    The ultimately Holy Grail of unprinted Fleming would be the script for Moonraker, which he wrote for the Rank organization. Unfortunately, no one has any idea what's become of it.
    I think Pearson also skipped this bit, but that's right, Moonraker also began as a film proposal.

    One thing Pearson does describe is the "dog-eared and heavily corrected" manuscript of Casino Royale Fleming sent to his friends to read, imagine if someone could publish a photographic facsimile of that
  • RevelatorRevelator Posts: 556MI6 Agent
    and you're right, I'm not going to be able to get that Queen Anne Press collection ...

    Neither am I, alas. I have checked libraries and booksellers all over the world, and none has Talk of the Devil.
    I don't think Pearson mentioned any involvement with the filmmaking, nor reaction once the first two films had come out.

    Try Lycett's biography--it's not as well-written as Pearson but is longer and more comprehensive.
    Here's a letter Fleming wrote to the Spectator (Oct. 26 1962) that touches on the movies:
    Sir, -- Since James Bond has had the honour of being mentioned in three separate departments of your issue of October 12, and since Bond is at present away in Magnetogorsk, I hope you will allow me to comment on his behalf.

    'Spectator's Notebook': Queequeg asks what happened to the crabs in the film Dr. No. Alas, they went the way of the giant squid, despite urgent representations from me and from one of the producers. The black crabs had not started 'running' in Jamaica last February when the Jamaican scenes were being shot, but on my return to London in March I received an excited invitation to visit Pinewood and inspect a consignment of spider crabs obtained from Guernsey. A large tank was unveiled. All the crabs were dead. I asked if they had been preserved in sea water and was told that, since none was available, they had been put in fresh water with plenty of salt added! After that the crab faction gave up.

    Letters: Mr. Snell suggests that my serial biography of James Bond is 'a barrier to international understanding.' He seems not to have noticed that since Thunderball the international organisation 'SPECTRE' has taken over as enemy Number One from SMERSH, the murder apparat of the then MWD, dissolved, as I wrote in Thunderball, by Khrushchev. As the recently concluded spy trial in Karlsruhe, involving the liquidation of two Ukrainians by a Soviet assassin with a cyanide gas pistol, shows, the machinery of cold-blooded murder by the, now, KGB is again in business and I cannot promise that Bond may not be called upon in the line of duty to involve himself with these new ambassadors for 'international understanding' sent out into the world by Moscow.

    Cinema: Mr. Ian Cameron, with a fastidious stamp of his grey suede winkle-pickers, scrunches the Dr. No film, while describing James Bond as 'every intellectual's favourite fascist.' James Bond's politics are, in fact, slightly left of centre.
    IAN FLEMING
    c/o Jonathan Cape Ltd.

    I also recall that somewhere Fleming says those familiar with the book would be disappointed by the film of Dr. No, but that everyone else would have a wonderful time.
    One thing Pearson does describe is the "dog-eared and heavily corrected" manuscript of Casino Royale Fleming sent to his friends to read, imagine if someone could publish a photographic facsimile of that

    That would be a must-buy. And if I had £150,000 I would also buy this:
    http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/corrected-typescript-the-man-with-the-golden-gun.html
    Fleming hand-corrected typescript of The Man With the Golden Gun, with the final three lines added in his own handwriting!
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    Revelator wrote:
    Here's a letter Fleming wrote to the Spectator (Oct. 26 1962) that touches on the movies:
    ...
    'Spectator's Notebook': Queequeg asks what happened to the crabs in the film Dr. No. Alas, they went the way of the giant squid, despite urgent representations from me and from one of the producers. ....

    cool! Fleming himself thought the film would be better with a giant squid! Ian Fleming now has official permission to be my Bond-film buddy
    Revelator wrote:
    ...if I had £150,000 I would also buy this:
    http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/corrected-typescript-the-man-with-the-golden-gun.html
    Fleming's hand-corrected typescript of The Man With the Golden Gun, with the final three lines added in his own handwriting!
    you can almost read those scans, maybe with a bit of photoshop magick you could save £150,000 ... is the whole thing there? I gave up scrolling before I clicked through all the scans
  • hehadlotsofgutshehadlotsofguts Durham England Posts: 2,107MI6 Agent
    I recently read Dr No. I kept noticing things in the book that were used in the film. For example, the electrified vent cover when Bond does No's endurance test and Bond being offered a choice of either a British, American and Turkish cigarette to smoke, when he and Honey are being inducted.
    Have you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?"

    " I don't listen to hip hop!"
  • 00730073 COPPosts: 977MI6 Agent
    ..... and now for something completely different!

    My current on going books are: The Pigeon Tunnel by John le Carré and Sandstorm by Lindsey Hilsum.

    The pigeon Tunnel is "non fiction" and I highly recommend it to anybody who has enjoyed Carrés' writing before.

    I have not formed my opinion on the Sandstorm as of yet. I need to read it through first and then fact check it, as is my habit with books with a documentary nature.
    "I mean, she almost kills bond...with her ass."
    -Mr Arlington Beech
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    I just started reading 'Charlie Muffin' by Brian Freemantle.

    I've been listening to a fairly new podcast called Spybrary, and the Charlie Muffin series has come up regularly on the podcast, so I decided to check it out. I managed to find the first 7 novels in the series in second hand book shops and I'm halfway through book one. Based on what I've read so far I would certainly recommend it to spy fiction fans who have never read the series.

    Also, check out Spybrary podcast as well. They have done a few Bond related episodes, as well as looking at authors like Le Carre, Deighton and Freemantle.
  • IanFryerIanFryer Posts: 327MI6 Agent
    edited August 2017
    Golrush007 wrote:
    I just started reading 'Charlie Muffin' by Brian Freemantle.

    I've been listening to a fairly new podcast called Spybrary, and the Charlie Muffin series has come up regularly on the podcast, so I decided to check it out. I managed to find the first 7 novels in the series in second hand book shops and I'm halfway through book one. Based on what I've read so far I would certainly recommend it to spy fiction fans who have never read the series.

    Also, check out Spybrary podcast as well. They have done a few Bond related episodes, as well as looking at authors like Le Carre, Deighton and Freemantle.

    I used to love the Charlie Muffin books. IIRC, as with most long book series, the earlier ones are better but I'd Freemantle was an excellent writer. A very good TV movie was made of the first book starring a perfectly-cast David Hemmings. For some reason it's never had a dvd release, but I kept my old VHS because I loved the film so much. You can see on YouTube, though.

    EDIT I tell a lie - it's available on DVD via this collection from Network


    81as3_YSZp_CL_SL1500.jpg
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    IanFryer wrote:
    Golrush007 wrote:
    I just started reading 'Charlie Muffin' by Brian Freemantle.

    I've been listening to a fairly new podcast called Spybrary, and the Charlie Muffin series has come up regularly on the podcast, so I decided to check it out. I managed to find the first 7 novels in the series in second hand book shops and I'm halfway through book one. Based on what I've read so far I would certainly recommend it to spy fiction fans who have never read the series.

    Also, check out Spybrary podcast as well. They have done a few Bond related episodes, as well as looking at authors like Le Carre, Deighton and Freemantle.

    I used to love the Charlie Muffin books. IIRC, as with most long book series, the earlier ones are better but I'd Freemantle was an excellent writer. A very good TV movie was made of the first book starring a perfectly-cast David Hemmings. For some reason it's never had a dvd release, but I kept my old VHS because I loved the film so much. You can see on YouTube, though.

    EDIT I tell a lie - it's available on DVD via this collection from Network


    81as3_YSZp_CL_SL1500.jpg

    I am aware of the screen adaptation. I do plan to watch it once I'm done with the novel. I have been very tempted to buy that Armchair Cinema collection, but its fairly expensive to order it from South Africa so I might have to settle for the lower quality Youtube version.
  • clublosclublos Jacksonville, FLPosts: 193MI6 Agent
    I've been listening to Spybrary too, great podcast. I just finished Quiller Memorandum based off of his recommendation. I definitely plan to pick up the Charlie Muffin books next.

    He recently interviewed Jeremy Duns, who has written several essays on Bond and his own series of spy novels.

    Highly recommended.
  • MrGoreMrGore Posts: 129MI6 Agent
    I've been listening to Live and Let Die, read by the excellent David Rintoul.

    Just reached the part where Bond and Solitaire arrive in St Petersburg, Florida. Fleming really didn't like the lifestyle of the old folks there!!! His description is not flattering, at all.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    :)) Fleming had a fantastic turn of phrase.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    It's like he was cheerful when he was writing the scene where Bond was kissing solitaire and then fell on a short term depression when he typed out the scene in the awful diner and the old timer's town.
    BTW, the fight with the guy who was cleaning his rifle and started shooting Bond among the fishes in containers was very LTK.
    I'm starting to appreciate LTK a lot more with LALD (the novel).
    a reasonable rate of return
  • jan old skooljan old skool The NetherlandsPosts: 71MI6 Agent
    Just started reading The Hunter by Tom Wood. Must say, to use a cliché, a real page turner.
    When checking his website http://www.tomwoodbooks.com/
    You see "somewhat" of our own 007. To say the least.

    However, the Dutch book cover (back) says forget James Reacher, forget Jason Bourne and forget James Bond. Of course I must disagree to the lastmentioned.

    Did any of the forum member read Tom Wood and his Victor series and what were your thoughts on his character Victor?
    this never happened to the other fellow
  • MrGoreMrGore Posts: 129MI6 Agent
    Finished LALD.

    I'd forgotten a couple of things about it from previous readings.

    1. Mr Big isn't physically present in many of the scenes. Not like in the movie where he was much more visible. One scene in NY and another in Jamaica. Of course he is ever present, behind the scenes.
    2 The climax on Skeleton Island takes place very quickly. Once Bond arrives in Jamaica(after a week long preparation which involves spending time on the beach!), the action passes very quickly. One minute they're in the cave with all the gold coins and the next Bond and Solitaire are being keelhauled behind Mr Big's big boat on which Bond has planted a timed limpet mine.

    Don't get me wrong, it was great. Just seemed a bit rushed compared to other of Fleming's books.
  • JellyfishJellyfish EnglandPosts: 462MI6 Agent
    Just started reading The Hunter by Tom Wood. Must say, to use a cliché, a real page turner.
    When checking his website http://www.tomwoodbooks.com/
    You see "somewhat" of our own 007. To say the least.

    However, the Dutch book cover (back) says forget James Reacher, forget Jason Bourne and forget James Bond. Of course I must disagree to the lastmentioned.

    Did any of the forum member read Tom Wood and his Victor series and what were your thoughts on his character Victor?

    I read this a few months ago: I enjoyed it but I can't really remember it that well, so I'm afraid I can't give a detailed opinion. It's worth a read, and I've got the sequel "The Enemy" on my reading list.

    I'm currently reading "The Samaritan" by Mason Cross, the second novel in his Carter Blake series. Blake is a 'locating consultant', finding people who don't want to be found, such as serial killers. I'm really quite hooked on this one, and would recommend the series (at least so far!).

    I have recently finished "The Black Widow" by Daniel Silva, the latest in a series of novels about Gabriel Allon, an Israeli assassin and secret agent. This was okay, but it seemed a little formulaic to me, and in parts it was possible for me to guess what was going to happen. Still worth looking at for Bond fans though.
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    I've just started reading The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carre.

    I read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy about 7 years ago, and not long afterwards I started reading the next in the trilogy but my reading of it stalled when I was about 75% done. I haven't returned to it since then, so I decided to start again and give it another go. I'm really keen to finish the Smiley vs Karla trilogy, so as much as I hate returning to the beginning, I had to just bite to bullet and start again because I remember very little of what I read before.
  • Desert KrisDesert Kris Posts: 27MI6 Agent
    I'm just past the halfway point in Live and Let Die. I'm enjoying comparing how different it is from the movie that is kind of inspired by it, and glad that it's so different and new. Mr. Big as a character, and the set-up of his organization and how he operates is fascinating to me. He really is built up as a daunting foe, and he's just one SMERSH operative. I like how the book is playing with the possibility of the supernatural. And there's a Pirate's treasure in the mix, too! So far, so good.
  • Desert KrisDesert Kris Posts: 27MI6 Agent
    Finished Live and Let Die, which I really enjoyed. It really picked up toward the end, but it had a lot going for it from the get-go. I really liked Mr. Big as an adversary, and I kind of felt like it's too bad that he's a one-off.

    As a character, as a villain concept, with the SMERSH connection, and with the Voodoo connection, and his pattern of concealing himself and mundane crime operations behind a veil of superstition (and a simple action to harness natural predators to do his work) made him seem more fascinating than, say, the collective impression of the different versions of JB films' Bloefelds. Bloefeld is the adversary of at least a trilogy of stories, but Mr. Big actually seems like a lot more could be done with him.

    One interesting thing is that, while many fans say the original Ian Fleming works are so different from the films, and I very much agreed with that based on my reading of Casino Royale, with LaLD I've double the sample size of Fleming. LaLD somehow felt like it had a closer kinship to the movies. It started out with the atmosphere of a 50's Hardboiled Crime Noir kind of thing, but as it got to the stuff with Bond shooting match in the aquarium warehouse, it started to take on a slightly different flavor (or maybe, an additional layer of flavor). I think part of it was how he went shopping for a few simple items that he used to discreetly break into the warehouse, even though these aren't Gadgets, they kind of feel like the prelude to an evolution towards the gadgetry-happy trope. The sequence were he orders and gets outfitted for his underwater journey, and is supplied by the Q Branch feels like part of this, too; even though it's just normal equipment: frog suit, a breathing apparatus, and a harpoon gun, they hit that "want gadgets" longing in a JB story.

    Having read a large back catalogue of posts commenting on and analysing Fleming's work, I've notice that quite a few of the books are identified as "experimental." Which is something that I'm excited about, when I continue with the series. Yet, I'm kind of wondering. Casino Royale seemed pretty experimental; in terms of story structure it's wildly unconventional. Which I liked very much about it! Who would think to kick of a series of novels with such a strangely structured story? But now, looking at this second book, even if there is something of a sense that Bond is on a mission in this story that might very well set the pattern for books that follow on from it (killing off tentacles of SMERSH, one adversary per story at a time). But there's still experimenting going, a little bit, the playing with superstition as a practical means of getting a large number of people to obey out of fear; and then there's Solitaire, who is described clinically as having telepathy (but with the surrounding Voodoo trappings in the background, she is essentially a witch). I'm starting to wonder, though, are all the books in the series experimental, in one sense or another?
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    Interesting thought! Some certainly are (eg Bond being off-stage for the first section of FRWL, TSWLM being written in first person by the female lead, FYEO (and posthumously OP) being short stories) but I'm not sure about all being classifiable in that way.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    Finished Live and Let Die, which I really enjoyed.
    ...
    One interesting thing is that, while many fans say the original Ian Fleming works are so different from the films, and I very much agreed with that based on my reading of Casino Royale, with LaLD I've double the sample size of Fleming. LaLD somehow felt like it had a closer kinship to the movies.
    Live and Let Die follows more of the conventional thriller structure formulized in the films. Lots of globetrotting (which he did not do in the first book), several major action scenes with corpses piling up (Bond does not actually kill anybody in the first book), a damsel in distress and a big explosion at the end, along with a horrific yet fittingly ironic death for the main villain.
    I think part of it was how he went shopping for a few simple items that he used to discreetly break into the warehouse, even though these aren't Gadgets, they kind of feel like the prelude to an evolution towards the gadgetry-happy trope. The sequence were he orders and gets outfitted for his underwater journey, and is supplied by the Q Branch feels like part of this, too; even though it's just normal equipment: frog suit, a breathing apparatus, and a harpoon gun, they hit that "want gadgets" longing in a JB story.
    Theres a method Fleming uses where he presents the reader with a lot of verifiable brandnames, or well-researched background on how some technology works, persuading us that the author knows what he is talking about therefor all this could be real. Then suddenly there's a giant squid or a gang of hoods robbing Fort Knox. Something utterly fantastic, but it must be credible because Fleming got all the brandnames and technobabble correct. A bit of a magic trick.
    I think preceding the warehouse shootout with several pages of equipment assembling is part of that trick, as the shootout in the warehouse is rather outrageous.
    Having read a large back catalogue of posts commenting on and analysing Fleming's work, I've notice that quite a few of the books are identified as "experimental." ... I'm starting to wonder, though, are all the books in the series experimental, in one sense or another?
    some moreso, some less so. There are a few he began as movie scripts before turning them into books (Moonraker, Dr No, Thunderball) and they tend to follow the more formulized plot structures, with damsels in distress, car chases, and big explosions. He always wanted to create a marketable series of adventures that could be sold to someone like Saltzman-Brocolli. But he also seems to have gotten bored or frustrated with the limitations, and would then do something very different. Aside from his plans to sell out, he hung out in literary circles and may have felt conflicting urges what he was doing with his writing. I think some days he wanted to be a literary type, some days he wanted to get rich from film rights, depending on his mood swings.

    I'm not sure why he started the series with something so oddly structured as Casino Royale. Maybe because he was not confident there would even be a series when he wrote it. It was something he'd been playing with in his mind for several years, and he referred to his planned novel as "the spy story to end all spy stories". So maybe the success of his long-planned novel caused him to think in terms of a series, and therefor of a saleable formula? which he would then follow or divert from over the next decade, as he lost or regained faith that the film-rights would ever get sold.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    question for Barbel:

    would it be possible to split this thread in two?
    What are you Currently Reading? (that is Bond related), and
    What are you Currently Reading? (that is not Bond related?)
    and maybe move the not-Bond-related child thread to the Non James Bond Discussion area, alongside What Film Did You Watch and Whats on TV etc?

    I think this thread was originally all about Bondbooks until I started talking about Flashman above, but that was only because I couldn't find a general bookreview thread and misunderstood the purpose of this one. There's now probably a couple dozen non-Bond-related posts intermingled with the proper Bond-related posts over the last several pages.
    If they can't be easily separated out, maybe I or some other volunteer should start a new general book review thread in the Non James Bond Discussion area
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    It's not possible to split threads, but by all means start a new thread. Are you sure there isn't already a similar thread in Off Topic, though?
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    there might be and I just couldn't find it
    next time I finish a book, I'll look very very carefully, and if I still cant find an existing one, I'll start a new thread
    youd think such a thread would already exist so I probably gave up too soon before
Sign In or Register to comment.