By
Hank Reineke
If one needs to get to the crux of this evaluation of Mark
Edlitz’s two masterful research James Bond
after Fleming: The Continuation Novels and Maintaining 007 Alive: Conversations with James Bond Continuation Authors, I recommend you skip
over the following eight paragraphs.
One’s leisure-reading pursuits and histories are private
affairs. Right here’s a little bit of my very own
relationship to the James Bond literary world: I first learn (and continuously re-read)
your entire opus of Ian Fleming’s James Bond thrillers as a pre-teen and teenager. In truth, my curiosity in fiction of any
type was principally consigned to the Nineteen Seventies. My favourite sequence have been Fleming’s James Bond Signet novels and Donald
Hamilton’s Fawcett Gold Medal Matt Helm paperbacks. Each pursuits had been sparked by my
fascination with their related film franchises. James Bond was, and stays, my favourite
fictional literary and cinematic creation.
So far as I used to be conscious (circa 1969-1972), solely Fleming’s
Bond existed as literature. However in 1973
or thereabouts, I used to be searching (at age eleven) the native library cabinets after I
chanced upon a replica of Robert Markham/Kingsley Amis’ Colonel Solar (Harper & Row, 1968) – the primary formally
sanctioned James Bond continuation novel. Although excited, I used to be denied permission to take a look at the e-book. Regardless of my holding a library card, the frumpy,
aged gray-haired librarian-steward seemed askance on the novel’s Dali-esque semi-nude
cowl artwork. She determined the e-book was not
correct studying materials for somebody my age. She scolded that with out parental
consent I used to be too younger to take a look at such a lurid e-book as this one. As I watched on, she condemnably re-shelved the
prurient Colonel Solar with righteous
deliberation. Irrespective of. Later that week I returned to the library. I
was absolutely conscious the outdated crone wouldn’t be working the circulation desk throughout
night hours. I checked out Colonel Solar with ease. The bored, part-time twenty-year outdated lady attending
the desk that night time couldn’t have cared much less if I used to be trying out Colonel Solar, the illustrated Kama Sutra, Mao’s Little Pink E-book or The
Anarchist’s Cookbook.
Then, someday following my discovery of Colonel Solar, I chanced upon John
Pearson’s James Bond: The Licensed
Biography of 007 (William Morrow, 1974). This was a real bookshop discover, a e-book I may personal. The savvy bookseller had correctly shelved Pearson’s
novel alongside Fleming’s. If he hadn’t,
I seemingly would have been unaware of its existence. There was no web, no clearing home to distribute
James Bond data for wonks. Having added
the Amis and Pearson novels to my assortment, I assumed the publication of James
Bond continuation novels have been common occasions. I quickly discovered they weren’t.
Readers of Colonel
Solar and The Licensed Biography would
not see a brand new literary Bond journey till spring of 1981 when John Gardner’s License Renewed was revealed. Gardner was nothing if not prolific throughout his
time period because the literary helmsman of James Bond, composing fourteen unique novels
and two movie-tie-ins. I learn Gardner’s
first few Bond books, however by the shut of the Eighties had drifted away. It wasn’t out of disinterest: I used to be merely at
the age after I wanted to place effort and time into finding out a life as an
grownup (sure, nonetheless engaged on that).
In fact, as a Bond fan I used to be now not misplaced within the
woods. In 1975 I signed on as a card-carrying
member of the James Bond Fan Membership of Bronxville, New York. I used to be now (semi-regularly) being stored abreast
of the brand new and thrilling developments of all issues double-o-seven. I recall considering how completely wonderful it
was after I learn that Raymond Benson had been tapped by Peter Janson Smith of
Glidrose to proceed the sequence within the wake of Gardner’s emptiness. To a fanboy as myself, such an honor was the
stuff of goals.
So, I briefly dived again in to the Bond’s literary world,
studying Benson’s Zero Minus Ten
(1997), The Details of Dying (1998) and
his film tie-in of Tomorrow By no means Dies. However alas, as soon as once more, life intruded and
Benson’s subsequent Bond books fell from my radar. I used to be now married, the daddy of two youngsters
and dealing odd hours. The little time I
needed to commit to studying had shifted completely to works of non-fiction.
Looking back, I actually may have used a dollop of James
Bond escapism throughout this era. Sorting via packing containers of books within the basement, I see that I did at
least attempt to get again into the swing of issues. Right here was bodily proof that
I did buy copies of two of Charlie Higson’s Younger Bond novels, Sebastian Faulk’s Satan Might Care (2008) and Jeffery Deaver’s Carte Blanche (2013). However
then… nothing. I used to be now fully misplaced
in Bond novel abyss.
Largely resulting from Mark Edlitz’s two exhaustively
researched and vigorous reference research, James
Bond after Fleming: The Continuation Novels and Maintaining 007 Alive: Conversations
with James Bond Continuation Authors, that is now not the case. I used to be, after all, tangentially conscious – through opinions and net postings – that the Ian
Fleming property had been boarding new authors to contribute titles to their ever-expanding
catalog of Bondiana. However I have to admit to
my ignorance of what number of various officially-sanctioned books have been commissioned through the years.
To my information, there’s been no earlier e-book that has so
meticulously examined the post-Fleming novels to this extent Edlitz has. The one one I can recall that gives comparable
examination is Benson’s James Bond
Bedside Companion. However as that e-book
was revealed again in 1984, solely Colonel
Solar and the primary three Gardner novels have been out there for microscopic evaluation
(Pearson’s work just isn’t studied in Bedside,
as Benson deemed it “not an ‘official’ James Bond novel.”). I’d disagree on that time, however to be
honest, Benson’s e-book was extra encompassing in scope, finding out not solely the
books, however the movies and the final “James Bond Phenomenon.”
In James Bond after
Fleming: The Continuation Novels, Edlitz will often reference the
movies in asides in his commentaries, however primarily focuses on the post-Fleming
Bond continuation novels of Gardner, Benson, Faulks, Deaver, William Boyd,
Steve Cole and Anthony Horowitz. He additionally
discusses at size the varied 007 offshoots as R.D. Mascott’s 003 ½: the Adventures of James Bond Junior
(1968), Charlie Higson’s Younger Bond
sequence, Kim Sherwood’s adventures that includes different double-0 brokers, and Samantha
Weinberg’s “Moneypenny” serials.
In James Bond after
Fleming, Edlitz gives meticulously detailed summaries of every novel,
providing vital commentaries and asides on the books themselves. With an acute eye for element, he notes all
the “continuity nods” he finds that bridge new works to earlier novels. Edlitz’s e-book is totally geeky and
exhaustive in its thoroughness, however isn’t this what we prepare spotters all want
for in such a research? I can’t think about
the detailed studying and note-taking Edlitz wanted to undertake to drag this
huge (practically 500 web page) scholarly tome collectively. After
Fleming is an distinctive research,
clearly researched and written by somebody with nice information and perception into
Fleming’s personal works in addition to the chosen few who would observe in his inventive wake.
Equally, Edlitz’s subsequent Maintaining 007 Alive: Conversations with James Bond Continuation Authors (2024)
serves as an equally vital work, dare I say important, two-hundred and twenty-six web page companion to James Bond after Fleming. Each bit as outstanding as his earlier e-book,
Edlitz has managed to trace down and conduct totally insightful and revealing
interviews with 9 of the “continuation” authors tasked to maintain Fleming’s literary
flag flying. (I’ve put the phrase
“continuation” between citation marks as these novels will not be all essentially serial works. Some have chosen to maintain Bond a Chilly Struggle
hero, some have up to date the character to up to date time).
That stated, Benson, Higson, Weinberg, Faulks, Deaver,
Sherwood, Boyd, Cole, and Horowitz are all current, talking eloquently,
intelligently and at nice size re: their contributions to the canon. In the midst of Edlitz’s probing interviews,
we study that each one have been stunned of their being requested by Ian Fleming
Publications, Ltd. to contribute – nobody had lobbied for the dignity. Although some acknowledged preliminary hesitation,
upon acceptance every author took on the problem and duty
severely. Some authors admitted that they had
been nice followers of Fleming’s works, others admitted whereas they have been acquainted along with his books weren’t
essentially students of it.
We study that each one 9 authors have been first requested by the property
to contribute a synopsis/define of their potential novel previous to a proper issuance
of contract. The authors have been principally in settlement
they got free rein to replace Bond as they noticed match – however solely with the
blessing of acquainted consul. The authors
freely talk about their occasional tangles with Ian Fleming Publications on what most
would think about even essentially the most minor
modifications to Fleming’s unique structure.
Anthony Horowitz recalled he’d written a scene the place Bond
emerges from his mattress stark bare. The
property insisted that scene wanted rewriting, as Fleming famous in On line casino Royale that Bond slept decidedly un-nude
in a “pyjama-coat.” When Jeffrey Deaver felt the necessity to clarify why the
youthful James Bond had a lot prepared entry to money, he’d written deceased
members of Bond’s rich household had left him “a giant belief.” The property protested, arguing that notion be
modified: Bond couldn’t be considered a “spoiled” trust-fund child. Such editorial sparring makes for scrumptious studying
and are among the many most entertaining of the various behind-the-scenes reminiscences
recorded for posterity in Maintaining 007 Alive.
The interviews of the 9 above authors are augmented by
interviews with Simon Gardner, son of John, and Corinne Turner, the Managing
Director of IFP since 1988. There’s additionally
a pleasant Foreword written by Bruce Feirstein, screenwriter of Eon’s 1995 pic Goldeneye. Earlier Bond authors, Mascott, Amis,
Pearson, John Gardner and Christopher Wooden are, after all, now not with us,
unavailable to interview. Nonetheless,
thorough examinations of their contributions are supplied within the aforementioned After Fleming for these wishing to intently
look at these first wave “old-school” novels.
In the midst of working via each books of those
research, I used to be saddened upon discovery that I, a self-proclaimed enormous James
Bond fan, had allowed myself to be disadvantaged myself of a lot of Bond-lit historical past. Due to Mark Edlitz’s two outstanding research, my curiosity in and
ardour for the literary-side of the James Bond phenomenon has been reignited. These two books are seminal works for anybody
within the persevering with literary legacy of Ian Fleming’s James Bond.
Click here to order “James Bond After Fleming” from Amazon.
Click here to order “Maintaining 007 Alive” from Amazon
