TSWLM 'book of the film' by Christopher Wood

crawfordboon1

I recently picked up a whole load of second hand Bond novels from a charity shop, 50p each - can't be bad. They'd evidently been donated by the same person. Curiously, rather than the infamous Ian Fleming Spy Who Loved Me novel, the donor had given the 'book of the film' by Christopher Wood (who co-wrote the screenplay for the film and Moonraker).

Just wondering if anyone's read the book and how they think it compares to the Ian Fleming novels?

Golrush007

I think that Wood's James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me is probably the best of the Bond novelisations. It adds a lot of meat to the film, and unlike most novelisations, does not simply transpose the film into written form. It takes on more of the flavour of an Ian Fleming novel and is all the better for it. If you browse through the forum you will find various peoples' takes on Wood's novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

crawfordboon1

Have only read the first few chapters, but it does differ a fair bit from the film. I wonder if the novel is taken directly from Wood's screenplay, which as we know was later re-worked by others into the finished film.

Napoleon Plural

Hi, not surprisingly his book has come up for discussion before:

http://www.ajb007.co.uk/search/1862750214/

Check out ChrisNo1's Continuation Novels thread, then a fair bit below jetsetwilly's take on Wood's autobiography, The Spy I Loved.

I like Wood the best of them all aside from Fleming. He effortlessly updates the genre and brings some sex and sadism to the table broadly missed in the other novelisations.

chrisno1

I rather like it.
For my full opinion floow the link:

http://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/34464/bond-continuation-novel-reviews/

hegottheboot

This came out of nowhere for me. I was really expecting a typical film novelization and not an attempt to put Fleming's Bond in a similar plot. Definitely worth the read and enjoyable to see an alternate TSWLM.

Is the Moonraker novelization similar?

chrisno1

Similar, but not quite as good IMO.