Fan Fiction - Shadows of Death
Golrush007
South AfricaPosts: 3,421Quartermasters
Since we no longer have the fan fiction library on AJB, I have decided to collect all of the stories which I wrote for the site into an anthology called 'Shadows of Death' which is available to download from my website.
I hope you enjoy it, and if you have any comments regarding the stories I would be pleased to receive your feedback.
I hope you enjoy it, and if you have any comments regarding the stories I would be pleased to receive your feedback.
Comments
I still have Another Day's Work on the short story collection Come Hell or High Water and recall it being a rather excellent piece, so I'll enjoy reading these pieces. May take a while though as I'm still ploughing the Charlie Higson trough and (frankly) not enjoying it very much...
Matt Raubenheimer wrote these five short stories over a period of five years from 2005 – 2009. They vary in quality.
First, I’d like to congratulate him on an excellent design. I like Adobe presentation, it always looks very neat. The cover has a wonderfully retro Richard Chopping look. In fact I thought it was probably better than some of Chopping’s own designs!
The collection kicks off with SIDEWINDER (June 2005), a tale which sees Bond sent to Trieste on a revenge mission to eliminate the killer of 004. Matt mentions that he was heavily influenced by the movie franchise and this comes across very clearly in the pot pourri of incidents which inhabit this story. All the staple requirements of a Bond movie (or novel) are there: a shameless villain, a gun battle, an exotic location, a colourful local aide, a gambling scene, a woman to rescue, a victim, explosions, technical detail, Q branch and an authoritarian M.
What it lacks is any sense of character or any narrative purpose. The events are blandly laid out with hardly any embellishment from the author. He’s pared the writing so far back any descriptive quality has virtually disappeared. This is odd as it doesn’t start so. Indeed the opening few pages are probably the best in the whole story, as an unnamed agent assaults and destroys a luxury yacht. We all assume the agent is 007 and the reveal is seamlessly played out and stunningly shocking. A bit more atmosphere and tension would have helped, but these are small concerns.
The rest of the story is straightforwardly told, but the lack of character development hinders one’s involvement. I didn’t bond with this Bond. Some of the scenes were overtly swift, while the dialogue is used as nothing more than sign posts to the action. Sometimes there wasn’t even any action: a game of baccarat passes with nothing more than a sentence. Matt shows more interest in the technical aspects of Bond’s equipment, of which there is much. This is slotted in piecemeal and often at awkward moments, slowing the tension almost to a stop
Later however there’s a clever shift in tone as Matt uses a detached second-tense to narrate the SAS attack on Ballasini’s cargo ship. This works well, because there is no need for him to concentrate on his characters. The technical aspects feel right at home in this documentary style. The story ends satisfactorily but overall it’s too rough around the edges to be entirely successful. For all that, as a first stab, it shows Matt has potential and there is some originality in his storytelling.
The second story WIENERBLUT (March 2008), is a trifle set in a moody rain strewn Vienna. It has some nice touches. Bond’s colleague Hamilton is a believable compadré and the offices of Station V were deftly clever conceit. I enjoyed the short sections where Bond reflects on life in the secret service, a place without friends or family, which felt very real. Occasionally Matt gives Bond some excellent reflectively caustic lines, such as the one following Hamilton’s kidnap where he intones “Vienna is a good place for promotions.” These sections develop the character of Bond nicely without emphasising his melancholy, which is provided through the metaphor of the thundering constant rain.
The disappointment came in the staid B-movie violence and trite, inconsequential dialogue which ends the story. Bond’s suggestion that the get-rich-quick scheme and subsequent death of the Henkell twins, a pair of minor drug dealers, was “a bit of a mix up” and “a bit silly” doesn’t really do justice to two shootings and a premature burial. The pun at the end of the piece is cringe worthy. However, once again I sense untapped potential.
A CHANCE TO DIE (March 2008) meanwhile shows much more maturity despite its exceptionally short narrative. Bond has narrowly avoided being run over by a car in Paris and spends the evening reflecting on death and dying with the beautiful Danielle Lacroix, played out over a simple but extravagant meal which conjures memories of Bond and Vesper in Fleming’s CASINO ROYALE. There is some well-judged philosophising and I again got a touch of Bond’s melancholy. The prose isn’t spectacular and that serves the piece well as the reader doesn’t have to sort through a series of elaborate analogies and metaphors or interpret pointless synonyms. The message is clear and concise. Very good.
ANOTHER DAY’S WORK (January 2009) is a story I am familiar with from the compilation COME HELL OR HIGH WATER, published on AJB in 2009. It is a swift, taut tale set in Cuba and has the flavour of Fleming’s LIVE AND LET DIE about it, with its voodoo rituals and rustic setting, and an ending similar to his OCTOPUSSY. Matt’s world weary Bond has been instructed to bring an errant FO officer into line. The mission ends in a Harold Richardson’s suicide.
I enjoyed this story immensely. While it lacks some character depth – there is nothing as revealing as the passages in A CHANCE TO DIE – the sparse telling lends a gravitas that a more eloquent style would bury. This really is “another day’s work” for James Bond. The dialogue has improved from the earlier efforts too and hardly a word is wasted.
My only reservation came when M reveals the truth of Richardson’s culpability. She does so after the mission is over and this makes Bond’s assertion that Richardson has brought shame on Britain, that he has committed treason, only hearsay. Had this briefing been swapped to the first two pages rather than the last, Bond would have good reason to be openly contemplating assassination. As it stands, his reasoning, and the end result, seems rather fortunate. But it’s a small quibble and the story still works exceptionally well.
These middle three tales, written between 2008 and 2009 show a good understanding of the character of James Bond. He is suffering from an entrenched melancholy as he reaches the end of a long career of killing. The prose, while underwritten, shares many aspects with the brooding Bond of Ian Fleming. I miss the elaboration Fleming brought to his work, but Matt’s clipped sentences do have impact. They are very respectable and clever stories and, while not without minor flaws, they sit comfortably next to some of the best Fan Fiction I have read over the last few years. A CHANCE TO DIE in particular has a solemnity to it which strengthens the character of James Bond. A two hander, this piece is probably Matt’s best work.
I am less convinced about SIDEWINDER. It has several problems that could easily be resolved with judicious revision, but is a much more visual adventure, something for the X Box generation, I felt.
The final adventure THE QUEEN’S PAWN (February 2006) is a combination of these two contrasting elements. The story is the most detailed of the five; it has a cinematic arc that works brilliantly. So brilliant in fact I wanted rather more of it; there are enough elements to this episode to base an entire novel.
Some of the early touches are particularly fine: the chess game played in the marble hall of an exclusive club, the disappearing Rolls Royce and its secret hideaway, a couple of gentle pursuits through Zagreb, a smooth seduction, some gentle pithy humour. But towards the end, when the despicable villain Zivkovic shows his true colours, the narrative goes all ‘Schwarzenegger’ on us and Bond ends up covered in blood and shooting bullets or throwing knives with abandon.
What particularly rankles is that the tension, mounted so well during the first three quarters, completely disappears as the prerequisite violence takes over. The bad guy is finally revealed and his back story and explanation of the evils of the espionage world is excellent. Yet his baiting of Bond is far more interesting than the bear-baiting climax, which passes with all the suspense of a wet washing line. I didn’t believe it for a second. It’s particularly bizarre that Bond can fight five pit bull dogs better and for longer than a huge brown bear. He’s lucky too that his supposed execution isn’t observed by anyone except a hapless guard.
Matt also struggles to develop the personas of two supporting characters, the terrorist Connolly (here initially called Vladimir for no discernable reason; the IRA angle really doesn’t work and feels distinctly out dated) and the girl Alex, a young woman caught up in the bloody events. It is particularly hard to understand her role in the scenario as she offers no explanation for her acceptance of Zivkovic’s brutality or, given his possessiveness, why she is allowed out of the house at all. She’s being followed, we learn, but no one seems to be reporting her movements back to her lover. Very odd.
For all that, THE QUEEN’S PAWN has pace and a plethora of good ideas that have full blooded potential. There I used the word again.
Matt Raubenheimer’s collection SHADOWS OF DEATH shows so much of it. His writing technique isn’t cutting edge, but it’s modern and delivers the expected goods with the minimum of fuss. These are good signs. While the collection isn’t glossy and lacks a literary polish it does suggest a murky, rather sombre world, one where a secret agent’s life is one of loyalty and silence, of few friends and the expectation of impending death. If I didn’t enjoy the action sequences, there are plenty out there who would and while a little flourish of the thesaurus would have been nice, the overall impact of the stark prose is tough and occasionally memorable. Overall I liked it.
More please?
I share many of your feelings about these stories and their shortcomings. Obviously, the early ones (Sidewinder, in particular) were written before I really knew the literary Bond, and before I matured as a writer. I actually considered revising Sidewinder to try and bring it up to a higher standard but decided to leave it as a 'first-attempt' - a sort of monument to the beginning of my fan fiction journey.
Anyway, I'm glad that you liked the stories overall. They certainly were fun to write - and as for your request for more ... The desire is always there to write more, but time is always a major issue. I have started several stories and then run out of steam as life, and other projects, always take over. I had wanted to write a story set in my native South Africa but as Deaver has done that so recently I won't do that at the moment. Possibly something set in the States (my first four stories were all European settings). Who knows, but I'm sure something will happen eventually. And hopefully when it does, it will be another step up from the previous work - perhaps with a bit more "flourish" in the prose.
Darenhat answers your query in your other topic/thread....SiCo did have every intention of re-instating the Fan-Fiction when he moved the whole site across to it's current location, as well as other long-missed features....lets hope he returns and does so... -{