Devil May Care (2008) - AJB Members' Review Milkround

Silhouette Man

Just wondering what our thoughts are here on AJB concerning Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks, where he was 'writing as Ian Fleming' for the 28 May 2008 Centenary of Ian Fleming's Birth. What are our thoughts on this controverial entry in the Continuation Bond which trtied to sweep away Amis/Markham, Pearson, Wood, Gardner, Benson et al and present itself as the last Fleming Bond novel, set after TMWTGG (and possibly Colonel Sun) in 1967.

Was it a successful or unsuccessful experiment?

What were the project's (and Faulks') strengths and weaknesses etc.?

I'd be very grateful to hear your views on this one, as always.

Sir Miles

I'd have to read this one again to form a decent opinion of it...as I read it I was disappointed...the idea of taking Bond back to an earlier age was fine....maybe that part worked...but it didn't 'read' as a Bond novel for me...like I said...I need to re-read it before I can comment on the rest...

Peppermill

I just started reading this one for the second time. I didn't finish it the first time but I hope I do this time around. As soon as I have I will let you know what I think.

James Suzuki

Mm, good thread... Sil man
I thought basing it in the 60's was a good idea, I was quite a while ago when I read it but I thought it tied up a few loose ends with the 'shattered man' story arc from YOLT. I quite enjoyed it, I felt it was different to a lot of the other fiction books which are churned out. Though... I did find it a little disapointing, though I do find it a bit underrated in the Bond community. The monkey hand thing was, IMHO, a step too far, a homage to the third nipple, and like Gardner's single breast, left a weird impression on me.

Napoleon Plural

You can read my review on amazon under Faulks bits off more than he can chew (I think). It's an experiment to see if he can write as Fleming; once he does that he loses interest after 100 pages and it's a slog to the finish. Faulks is a Guardian reader so as with Gardner there is a sense that he disapproves of Bond anyway and the sex is half-hearted. Ludicrous plot twist you can see a mile off. And Brosnan Bond style action ending. Some nice bits in it, but again the feeling is that Fleming kind of wrapped up Bond's journey satisfactorily, oh and I don't like having Bond talk about the Rolling Stones, it just feels wrong.

Silhouette Man

Napoleon Plural wrote:

You can read my review on amazon under Faulks bits off more than he can chew (I think). It's an experiment to see if he can write as Fleming; once he does that he loses interest after 100 pages and it's a slog to the finish. Faulks is a Guardian reader so as with Gardner there is a sense that he disapproves of Bond anyway and the sex is half-hearted. Ludicrous plot twist you can see a mile off. And Brosnan Bond style action ending. Some nice bits in it, but again the feeling is that Fleming kind of wrapped up Bond's journey satisfactorily, oh and I don't like having Bond talk about the Rolling Stones, it just feels wrong.

Thanks, Mr Plural. I like your reference to JB talking of the Rolling Stones - akin to him mentioining the Beatles in the GF film, or JB visiting DisneyWorld and Euro Disney in NSF methinks.