Licence Renewed.

MustonMuston Huncote, Leicestershire Posts: 228MI6 Agent
in James Bond Literature
Okay here I go. Having finished Gardner's debut Bond novel last night, I've been thinking it over. And I have to agree with Kingsley Amis when he said it "was bad enough by any reasonable standard."

The story starts fine. Bond buying a nice cottage where he can escape from everything is something I could see an older Bond doing. Also a female Q is a nice idea and could of been an interesting setup. But the story goes swiftly down hill once Bond gets to Ascot to find Anton Murik. From Bond's meeting and invitation to Castle Warlock to his very fast love affair (Lavender Peacock gives herself to "darling James" a bit fast even for Bond.) The plot moves along at a fast enough pace, without any great detail which probably helped me get through it. Gardner has some interesting ideas in there (the Ascot scene maybe a base for Moore's AVTAK race scene and the chapter with Bond on Murik's plane reminded me of Brosnan's DAD plane showdown) but just when Gardner sets something up, he fails to deliver. The highland games chapter could have been exciting, but Murik's idea of testing Bond turns out to be a quick and dull wrestling match. The villain tells Bond EVERY single detail of his plan for Meltdown while also giggling after his every evil comment. He reads as less of a brilliant nuclear physicist and more of a bird-like crack pot. I also nearly lost the will to live as Gardner kept repeating himself when describing Murik's 'molten lava eyes.'

The novel reads more like bad-fan-fiction than from the pen of an established author. With Gardner at one point using this description, 'A thousand bats winged their way around his head in confusion' :# I didn't expect John Fowles style prose and I know even the great Fleming could be dull at times, but how this effort allowed Gardner to continue writing Bond novels is amazing. Maybe Glidrose Publications just wanted Bond novels out there and selling and didn't care if they were good novels or not. But I have to give this 1/10 and that's being kind. Next, time to see if Gardner's follow-up novel is any better?
"Thank you very much. I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way... "

Comments

  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    I'd agree it's not Gardner's finest novel by any stretch, but he got better in For Special Services and Icebreaker. Read on, Muston. I know that you've read TMFB, not the best start for the Gardner explorer. I think it has more Fleming references and allusions than most of the novels that followed it, though. If you've not alrready you should also have a read of Philip Larkin's TLS review of Licence Renewed from May 1981.
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • MustonMuston Huncote, Leicestershire Posts: 228MI6 Agent
    I probably enjoyed TMFB more than LR. I've just brought FSS and will see how that goes. One of the main things that I find hard so far under Gardner is that he doesn't seem to take James Bond as a character seriously. At one point during LR, I wondered whether Gardner had set out to write a bad novel from the beginning, just to see how much he could get away with. I understand that Gardner was probably given guidelines as to what he could and couldn't do with the character, but two books into his 14 I don't recognise his 007.
    "Thank you very much. I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way... "
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    Muston wrote:
    I probably enjoyed TMFB more than LR. I've just brought FSS and will see how that goes. One of the main things that I find hard so far under Gardner is that he doesn't seem to take James Bond as a character seriously. At one point during LR, I wondered whether Gardner had set out to write a bad novel from the beginning, just to see how much he could get away with. I understand that Gardner was probably given guidelines as to what he could and couldn't do with the character, but two books into his 14 I don't recognise his 007.

    There are a lot of better Bond novels by Gardner than those two - give him time to work his Bondian magic. Role of Honour is another very weak novel, mind.
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • davidelliott101davidelliott101 Posts: 165MI6 Agent
    Casino Royale didn't "feel" like a Bond novel, either... it was simply the author finding his footing. I thought it was pretty good and props to Gardner for taking on the continuation novels!
  • Asp9mmAsp9mm Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,541MI6 Agent
    They do get much better. But they get much worse after that too.
    ..................Asp9mmSIG-1-2.jpg...............
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    Asp9mm wrote:
    They do get much better. But they get much worse after that too.

    Rather a mixed message, but nonetheless accurate. Never Send Flowers by John Gardner (one of his later-term Bonds) is one of my favourites, though, and I'm writing a sort of monograph on it at the moment, to celebrate its 20th Anniversary of publication on 15 July 2013.
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Asp9mmAsp9mm Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,541MI6 Agent
    I'm meant that Gardners Bond series starts out quite mediocre. Get's better. Then gets bad.
    ..................Asp9mmSIG-1-2.jpg...............
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    Asp9mm wrote:
    I'm meant that Gardners Bond series starts out quite mediocre. Get's better. Then gets bad.

    I suppose that's right, although as a Gardnerist I have a different take on the post-1989 novels, moreso than many other Bond fans and commentators it seems. There will be more on this on my blog in time to come hopefully. :) -{
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Asp9mmAsp9mm Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,541MI6 Agent
    I enjoyed them up until Seafire. Seafire and Cold were bad. I enjoyed Death is Forever and Never Send Flowers was OK, but it was the novel that sowed the seeds for the dramatic decline. Bond from the start of Gardners novels slowly moved from someone who exuded presence as they entered the room, to someone you'd want to ignore, if at any point you noticed him at all.
    ..................Asp9mmSIG-1-2.jpg...............
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    Asp9mm wrote:
    I enjoyed them up until Seafire. Seafire and Cold were bad. I enjoyed Death is Forever and Never Send Flowers was OK, but it was the novel that sowed the seeds for the dramatic decline. Bond from the start of Gardners novels slowly moved from someone who exuded presence as they entered the room, to someone you'd want to ignore, if at any point you noticed him at all.

    Yes well with Never Send Flowers came the Flicka von Grusse story arc that went across SeaFire, GoldenEye and finished up with Cold/Cold Fall and James Bond departing to meet the new female M. From here Raymond Benson took over and did some very interesting experimental things with James Bond...
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • MustonMuston Huncote, Leicestershire Posts: 228MI6 Agent
    Despite how bad I thought LR was, I'm still looking forward (in a strange way) to reading his second Bond novel. I think LR would have been better had the villain not been so annoying and the Bond's love interest had not been so bloody wet with the "Darling James" crap. After all, Gardner set his Bond in 1981, yet the way he wrote her, she sounded like she was from the 1921.
    "Thank you very much. I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way... "
  • Asp9mmAsp9mm Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,541MI6 Agent
    Yeah, well... don't get your hopes up on the female characters. Some are worse.
    ..................Asp9mmSIG-1-2.jpg...............
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    It gets a lot better after Licence Renewed where Gardner was probably somewhat more restrained by the Glidrose Board - later he got his own freedom to change Bond and mould him more in his own image of serious espionage novels - see Brokenclaw, The Man From Barbarossa and Never Send Flowers for three examples of his mighty experimentation in the 1990s Bonds.
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,923Chief of Staff
    Silhouette Man wrote:
    It gets a lot better after Licence Renewed where Gardner was probably somewhat more restrained by the Glidrose Board - later he got his own freedom to change Bond and mould him more in his own image of serious espionage novels - see Brokenclaw, The Man From Barbarossa and Never Send Flowers for three examples of his mighty experimentation in the 1990s Bonds.

    I'm not sure that Gardner was given too much freedom...and Benson was given even less....its something they both complained about, probably with justification to a degree as some of the novels are awful...I don't like Never Send Flowers - and pretty much all of Gardner's thereafter...and Never Dream Of Dying is the nadir for me...its so bad that I've only read it once... X-(
    YNWA 97
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    Sir Miles wrote:
    Silhouette Man wrote:
    It gets a lot better after Licence Renewed where Gardner was probably somewhat more restrained by the Glidrose Board - later he got his own freedom to change Bond and mould him more in his own image of serious espionage novels - see Brokenclaw, The Man From Barbarossa and Never Send Flowers for three examples of his mighty experimentation in the 1990s Bonds.

    I'm not sure that Gardner was given too much freedom...and Benson was given even less....its something they both complained about, probably with justification to a degree as some of the novels are awful...I don't like Never Send Flowers - and pretty much all of Gardner's thereafter...and Never Dream Of Dying is the nadir for me...its so bad that I've only read it once... X-(

    Your views on the latter continuations are well documented, Sir Miles! What was so awful about Never Dream of Dying in particular? Can you be specific? I remember the moderator Jim over at CBn writing a polemic against this novel which greatly divided opinion over there back in 2009. I also remember the critical title 'Never Dream of Writing a Good Novel' from earlier than that.
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,923Chief of Staff
    It just feels a million miles away from being a Bond novel...and I struggle to recognise the character called Bond as the Bond I know...I find his relationship with the main female ludicrous - I forget her name now (it begins with a T though)....I dont like his re-introduction of Draco either...he messes too much with what Fleming wrote about him...other than that, I'd have to read it again...and I have no desire to do that X-(
    YNWA 97
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    Sir Miles wrote:
    It just feels a million miles away from being a Bond novel...and I struggle to recognise the character called Bond as the Bond I know...I find his relationship with the main female ludicrous - I forget her name now (it begins with a T though)....I dont like his re-introduction of Draco either...he messes too much with what Fleming wrote about him...other than that, I'd have to read it again...and I have no desire to do that X-(

    Perhaps it's because the plot is reminiscent of Never Send Flowers, where celebrities of a sort (Princess Diana and her two sons) are also targets? :)
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
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