Your thoughts on John Gardner's Death is Forever (1992)?

Silhouette Man

I'm currently researching John Gardner's Death is Forever (1992) (and its possible relation to UK laws on the Channel Tunnel specifically) and so I was wondering what other members here thought on this James Bond continuation novel?

In some ways it is a rehash of the earlier No Deals, Mr Bond (1987) what with the Cabal agents being killed off one by one as the members of the Cream Cake operation were in NDMB. Into this mix was thrown the topicality of the uncertainty towards the New World Order proclaimed by President George Bush Snr as the 45 year Cold War in Europe came to an end with the collapse of the "Evil Empire", the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 (the collapse of its European Empire in Western and Central Europe having occurred . The AIDS epidemic is also referenced and we are told for the first timer that Bond practices safe sex (Gardner clearly wanted to send out a moral message to any impressionable readers who might be out there). Then there was the added topicality of the new Channel Tunnel/Eurotunnel built between Britain and France and an all-too-real terrorism plot to kill all of the leaders of then then European Community (EC) in a mass assassination on board the Euro Star and bring communism to life again across all European borders.

So this is the designated thread for the discussion of John Gardner's Death is Forever (1992) as we don't seem to ever have had one hitherto.

I'd love to hear all of your thoughts, comments, reviews, critiques, criticisms etc. in the space below. Thanks in advance, as always. -{

Sir Miles

It's been a number of years since I last read it...my thoughts on it then are the same as now though..."it's crap".... -{

Silhouette Man

Oh, Sir Miles, please don't depress me! Lie to me and say you really liked it! )

Golrush007

I enjoyed it quite a bit. It is, as you say, a similar premise to No Deals, Mr Bond which is one of my favourites and I think this was a contributing factor to my enjoyment of Death is Forever. I certainly don't think it is as good as No Deals though.

Given the general decline of Gardner's books in the latter half of his tenure, I think Death is Forever stands as a solid entry. It's a long time since I read it, and can't recall much specific detail, but I remember enjoying the Channel Tunnel sequence, and the use of spiders as a weapon.

Sir Miles

Silhouette Man wrote:

Oh, Sir Miles, please don't depress me! Lie to me and say you really liked it! )

Oh I love it...especially when I run out of loo role

superado

It's been a number of years for me too. I kind of remember it being a pleasant read though I don't recall what the book was all about if that says anything. I've read every Bond continuation novel but there's only one book that I couldn't finish, which was Role of Honor...maybe I'll go back to that eventually.

Loeffelholz

Many of Gardner's, after the first two or three which I really enjoyed, run together in my memory; they're the only ones I've given a second read in subsequent years. I do remember the English Channel (tunnel) finale.

Golrush007

I found that I enjoyed some of the 'middle period' Gardner's more than the first couple. I would say No Deals Mr Bond, Nobody Lives For Ever and Scorpius all rank among my favourites. That said, I would put Icebreaker at the top of the heap. But I thought Licence Renewed was merely decent, and For Special Services didn't make much impact either, although I feel that it deserves revisiting. It may well rank higher upon re-reading. Death is Forever would sit about halfway on my Gardner ranking. There are still a couple that I haven't read though, namely The Man From Barbarossa, Never Send Flowers and Cold.

Barbel

Of those last three, I liked TMFB best. Cold was terrible. And NSF wasn't too bad (we had a long discussion on that some time ago, it's a favourite of SM's).

superado

Golrush007 wrote:

I found that I enjoyed some of the 'middle period' Gardner's more than the first couple. I would say No Deals Mr Bond, Nobody Lives For Ever and Scorpius all rank among my favourites. That said, I would put Icebreaker at the top of the heap. But I thought Licence Renewed was merely decent, and For Special Services didn't make much impact either, although I feel that it deserves revisiting. It may well rank higher upon re-reading. Death is Forever would sit about halfway on my Gardner ranking. There are still a couple that I haven't read though, namely The Man From Barbarossa, Never Send Flowers and Cold.

Icebreaker is also my favorite Gardner book.