The Union Trilogy
Unloved Season
Denton, TexasPosts: 48MI6 Agent
I've only read the Fleming novels and recently decided to jump into some of the other stuff. I didn't really know where to start but then I saw the Union Trilogy and I bought it. I guess I was figuring that a trilogy would be self-contained and not require any outside reading first. I notice now that Benson released a couple of other Bond novels before these, so my question is are they recommended or required to read first?
Comments
I do think itd help to read them in order, there is some continuity, some new characters introduced who return in later volumes, some events that influence later plots.
Specifically:
If nothing else everybody should read Colonel Sun.
If by "the comics" you mean the longrunning newspaper strip that has been compiled by Titan Books, they're interesting but the series ran so long I never got round to the later volumes ... so I guess that means the original storylines were not good enough to keep me coming back for more. There's also a new ongoing comic book series, completely unrelated to those newspaper strips, but I haven't read that.
The most interesting thing about the newspaper strip series, is the second creative team adapted several of Flemings lesser stories and expanded them into full fledged cinematic epics, the way the films would sometimes do, yet retained almost all of what Fleming wrote when they did so, which the films mostly did not ... so you get a version of Fleming's The Spy Who Loved Me or Fleming's Octopussy with all the scope of the films yet still keeping Fleming's actual plot largely intact. A pretty cool trick I wish the films could have managed more often than they did.
As you can tell from my avatar I certainly don't mind re-watching AVTAK, though it probably won't be necessary as I could perform it as a one man show by this point. I tried once but everybody bailed during the May Day/Bond sex scene.
I will echo the splendid reply of Caractacus Potts and say Colonel Sun should come first on the post-Fleming list. And as Mr. Potts notes, the comic strip adaptations of TSWLM, The Hilderbrand Rarity and Octopussy do an excellent job of expanding the originals. The comic strip version of TMWTGG sticks closer to the book but improves on it.
I also recommend John Pearson's James Bond: The Authorised Biography, written by a man who truly knew Fleming. It's more creative than any of the later continuation novels. I've read all of Gardner's Bonds, but I don't think any are essential reading. I read Benson's first book and wasn't interested enough to pursue the rest.
For the Fleming touch you could also try his nonfiction works Thrilling Cities and The Diamond Smugglers, along with his charming book of letters The Man With the Golden Typewriter.
If you still want fiction, why not read the authors who influenced Fleming? Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon), Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep), Sax Rohmer (The Island Of Fu Manchu), Sapper (Bulldog Drummond), Leslie Charteris (The Saint in New York), Dennis Wheatley (Contraband), Somerset Maugham (Ashenden), Graham Greene (This Gun For Hire), Eric Ambler (A Coffin for Dimitrios), Geoffrey Household (Rogue Male), Simenon (the Maigret series), Peter Cheyney (Dark Duet), John Buchan (The 39 Steps), Hugh Edwards (All Night at Mr. Staneyhursts--Fleming wrote a introduction to its reissue), Herbert de Lisser (White Witch of Rosehall), E. Phillips Oppenheim (The Great Impersonation), Phyllis Bottome (Wind in his Fists), Peter Fleming (The Sixth Column), and Rex Stout (the Nero Wolfe series). Put them all in a blender and you get something very close to Ian Fleming!
Seconded, only I would of course put the John Gardner Bond novels down on the essential literary Bond reading list. But you knew that already!
It's not easy.
Either one would be very good indeed. Have you read Moonraker yet, AS?
No, it's quite right to take Colonel Sun. It's a favourite of mine too. I need to reread it myself!