Licence Renewed.
Muston
Huncote, Leicestershire Posts: 228MI6 Agent
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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?