I've bought the paperback edition of Forever and a Day at my local Waterstones. It's just the paperback edition, but better than nothing. Plus, it was half price at £7.00. -{
I just checked my pre-order on Amazon. It was not scheduled to be released in the USA until November 6. X-(
I was able to order the UK version for $4 more and should receive it June 15th.
"A blunt instrument wielded by a Government department. Hard, ruthless, sardonic, fatalistic. He likes gambling, golf, fast motor cars. All his movements are relaxed and economical". Ian Fleming
Anthony Horowitz just donated £5000 to help his friend get a new wheelchair. I've only just donated a little something myself. Please consider donating at his GoFundMe page today: https://www.gofundme.com/vivekgohil
Me too - lets hope he can raise enough. Anthony said on Twitter that if all his followers donated 50p each that would do it
I've bought the paperback edition of Forever and a Day at my local Waterstones. It's just the paperback edition, but better than nothing. Plus, it was half price at £7.00. -{
The paperback is out at the same time?!
Perhaps it could be a trade paperback? I'm not sure about the UK, but here in South Africa virtually all new books come out as trade paperbacks, which are pretty much just the same pages as the hardback, but with a soft cover. Unfortunately we get very little hardback fiction here so I always have to import the latest Bond novel from the UK because I want hardback. On this occasion I luckily have an uncle travelling from the UK to South Africa so I should have a signed hardback copy of Forever and a Day sometime next week.
damnation and disease!
I just checked Indigo's website (Canada's big bookstore monopoly) and it also shows the release date as Nov 6th. So much for the Commonwealth, we used to have WH Smith and PAN paperbacks, now we're stuck with the same second class release date as our American neighbours. Did my ancestors fight on the losing side of the Revolutionary War for nothing?
Paperback and hardcover indeed released the same day (and paperback isn't much cheaper).
So you lucky British folk aren't allowed to spoil the story for another six months, thank you.
I won't get the book until next weekend or so, but others will be finished soon. Could the first to post a proper review please make a "spoiler reviews" thread?
starting a dedicated Forever and a Day Review thread (complete with Spoilers) is a good idea
I see there was a similar splitting of threads for Trigger Mortis
(and that review thread was started by Special Agent 24!)
but really I'm half-joking ... the books already out and I should know to quit reading this thread if I want my experience (in bloody November) to be fresh.
You folks now reading should be expressing your immediate undiluted opinions now, before any sort of mainstream consensus forms and unwittingly influences you. post your genuine review first and you can be the opinion-maker!
and if you want to discuss plot details here, you can always use spoiler tags
like so
simply spell the word spoiler between square brackets before your plot revelations, and then /spoiler (ie with a forward slash) between square brackets, after your plot revelations, to return to normal text we all can see.
...or highlight your plot revelations and click one of the basic tag tools above, eg B for bold, then when you can see the bold tags, overwrite the letter b with the word spoiler.
and seriously, if I wanted to avoid spoilers, my ancestors should have thought about that before they decided to emigrate to the colonies 150 years ago.
But that's much of the point of a dedicated review thread: us poor souls who haven't read it yet can keep reading this thread without fear in our hearts. At the same time the few, the happy few, who has read it can discuss it freely in a dedicated thread.
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
But that's much of the point of a dedicated review thread: us poor souls who haven't read it yet can keep reading this thread without fear in our hearts. At the same time the few, the happy few, who has read it can discuss it freely in a dedicated thread.
It would be a good idea, yes.
Does anyone want to take responsibility for creating such a Review Thread for Forever and a Day?
Do we agree on the necessity such a thread?
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
I enjoyed it. ( No Spoilers ) interesting villians, well written action, it basically ticks all the boxes.
I do have a couple of small gripes ( Mentioned in Bond Book of the Month thread but it contains
SPOILERS !!! ) but they are small ones. I do hope Mr Horowitz gets another commission for a third, or more books. -{
"I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
Due to a tipoff from a Bond friend I was able to buy the first edition hardback of Forever and A Day for £10 in Asda. Now all I need is the Special Edition, which I'll order from the Waterstones website.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Was going to pick up one of the many signed/special editions people are flogging on eBay before I realised Waterstones still has them in stock for much much less than those eBay prices. Definitely recommend going directly to the source -{
Have just walked out of Waterstones happily clutching my copy. £9.50, hardback, has the Fleming material at the end.
Yes I got a Waterstones copy (hardback) for £9.50 that has yellow edged pages and the "typewritten" Russian Roulette Fleming story
idea. The ones in WH Smith and other bookshops don't have those two features.
Although in Toppings of Bath was the "plain" version but with a clear plastic wrapper for full price £19.
Is there really a paperback as well? I would've thought that would follow 6 months later?
I'm 70% through reading the story. it's pretty good but will never have the travel experience and descriptions of Fleming.
Yes I hope Horowitz goes on to do several books. I couldn't get a signed version but he's doing a bit of a signing tour in Scotland
and the North. Nowhere near me in Bristol.
I think only one or two of the bookstores listed on Amazon.uk.com ships to Norway. Why should people like you and me be descriminated against just because we are centrally placed in nowhere? )
I finally got my hands on the book today. I will post a review when I have finished it, but so far I have only read the first two chapters. The second chapter deals with the second assassination that gave Bond his 00-agent status. Since most of us know the victims was a Norwegian and it happened in Stockholm I think I can comment on it here, especially since I know a bit about the events that most likely inspired the author. Some might see the rest of the post to be spoilers!
Bond's target is Rolf Larsen. He is described as a member of Kompani Linge during WWII. It's strange how the author fails to mention the fact that the unit was a part of Special Operations Executive since he mentions SOE in the first chapter. Larsen later joins the real Kompani Linge sub-unit known as Oslo Gang, a highly successful SOE sabotage unit led by Gunnar "Number 24" Sønsteby. Larsen is involved in a real sabotage mission, Operation Mardonius. The operation took place in Oslo harbour, where agents used canoes to attach limet mines on ships. This operation is shown in the movie "Man of war/Max Manus". There is also a mention of sabotaging a factory producing airplane parts. The Oslo Gang blew up a facility like that, but not the one named in the novel.
Operation Mardonius in the movie "Man of War":
Rolf Larsen is also involved missions involving "troops leaving the Shetland Islands on fishing boats, penetrating the fjords under cover of darkness and fog." This must be a reference to The Shetland Gang/Shetland Buss, another Norwegian unit in the SOE. The best known Shetland Gang captain was Leif Larsen, the most decorated naval officer in WWII of any country. The Rolf Larsen in the novel betrays agents put on shore in Northern Norway. The agents are killed.
This remind me of Operation Martin Red, where Kompani Linge agents were sent using the Shetland Buss to sabotage German Luftwaffe bases in Northern Norway. They were betrayed by a local civilian and all but one were executed by the Gestapo. The escape of the one surviving SOE-agent (Jan Baalsrud) is described in David Howart's book "We die alone" and the 2017 movie "The 12th man".
The real Shetland Gang:
From the movie "Shetlandsgjengen"(1954), featuring many SOE operators playing themselves:
I have written more about these units and men in the SOE thread if anyone is interested.
Small niggle: Bond steals "300 krona" from Rolf Larsen's wallet. But "krona" is the singular form of the currency. It should say "kronor".
I think it's also interesting that a leading member of the Norwegian resistance was murdered in Stockholm right after the war ended. Kai Holst had to escape to Sweden in 1943 because the Germans were getting too close and he continued working from the neutral country.
When the war ended he started searching the POV camps in Norway for German war criminals. He worked for the Norwegian government in London and in co-operation with MI6. At the same time the CIA and Swedish Säpo (Security Police - their MI5) were searching the same prison camps for Germans who could be used as sources and in other ways against the Soviets in the cold war. In some cases Holst may be looking for the same people and this could be a conflict of interest. We don't know what happened, But Kai Holst was shot outside his apartment in late June 1945.
First, the negative
1. We get the Double O kills, and they are perfect. However, the two mysteries that I wanted addressed going into a prequel of Casino Royale are both un-addressed. First, I wanted the origins of the scar, although i respect the decision that it is left as a mystery. Secondly, I wanted to see Bond's first encounter with Mathis. Upon hearing that it was to be set in France I was sure that Horowitz was leading us down this route, but nope.
2. The 2-3 mysteries we do have answered, I don't believe many have cared to ponder. 1) The origin of the Vesper Martini, The vesper is all fine, as I believe Bond even says he has had the drink for a while and has been waiting to think of a good name. 2) 'Shaken, not stirred' For one thing, Fleming said that he found out vesper martinis suck a few weeks after he published CR. Also, Bond quips that it tastes the same shaken or stirred. Videos i have seen claim that shaking it is borderline stupid and just makes the drink come out foamy. 3) The origin of Bond's cigarette brand of choice, plus his gunmetal cigarette case - This one is somewhat interesting, as the device saves Bond's life on one occasion which I will not spoil for anyone who hasn't read the original Fleming.
3. In Casino, Bond harbors a grudge with working with a woman, but is fine and happy to work with the CIA. After the events of FAAD, shouldn't it be vice versa? I dare say that Sixtine is one of the most effective Bond girls in the series. She even suffers from what I'd call Mad Max Furiousa-Syndrome (i.e.: She is arguably more effective than Bond!). Her kill count is double Bond's. She shoots ten men dead, often with single shots (three men in the evil lair, two bikers escaping, snaps two unconscious men's necks which is very impressive for a lady but much more tactical than Bond's idea to tie them up, and shoots two more in the boiler room, plus Scipio's translator). Bond kills six men (His two Double O's, two shot dead aboard the Marianne, Scipio drowns, and Reed Griffith). Not to mention her ingenious makeshift tournakit she learned while working as a candy girl. A much better character and name than Jeopardy Lane. This woman should have left an impression on Bond's heart and on his psyche, that women can be effective at aiding his mission.
4. The Felix Lieter archetypal precursor Reed Griffin. If anything, Bond would feel skeptical at least about working for the CIA again.
5. Horowitz is still using a phantom template from Trigger Mortis. 1) sabotage mission fails--Capture, 2) lengthy dialogue from villain about origin, followed by plan, 3) elaborate torture/death, 4) escape, 5) second successful sabotage, 6) Just when you thought it was over, a second extra bit of action. This is the Bond formula, but it can be disguised better.
Now the positive.
1. The Double O kills are great and I couldn't ask for a better first two kills. However this time, this first is easier and the second is harder, in contrast to the Casino Royale film.
2. Although Wolfe is a lackluster villain, Scipio is another stylish archetypal hero, and the Dr. No syndrome that plagued Mr. Sin isn't as prevalent here. Scipio has a plan and a reason for leaving Bond alive... twice. And those reasons are justified. With the mysterious Scipio speaking Italian and his translator translating, I think would translate very well to film. Something about the two-way inference between Scipio the translator and Bond allowed for darkness to brood, and allowed Bond to get some one liner quips to the middle man as well.
3. Twice over Horowitz made me fear for Bond. My knowledge that Bond was invincible and that he has further adventures beyond this one was completely suspended, first as Bond encounters the acid test, and secondly, as he faces an even worse fate. In all my digestion of the Bond mythos, it never occurred to me a scenario in which James Bond could become a willing sex slave, but here it was on paper. Horowitz went a step further from what Skyfall was too squeamish to do with Silva and his sexual advances. We don't get a thigh rub, we get fingers in lips, and the vixen is in the room to witness this as well (in order to create more uncomfortability), instead of being tied up outside after sharing all of a drink and a 5 minute shower of character development. You see the acid hit and feel it burn... It happens, at least on paper, and at least to Bond's knowledge. And again, you see the needle penetrate and think how he will get out. A storyteller who was worse at suspense would put a deus ex machina right before the acid hits, and right before the needle penetrated, but the fact that we witness it and Bond witnesses it is very crucial to the suspension of disbelief.
4. Horowitz goes for less action, more Noir this time around. Despite the story sagging in the middle, it is thoroughly engaging if you like the more noir. Don't expect anything like a motorcar race, or a Gatling gun firing at a hotel complex. This is a very inexperienced Bond trying to do his job while as a secondary objective, remaining alive.
5. Bond's drinking is in full swing. I actually tracked his addiction:
Day One: Half a bottle of cheap wine
Day Two: One bourbon, two vesper precursor martinis
Day three: a Haig-and-Haig whiskey, a bourbon, a glass of champagne
Day Four: An Americano, a bottle of Dom Perign'on shared with Sixtine
Day Five: A bourbon
One week later: A Negroni made with Gordon's, one bourbon that I assume Bond went to have without Reed.
I give FaaD a 8/10 and hope to see more, (although different things) from Horowitz Bond.
Secondly, I wanted to see Bond's first encounter with Mathis. Upon hearing that it was to be set in France I was sure that Horowitz was leading us down this route, but nope.
I was also expecting this, given the setting.
The 2-3 mysteries we do have answered, I don't believe many have cared to ponder.
My feeling is that Sixtine being connected with the Vesper Martini was fine, but her being the origin of Morlands was overkill.
In Casino, Bond harbors a grudge with working with a woman, but is fine and happy to work with a woman. After the events of FAAD, shouldn't it be vice versa? I dare say that Sixtine is one of the most effective Bond girls in the series. She even suffers from what I'd call Mad Max Furiousa-Syndrome (i.e.: She is arguably more effective than Bond!).
My feelings exactly. You've pinpointed why this book, although fine, is not a fully convincing prequel to CR. The Bond of that book would not have had contemptuous feelings toward female field agents if he'd worked with Sixtine in FAD. He's be in awe of them.
The Felix Lieter archetypal precursor Reade Griffith. If anything, Bond would feel skeptical at least about working for the CIA again.
Exactly! Considering how badly Bond was burnt by the CIA, you'd think he would show signs of a very large grudge in CR. But FAD is definitely a post-Cold War and post-Trump Bond novel. It shows Americans engaging in nasty crimes to combat communism and the main villain is a vulgar American millionaire.
I also agree with you regarding the positive aspects of the novel, and that the good ultimately outweighs the bad. The torture scenes are ingenious and would have earned Fleming's approval. So would much of the rest of the book.
I enjoyed your review, Shatterfang. Good points about women, CIA and trust. I agree that Reade Griffith was a rather flat character, but Sixtine was great. I why you miss Mathis, given the location. Personally I didn't miss him. I think enough was explained in this novel (drink, lighter, Moreland), so I'm glad he didn't explain the scar this time.
superadoRegent's Park West (CaliforniaPosts: 2,656MI6 Agent
My library finally has FAAD on order and I'm the first in line!
"...the purposeful slant of his striding figure looked dangerous, as if he was making quickly for something bad that was happening further down the street." -SMERSH on 007 dossier photo, Ch. 6 FRWL.....
FaaD is officially the worst selling of the post-2008 continuation novels. It sold just over 17,000 copies in the first 4 weeks whereas “Solo” sold 25,000...
Comments
The paperback is out at the same time?!
I was able to order the UK version for $4 more and should receive it June 15th.
https://www.gofundme.com/vivekgohil
Me too - lets hope he can raise enough. Anthony said on Twitter that if all his followers donated 50p each that would do it
Perhaps it could be a trade paperback? I'm not sure about the UK, but here in South Africa virtually all new books come out as trade paperbacks, which are pretty much just the same pages as the hardback, but with a soft cover. Unfortunately we get very little hardback fiction here so I always have to import the latest Bond novel from the UK because I want hardback. On this occasion I luckily have an uncle travelling from the UK to South Africa so I should have a signed hardback copy of Forever and a Day sometime next week.
Sure Thunderpussy has finished already by now
Off to the US in a few weeks so saving it until then
I just checked Indigo's website (Canada's big bookstore monopoly) and it also shows the release date as Nov 6th. So much for the Commonwealth, we used to have WH Smith and PAN paperbacks, now we're stuck with the same second class release date as our American neighbours. Did my ancestors fight on the losing side of the Revolutionary War for nothing?
Paperback and hardcover indeed released the same day (and paperback isn't much cheaper).
So you lucky British folk aren't allowed to spoil the story for another six months, thank you.
I see there was a similar splitting of threads for Trigger Mortis
(and that review thread was started by Special Agent 24!)
but really I'm half-joking ... the books already out and I should know to quit reading this thread if I want my experience (in bloody November) to be fresh.
You folks now reading should be expressing your immediate undiluted opinions now, before any sort of mainstream consensus forms and unwittingly influences you. post your genuine review first and you can be the opinion-maker!
and if you want to discuss plot details here, you can always use spoiler tags
...or highlight your plot revelations and click one of the basic tag tools above, eg B for bold, then when you can see the bold tags, overwrite the letter b with the word spoiler.
and seriously, if I wanted to avoid spoilers, my ancestors should have thought about that before they decided to emigrate to the colonies 150 years ago.
It would be a good idea, yes.
Does anyone want to take responsibility for creating such a Review Thread for Forever and a Day?
Do we agree on the necessity such a thread?
Wow, now that was a bargain!
I do have a couple of small gripes ( Mentioned in Bond Book of the Month thread but it contains
SPOILERS !!! ) but they are small ones. I do hope Mr Horowitz gets another commission for a third, or more books. -{
Yes I got a Waterstones copy (hardback) for £9.50 that has yellow edged pages and the "typewritten" Russian Roulette Fleming story
idea. The ones in WH Smith and other bookshops don't have those two features.
Although in Toppings of Bath was the "plain" version but with a clear plastic wrapper for full price £19.
Is there really a paperback as well? I would've thought that would follow 6 months later?
I'm 70% through reading the story. it's pretty good but will never have the travel experience and descriptions of Fleming.
Yes I hope Horowitz goes on to do several books. I couldn't get a signed version but he's doing a bit of a signing tour in Scotland
and the North. Nowhere near me in Bristol.
Bleuville.
They wont post to the Falklands for some dumb reason
I agree with what TP said! https://www.ajb007.co.uk/post/922096/#p922096
Bond's target is Rolf Larsen. He is described as a member of Kompani Linge during WWII. It's strange how the author fails to mention the fact that the unit was a part of Special Operations Executive since he mentions SOE in the first chapter. Larsen later joins the real Kompani Linge sub-unit known as Oslo Gang, a highly successful SOE sabotage unit led by Gunnar "Number 24" Sønsteby. Larsen is involved in a real sabotage mission, Operation Mardonius. The operation took place in Oslo harbour, where agents used canoes to attach limet mines on ships. This operation is shown in the movie "Man of war/Max Manus". There is also a mention of sabotaging a factory producing airplane parts. The Oslo Gang blew up a facility like that, but not the one named in the novel.
Operation Mardonius in the movie "Man of War":
Rolf Larsen is also involved missions involving "troops leaving the Shetland Islands on fishing boats, penetrating the fjords under cover of darkness and fog." This must be a reference to The Shetland Gang/Shetland Buss, another Norwegian unit in the SOE. The best known Shetland Gang captain was Leif Larsen, the most decorated naval officer in WWII of any country. The Rolf Larsen in the novel betrays agents put on shore in Northern Norway. The agents are killed.
This remind me of Operation Martin Red, where Kompani Linge agents were sent using the Shetland Buss to sabotage German Luftwaffe bases in Northern Norway. They were betrayed by a local civilian and all but one were executed by the Gestapo. The escape of the one surviving SOE-agent (Jan Baalsrud) is described in David Howart's book "We die alone" and the 2017 movie "The 12th man".
The real Shetland Gang:
From the movie "Shetlandsgjengen"(1954), featuring many SOE operators playing themselves:
I have written more about these units and men in the SOE thread if anyone is interested.
Small niggle: Bond steals "300 krona" from Rolf Larsen's wallet. But "krona" is the singular form of the currency. It should say "kronor".
When the war ended he started searching the POV camps in Norway for German war criminals. He worked for the Norwegian government in London and in co-operation with MI6. At the same time the CIA and Swedish Säpo (Security Police - their MI5) were searching the same prison camps for Germans who could be used as sources and in other ways against the Soviets in the cold war. In some cases Holst may be looking for the same people and this could be a conflict of interest. We don't know what happened, But Kai Holst was shot outside his apartment in late June 1945.
First, the negative
1. We get the Double O kills, and they are perfect. However, the two mysteries that I wanted addressed going into a prequel of Casino Royale are both un-addressed. First, I wanted the origins of the scar, although i respect the decision that it is left as a mystery. Secondly, I wanted to see Bond's first encounter with Mathis. Upon hearing that it was to be set in France I was sure that Horowitz was leading us down this route, but nope.
2. The 2-3 mysteries we do have answered, I don't believe many have cared to ponder. 1) The origin of the Vesper Martini, The vesper is all fine, as I believe Bond even says he has had the drink for a while and has been waiting to think of a good name. 2) 'Shaken, not stirred' For one thing, Fleming said that he found out vesper martinis suck a few weeks after he published CR. Also, Bond quips that it tastes the same shaken or stirred. Videos i have seen claim that shaking it is borderline stupid and just makes the drink come out foamy. 3) The origin of Bond's cigarette brand of choice, plus his gunmetal cigarette case - This one is somewhat interesting, as the device saves Bond's life on one occasion which I will not spoil for anyone who hasn't read the original Fleming.
3. In Casino, Bond harbors a grudge with working with a woman, but is fine and happy to work with the CIA. After the events of FAAD, shouldn't it be vice versa? I dare say that Sixtine is one of the most effective Bond girls in the series. She even suffers from what I'd call Mad Max Furiousa-Syndrome (i.e.: She is arguably more effective than Bond!). Her kill count is double Bond's. She shoots ten men dead, often with single shots (three men in the evil lair, two bikers escaping, snaps two unconscious men's necks which is very impressive for a lady but much more tactical than Bond's idea to tie them up, and shoots two more in the boiler room, plus Scipio's translator). Bond kills six men (His two Double O's, two shot dead aboard the Marianne, Scipio drowns, and Reed Griffith). Not to mention her ingenious makeshift tournakit she learned while working as a candy girl. A much better character and name than Jeopardy Lane. This woman should have left an impression on Bond's heart and on his psyche, that women can be effective at aiding his mission.
4. The Felix Lieter archetypal precursor Reed Griffin. If anything, Bond would feel skeptical at least about working for the CIA again.
5. Horowitz is still using a phantom template from Trigger Mortis. 1) sabotage mission fails--Capture, 2) lengthy dialogue from villain about origin, followed by plan, 3) elaborate torture/death, 4) escape, 5) second successful sabotage, 6) Just when you thought it was over, a second extra bit of action. This is the Bond formula, but it can be disguised better.
Now the positive.
1. The Double O kills are great and I couldn't ask for a better first two kills. However this time, this first is easier and the second is harder, in contrast to the Casino Royale film.
2. Although Wolfe is a lackluster villain, Scipio is another stylish archetypal hero, and the Dr. No syndrome that plagued Mr. Sin isn't as prevalent here. Scipio has a plan and a reason for leaving Bond alive... twice. And those reasons are justified. With the mysterious Scipio speaking Italian and his translator translating, I think would translate very well to film. Something about the two-way inference between Scipio the translator and Bond allowed for darkness to brood, and allowed Bond to get some one liner quips to the middle man as well.
3. Twice over Horowitz made me fear for Bond. My knowledge that Bond was invincible and that he has further adventures beyond this one was completely suspended, first as Bond encounters the acid test, and secondly, as he faces an even worse fate. In all my digestion of the Bond mythos, it never occurred to me a scenario in which James Bond could become a willing sex slave, but here it was on paper. Horowitz went a step further from what Skyfall was too squeamish to do with Silva and his sexual advances. We don't get a thigh rub, we get fingers in lips, and the vixen is in the room to witness this as well (in order to create more uncomfortability), instead of being tied up outside after sharing all of a drink and a 5 minute shower of character development. You see the acid hit and feel it burn... It happens, at least on paper, and at least to Bond's knowledge. And again, you see the needle penetrate and think how he will get out. A storyteller who was worse at suspense would put a deus ex machina right before the acid hits, and right before the needle penetrated, but the fact that we witness it and Bond witnesses it is very crucial to the suspension of disbelief.
4. Horowitz goes for less action, more Noir this time around. Despite the story sagging in the middle, it is thoroughly engaging if you like the more noir. Don't expect anything like a motorcar race, or a Gatling gun firing at a hotel complex. This is a very inexperienced Bond trying to do his job while as a secondary objective, remaining alive.
5. Bond's drinking is in full swing. I actually tracked his addiction:
Day One: Half a bottle of cheap wine
Day Two: One bourbon, two vesper precursor martinis
Day three: a Haig-and-Haig whiskey, a bourbon, a glass of champagne
Day Four: An Americano, a bottle of Dom Perign'on shared with Sixtine
Day Five: A bourbon
One week later: A Negroni made with Gordon's, one bourbon that I assume Bond went to have without Reed.
I give FaaD a 8/10 and hope to see more, (although different things) from Horowitz Bond.
I was also expecting this, given the setting.
My feeling is that Sixtine being connected with the Vesper Martini was fine, but her being the origin of Morlands was overkill.
My feelings exactly. You've pinpointed why this book, although fine, is not a fully convincing prequel to CR. The Bond of that book would not have had contemptuous feelings toward female field agents if he'd worked with Sixtine in FAD. He's be in awe of them.
Exactly! Considering how badly Bond was burnt by the CIA, you'd think he would show signs of a very large grudge in CR. But FAD is definitely a post-Cold War and post-Trump Bond novel. It shows Americans engaging in nasty crimes to combat communism and the main villain is a vulgar American millionaire.
I also agree with you regarding the positive aspects of the novel, and that the good ultimately outweighs the bad. The torture scenes are ingenious and would have earned Fleming's approval. So would much of the rest of the book.