#Flemingreadingchallenge
JTullock23
ArizonaPosts: 559MI6 Agent
DZ has started this # recently. I am definitely not a reader, but I am picking up a copy of CR today from a local bookstore. I will also see what else they have on their shelf. Any recommendations of ones I should pick up that are good reads? As a gift, my father bought me LALD, I think Dr. No and FRWL.
As an aside, he also bought me all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock series. I am looking forward to trying to disconnect from my phone, PC, FB, IG, etc. for long enough to try to "become a reader."
As an aside, he also bought me all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock series. I am looking forward to trying to disconnect from my phone, PC, FB, IG, etc. for long enough to try to "become a reader."
"History isn't kind to men who play God." - DC "I gave him the limp." - PB "Better make that two." - TD
"Keeping British end up, sir." - RM "This never happened to the other fellow." - JL "I must be dreaming." SC
"Keeping British end up, sir." - RM "This never happened to the other fellow." - JL "I must be dreaming." SC
Comments
https://sistraininggear.com
enjoy Dr No
M: "Jealous husbands, outraged chefs, humiliated tailors . . . the list is endless."
"Keeping British end up, sir." - RM "This never happened to the other fellow." - JL "I must be dreaming." SC
That's slightly less important with Sherlock Holmes, but it does help.
Question though. I have found two different listings for the orders they are in, publication and chronological. Here is the link. Can you shed some light as to which list I should follow?
https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/james-bond/
"Keeping British end up, sir." - RM "This never happened to the other fellow." - JL "I must be dreaming." SC
Since you're not much of a reader by your own admission, don't get too hung up on that alternate chronology you found. I can explain it, if you like:
It is the work of John Griswold, who wrote Ian Fleming's James Bond: Annotations And Chronologies for Ian Fleming's Bond Stories. Griswold stared very close at Fleming's use of dates, which are ambiguous and often contradict, and reconciled them into a detailed timeline.
His logic makes sense if you think about the minute details enough, but if you've never read the books before there's more important aspects you'll be paying attention to: the plot, the descriptions, Bond's interior monologs.
Thing is Fleming himself didnt seem to care about the precise dates enough to make them consistent, but you will note even in that alternate chronology the novels are, with one subtle exception, still in publication order, and its mostly the short stories he's resequenced, and its mostly the ones in Octopussy that have got moved around.
so Octopussy is the one book you might want to read out of order. The final volume was a collection of short stories previously written and mostly previously published over the last couple years. Man with the Golden Gun was the last thing Fleming wrote. If you choose to read that one out of publication order, the simplest thing to do is read Octopussy between On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice. But it doesn't make a big difference.
"Keeping British end up, sir." - RM "This never happened to the other fellow." - JL "I must be dreaming." SC
There have been many written since then, but are a mixed bag.
The ones I liked best are unfortunately long out of print and not easy to find.
The two recent books by Anthony Horowitz are the best of the more recent ones, and will be easy to find. Grab those two when you see them and keep looking for Colonel Sun.
If you are finding the reading a slog or confusing, I have a recommendation:
Most of the books have been adapted very closely as radio plays by the BBC.
see this thread, which includes links to youtube uploads of those radio plays.
Listening to those may give you a better sense of the shape of the story, and who's talking and all that.
Unfortunately Casino Royale has not been adapted to radio yet, but you will find the plot is generally the same as the second half of the Daniel Craig movie.
oh and there were also recent comic book/graphic novel adaptations of Casino Royale and Live and Let Die, that also may help clarify if you're getting confused. published by Dynamite Comics.
"Keeping British end up, sir." - RM "This never happened to the other fellow." - JL "I must be dreaming." SC
I bought all the Flemings today in a charity shop for a tenner, so I'll be starting them soon too.
I hope you like reading as I think it's one of the best things ever. It's the original virtual reality experience.
I'm a slow reader, however, and even though I've been doing it for years I still feel a sense of accomplishment when I finish one.
James Patterson is good for readers who may be slightly less than confident, as they are short chapters with fast-moving plots. He sells a book every three seconds, apparently.
Even though I'm 31, and have published short stories myself, I see no shame in reading Young Adult fiction. There's plenty of teenager-as-spy books I would recommend, like Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series and - which I'm soon to start - Robert Muchamore's CHERUB series. Then, of course, there's the Young Bond books.
I've also read Benson's first three and Gardner's first six, and liked them all.
Check out my Instagram: @livingthebondlife
"I never joke about my work, 007."
"Keeping British end up, sir." - RM "This never happened to the other fellow." - JL "I must be dreaming." SC
I think most will recommend Colonel Sun...other than that, it’s pot luck
"Keeping British end up, sir." - RM "This never happened to the other fellow." - JL "I must be dreaming." SC
OHMSS is my favourite book, CS is strong...TM I could take or leave...but you might find it better -{
Colonel Sun happens a year after Man with the Golden Gun. Not that it makes a significant difference to the plot, but the opening paragraphs do reference the end of ...Golden Gun. and we see M's house and his household staff, first introduced in OHMSS.
if you've read some or all of the Flemings since last posting, you should give us some of your thoughts about the books!
_________________
EDIT: I see you also have Trigger Mortis
Trigger Mortis happens in between Goldfinger and For Your Eyes Only, and includes the return of a character from Goldfinger.
If you can find Forever and a Day it actually happens a few months before Casino Royale, it's Bonds first assignment after receiving his License to Kill.
Aside from John Pearson's Bond Biography, which covers Bond's entire life up til 1973, I think all the other continuation books happen well after Fleming's timeline.
But you could read Amis's The James Bond Dossier, a highly entertaining appraisal of Fleming's books up to OHMSS I think.
After that, I'd recommend John Pearson's James Bond, an Authorised Biography. This gimmicky novel has an authenticity, being written by Ian Fleming's biographer, and runs with the idea that in his investigations he discovered that James Bond was in fact a real character and most of his adventures were based on real events. It becomes less plausible as it goes on, but its descriptions of James Bond's early life ring true, in particular his being expelled from Eton and wartime adventures, etc.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
They have the illicit, sadistic and sexy pulp fiction tone of Fleming's novels, and most of the continuation authors just don't have that, it's like they're trying to put the sex in like putting toothpaste back in the tube, they're not really into it, or the Ian Fleming Foundation will run a red pen through anything they attempt.
The James Bond in these books is very much Fleming's character and not Roger Moore.
Also, the writing is in Fleming's style. The others are just trying it on, it seems to me, and being established writers themselves are unwilling to mimic another writer's style with conviction or enthusiasm.
Roger Moore 1927-2017