Colonel Sun
Sir Miles
The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,757Chief of Staff
A few of us posters on the novels forum have been trying to encourage other posters to read the Bond books. Alex has just finished Colonel Sun and it left me wondering what other people make of this fine book.
First off, did you like Colonel Sun? Do you think it is a worthy addition to the literary franchise? Is the Bond of Amis similar/the same Bond of the Fleming books? Is Colonel Sun a worthy villian? Are there any outstanding passages/bits that you liked? Any bits you didn't? Is the torture of Bond too violent or is it passe now that the book is 34 years old?
Comments please....
First off, did you like Colonel Sun? Do you think it is a worthy addition to the literary franchise? Is the Bond of Amis similar/the same Bond of the Fleming books? Is Colonel Sun a worthy villian? Are there any outstanding passages/bits that you liked? Any bits you didn't? Is the torture of Bond too violent or is it passe now that the book is 34 years old?
Comments please....
YNWA 97
Comments
I think my favorite parts of the novel are the opening and closing chapters, which are both extremely exciting. The flaw of the novel, though, is that the middle section seems to drag on and on, with a lot of exposition and not much action. Warts and all, though, Colonel Sun surpasses anything by Gardner and Benson and its best parts even rival Fleming.
And the beginning and closing chapters are indeed the best parts of the novel.Amis--craftsman though he was--needed a good editor.The midsection of CS seems to go on forever.It could be trimmed and immediately improved.Also,Colonel Sun--as a title--obviously calls Dr.No to mind immediately.Perhaps Doctor No was one of Amis' favorite Bond novels?
As for the action sequences -the murder of the Hammonds and the kidnapping of M--Fleming wouldn't have done it.However,these are powerful and unexpected moments in the novel and are handled quite skillfully.As a result we readers really want to see 007 turn into an avenging angel.And those torture sequences are very creepy indeed--but then Colonel Sun's that kind of guy:_very_ creepy.
On the whole,Colonel Sun is an excellent Fleming pastiche,it's only weakness being that it doesn't maintain it's brilliant opening momentum,it drags toward the middle of the story,and most unfortunately,after a superb beginning,has a rather anticlimactic climax.On the whole,however,this book is filled with wonderful moments.Too bad Amis didn't try his hand at another Bond or two...
COLONEL SUN
by
Robert Markham
(Kingsley Amis)
So there's no mystery surrounding 007's newest scribe.
Furthermore,it may also be that by the late 1960s the huge interest in all things Bond had begun to peak.We should remember that Bondmania only lasted from 1964(with the great success of Goldfinger--and the rerelease later that year of From Russia With Love and Dr.No on the famous double bill),through 1965 and the incredible international success of Thunderball.The You Only Live Twice film in 1967 rode the last crest of that wave...casual Bond fans may not have been as interested in the novels as the devotees of Bond were...
Interestingly,the year Colonel Sun was published in the USA,TRUE magazine optioned the rights to carry the story in an edited,serialized format in 2 parts.I have this serial version and it's much better than the actual novel.Amis apparently did the editing and all the midsection "fat" is gone.Additionally,it's beautifully illustrated with a series of oil paintings by artist Bob Abbett.
MBE
A better question might be what was the artist smoking? In all seriousness, I think the jacket is trying to create images that complement the novel. The beach setting represents the novel's locations in Greece and on Colonel Sun's island; and the all-seeing eye where the sun should be, of course, is Col. Sun himself--who orchestrates all the events in the novel. The eye is also traditionally associated with the male sex organ (this is why Oedipus blinds himself when he discovers he's slept with his mother), and of course the nose and ears are orifices associated with the female anatomy. Given that the nose and ear are growing out of a female body we have an over-literalization of Bond's sexual desire. . .PLUS the fact that Sun (who's possibly gay and certainly gets a sexual charge out of inflicting pain) tortures Bond by probing his eye sockets, nostrils, and ears. So there you have power, sex, and torture all on one book cover.
Or maybe the artist was just smoking the ganja.
Another observation about why Colonel Sun flopped. The book was released during Bondmania--the films of Casino Royale and You Only Live Twice, two of the most outlandish Bond movies ever made--were released the year before; Bond merchandise was in all the stores; and Bond knockoffs were all over film and television. The film Bond had become a cultural phenomenon, and the Bond in Colonel Sun belongs entirely to the rough and gritty world of Ian Fleming. There are no witty comebacks, no gadgets, no glamorizing of Bond's world, and no SPECTRE hatching an elaborate plan for world domination. CS is a harsh and violent book, and although it's close to what Fleming wrote about, it's nothing like the "Bond" people were getting on the screen. Perhaps this is a sign that, just four years after Ian Fleming died, his character died with him.
At any rate,in life timing is everything and Colonel Sun probably arrived at the wrong moment.As Hardyboy observes,in 1967 Casino Royale and You Only Live Twice were on the screens and neither one--especially CR--resembled Fleming's writing(barring character names,titles and locales).And frankly,even with JFK's endorsement,Ian Fleming was always a cult author--the general public knew 007 from the movies and his larger than life escapades.Colonel Sun isn't the literary equivalent of an EON production.
Then again,for all of Kingsley Amis' writing talent,Colonel Sun isn't an especially gripping novel.It certainly has it's moments,but on the whole,it's not as compelling as it ought to have been.It'll never be confused with From Russia With Love,Moonraker or OHMSS,for example.And just as a title,"Colonel Sun" is too close to "Dr.No",while the story itself---which should move rapidly while still establishing mood and uniquely interesting characters---as per Fleming's best work, often drags.
Moreover,the colonel's grand scheme is disappointingly mundane and the climax is surprising anticlimactic.Too bad because the colonel is a promising villain.And except for the superb opening chapters with the violent assault on Quarterdeck and the kidnapping of M, we've seen most of this stuff before:in better and lesser Fleming stories.There's a sense of deja vu that permeates this book.
I like Colonel Sun despite it's many shortcomings--at a purely technical level it's a fine Ian Fleming pastiche--but it isn't the kind of novel to relaunch an ongoing series of new James Bond adventures.
MBE
I guess it's all downhill now, I haven't tried any Benson or Garner as of yet...this book was a little difficult to find...Amis never wrote any more? that's really a shame.
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As for the cover, speaking as an artist, I must disagree with all of you (sorry Hardyboy), he was on some serious CRACK! I can see the symbolism but that doesn't make it right. Maybe I'm just old fashioned but a 007 book should have at least a gun on it or something (with the exception of John Gardner's Never Send Flowers wich looks like a Danielle steel cover, but I like it anyway).
CS was the first Bond novel I read, and with the pb cover showing a craggy faced fierce Bond who looked an AWFUL lot like AGENT FOR HARM's Peter Mark Richman, I read the book with that face battling Connery's for Bond's image in my mind's eye.
I haven't seen the CS paperback in 25 years or more, but I wonder if anyone knows who the subject was for the artist (or who the artist was, for that matter?)
Major Garland Briggs, in TWIN PEAKS
They have done, probably not in the US though, and they are concentrating on the Fleming novels at the moment.
Here's a link showcasing the various covers.
http://www.bondian.com/books/13205876i.html
Those illustrations by Bob Abbett were painted exclusively for the two-part serialization of Colonel Sun that appeared in True magazine.I don't recall the girl looking like that in the novel itself--but I could be wrong.I'll reread it and let you know...
I decided 6 months ago to re read all of the Fleming originals after a 22-year gap. On completion of the originals I sought out a copy of Colonel Sun from Ebay to complete my ‘Bond reading fest.’
With regard to the merits of CSI have to agree with the views expressed in early posts. CS starts off magnificently and for my money ends very well. It is however let down by a rather ponderous middle section. I cannot help believing that Fleming would have cut out much of the ‘padding out and been much more severe with his editing.
However in the final analysis I believe that the novel contains enough quality to be regarded as the equal, and indeed in some instances dare I say superior, to the Fleming originals.
With regard to its poor contemporary reception, I would be curious to read any reviews of the novel at the time of publishing? Perhaps critics indicated some of the same short fallings highlighted within this forum? Or was it simply a case of readers not being willing to accept a non-Fleming original? Hindsight is a marvellous thing and 37 years on we are in a position to be able to assess Kingsley Amis’s contribution in perhaps a more circumspect manner. Amis himself acknowledged his shortcomings in attempting to follow in Fleming's footsteps in a 1991 forward in the paperback addition I obtained(Harper paperback U.S.Ed) It was not Fleming, but it was dam close and a fine effort in my opinion.
sorry, just noticed a mistake in my last post.
'Addition' should be 'edition'.
sweeper, there's an edit button at the top of your post. If you make a mistake, just click it and you'll be taken back to a "post" screen where you can make changes.
Well, of course, these are only opinions. But it is an interesting proposition. It is probably true that the 'novelty factor' does positively affect the esteem in which COLONEL SUN is held by Bond aficionados. It was published shortly after Ian Fleming's death in the 1960s by a well-known and widely respected author, as well as an author who was a devotee of the James Bond novels himself. For some, perhaps the fact that Mr Amis only wrote one Bond novel does encourage the reader to extrapolate from the text all that is good, and to naively ignore all that is bad. However, while it is an interesting proposition and one which may be borne out to a limited extent from the experience of a few, surely the same case could made about many other aspects of the Bond series. Having read all of the opinions there are to be read about THE MAN FROM BARBAROSSA or COLD (opinions which are almost uniformly negative) do some fans not approach those novels having already decided that they will not be up to much? Or consider the negativity surrounding the movie version of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, described matter-of-factly by Pfeiffer and Worrall in their reference manual as the 'weakest of the Bond films made to date'*. While some may undoubtedly go into those works having already been convinced of their direness, does that mean that all who have formed that opinion have done so?
That said, COLONEL SUN is not perfect. The middle section is slow, albeit to a much lesser degree than the book's critics attest. There are some (limited) parts that could have been tidied up to ensure a more efficient flow of the book, such as chapter sixteen 'The Temporary Captain'. Due to the descriptive style the book does move at a relatively slow pace, but not sluggishly so. The reader's interest is retained right through, and these more descriptive sections add to the atmosphere and the characterisation. Nevertheless, at times the reader may find themselves wishing the plot to move forward more briskly. The opening is explosive and gripping, but this is not maintained all the way. A second reading is also eminently worthwhile; perhaps I am just slow, however at times things get quite convoluted and require re-reading. Then again, that might be said about any number of thriller novels.
Where Mr Amis does succeed he does so with gusto. He successfully drenched the novel with darkly rich atmosphere. Greece emerges almost as a character on its own so vividly does the author illustrate its scenery and the feeling of being there. The reader is never left with the illusion that it is a pleasant country, at best it is portrayed as a second-rate backward-looking nation of xenophobic proles. Instead, one gains the impression that this is a once great country that has fallen into its state by the fault of its own people. 'There is something to be said for the view that the Parthenon is best seen from a distance,' Amis writes, for the simple fact that the shoddy restoration work (in comparison, the author details, with the Germans or the Americans) is masked. But inside those magnificently tall columns exists a dead world, mcuh more than 'rows of antique marble'. The best thrillers embody a sense of place, which COLONEL SUN undoubtedly does.
In Adriane Alexandrou the Bond series has one of its most interesting heroines. Here is a Bond girl who is fiercely independent, crafty and a fighter, but not to the point where she becomes an irritating 'equal'. She possesses different qualities and faults than Bond, and exhibits many feminine characteristics. Could she, though, be the first Bond girl to utter the word 'bitch'? Throughout it is clear why Bond falls for her, why he is captivated by her sense of loyalty and her bravery. Truthfully, she is not really heroic in any meaningful sense of the word, but she is a most memorable companion of OO7. Colonel Sun Liang-tan is a fascinating foe, an outstanding character about whom the reader is left wanting to know more. An absolute believer in pure torture, he inflicts upon Bond perhaps the most violent scene in any Bond novel (moreso, even, than in CASINO ROYALE). Sun most specifically tortures Bond through his skull, to the point where the latter is barely in control of his own senses. The pain endured, we learn, is almost indescribable. However, as a mark of the Amis' literary erudition, Sun regrets his actions. He tortured Bond in order to feel like god but pleads for forgiveness, feeling sick and guilty and having realised the despicability of his behaviour. Deep for this genre, but a development that recommends COLONEL SUN highly.
The ending is bitter-sweet, and far more profound than it first seems. 'People think it must be wonderful and free and everything,' Ariadne says, 'But we're not free, ae we?' Bond replies, 'No ... We're prisoners. But let's enjoy our captivity when we can.' Succinctly we gain a deep insight into the lives these characters lead; their lack of freedom, their constrictions. We are left in no doubt that Bond and Ariadne's time together will be limited (her decision), nicely setting up the next 'Robert Markham' adventure which, sadly, was not to materialise.
It is easy and tempting to contrast Amis with Fleming. There is little point, so divergent are they. There is a connection in that Amis' Bond is Fleming's, while the former takes account of what is canon providing an interpretation that is undeniably post-YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. And yet, no matter how hard one tries to avoid doing so, one inevitably compares Amis with Fleming. The differences between the two illuminate the fact that, as a scribe of thrillers, Fleming was undoubtedly the superior. And while Amis was an accomplished and highly versatile author COLONEL SUN is simply not as good as Fleming at his best. In comparing the two, moreover, it is discernable just how different Amis was. The element of the bizarre, so evident in much of Fleming's novels, is nowhere to be seen. This is deliberate, as is the striking difference in he respective authors' prose. Gone is the brilliantly florid and flowery prose of Fleming, in is something altogether more blunt and straightforward. Both work in literary terms, but are really quiteradically different. Stylistically and tonally COLONEL SUN is darker and grittier and bleaker than anything Fleming wrote. Fleming may have been criticised for his sadism, however Amis pushed that to a different level.
In that sense, then, COLONEL SUN is a more modern novel and Amis a more modern thriller writer. In style and plot it is far less extravagant than Fleming's books, with a far greater emphasis on realism. While this works in other contemporary thrillers (some of which are more similar to COLONEL SUN than Fleming's novels) does it work in a Bond novel, where the pulp was part of the attraction? This depends on what one is expecting and what one wants. COLONEL SUN is decidedly not 'larger-than-life' or Flemingesque, if you are looking for that look elsewhere. It is another author's interpretation of the literary Bond, a story about Ian Fleming's James Bond written in a very different style than Ian Fleming. And for some that is the novel's largest downfall.
On the back of the 1970 reprinting the DAILY MIRROR is quoted as desribing the novel as 'an exciting, violent, sadistic and sexy piece of reading matter.' This is largely accurate. Instead of embodying a sense of fun it embodies a sense of seriousness. Does it register as deep an impact as, say, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE? No. Yet it is violent, sadistic and sexy, as well as being exciting and entertaining throughout. And whatever one's opinions on it, for the simple divergence from Fleming, COLONEL SUN is a thoroughly rewarding, and above all interesting, read. In fact, I would contend the novel is up there with the best of them, if not quite reaching the lofty heights of Fleming at his best.
* Pfeiffer, L. and Worrall, D. (2003) The Essential James Bond London: Boxtree p. 97