Bond novel reviews

Don't you hate it when someone joins a forum and immediately posts a link to their website? I sure do.

Speaking of which, I thought some of you might be interested in the Bond novel reviews I've been posting on my blog, Glorious Trash!

https://glorioustrash.blogspot.com/search/label/James%20Bond

So far I've just reviewed CR, LALD, MR, and Amis's The James Bond Dossier, but I'll have a review of DAF up soon.

I read most of the Flemings as a kid back in the mid '80s, and I've really enjoyed reconnecting with the books all these years later. I am though looking forward to getting to the ones I actually read back then -- the earliest one I started with was FRWL. As I recall, my favorites were Doctor No, OHMSS, and YOLT. In the case of the latter two, I actually read the books before I saw the films, which was a cool experience probably not too many kids could experience in today's DVD/Blu Ray/instant download world.

Also, I'm really glad to have finally joined this forum...I've been reading it for years but have just never registered an account on it, for some reason.

Comments

  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    onemonk909 wrote:
    Don't you hate it when someone joins a forum and immediately posts a link to their website? I sure do.
    Elementary.
    Plaster it on your signature so that you can always shamelessly self-promote like the rest of us :))
    Haven't read them all but when I do, I will.

    That said, welcome to the AJB. Moderators include Sir Miles, Barbel and SiCo (who happens to be the founder of this establishment).
    See you around! Introduce yourself in Welcomes/Comings and Goings in Off-Topic Chat.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    As DP says, feel free to put your link in your signature and welcome aboard! :)
  • RevelatorRevelator Posts: 558MI6 Agent
    Welcome to the forum! I've enjoyed your reviews and hope you'll use this thread to notify us of new ones as they come along.
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,646MI6 Agent
    edited February 2018
    I look forward to reading your blog, onemonk909, especially as I write one on Bond myself. -{
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • onemonk909onemonk909 Posts: 65MI6 Agent
    Thanks for the comments, everyone -- and Silhouette Man, your Bond novel (and continuation novel) reviews are great!! I've been referring to them for the past few years.
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,646MI6 Agent
    onemonk909 wrote:
    Thanks for the comments, everyone -- and Silhouette Man, your Bond novel (and continuation novel) reviews are great!! I've been referring to them for the past few years.

    Thank you very much, onemonk909. :)
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • JoshuaJoshua Posts: 1,138MI6 Agent
    I am listening to the Ian Fleming books on audobook. I am listening to dimonds are forever at this time.
  • onemonk909onemonk909 Posts: 65MI6 Agent
    Joshua wrote:
    I am listening to the Ian Fleming books on audobook. I am listening to dimonds are forever at this time.

    I'm reading Diamonds Are Forever, too! I'd never read this one before so it's all new to me. But I'm reading the old Signet paperback edition, with the INCREDIBLY small print...

    I know there's a thread on here about it (at least I think I found one the other year), but BBC radio did a nice adaptation of DAD, featuring Toby Stephens as Bond. I really enjoyed it. Plus Stacy Keach of all people turns up as the cab driver!! I've enjoyed all of the Bond adaptations with Stephens, and hope they do more.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    I had a quick look at your blog, Monk, I like it, especially the inclusion of the covers.
    You like your fiction pulpy! me too, so I'll have to search through more carefully for some recommendations.

    When collecting old books, I always want the seedier looking edition from the 60s or earlier. If there's a lady getting her blouse torn on the cover, that's usually the one for me, bonus marks if no such scene even happens in the story.
    The more recent trade paperback printings of the exact same books, where the publisher emphasises what great literature something is, take away half the fun.
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    When collecting old books, I always want the seedier looking edition from the 60s or earlier. If there's a lady getting her blouse torn on the cover, that's usually the one for me, bonus marks if no such scene even happens in the story.
    The more recent trade paperback printings of the exact same books, where the publisher emphasises what great literature something is, take away half the fun.
    I'm not as hardcore as any of you but I guess I deserve some points for getting the James Bond Library ones from the 80s (mainly for their beautiful cover art), with yellow-ey paper, typos and writing errors.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • onemonk909onemonk909 Posts: 65MI6 Agent
    I had a quick look at your blog, Monk, I like it, especially the inclusion of the covers.
    You like your fiction pulpy! me too, so I'll have to search through more carefully for some recommendations.

    When collecting old books, I always want the seedier looking edition from the 60s or earlier. If there's a lady getting her blouse torn on the cover, that's usually the one for me, bonus marks if no such scene even happens in the story.
    The more recent trade paperback printings of the exact same books, where the publisher emphasises what great literature something is, take away half the fun.

    Thanks! I really appreciate your comments about my blog! And yes, I really like my fiction pulpy! And I'm with you on the covers -- I think you and I are on the same wavelength, as I think it was you who did a post on that "new Anthony Horowitz novel" thread about how the Trigger Mortis trade paperback cover looks like the cover of that Penguin edition of Gravity's Rainbow. I actually thought the same thing when I saw that TM cover! (As for Gravity's Rainbow, if we're talking small print -- nothing beats the Bantam mass market paperback edition of that book! That one could cause permanent eye strain!!)
  • onemonk909onemonk909 Posts: 65MI6 Agent
    When collecting old books, I always want the seedier looking edition from the 60s or earlier. If there's a lady getting her blouse torn on the cover, that's usually the one for me, bonus marks if no such scene even happens in the story.
    The more recent trade paperback printings of the exact same books, where the publisher emphasises what great literature something is, take away half the fun.
    I'm not as hardcore as any of you but I guess I deserve some points for getting the James Bond Library ones from the 80s (mainly for their beautiful cover art), with yellow-ey paper, typos and writing errors.

    I don't know those -- will have to look them up. My intro to Bond in the '80s was courtesy the editions then being published by Jove, I think it was -- garish-colored covers with a silhouette of Bond striking various "action" poses. Positively "1980s" in retrospect!
  • RevelatorRevelator Posts: 558MI6 Agent
    onemonk909 wrote:
    I don't know those -- will have to look them up. My intro to Bond in the '80s was courtesy the editions then being published by Jove, I think it was -- garish-colored covers with a silhouette of Bond striking various "action" poses. Positively "1980s" in retrospect!

    I think you mean "Berkley" rather than "Jove." The Jove paperbacks are certainly garish but don't use silhouettes (http://www.thebookbond.com/2011/11/jove-paperbacks.html), whereas the Berkley (later Charter) line is silhouette-centric (http://www.thebookbond.com/2011/10/fleming-in-80s-and-case-of-curious.html).

    The Berkley books were my first Bonds and I still love their covers the most. The colors are very loud but the text leaves you in no doubt that each book is a James Bond adventure by Ian Fleming. The base design is elegantly simple and gets it across that all the books are members of a series. The silhouettes are very well drawn (l love their variations) and pay homage to Maurice Binder's gunbarrel and Fleming's idea of Bond as "the man who was only a silhouette." I know lots of folks prefer covers with Bond girls on them, but those have always felt tacky and salacious to me.
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    onemonk909 wrote:
    When collecting old books, I always want the seedier looking edition from the 60s or earlier. If there's a lady getting her blouse torn on the cover, that's usually the one for me, bonus marks if no such scene even happens in the story.
    The more recent trade paperback printings of the exact same books, where the publisher emphasises what great literature something is, take away half the fun.
    I'm not as hardcore as any of you but I guess I deserve some points for getting the James Bond Library ones from the 80s (mainly for their beautiful cover art), with yellow-ey paper, typos and writing errors.

    I don't know those -- will have to look them up. My intro to Bond in the '80s was courtesy the editions then being published by Jove, I think it was -- garish-colored covers with a silhouette of Bond striking various "action" poses. Positively "1980s" in retrospect!
    hardback_classic_library_set.jpg
    I think the covers look positively beautiful, combining both the film and the novel. They are US versions released from 1983 all the way to 1992.
    Sucks that they don't include the Man With The Golden Gun, Spy Who Loved Me and Octopussy. Not all of them are pictured, though (for instance, Casino Royale).
    a reasonable rate of return
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    never seen those before, those do look good. Are they hardcovers?

    lookit some of those images they've chosen to illustrate:
    the giant squid fight from Dr No! a scene still awaiting adaptation in one of the films, c'mon Brocollis!
    took me a minute to get whats happening in FYEO, but that's the dispatch riders motorcycle from From a View to a Kill
    You Only Live Twice is illustrating the movie not the book, boo to that one, even if it is a good graphic
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    never seen those before, those do look good. Are they hardcovers?
    Yep.
    The illustrations are on a removable sleeve.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • RevelatorRevelator Posts: 558MI6 Agent
    the giant squid fight from Dr No! a scene still awaiting adaptation in one of the films, c'mon Brocollis!
    took me a minute to get whats happening in FYEO, but that's the dispatch riders motorcycle from From a View to a Kill
    You Only Live Twice is illustrating the movie not the book, boo to that one, even if it is a good graphic

    Goldfinger is also a movie-only illustration (and also the only book from this series that I own), but that's counterbalanced by the very Flemingian covers for LALD and TSWLM, which can be seen here:
    http://illustrated007.blogspot.com/2008/09/james-bond-classic-libray.html
    I should also point out that this series was published by MJF Books.
  • Bond_323Bond_323 Posts: 17MI6 Agent
    onemonk909 wrote:
    I'm not as hardcore as any of you but I guess I deserve some points for getting the James Bond Library ones from the 80s (mainly for their beautiful cover art), with yellow-ey paper, typos and writing errors.

    I don't know those -- will have to look them up. My intro to Bond in the '80s was courtesy the editions then being published by Jove, I think it was -- garish-colored covers with a silhouette of Bond striking various "action" poses. Positively "1980s" in retrospect!
    hardback_classic_library_set.jpg


    I think the covers look positively beautiful, combining both the film and the novel. They are US versions released from 1983 all the way to 1992.
    Sucks that they don't include the Man With The Golden Gun, Spy Who Loved Me and Octopussy. Not all of them are pictured, though (for instance, Casino Royale).

    My intro to literary Bond was through this set and I absolutely love these covers!
  • onemonk909onemonk909 Posts: 65MI6 Agent
    Revelator wrote:
    onemonk909 wrote:
    I don't know those -- will have to look them up. My intro to Bond in the '80s was courtesy the editions then being published by Jove, I think it was -- garish-colored covers with a silhouette of Bond striking various "action" poses. Positively "1980s" in retrospect!

    I think you mean "Berkley" rather than "Jove." The Jove paperbacks are certainly garish but don't use silhouettes (http://www.thebookbond.com/2011/11/jove-paperbacks.html), whereas the Berkley (later Charter) line is silhouette-centric (http://www.thebookbond.com/2011/10/fleming-in-80s-and-case-of-curious.html).

    The Berkley books were my first Bonds and I still love their covers the most. The colors are very loud but the text leaves you in no doubt that each book is a James Bond adventure by Ian Fleming. The base design is elegantly simple and gets it across that all the books are members of a series. The silhouettes are very well drawn (l love their variations) and pay homage to Maurice Binder's gunbarrel and Fleming's idea of Bond as "the man who was only a silhouette." I know lots of folks prefer covers with Bond girls on them, but those have always felt tacky and salacious to me.

    You are of course correct -- I was confusing the two. I might've given the wrong impression, as I do like those '80s Berkleys, and will always have a soft spot for that edition of DN in particular as it was the first Bond novel I ever bought. I seem to recall the cover being very orange. I too like the silhouettes, and it seemed to me at the time that they were trying to look similar to the mass market paperback editions of John Gardner's Bond novels, or vice versa. I recall at least the first few of those had similar "silhouette Bond" covers.

    Currently I just have the full Fleming run in the mid-'60s Signet editions, most of which have covers by Barye Philips. As luck would have it I got multiple copies of each book; for a while a certain used bookstore I visited would have a "new" Fleming on the shelf each time I went there, most of the time in mint condition (as if stored carefully for decades) -- at half off the cover price!! This meant I was getting great-quality copies of the old Signet books for like twenty cents. Even the dude at the checkout counter seemed taken aback...because usually this store puts stickers on old books, with inflated prices. At any rate I now have a set of Flemings to give my son when he's 12 or so (he's only a year old right now)...
  • onemonk909onemonk909 Posts: 65MI6 Agent
    onemonk909 wrote:
    I'm not as hardcore as any of you but I guess I deserve some points for getting the James Bond Library ones from the 80s (mainly for their beautiful cover art), with yellow-ey paper, typos and writing errors.

    I don't know those -- will have to look them up. My intro to Bond in the '80s was courtesy the editions then being published by Jove, I think it was -- garish-colored covers with a silhouette of Bond striking various "action" poses. Positively "1980s" in retrospect!
    hardback_classic_library_set.jpg
    I think the covers look positively beautiful, combining both the film and the novel. They are US versions released from 1983 all the way to 1992.
    Sucks that they don't include the Man With The Golden Gun, Spy Who Loved Me and Octopussy. Not all of them are pictured, though (for instance, Casino Royale).


    Thanks for posting these, they're awesome! I especially like the covers for DN and TB. I've never even seen these before, probably because I'm a paperback snob. You mentioned these have a lot of typos in the text? The covers are great though -- would never guess they were from the '80s and '90s.
  • onemonk909onemonk909 Posts: 65MI6 Agent
    If anyone's interested, I posted a review today on my blog of the obscure early Bond study "Ian Fleming's Incredible Creation." Two warnings, though -- the review came out a lot longer than I intended it to, and also a lot of the book's content would be considered quetionable today. Otherwise here's the link:

    https://glorioustrash.blogspot.com/2018/03/ian-flemings-incredible-creation.html
  • RevelatorRevelator Posts: 558MI6 Agent
    onemonk909 wrote:
    If anyone's interested, I posted a review today on my blog of the obscure early Bond study "Ian Fleming's Incredible Creation." Two warnings, though -- the review came out a lot longer than I intended it to, and also a lot of the book's content would be considered quetionable today. Otherwise here's the link:

    https://glorioustrash.blogspot.com/2018/03/ian-flemings-incredible-creation.html

    Ah yes, Ms. Friedman and her weirdo essay. Odd that she said she knew Fleming, yet her name never comes up in any biography or article on the man. I don't think I can agree with the idea that all the “Bondgirls” are weakened by Bond--that certainly doesn't apply to Tiffany Case, Honey Ryder, Domino, or Kissy Suzuki. One might also throw in Gala Brand, though she never has a romantic relationship with Bond. And while Vivienne needs Bond to rescue her, she goes on with her non-conformist life.
    As for the rest, Vesper and Tracy end up getting caught in the crossfire of Bond's world, Solitaire is an admittedly weak heroine from the start, Tatiana is mostly passive throughout FRWL, Tilly is punished for being a lesbian while Pussy is initialized, and Mary Goodnight is barely even a character.
  • onemonk909onemonk909 Posts: 65MI6 Agent
    Weirdo sums it up. You went into more detail on the Bondgirls in your single paragraph than Friedman does in the entire book. As for Kissy, though, she fits into Friedman's "Bond hates adult women/mothers" angle -- Friedman claims that Kissy is "punished" for becoming a mother and thus abandoned and likely forgotten by Bond when he heads for Russia.

    Friedman's analysis is also self-contradictory. She makes a big deal out of TMWTGG that Bond finally "accepts" his role as a cold-blooded killer...then she complains about the part in the film Dr. No where Bond kills Professor Dent...in cold blood.

    Good point on Friedman because I couldn't find out a thing about her. One possibility is it's a pseudonym...another is it's someone who didn't know IF at all, just lied in the text that they did, and in reality was written by some anonymous critic of the day.
  • onemonk909onemonk909 Posts: 65MI6 Agent
    I forgot to mention it, but last week I posted my review of DAF if anyone's interested:

    https://glorioustrash.blogspot.com/2018/04/diamonds-are-forever-james-bond-4.html

    Right now I'm almost finished Amis's The Book Of Bond, and will have a review of it up within the next couple weeks. Really been on a Bond kick lately!
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