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James Bond: Carte Blanche. Keen?

Australis

Australis

Writer - Australis
Admiral
So, rather than me reiterating everything, here's Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carte_Blanche_%28novel%29

In short: a new Bond novel, by Jeffrey Deaver, set now. Bond is a Gulf War vet around 30. Regulars do turn up., like Moneypenny. The 00 Section will now be "a shadowy assassination division of the Secret Intelligence Service that disavows its agents if they are compromised during an assignment."

And I'm like... whut?

I don't know if I'll read this. I very much prefer Fleming's ambience, and didn't much like the fact that by the time of Raymond Bensoin's novels, Bond would have been way past retirement age, creaking around with a Zimmer. Hell, you seen Moore and Connery, and they're both younger than Bond would have been when Fleming started.

So, what are your thoughts?
 
I'm actually pretty interested, but I'm going to wait until it hits paperback. Hopefully it'll be good.
 
I'm interested, but I've still got some Fleming novels to read (and also some from the other writers). I'll probably read this, but I'm not sure when. Maybe curiosity will get the better of me and I'll read it this summer.
 
I'll probably take a look because I've generally liked other books by Jeffrey Deaver. This does sound different though.
 
But I'd have really liked to read those three novels by Richard Castle, but he did have to continue his Nikki Heat series, now, didn't he.
 
I'll check it out - I'm a sucker for anything Bond. I do hope it's better than the last one, "Devil May Care." I was tremendously excited for that novel because it was a period piece set in the '60s right after Fleming's "The Man With The Golden Gun," and was billed as being written in Fleming's style. But the actual story turned out to be dreadful.

I've read many, though probably not all, of the Gardner and Benson novels, and most are OK, although none is truly great. The only post-Fleming Bond that comes even close to approaching the originals is "Colonel Sun" by Kingsley Amis.
 
In DMC, did you know the 'Caspian Sea Monster' is a real thing? Fascinating topic, and there's YT footage too.

I enjoyed DMC, because it was much closer to Fleming than Gardner/Benson.
 
I was disappointed by Devil May Care, but this is a new writer, and a new era for Bond. I know I'm giving my age away here, but I was quite excited when John Gardner began putting out Bond novels set in the 80s back in 1981, and I thought he did a good job. I have a complete set of all the novels - Fleming, Kingsley Amis*, John Pearson**, Christopher Wood***, Gardner, Raymond Benson, Charlie Higson****, Samantha Weinberg*****, Sebastian Foulks - so I plan to get the novel when it comes out. I've heard good things about Deaver and I like the fact they're getting big names to write "event" Bond novels, rather than having a single writer like Gardner and Benson do a book a year like they did for 20 years running.

I've got no problem with someone other than Fleming writing Bond novels, considering it's unlikely Ian will be contributing any more to the canon, as long as the quality remains high.

Alex

* Wrote "Colonel Sun" as Robert Markham
** Wrote "James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007" in 1973 which was originally planned as the launch point for a new series of novels, but only the one was published. Pan Books (the UK publisher of Bond) actually published a paperback edition of it as a Bond novel at one point.
*** Wrote novelisations of Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker in the style of Fleming.
**** Wrote the official prequel novel series Young Bond
***** Wrote the official spin-off series Moneypenny Diaries as Kate Westbrook
 
I don't know, a Bond novel called "Carte Blanche" just wrong, like it's a drawn out final "romance the girl" scene. You know, her name's Blanche and he's carrying her to the bed and --

Oh, never mind.
 
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