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Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780718153762
ISBN: 0718153766
Label: Penguin
Manufacturer: Penguin
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: May 28, 2008
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: May 28, 2008
Studio: Penguin
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Editorial Review:Amazon.co.uk Review:A variety of authors have written 007 novels since the death of Bond's creator, Ian Fleming -- and the results have been mixed, to say the least. As 'Robert Markham', Kingsley Amis penned the very first post-Fleming Bond, and this attempt by a novelist better known for his 'literary' work was judged a success. Now, after a decade of less successful entries by such writers as John Gardener, we have another serious writer, Sebastian Faulks (author of such acclaimed novels as
Birdsong), taking up the challenge.
Devil May Care has already collected a jaw-dropping amount of publicity, with even the Royal Navy helping to put the book firmly at the top of the best-seller charts (Bond is, of course, a naval commander), and few books have had such wind under their sails (the relaunch of the movie franchise with the re-make of
Casino Royale and Daniel Craig's second Bond film,
Quantum of Solace, is all part of the ever-accelerating momentum). Of course, this also gives the book farther to fall if it misses the mark.
Faulks' author credit on the book ('Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming') is both revealing and encouraging - the author has reportedly said that he undertook the task with total seriousness, and he has tried to work within the parameters of the Ian Fleming formula (Faulks re-read all the extant Bond novels and stories) rather than the more glossy film incarnation. Among several very canny moves by the author is his decision to keep his 007 in the 1960s rather than catapulting him into the 21st century (as other ersatz Fleming novels - and, of course, the films -- have done. So how successful are the results?
Fleming aficionados can relax - this is a sterling job of recreation, and a novel that functions with total authority in its own right. The evocation of time and place (or places, notably Paris and the Middle East) is impeccable, as are the plotting and detail (as colourful and violent as anything in Fleming); there is a satisfyingly unpleasant larger-than-life villain, Julius Gorner, with a grotesque deformity of the kind Fleming often gave such characters (the chapter 'The monkey's hand' gives this away) and grandiose, evil ambitions. Best of all, this is Ian Fleming's James Bond - not a superman -- worried about his health and his physical powers (which he fears may be on the wane). Delicious stuff in fact. Now... can Faulks be persuaded to write another such novel? --
Barry Forshaw.
Average Rating:
Rating:
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Ian Fleming's last James Bond adventure - a collection of short stories including Octopussy and The Living Daylights - was published posthumously in 1967.
That wasn't the end of 007's adventures in print. Kingsley Amis wrote a well received sequel in 1967 - `Colonel Sun' - and in 1981, Glidrose Publications hired thriller-writer John Gardner to reinvent Bond for the modern era.
What followed were 14 increasingly dreary and unbelievable books which saw an aging Bond gamely ...
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The only excuse for writing another Bond book would be to do it brilliantly. This wasn't. It's a straight forward 'formula' piece of work with an eye to a film adaptation at some point in the future. The characters and situations cobbled together from Flemming's novels. It lacked any originality or excitement really. You could list the things you remember from the films - an 'Odd Job' character, a paranoid world domination egomaniac, a sports tournament where Bond stands to lose a lot of money, a suffocation ...
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I thoroughly enjoyed Devil May Care and just did not want it to end. Having not read any other Bond Novel, I very much had the films in my mind and this definitely harks back to the Sixties feel of the Connery years and that's what makes it so slick - good old fashioned Secret Agent heroics in a simple non-PC world. Well done Sebastian Faulks
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Faulks is very comfortable with Fleming's idiom and catches his style nicely which is why it is labelled under Faulks writing as Ian Fleming. It is a hommage to Fleming with elements of lierary parody done with great respect. To be honest, I think Faulks is actually a better writer than Fleming. Faulks has fun with Bond and it works really well. Devil May Care is set in the period when the Bond films turned into self parody anf Faulks gives it a nice twists by showing Bond as a serious character out of time. ...
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When, after years of watching the films, I finally tried out the Bond books, I thought "Wow, Ian Fleming is actually a really good writer." Several others have since said the same to me. The Fleming books have an inventive originality, plots that grip the reader, and a psychological insight or edge.
Having read Faulks's "Birdsong", I had high expectations of "Devil May Care". DMC is an easy read and OK to pass the time, but a disappointment. Anyone new to the Bond books should give this a miss and ...
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