The Washington Times ran my
review of Anthony Horowtiz’s James Bond continuation novel, Forever and a Day.
I’m not fond of continuation
novels, as some writers, like Raymond Chandler, Ian
Fleming and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, have a unique style that truly
can’t be imitated. But I understand that the authors' iconic characters, Philip
Marlowe, James Bond and Sherlock Holmes, are so popular that their many loyal
readers want to read more about them, just as they enjoy watching the
characters portrayed on TV and on film.
Anthony Horowitz, the author
of 40 novels, including two Sherlock Holmes continuation novels, and the
creator of the TV series “Foyle’s War,” which I liked very much, is the latest
writer to offer a James Bond continuation novel, following Kingsley Amis, John
Pearson, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, William Boyd and Sebastian Faulks.
The late Kingsley Amis,
author of “Lucky Jim,” wrote the James Bond continuation novel “Colonel Sun” in
1968. Mr. Amis was an admirer of Ian
Fleming and he wrote of the “Fleming Effect,” which he called the
fusion of a vivid imagination with an air of authority that swiftly carries the
reader along on fantastic stories that Ian
Fleming himself called “improbable but not impossible.”
I don’t believe Mr. Horowitz
captured the Fleming Effect, but he comes close.
I was weaned on Ian
Fleming as a preteen and teenager. I devoured his novels about the
British secret agent with the license to kill. I loved Mr.
Fleming’s description of exotic places, people and products. I also
loved his unforgettable characters, such as villains like Goldfinger and
Blofeld, women like Domino and Honeychile, and James Bond’s friends, like Felix
Leiter and Darko Kerim. James Bond fought the good fight against Soviet
killers, international criminals and malicious madmen. Ian Fleming’s
novels are far darker and much more complicated than the films and I’ve reread
the thrillers a good number of times over the years.
… Mr.
Horowitz penned an earlier James Bond continuation novel called “Trigger
Mortis.” Like that novel, “Forever and a
Day” was commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate and contains original material
from the late Mr.
Fleming. Utilizing his ideas and unpublished story notes is a good
idea and a good hook.
A portion of “Forever and a
Day” is based on an outline Ian
Fleming wrote for an American TV series that never came to be. I
wish that he had expanded more on the outline, but most of the novel is an
original story crafted by Mr. Horowitz.
In this novel, which takes
place in the 1950s in a prequel to Ian
Fleming’s “Casino Royale,” 007 is killed right off. No, not James
Bond. The man killed is the holder of the 007 code name that James Bond takes
on as he is ordered to investigate the murder of the previous 007 in Marseille,
France.
You can read the rest of the review via the below link:
No comments:
Post a Comment