It's been one hundred years since Ian Fleming was born and about fifty-six since he brought his super spy James Bond into the world. To the majority of people these days, Bond is a smooth superspy who charms women and effortlessly defeats those intent on taking over the world. But in his early novel appearances, the villains were not quite so ambitious and Bond himself was more of a rough diamond, a veritable snob who hated everyone who wasn't English (and proper English at that) or displayed anti-social tendencies, such as homosexuality. He smoked heavily, drank heavily and used women a little like kleenex. In truth Bond was the person that Ian Fleming wanted to be; he did the things Fleming did but was a man of action, involved in the kinds of scams that Fleming would dream up but couldn't possibly hope to pull off.
Since Fleming's death, three authors have officially attempted to continue the legacy of James Bond - Kingsley Amis, John Gardner and Raymond Benson. Amis had the easiest job of the three; though his novel didn't read like one of Fleming's, it was close enough in style and chronology to not seem to far removed. Gardner, on the other hand, had the option of continuing the Bond novels as virtual historicals, or bring Bond up to date. In truth he probably made the right choice in changing the temporal setting, but this created something of a headache for Bond chroniclers - if this man can save Reagan and Thatcher at the age of 46, how could he, at the age of 37, fly BOAC and have fought in World War II. Fleming's novels had barely any continuity at the best of times, and now Gardner destroyed that completely. Benson merely wrote novels that were the movie Bond rather than the novel Bond Fleming created.
Sebastian Faulks, a man who was described to me as a chameleonic author, has decided to write in the style of Ian Fleming, which creates problems if you aren't prepared to go the whole hog. It isn't easy these days to write about a character who is such a dinosaur with outdated ideas, and so Faulks wisely has decided to set the book in the 60s. Pleasingly he has chosen to keep the uglier facets of Bond's personality, although whereas Faulks' Bond might have the opinion that Tehran was the geographical equivalent of anal warts, Fleming would have written this as though it were gospel truth. However, you can't fault Faulks for recreating the character that Fleming's marriage gave birth to.
The story, on the other hand, is indeed something that is Faulks' responsibility. It's not that the story isn't believable, or indeed that it is not Over-The-Top enough; Julius Gorner wishes to destroy England by turning the entire population into drug abusers. Fair enough. No, the problem is that it is very low-key. Fleming did have a number of outlandish elements in his novels, but Faulks seems to have abandoned these for a very subtle novel that occasionally finds it difficult to get the pulse racing. Many of Bond's battles - particularly the one on the plane towards the end - are very well played out, but it's the in-between stuff that is boring, in a way that Fleming's weren't.
Additionally, although it is nice to see a return of Rene Mathis and Felix Leiter, the fact is that neither of them actually do anything. Mathis spends most of the time trying to skive off work on fridays so he can shag his mistress, while it takes Leiter a phenomenally long time to discover the traiter and then he kills him. Which pretty much leads no where.
But my biggest gripe is the discover that the Bond girl is actually the new 00 agent. I have no problem with a woman being a 00 agent, and I have no problem with "M" sending another 00 agent in light of the fact he is concerned about Bond's effectiveness. No, the problem is that our agent falls head over heels for Bond. Neither of Bond's secretaries, nor Miss Moneypenny have ever been in that position, but the latest training for 004 consists of nothing about being a pathetic girly and falling for Bond. had she not been a 00 agent this would have sat better, but as it is...And rather bizarrely "M" seems to suggest to Bond at the end of the novel that he should get his groove thing on with 004 - so "M" has taken to setting up his agents.
It's so good to have a new Bond novel, and certainly one that is written with such care. There are faults, but generally you'd be missing out if you didn't get this one.
"A-"
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