By Royal Command

When I first heard about the Young Bond novels, I thought to myself "This is a bad idea. Are we now expected to believe that the man who saves the world at least once a year, was actually doing the same thing when he was a child?" My low expectations were met by SilverFin which was a pretty bloody awful book. Blood Fever was a bit of an improvement. Double Or Die was actually quite entertaining, and Hurricane Gold was really good. So with the books getting better and better, would By Royal Command continue the trend, or buck it?

Happily it continued it with aplomb! By Royal Command is the best of the Young Bond novels, and gives a very satisfying explanation for why Bond was involved with so many of those other adventures. For anyone who knows their Bond (ooo!! pick me!!) they know that Bond's time at Eton was cut short after an incident with a maid. Charlie Higson has remained faithful to what Fleming wanted and Bond does leave Eton after an incident with a maid, but obviously things are quite what they appear to be.

I love the characterisation of Bond in this novel. He is a young man, but he is starting to develop the streak that we saw in Fleming's novels, and which was hinted at in Hurricane Gold. Bond is a tough nut, more inclined to be active than actually think about his situation, but not a stupid lad. He is cunning and quick and it's obvious why MI6 take an interest in him at a young age (although there are more obvious reasons as well).

Roan Power is the maid with whom Bond falls in love, although the relationship is a bit odd, with Bond being fascinated with her for a lot of the book before ultimately declaring his love for her at the end. It's a bit of a leap, but I suppose he is still a lad and has a boy's way of looking at things. All the rest of Bond's crew turn up briefly in the Eton segment of the book, but they don't spend a lot of the time on page. In fact, with Bond leaving Eton at the end, one feels that there were a lot of loose ends he left behind at his old school.

The story is effectively three mini-adventures, and everything comes together nicely, with characters from all four of the previous novels returning to tie the five novels together in a very neat package. What started out as Harry Potter meets James Bond, has become something entirely of its own and deserving of much praise.

"A"