Ian Fleming - the complete Penguin centenary collection
Penguin
£79.86
'Every little helps' runs the slogan from the UK supermarket chain, Tesco and they're not joking when they are flogging this box set of Fleming/Bond paperbacks for £15.
The books are great paperbacks with retro/pulp style cover art designed by Roseanne Serra and Richie Fahey and each book features an introduction by various hands, among them Mo Hayder, Charley Higson and Jeffrey Deaver.
And they come in a hard presentation case with the 007 logo creating a window through which you can see the collection.
Now that's what I call a bargain.
Devil May Care
Sabastien Faulks
Penguin £18.99
MAYBE THE MOST HYPED book outside of Harry Potter in recent years. This celebration novel is from the pen of Sabastain Faulks writing in the style of the late great Ian Fleming. And for the most part the author manages to capture Fleming's prose style and inventiveness but just falls short of true Fleming. In my humble opinion it's better than any of the John Gardner or Raymond Benson Bonds and comes up equal to Kingsley Amis' Colonel Sun which was the first 007 novel written by a hand other than Fleming.
I bought this book on publication day and read it in one sitting that went on into the early hours of the morning. The plot may be ridiculous but then so too were the majority of Fleming's own novels.
Not quite up to the Fleming sweep but still an entertaining read that brings back the legendary literary 007.
4 comments:
The box set looks good - something pulpy in the Hank Jansen style cover of 'For Your Eyes Only'.
Although I enjoyed 'Colonel Sun' - even after all these years I still wonder if Ian Fleming would have allowed 'M' to be kidnapped.
Guess we'll never know on the M kidnap - maybe Fleming would have given a few more books. But yeah I liked Colonel Sun and still rate it as the best non-Fleming Bond. Tell me did you read Devil May Care?
No - sorry to say I gave Devil May Care a miss. Despite the hype I didn't get all fired up. I suppose the John Gardner Bond novels have put me off.
I think that the originals are the best - and they stick in the mind.
Somehow, Colonel Sun fits in - though I will always wonder where Octopussey would have led.
Some things are best left alone - I'd hate to see the likes of Lemmy Caution, Mike Hammer etc tampered with
Mike Hammer is fab - I've a signed pic of Mickey above my desk.
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