A new Bond for the 80's! With the looming threat of coordinated nuclear meltdowns across the globe, secret agent 007 heads to Scotland for some caber tossing and castle crusading. Standing in his way is an international terrorist and a nuclear physicist with a penchant for cheating at horse racing. Girls! Guns! Gadgets! A.. Saab 900 Turbo? Da-da-DA-DA!
For reasons completely unknown to me, I had this desire to go through all of the John Gardner 007 novels. I've probably only read a little more than half of his 14 Bond books and the ones I did read were all out of order, so here goes - an attempt to read John Gardner instead of Ian Fleming. Don't ask me to try to understand how my brain works...
Gardner's 007 novels always seem to have such a lowly reputation among literary Bond fandom, but I've always held a soft spot for the ones I've read. Perhaps it's because I'm an 80's guy and I view the Gardner series with the same kind of retro charm I have for a lot of media from the 80's. And because this is Bond in the 80's, despite the author claiming he swore off watching the films once he got the gig as the continuation author (so as not to be too influenced by the big screen adaption of the character), it's really hard to read these and not envision Roger Moore running around as Gardner's Bond. Since Roger Moore is my favorite Bond, it's not too difficult to see why I'm a little bit warmer towards these books than others.
It's also a matter of adjusting your expectations. Gardner writes his Bond novels as less of a pulp adventure like Fleming and as more of a contemporary spy thriller, complete with a penchant for going into borderline obsessive levels of detail over arms and equipment. And yes, there was much consternation over Gardner's decision to have Bond driving a Saab instead of an old Bentley in addition to the introduction of strange supporting characters such as a female quartermaster nicknamed... Q'ute. Okay, so these changes don't exactly scream exciting gentleman spy action, but keep in mind Gardner wasn't allowed too much freedom from the publisher in terms of character development, so I can give him some kudos for at least attempting to push for some minor cosmetic tweaks to the formula. Considering we're catching up with what is supposed to be the same man Fleming wrote about some 13 years after his last adventure, some changes in the life of the character are to be expected.
But a fucking Saab? Dude...
The plot of License Renewed is another "hold the world to hostage over the threat of nuclear annihilation" scenario we've seen in spy fiction a thousand times over, but Gardner tackles it in an uncomplicated and fast-paced fashion that makes for rather pleasant reading. It's certainly not as poetic or quotable as Fleming, but again, I don't believe Gardner was ever attempting to write in the same style as the original creator. Gardner does borrow some Fleming-esque elements, such as giving the villain a strange and unfavorable quirk (in this instance bird-like qualities) and a brutish henchman at his side (ala Oddjob), and there is of course the beautiful but damaged winged dove love interest for Bond to rescue (and be rescued by). Gardner tries to give some love to Fleming's side characters by including M and Tanner in some additional scenes, even giving Tanner a little cameo in the field as Bond's partner for the climax. The primary settings of both a foreboding castle in the wilderness of Scotland and the Mediterranean side of France are believable haunts for Bond to find himself in and adds to the travelogue sense that this series, both literary and film, is known for.
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