thoughts on the bond novels
warning! spoilers for all the fleming bond novels & most of the bond movies.
first off; i've only read the fleming bond novels (& a couple of the more recent movie novelizations), i don't know if this makes me a purist, or an elitist snob.
over the course of several years i read the novels. now i'm re-reading them in publication order. 99% are the books from the era, funky-smelling things that originally cost 50 or 70 cents when new. just a slightly higher quality of the pulp novel.
bond is a self-insert if there ever was one. like bond, fleming achieved the rank of commander in the british navy during WW2 & worked for the intelligence branch. fleming (& bond) had special cigarettes made with 3 gold bands on them, presumably for the commander rank.
and i knew fleming played golf based on the chapter or so the golf game takes up in goldfinger.
bond is, by his admission, sentimental at times. he was all set to marry vesper in casino royale & in goldfinger, when he thinks he's been killed, he wonders if he see her in heaven (optimistic. thinking he's he's going, i think). he also wonders if he'll see any of his other girlfriends, then thinks that perhaps heaven is so big that he'll never have to see any of them.
in the novels bond isn't always on a dangerous mission, those only come up a couple of times a year. mostly he's an office drone. works from 10 to 6 & must read and sign off on reports about poisons, weapons & interrogation techniques. he also spends time on the firing range & working on hand to hand combat. the only time we saw bond at his desk in the movies was in the virtual reality simulation in die another day.
in the novels bond runs up against SMERSH, an abbreviation of sorts for smiert spionam (death to spies). in the movies it's S.P.E.C.T.R.E, according to wikipedia; film versions of novels where SMERSH appears substituted either SPECTRE or independent villains in order to avoid fomenting hatred of the Soviets, and so contributing to unstable relations with the USSR. [citation needed]
"M" isn't a title, it was the man's name; M___ M___ (the name's top secret apparently)
the books have a sexist tone (a bit raciest & homophobic. bond, & by extension fleming, thinks a homosexual's problem is mixed up hormones. interesting because noel coward was fleming's friend.) as well; "women are only good for one thing" type of stuff, but only at the end of the mission. not this before, during and after like the movies have. i suppose that the writers though it would be a boring story if bond got the girl at the end of it. interestingly enough in the novel moonraker, bond didn't even get the girl! it turns out that she was engaged & it wasn't just part of her cover.
the double-standard of the "agency" bond belongs to is; men can have affairs outside of "the company" & women can't. if they do they are labled as a security risk and are edged out of "the firm."
if you read all of the books and watch all of the movies, you notice how bits and pieces were taken from each book for various movies. like leiter's shark attack was in the novel live & let die (& for his other appearances in the novels has a hook where his right hand should be and a fake left leg), but ended up in the movie license to kill. likewise; bond & "the girl" being dragged behind a boat over coral from live & let die ended up in for your eyes only (i think)
the only thing the novel moonraker had in common with the movie was the bad guy was named hugo drax & he built a rocket called moonraker. not of this "destroy life on earth & have a perfect race" thing. in the novel drax was a nazi who was going to use the rocket (loaded with a warhead) to destroy london.
the character of jaws wasn't in the novel
in the novel diamonds are forever, there was no big laser in space made with diamonds. it was "just" a diamond smuggling operation. i suppose that the movie people didn't that would be an interesting enough of a story.
in the novel of from russia with love, tatiana wasn't blond, she was brunette. what is it with hollywood that wants to make every attractive woman a blond?
and the code machine wasn't a lektor it was a spektor, but the latter was too much like S.P.E.C.T.R.E (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion)
and the novel ends with something of a cliffhanger, bond is poisoned by something on the tip of that knife rosa kleb had in her shoe.
in doctor no it wasn't a big spider they tried to kill bond with, but a poisonous centipede. i guess the spider looked more threatening.
quarrel, who was introduced in the novel life & let die, is killed in this story. but since dr. no was filmed before L & LD, they changed the character in that to quarrel's son.
the character of felix leiter was not in the novel of dr. no, but was in the movie.
goldfinger wasn't interested in contaminating the U.S. gold supply like in the movie, he just wanted the gold to help fund SMERSH, of which he was an agent. the painting, in gold, & death of jill wasn't shown "on screen" it was mentioned by her sister later. said sister lasted longer in the novel than she did in the movie. pussy galore wasn't in the employ of goldfinger, she was the head of an all-female criminal organization. she & her group were brought in because godfinger needed "nurses" for when he poisoned the people in the area in & around fort knox. goldfinger and the gangs he recruited went in as doctors. in the novel, it's oddjob that jets sucked out the broken airplain window, not goldfinger. he, bond beats the crap out of, then strangles with his bare hands.
for your eyes only is 5 short stories; from a view to a kill, for your eyes only, quantum of solace, risico & the hildebrand rarity. according to wikipedia; for your eyes only used some obvious elements and characters from the short stories "for your eyes only" and "risico" from this collection as well as elements from other fleming novels. some slightly similar ideas from the remaining short stories, "quantum of solace" and "the hildebrand rarity" might also be considered to have been incorporated into the movie of the same name, though in very oblique fashion. "from a view to a kill" also lent part of its title (but no characters or plot elements) to the 14th bond movie a view to a kill.
from what i recall of FYEO, it has a similar plot to the short story (see also comments on live & let die). a few names of characters from risico were included in the movie as well.
the story from a view to kill dealt with the murder of a motorcycle dispatch-rider, and the theft of his top-secret documents, by a motorcycle assassin. bond, who's in france wrapping up another case is called in to investigate.
according to wikipedia, elements from the hildebrand rarity were included in the movie licence to kill.
thunderball. not sure what i can say about this, except most people know that the unofficial bond movie never say never again was a remake of it. there's a bit of a controversy over over the thunderball novel as it's based on a screenplay of some sort. wikipedia explains it better than i could. during the revival of bond in the '90s the people who share in the rights to thunder were planning to put out yet another remake, saying they had 14 versions of the story. why anyone would want to see them is beyond me.
if you've seen thunderball then NSNA, you can spot the similarities. the remake has little going for it, except for connery as bond. and he seems like he's just there for the money.
the spy who loved me is a departure from the norm as it is told in the first person by a woman named vivienne michel. she recounts how it was that she ended up at a closed motel in the middle of up-state new york, nearly became the victim of two thugs and the arrival bond who saves her. he's just a guest star in this one, only coming in the last third of the story. fleming has a note stating that he fond the manuscript one day & credits vivienne as co-author. according to wikipedia; "due to the reactions by critics and fans, fleming was not happy with the book and consequently only gave permission for the title to be used when he sold the film rights...." too bad, i wouldn't mind seeing a film version of this.
on her majesty's secret service is the weakest of the novels IMHO (as well as the movies & not just because of lazenby) the novel starts out with bond mentaly composing his letter of resignation, frustrated over chasing the ghosts S.P.E.C.T.R.E, which was disbanded after the events in thunderball. he comes across a woman named tracy who's suicidal after her husband, a count, runs off with most of her money & he baby girl died. she shows an interest in bond so her father (who's the head of a crime syndicate) offers bond money do marry her. bond declines the money, but agrees to romance her in order to improve her outlook on life, she does go somewhere for help though. (but i think she needed at least 10 years of therapy & possibly some meds) her father gets a lead on blofeld in switzerland. bond goes in undercover as a junior officer of arms of the college of arms because blofeld (under another name) wants to claim a title. when tracy rescues him after his cover is blown, bond impulsively proposes to her & she accepts. he think that it would be nice to have someone to come home to & maybe some kids. tracy's not clingy, adventurous, a fast driver & does what she's told. (pardon me while i gag) never once in bond's thought process does monogamy come up & why should it? he's james frackin' bond! it's not that he didn't love her, but it may have had something to do with her being vulnerable & him wanting to take care of her. of course she gets killed by blofeld just a few hours after the wedding. tracy's never mentioned again, really. in the beginning of the movie diamonds are forever bond's after blofeld for for her murder. her tombstone is shone in one of the rodger moore era movies. and her death gets a brief mention in goldfinger. that's about it.
you only live twice is a sequel of sorts to the previous book it opens about 9 months with bond depressed about his wife's death. (survivor guilt of sorts) he's screwed up two assignments & has tried every sort of therapy to improve, with no success. M is ready to fire him, but after talking psychologist friend gives him a rather difficult mission; get the identy of a russian informant from the head of the japanese secret service, tiger tanaka. bond is reassigned to be the #2 of the australian agent there. he navigates the difficult waters of japanese culture to get in the good graces of the head of the japanese secret service, who then decides that big info needs a big favor for it. he asks bond to kill the creator of a "garden of death" a foreigner set up a garden with the most poisonous plants in the world & since suicide is more accepted in japan, the place is very popular. bond finds out that it's blofeld he's after & thinks it's fate that he get revenge for his wife's murder. tanaka spends a few weeks teaching bond to be japanese so he won't attract notice & sets him up on an island of pearl divers. of course the young woman who's family he's staying with falls for him. eventually bond kills blofeld, destroys the "garden of death" but looses his memory in the process. the young woman doesn't encourage him to get it back because she wants to keep him. but after a few months he finds a familiar word, vladivostok, and goes to that city to see if he can get his memory back. she lets him go, not telling him she's going to have his baby & we're left with another cliff-hanger.
the man with the golden gun is another that's different than the movie. bond comes back to england with his memory back (except for the local woman & that year he was gone), but he's been brainwashed by the KGB to kill M. he fails & is deprogramed. then he's sent off to find and kill francisco "pistols" scaramanga, a cuban assassin who is believed to have killed several British secret agents. the movie was set in the china area, but the in the book it's jamaca. (with dr. no & live and let die set there too. i guess the film makers decided it was time for a change. in the book there's no nick-nack, no woman scaramanga keeps to sleep with after killing.
octopussy and the living daylights, a story collection consisting the two title stories plus the property of a lady & 007 in new york. the plot of the story of octopussy is hinted at in the movie when the main woman tells bond that it was her father (or uncle, don't recall). the living daylights story was used for the opening sequence for the movie of the same name. the story itself has a breif mention of fleming's illegitimate half-sister amaryllis who was a cello player. "there was something almost indecent in the idea of that bulbous, ungainly instrument between her splayed thighs. of course suggia had managed to look elegant, and so did that girl amaryllis somebody.b ut they should invent a way for women to play the damned thing side-saddle."
thus endth my rambling.
first off; i've only read the fleming bond novels (& a couple of the more recent movie novelizations), i don't know if this makes me a purist, or an elitist snob.
over the course of several years i read the novels. now i'm re-reading them in publication order. 99% are the books from the era, funky-smelling things that originally cost 50 or 70 cents when new. just a slightly higher quality of the pulp novel.
bond is a self-insert if there ever was one. like bond, fleming achieved the rank of commander in the british navy during WW2 & worked for the intelligence branch. fleming (& bond) had special cigarettes made with 3 gold bands on them, presumably for the commander rank.
and i knew fleming played golf based on the chapter or so the golf game takes up in goldfinger.
bond is, by his admission, sentimental at times. he was all set to marry vesper in casino royale & in goldfinger, when he thinks he's been killed, he wonders if he see her in heaven (optimistic. thinking he's he's going, i think). he also wonders if he'll see any of his other girlfriends, then thinks that perhaps heaven is so big that he'll never have to see any of them.
in the novels bond isn't always on a dangerous mission, those only come up a couple of times a year. mostly he's an office drone. works from 10 to 6 & must read and sign off on reports about poisons, weapons & interrogation techniques. he also spends time on the firing range & working on hand to hand combat. the only time we saw bond at his desk in the movies was in the virtual reality simulation in die another day.
in the novels bond runs up against SMERSH, an abbreviation of sorts for smiert spionam (death to spies). in the movies it's S.P.E.C.T.R.E, according to wikipedia; film versions of novels where SMERSH appears substituted either SPECTRE or independent villains in order to avoid fomenting hatred of the Soviets, and so contributing to unstable relations with the USSR. [citation needed]
"M" isn't a title, it was the man's name; M___ M___ (the name's top secret apparently)
the books have a sexist tone (a bit raciest & homophobic. bond, & by extension fleming, thinks a homosexual's problem is mixed up hormones. interesting because noel coward was fleming's friend.) as well; "women are only good for one thing" type of stuff, but only at the end of the mission. not this before, during and after like the movies have. i suppose that the writers though it would be a boring story if bond got the girl at the end of it. interestingly enough in the novel moonraker, bond didn't even get the girl! it turns out that she was engaged & it wasn't just part of her cover.
the double-standard of the "agency" bond belongs to is; men can have affairs outside of "the company" & women can't. if they do they are labled as a security risk and are edged out of "the firm."
if you read all of the books and watch all of the movies, you notice how bits and pieces were taken from each book for various movies. like leiter's shark attack was in the novel live & let die (& for his other appearances in the novels has a hook where his right hand should be and a fake left leg), but ended up in the movie license to kill. likewise; bond & "the girl" being dragged behind a boat over coral from live & let die ended up in for your eyes only (i think)
the only thing the novel moonraker had in common with the movie was the bad guy was named hugo drax & he built a rocket called moonraker. not of this "destroy life on earth & have a perfect race" thing. in the novel drax was a nazi who was going to use the rocket (loaded with a warhead) to destroy london.
the character of jaws wasn't in the novel
in the novel diamonds are forever, there was no big laser in space made with diamonds. it was "just" a diamond smuggling operation. i suppose that the movie people didn't that would be an interesting enough of a story.
in the novel of from russia with love, tatiana wasn't blond, she was brunette. what is it with hollywood that wants to make every attractive woman a blond?
and the code machine wasn't a lektor it was a spektor, but the latter was too much like S.P.E.C.T.R.E (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion)
and the novel ends with something of a cliffhanger, bond is poisoned by something on the tip of that knife rosa kleb had in her shoe.
in doctor no it wasn't a big spider they tried to kill bond with, but a poisonous centipede. i guess the spider looked more threatening.
quarrel, who was introduced in the novel life & let die, is killed in this story. but since dr. no was filmed before L & LD, they changed the character in that to quarrel's son.
the character of felix leiter was not in the novel of dr. no, but was in the movie.
goldfinger wasn't interested in contaminating the U.S. gold supply like in the movie, he just wanted the gold to help fund SMERSH, of which he was an agent. the painting, in gold, & death of jill wasn't shown "on screen" it was mentioned by her sister later. said sister lasted longer in the novel than she did in the movie. pussy galore wasn't in the employ of goldfinger, she was the head of an all-female criminal organization. she & her group were brought in because godfinger needed "nurses" for when he poisoned the people in the area in & around fort knox. goldfinger and the gangs he recruited went in as doctors. in the novel, it's oddjob that jets sucked out the broken airplain window, not goldfinger. he, bond beats the crap out of, then strangles with his bare hands.
for your eyes only is 5 short stories; from a view to a kill, for your eyes only, quantum of solace, risico & the hildebrand rarity. according to wikipedia; for your eyes only used some obvious elements and characters from the short stories "for your eyes only" and "risico" from this collection as well as elements from other fleming novels. some slightly similar ideas from the remaining short stories, "quantum of solace" and "the hildebrand rarity" might also be considered to have been incorporated into the movie of the same name, though in very oblique fashion. "from a view to a kill" also lent part of its title (but no characters or plot elements) to the 14th bond movie a view to a kill.
from what i recall of FYEO, it has a similar plot to the short story (see also comments on live & let die). a few names of characters from risico were included in the movie as well.
the story from a view to kill dealt with the murder of a motorcycle dispatch-rider, and the theft of his top-secret documents, by a motorcycle assassin. bond, who's in france wrapping up another case is called in to investigate.
according to wikipedia, elements from the hildebrand rarity were included in the movie licence to kill.
thunderball. not sure what i can say about this, except most people know that the unofficial bond movie never say never again was a remake of it. there's a bit of a controversy over over the thunderball novel as it's based on a screenplay of some sort. wikipedia explains it better than i could. during the revival of bond in the '90s the people who share in the rights to thunder were planning to put out yet another remake, saying they had 14 versions of the story. why anyone would want to see them is beyond me.
if you've seen thunderball then NSNA, you can spot the similarities. the remake has little going for it, except for connery as bond. and he seems like he's just there for the money.
the spy who loved me is a departure from the norm as it is told in the first person by a woman named vivienne michel. she recounts how it was that she ended up at a closed motel in the middle of up-state new york, nearly became the victim of two thugs and the arrival bond who saves her. he's just a guest star in this one, only coming in the last third of the story. fleming has a note stating that he fond the manuscript one day & credits vivienne as co-author. according to wikipedia; "due to the reactions by critics and fans, fleming was not happy with the book and consequently only gave permission for the title to be used when he sold the film rights...." too bad, i wouldn't mind seeing a film version of this.
on her majesty's secret service is the weakest of the novels IMHO (as well as the movies & not just because of lazenby) the novel starts out with bond mentaly composing his letter of resignation, frustrated over chasing the ghosts S.P.E.C.T.R.E, which was disbanded after the events in thunderball. he comes across a woman named tracy who's suicidal after her husband, a count, runs off with most of her money & he baby girl died. she shows an interest in bond so her father (who's the head of a crime syndicate) offers bond money do marry her. bond declines the money, but agrees to romance her in order to improve her outlook on life, she does go somewhere for help though. (but i think she needed at least 10 years of therapy & possibly some meds) her father gets a lead on blofeld in switzerland. bond goes in undercover as a junior officer of arms of the college of arms because blofeld (under another name) wants to claim a title. when tracy rescues him after his cover is blown, bond impulsively proposes to her & she accepts. he think that it would be nice to have someone to come home to & maybe some kids. tracy's not clingy, adventurous, a fast driver & does what she's told. (pardon me while i gag) never once in bond's thought process does monogamy come up & why should it? he's james frackin' bond! it's not that he didn't love her, but it may have had something to do with her being vulnerable & him wanting to take care of her. of course she gets killed by blofeld just a few hours after the wedding. tracy's never mentioned again, really. in the beginning of the movie diamonds are forever bond's after blofeld for for her murder. her tombstone is shone in one of the rodger moore era movies. and her death gets a brief mention in goldfinger. that's about it.
you only live twice is a sequel of sorts to the previous book it opens about 9 months with bond depressed about his wife's death. (survivor guilt of sorts) he's screwed up two assignments & has tried every sort of therapy to improve, with no success. M is ready to fire him, but after talking psychologist friend gives him a rather difficult mission; get the identy of a russian informant from the head of the japanese secret service, tiger tanaka. bond is reassigned to be the #2 of the australian agent there. he navigates the difficult waters of japanese culture to get in the good graces of the head of the japanese secret service, who then decides that big info needs a big favor for it. he asks bond to kill the creator of a "garden of death" a foreigner set up a garden with the most poisonous plants in the world & since suicide is more accepted in japan, the place is very popular. bond finds out that it's blofeld he's after & thinks it's fate that he get revenge for his wife's murder. tanaka spends a few weeks teaching bond to be japanese so he won't attract notice & sets him up on an island of pearl divers. of course the young woman who's family he's staying with falls for him. eventually bond kills blofeld, destroys the "garden of death" but looses his memory in the process. the young woman doesn't encourage him to get it back because she wants to keep him. but after a few months he finds a familiar word, vladivostok, and goes to that city to see if he can get his memory back. she lets him go, not telling him she's going to have his baby & we're left with another cliff-hanger.
the man with the golden gun is another that's different than the movie. bond comes back to england with his memory back (except for the local woman & that year he was gone), but he's been brainwashed by the KGB to kill M. he fails & is deprogramed. then he's sent off to find and kill francisco "pistols" scaramanga, a cuban assassin who is believed to have killed several British secret agents. the movie was set in the china area, but the in the book it's jamaca. (with dr. no & live and let die set there too. i guess the film makers decided it was time for a change. in the book there's no nick-nack, no woman scaramanga keeps to sleep with after killing.
octopussy and the living daylights, a story collection consisting the two title stories plus the property of a lady & 007 in new york. the plot of the story of octopussy is hinted at in the movie when the main woman tells bond that it was her father (or uncle, don't recall). the living daylights story was used for the opening sequence for the movie of the same name. the story itself has a breif mention of fleming's illegitimate half-sister amaryllis who was a cello player. "there was something almost indecent in the idea of that bulbous, ungainly instrument between her splayed thighs. of course suggia had managed to look elegant, and so did that girl amaryllis somebody.b ut they should invent a way for women to play the damned thing side-saddle."
thus endth my rambling.