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The second in Qwerty's terrific "Looking back" series is now on the CBn main page...

Looking Back: For Special Services John Gardner’s second James Bond novel

Great article. I read the book back in middle school, and it remains my favourite Gardner Bond.

A bit of a dog, this one, although it ought to be required reading for anyone who thinks Benson was the only continuation novelist capable of rotten prose and really diabolical liberties with Fleming characters.

Having Cedar Leiter as the Bond girl forces us to picture 007 as a guy pushing 50 - not good. Okay, I'll sorta take that back: nothing wrong with an "old" Bond, as long as he does interesting things and has interesting reactions that arise from his being a bit over the hill. None of that here, of course, just a Bond who's ageing to no apparent creative end beyond Gardner's desire to shoehorn Leiter's daughter into the novel.

Apart from which, Gardner's writing is lazy in the extreme. The story isn't too bad (although it's most certainly no great shakes, either), but the way it's told results in a book that's a great big crashing bore.

Oh, and need I mention that fans of Fleming's Bond need not apply?

Ahhhh


FSS.

One of my favorites.

Three Zeros, Blofeld, Cedar, mind-control drugs in ice cream, the elevator shaft in DC, blowing up the cabin, Saab vs. Cobra race, thugs in NYC, NORAD.

Too much good stuff.



*makes mental note to re-read For Special Services*

One of my favorites as well. Of all the Gardner books this is the one I'd most like to see turned into a movie. Great title too.

Did I really write that about For Special Services? God.

Anyway, bit of a time since I read it - at least fifteen years - but it's one of his most straightforward and although Cedar Leiter is a questionable development, that I can remember some definite incidents - Tara, the car race, the ants thingy, the breastless woman, the obvious twist, Bismaquer being sexually interested in Bond, some stuff in hotels (as ever) - suggests that it has lingered in the memory more than some of his later stuff; I couldn't tell you anything much about SeaFire, for example. Nor would you want me to.

When first reading it I found FSS not half bad. I found it better than LR and with more action and more like a Bond film than its predecessor. Cedar struck me as quite odd and not very credible. A spare time secret agent between college and cover job? Working without her father noticing? And then sent right to the head of a sister service in GB? I mean, how short of personel are the CIA? Haven't they got somebody slightly more versatile for such a task?

And thinking of Bonds age, as the mention of Leiters daughter forces us to do:
why had Bond to age at all? It never resulted in more than a slight greying of Bonds temples. And even that is completely forgotten in later books. I even got the intention sometimes, Bond had to work less hard in Gardners storys. The workout-routine of LR is never mentioned again and hardly ever grips the fighting Bond of the 80s the reader as the 60s model did.

Then the mention of Bond beeing severely criticised for using an old yet highly effective Browning while his Walther has been taken from the service. Ok, that happened in LR but I still don't see why Bond should use in exchange for an old gun an even older one. And now, in FSS, he has to use a H&K VP70, which is almost impossible to conceal if you are not a very massive person. And with a double action trigger for each single shot which calls for extensive practice to be mastered adequately. Why didn't they issue the VP 70 in the first place? If all officers of the service are to use it, as Gardner tells us? I simply don't get the idea.

The end then comes with a surprise: Blofelds daughter, an idea I found far better than Cedar Leiter. But the fact is not spelled out to advantage. Nena Bismaquer just gives the information and is shoot quickly afterwards. The promising situation of a revenge between Nena and Bond is discarded without any good reason in the space of one and a half pages. And with this comes the second BIG mistake the novel makes. Its not Bond who kills Nena. Its Felix Leiter in team with a couple of giant pythons. Bond is stunned into shock after seeing Nena kill of her husband and revealing her true identity. He only comes to his senses as Luxor enters the room and Nena prepares to shoot him. A task she might well have achieved, had not Luxor taken the first shot intended for Bond. Hurling a chair in her direction Bond then sends Nena into the cage of the pythons and is again paralysed while watching the snakes closing in on his adversary. To me that always seemed a bit much of shock, paralysation and so forth for Bond. It somehow had the feeling of Bond dreaming all these actions. Granted, Gardner had Bond shot up with a drug for hours but I had wanted to see him actually take part in the action and not only witnessing it.

Still I liked the book back in 82 (even after all this bashing), the year I bought the paperback. And somehow I still like it. Its far better than many later ones and I wish, Gardner had developed further in the direction of Fleming than he did in his later works.

I always liked the title - especially given the Fleming connection - but I also felt underwhelmed by the novel. In my opinion it's one of the weaker Gardners.

My favorite Gardner. Bringing back SPECTRE was brilliant. Teaser on the plane was fantastic. The Cedar thing did make me a bit uncomfortable.

Always been one of my top three Gardner's. The plot, the characters, and the action just flow smoothly in this one. I also liked the way the return of SPECTRE was handled.

I'm wondering how Gardner and Glidrose were able to get away with using SPECTRE and an heir of Blofeld in this book?

Because McClory was only granted the movie rights in the court settlement.

But there is still weirdness. The final two issues of the graphic novel A Silent Armageddon was cancelled because they contained Blofeld's son. There's also clearly some issue with the video games as Blofeld had to be called "number 1" in GE:RA. And seeing as FSS came out while NSNA was being produced, I'd think the issue would be hotter than ever.

But Gardner did use SPECTRE in two more books so...maybe not.