CommanderBond.net

Amazon Quizzes Sebastian Faulks

"I said to myself let's produce an absolutely rip-roaring mainstream Bond adventure."

Excellent!

Also check out the video clip at the Amazon James Bond store. Faulks gives a few very cool clues to characters and locations (without spoiling anything).

You know, the way Faulks talks about locations... I'm wondering if some of these counties that are "still in the news" might be in the Middle East. Since my first days here on CBn I've been calling for a Bond adventure set in the Middle East. To see Bond in the Iran of the Shah with all the that international intrigue swirling around (and, of course, Felix Leiter would be there working some unholy U.S. angle)...how cool would that be?

Well, I guess Afghanistan is a strong possibility, not only because of the "still in the news" aspect, but also because we know that the book concerns

the heroin trade

, and Afghanistan is

heroin central

, although whether that was also true in the late 1960s I don't know.

Burma seems another likely candidate, for the exact same reasons.

Mainstream Bond with no boring bits. Sounds good. I also like the fact that Faulks has made Bond on top of his game again after the emotional setbacks he had in the last few Flemings. Bond may be a bit older, but he always bounces back and is still the best!

“Ian Fleming had put Bond into this rather Baroque situation in the last couple of books - Bond was losing his marbles a bit - and I said to myself let’s produce an absolutely rip-roaring mainstream Bond adventure. Get Bond back at the height of his powers, miraculously recovered from the late Fleming period.”

So this settles the matter in what kind of state Bond's mind in DMC will be. I'm really a little bit disappointed about that I have to confess. The story arc from TB to TMWTGG saw Bond in various states of development that all would have been interesting to pursuit further.

As you know, Trident I believe Bond has been renewed in TMWTGG - is almost Connery-Bond - so I am quite happy with this info

Not sure how it sits with the concept of any ageing gunfighter, widowed, aware of his age, etc, though...?

LOL! I knew you'd come and stuff this down my throat.




Yes, got me thinking too. On a guess I'd suppose the ageing/reflection/depression/whatever part would in any case be quite brief and for the most part to the beginning. So it would probably not have much effect on the main plot. Perhaps Faulks was changing that so as not to make the book a kind of epitaph. Wouldn't do to imply anything like 'this-is-the-final-episode' if one wants to keep the option to revive the series in the future. And there seems to run a certain aversion against major changes in IFP's property.

This post has been edited by Trident: 13 May 2008 - 08:21

I have no real problem - as you can guess from my position on TMWTGG - in Bond being free from the fogs of depression.

Nor am I bothered about him still being fairly irresistible to women in his mid 40s. BUT I sincerely hope Faulks does play on the ageing thing by at least having Bond run a little slower, etc.

Indeed. The ciggies would be getting to him by now I'd think as well.

What intrigues me is that Faulks' comments on the ageing, widowed gunslinger stem from a very early stage. Of course he had a certain guideline that kept him from doing anything final to Bond, like making him blind, chop off a hand or some other irredeemable injury. But I think it's likely that Faulks first draft was playing a little too much with an image that showed Bond on the decline. And, while perfectly satisfied with the plot and Faulks' writing, IFP just may have objected to a tone that was perhaps too depressing for their liking. I find it worth noticing that Faulks expressed almost the same words Amis' used for TMWTGG. It seems IFP is of the same opinion you are.

I certainly got the impression that the "ageing gunslinger/widower" stuff was Faulks way of putting his own stamp on the character, of taking the image away, however slightly, from Fleming, and in that change gaining some kind of ownership of the character, however slight.

You could easily be right that IFP vetoed that of some kind. Certainly, my point about running, etc, was partly facetous in that the initial impression Faulks DID give was that Bond was becoming aware of his age, and the events of his past on his life. I do hope this hasn't been dropped, and we don't encounter a literary Roger Moore: one of my biggest annoyances with the Gardner (and by implication Benson efforts) was that they made no concession to Bond ageing - had they done so, it might have made it easier to accept their quite differing writing styles from Fleming.

I HOPE Faulks hasn't been similarly neutered for the sake of producing a standard, formula Bond more recognisable to a wider audience.