Devil May Care (The New James Bond Novel ) by Sebastian Faulks Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Devil May Care (The New James Bond Novel )
Book Review: "He seemed to be beyond reach, locked in a world where ordinary human concerns couldn't touch or weaken him."
Summary: 4 Stars
Written in the tradition of Ian Fleming, Sebastian Faulks delves deep into Fleming's iconic secret agent and the mythology that surrounds him, meditating on darker-than-usual themes that have implications for the way we live now. In Faulk's Cold War mid-1960's world, Bond has been ravaged at the hands of his enemies and temporarily pensioned off by M, his life at best a double-edged sword where no triumph is likely to be anything but short-lived.
When a Frenchman of Algerian birth is savagely murdered on the outskirts of Paris, Detective Inspector Mathis is mystified as to who could have caused such a violent act: the boy's tongue had been severed and a single bullet has been fired up through the roof of the mouth. When drugs are thought to be the likely cause of the crime, Mathis comes to the realization that there is something far bigger going on than just young dissolute youths peddling heroin,
Meanwhile, James, tired of the South of France, has on the invitation of Felix Leiter, his old friend from the CIA, come to Rome, where in the middle of St. Peters Square he meets an extraordinarily beautiful woman by the name of Larissa Rossi, ostensibly in Rome with her husband, a director of one of the large insurance companies, but whose presence fills James with a strange mixture of unease and passion: she reeks of "breeding, youth, and expensive hosiery."
Intent to enjoy his time with Larissa, James can't quite believe it when he is called out of sabbatical and back to London by a cigar smoking M, after all, this is a tired and worn-down James, fresh from his encounter with Auric Goldfinger and his plans to raid Fort Knox and obliterate the world economy. James is beginning to show his battles with evil, on his torso and arms there's a network of scars, small and large, that trace a history of his violent life: "Your tired James, Your played out, Finished."
But perhaps it is only James that can battle "the master-of-all-trades the psychopathic Dr. Julius Gorner who is most likely responsible for this recent influx of drugs, infiltrating both Europe and England with pharmaceuticals in the form of heroin. Changing sides during the 2nd World War, fighting for the Nazis initially and then for the Russians at the battle of Stalingrad, Gorner has become a soldier of fortune, contemptuous of England because he feels as though the country had laughed at him.
So Bond must embark on a mission to doggedly pursue Gorner across Europe to Persia, hot on the trail to shut down the operation of a twisted individual with a demonic sense of purpose. Gorner seems to be beyond reach, locked in a world where ordinary human concerns couldn't touch or weaken him; he's bent on world destruction and domination and has made himself a key figure in the drug world. His only vulnerability is his physicality, marked by a rare deformity, a hair covered wrist shaped like a monkey, and a white glove that hides it.
Surprisingly it is Larissa who also has a connection to Gorner, soon revealing herself as Scarlett Papava, a lonely housewife, busy banker, and lady of the night who wants to enlist James' help to get Poppy, her heroin addicted sister back from the evil clutches of Gorner: "He just won't let her go, he's slowly killing her and loving every moment of it." But there's something about Scarlett that gets right under James' defenses, something about her that makes him feel profoundly uneasy.
With Scarlett determined to find her sister, and James delving deeper into Gorner's criminal enterprises, both are blindsided by the extent of this madman's plans for world domination that eventually plays out deep within the city of Tehran and the vast surrounds of the Caspian Sea.
From London to Paris, to Tehran, and then onto Leningrad and Helsinki, Bond is faced with a world mostly ruled by protection and influence, arms and dollars. In a novel that is filled with misfits and vagabonds, stoolpigeons, agents and secret police, Gorner and Bond must battle it out against a background of the cold war where America is fighting a lonely war for "freedom" in Vietnam and where the threat of the West being overrun by communism is ever present. Formulaic to the last, Faulks doesn't shy away from giving us a series of spectacular set pieces involving a giant ship-sea plane, loaded with nuclear bombs and with a British flag on it and a stolen a Vickers VC10 British airliner, painted with BOAC livery that is heading towards a fiery crash landing in the Soviet Union. Although this novel certainly doesn't reinvent the legend of our favorite secret agent, Bond's adventures are still harrowing in his journey from the known to the unknown with Faulks propelling his story along at break-neck speed, riding the apex to its violent conclusion, with Bond ultimately saving the world and getting his girl. Mike Leonard July 08.
Book Review: A James Bond Thriller Without Thrills
Summary: 2 Stars
If someone had told me that the new James Bond novel had been written by a food and fashion critic rather than a novelist, I would have believed it.
In honor of the 100th anniversary of 007 creator Ian Fleming's birth, a new Bond novel was commissioned by his estate and Ian Fleming Publications (his literary business) and it's the first published in six years. Sebastian Faulks was chosen--a curious choice, as he is known mostly for "literature" and not thrillers. It's now apparent why he appeared to be a good selection, because he has the ability to mimic Fleming's style... but unfortunately he is not able to reproduce Fleming's flair for storytelling. The cover legend "Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming" turns out to be a joke, really, because DEVIL MAY CARE straddles the fine line between pastiche and parody. It was as if Faulks sat down with a checklist of "Bondian Stuff" and proceeded to make sure every page was full of it--so much so that the work becomes annoying and, frankly, laughable. Fleming was often accused of "sex, sadism, and snobbery," but in Faulks' book, only the snobbery is apparent. There is way too much brand-name-dropping and food description. Fleming did this but he made it an art and used it sparingly. Here, there seems to be a meal or a drink or clothing described in painstaking detail in every sequence--all to the detriment of plot and characterization.
Hardcore Fleming fans will be quick to point out the various errors Faulks has made with regard to the Bond canon, but these are minor and can be forgiven. After all, other continuation authors have made mistakes as well, and even Fleming committed the occasional factual error. What is more problematic is that Faulks has written a by-the-numbers Bond story that feels more like a treatment for an unproduced Roger Moore-style Bond movie. The tone and attitude in the book is too flippant and light. One can feel the author winking at us, as if to say, "See what I'm doing? I'm writing a *James Bond novel*!"
The plot is silly. There is no good reason why M sends 007 out to shadow the villain (who has what the author must have thought was a Fleming-esque deformity--a monkey's paw--but that really is parodic!). Events happen without cause and effect. Bond is suddenly a tennis champ but there is no evidence in the 007 canon that Bond ever played tennis. He walks blindly into suspicious scenarios as if he had the brains of a rookie (he's probably thinking about what he's going to wear and what he's going to have for dinner!). The villain, Dr. Julius Gorner (couldn't the author have come up with a better first name, since we've already had a "Dr. Julius"--Dr. Julius No?), is ineffectual and provides no real threat that we, as readers, can feel. Fleming, known for his "Fleming Effect," could write a story that compelled readers to keep turning the pages. Faulks fails miserably in that regard. There is no suspense whatsoever.
It is sad that this poor excuse of a Bond novel was chosen to celebrate Fleming's centenary. What is more remarkable is the amount of money spent to promote it. The former authors--Kingsley Amis, John Gardner, and Raymond Benson--never benefitted from this kind of promotion. This book is simply not worth the hoopla. Raymond Benson came up with infinitely better plots and villains; John Gardner captured the page-turning sweep of Fleming's storytelling; and Kingsley Amis was a better imitator of Fleming's style. But no one can top Fleming himself.
The worst sin that Faulks has committed, though, is producing a "James Bond thriller" that has no thrills. And that is unforgivable.
Book Review: A Return to Form.
Summary: 5 Stars
Forget the lackluster recent Bond movies (except for the excellent Casino Royale), the Bond novels have always been the best way to read about 007's adventures Devil May Care is no exception. If you are a fan of 007 check this out, you will not be disappointed.Book Review: A devil of an engaging read
Summary: 4 Stars
A fun, fast read, and a definite treat for Bond fans, "Devil May Care" nails Fleming's unique, entertaining combination of sex, sadism, and civility. This one really feels like Fleming himself sat down to write one more Bond novel after "The Man With The Golden Gun", the original series' swan song (not counting a short-story compilation or two that appeared shortly after that final book).
The main plot, involving an eccentric villain seeking to trick Western and Communist powers into starting a war with each other, will be either satisfyingly familiar or disappointingly familiar to Bond fans (myself, I felt a little of both sentiments), but everything moves along at a nice clip, with lots of danger, action, and women. And it's all laced with Bond's cynical yet ultimately optimistic take on things.
I will say that the long chapter featuring Bond playing tennis with the villain was a bit of a haul to get through. But then again, so was Fleming's chapter in "Goldfinger" featuring Bond's golf match with that villain. So, author Faulks was even good at emulating Fleming's occasional dry indulgences!
And for my fellow "Kindlers" out there, "Devil May Care" reads extremely well on the Amazon Kindle. My favorite moment was when I was reading a passage involving Bond, a prisoner aboard an airliner at the time, reminiscing about how he usually enjoyed air travel: the quiet time to relax it afforded, the peaceful cloudscapes going by, how he would usually sip a Bloody Mary and eventually open an engaging adventure novel to pass the time, that sort of thing. It was a favorite moment because, as I read that passage- no lie- I was sitting on a plane, reading my Bond adventure on my Kindle, and sipping a Bloody Mary. I had to smile. I guess we all have a little bit of James Bond in us!
Book Review: A good attempt at a literary relaunch for 007.
Summary: 3 Stars
There is good and bad in the new Bond novel. It is great to see 007 back in print and back in his own era. The 1967 setting harkens back to the best of Bond, both in print and on screen. Fleming's novels of the 50's and 60's have never been surpassed by any of the continuation authors and the film series varies in quality after Thunderball, the fourth and final movie to adapt Fleming's work faithfully.
So what's good about Sebastian Faulk's novel? The story picks up after the events of "The Man with the Golden Gun", which gives a sense of continuity which is present in the best of Fleming's books. We see that Bond is still recovering from the beatings he received in the last two novels, where he was humiliated by being brainwashed by the Soviets and was almost responsible for the assassination of M.
The books final confrontation aboard an airliner is also handled extremely well by Faulks. He created the same sense of dread in the face of overwhelming odds that I felt reading Dr. No, Moonraker and Live and Let Die. Bond's foray through the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the show down with the bad guys is a fun read too; with Bond trying to remain undercover in hostile enemy territory.
As for the bad of the book?
Setting much of the story in Pre-revolutionary Iran may not have been such a great idea. The activities of the US and UK in that country during the reign of the Shah were villainous, no two ways about it. The UK was looting Iran's oil and the Shah, as their puppet, brutally kept the locals in check while they did so. Compared to this, it is hard to take fictional villain Dr. Gorner seriously. This also means that Bond is aiding his government in doing some very dirty and underhanded work, a common theme in some of the Fleming books, but never so overt.
I also found this book to be a little too long. I think the page count could have been kept under 200, rather than 300 pages. The story just doesn't warrant the length and the book sags in the middle as a result. Julius Gorner isn't much of a villain; he is a little flat and uninteresting, although Faulks gives him a good reason for being who he is.
Faulks also slips a few times; I found some of the references to Goldfinger and other Bond adventures unnecessary and distracting, since they were only dropped to tie in better with the Fleming books, and served no purpose story wise, but that's a small gripe.
If Mr. Faulks or another author of quality choose to continue with this new series I would certainly be interested, but I hope that we can see something with a little more punch. Perhaps we can see Mr. Sebastian Faulks writing as Sebastian Faulks next time.