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: Faithful to the original NOVELS (not movies)...
Summary: 4 Stars
From the first few pages this book was a delight. I grew up reading my dad's copies of Ian Flemings novels, before I saw my first James Bond film (which happened to be the "new" release - Live and Let Die - suffice it to say, early on I saw the difference between a Fleming novel and a Bond film, and Devil May Care was to me like picking up a long lost original novel. Faulks keeps the character in the 60's and very much like the book bond. Unlike later authors who modernize the character (with a dash of the film persona) Faulks stays true to style...and it is a delight if you are a fan of the series. Plus the book ends with quite an enjoyable twist.
If you like the original novels or want to get a taste of them (though you should read a Fleming as well) I recommend this.
Book Review: Faulks' Bond Debut Worth the Look
Summary: 3 Stars
Faulks picks up the mantle of the master Ian Fleming in the late 1960's with Bond recalled from sabbatical to snuff out the drug-peddling efforts of an Anglophobe operating out of Iran. There is a lot of 20/20 hindsight at work here - the rise of drugs as the great menace of the western world in the late 20th century, the mounting political and military failure of the US in Vietnam, the Cold War as a black ops gun and drug bazaar - and Bond himself takes on a sort of a 21st-century man quality that Fleming's agent never seemed to possess.
Faulks retains much of the cocksure bravado and acquisitive elegance of the Bond more familiar to movie viewers than Fleming readers; but, for my money, this is the most introspective and sensitive Bond we've seen perhaps since Fleming debuted the character in "Casino Royale."
"Devil May Care" is populated by the usual menagerie of villains: including a Laotian child-torturing sidekick with no sense of pain thanks to experimental Soviet brain surgery; and - with no apparent sense of the irony - a drug running Eastern European billionaire with a unique birth defect as his physical and egotistical weakness (ah, if only those same Soviet surgeons that performed the free brain perforation could have devised some way to alleviate a billionaire's cursed monkey hand).
The "Bond girl" is Scarlett, a young beauty shrouded in mystery and with a new "secret" seemingly revealed every chapter. The relationship with Bond was as expected; but, my real criticism of Faulks would be in the Scarlett story. None of the big reveals really pay off and most of them are carried out ham-handedly with unsurprising - if not obvious - conclusions.
Still, for summer reading with a familiar friend, I think Devil May Care is worth a look. It takes the frequent espionage reader into an unfamiliar place with a center of gravity outside of "Langley," and a setting in a time before every story can hinge on some critical technological advantage. In that sense it is more like a Le Carre or Higgins than the stuff you find in heavy rotation these days at the grocery checkout, in Walmart and in the airport bookstores.
JAW
Book Review: Fleming Flameout
Summary: 1 Stars
I picked this book up at the airport, tried to read it on the plane, and finally abandoned it for the inflight magazine. This book is so bad I didn't even skip ahead to find out what happens. With such tepid characters, who cares?
I won't even begin to go into what a mockery this book makes of Fleming's brilliant, spare, and sometimes poetic style. I only wish Fleming were around to express his outrage properly. Do yourself a favor, and re-read From Russia With Love this summer. Devil May Care is no tribute -- it's a travesty.
Book Review: Fleming is Back
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is as close to Fleming as it gets. The nuances, speed of read, depth of the story are all there. I certainly hope the author has another one of these in the works. As a lifetime Bond reader I highly recommend this book.Book Review: Fleming's Bond is back
Summary: 4 Stars
Faulks does really capture the essence of Fleming's Bond and the cold war era. I read this in one sitting and it was like going back in time to when I first discovered the written Bond. Having recently re-read the old Fleming novels, this was an exact fit it both style and atmosphere. A gritty but world weary Bond mixed with entertaining bad guys and stunning women. Also nice to see it in the low tech era of the 60's where Bond needs a coin for a phone call!
A nostalgic romp that captures Fleming's work very well. I hope this is not a one off!