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: Fleming's ghost guides Faulks' hand
Summary: 4 Stars
It has been a long wait, but finally the LITERARY James Bond is back. While John Gardner and Raymond Benson were very good writers and storytellers, they were definitely carrying on the adventures of the MOVIE Bond between movies! Good yarns, but hardly Bond.
This does not mean that Sebastian Faulks is definitely the new Ian Fleming ... but he comes close. Faulks states that he went back to the original Fleming books to study the style and it shows. He has resurrected Bond with all his cynicism, faults, habits and prejudices; Bond even hates Q-Branch gadgets!
The villain, unfortunately, is not as larger-than-life as Goldfinger, Blofeld and Scaramanga were. He is even overshadowed by his privileged henchman, Chagrin. Faulks spent more time developing Chagrin than he did Gorner and I felt that I knew Chagrin as a person better than I did Gorner. The one element that was missing was the villain's biographical chapter.
The Bond girl was a strange character and she seemed more adept at handling the situations, she found herself in, than the international banker that she was. If bankers are really as skilled as she turned out to be, how does Faulks account for the occurrences of bank robberies around the real world?
Other familiar elements are the obligatory sacrificial lamb and the Bond allies. Nice to see Felix Leiter and Rene Mathis back in the novels. Last time these two were seen in books, Leiter was hooning around on a electric wheelchair and Mathis was blinded from constant torture. You know a British writer is responsible for the story when the Americans are shown to be opinionated and self-interested. Since Bond's mission does not benefit the USA, then the CIA don't help Bond. Benson would never have written such a thing.
Congratulations, Mr. Faulks. You have written a superb James Bond novel and kept the Fleming legend alive. Please write another adventure soon.
Book Review: For Non-Purists Eyes Only
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a fun Bond pastiche that moves at an agreeably fast clip. There are a few good action scenes and the tennis match is silly but fun. You'll never forget that it's not from the original canon, partly because Faulks never gets the Bond character quite right. And for all the hype about his "literary" reputation, I never felt the writing was terribly fine. Indeed, it never really rises to the level of an admirably dedicated second-stringer like Daniel Silva. And what's with the lame title? Still, you will be entertained.Book Review: Good Fun, But Not As Fleming-esque as Some Say
Summary: 3 Stars
After much hype and anticipation over the release of Devil May Care by the great author Sebastian Faulks, we've really received nothing that warrants any more praise than the best of John Gardner or Raymond Benson. Kingsley Amis's Colonel Sun and John Pearson's "biography" are still the best continuation novels in my opinion. DMC isn't even on level with Fleming's original novels, not even the worst ones. I get the impression Faulks may have under-estimated what it took to write a true-to-Fleming book, but I don't entirely blame him. For one thing, Ian Fleming Publications must have been aware that this book would attract a whole new audience, and Faulks was probably under a bit of pressure to include the weary, old Bondisms and pastiche-type over-references to the Fleming stories that would appeal to those who know little of Bond outside the films. If anything, perhaps IFP was hoping to use these references as self-marketing tools that would draw new readers into exploring Bond's past as outlined in Fleming's books. In my opinion, being a Fleming connoiseur, I found these things somewhat tiresome and irritating, if only slightly so. After all, Fleming rarely, and often very obliquely, referenced Bond's past missions.
There are a lot of plus-sides to DMC, however. It is a fun, entertaining read that means well. I whipped it off in just a day or so, as the pacing is quite speedy, and some of the action scenes are quite stimulating. When Faulks does strike the right chords he does so very well, notably in the scenes set in Tehran, which evoke the same descriptive, travelouge skills Fleming was so adept at using. The swim into the hangar was quite suspenseful, and felt like the best of Fleming.
There are some notable plot holes, however, or at least places where the plot trips itself up and goes in the wrong direction. Most notably, Faulks introduces a interesting aircraft, but does little with it, and destroys it rather suddenly and without giving it the purpose it deserves - and seemed to have been set up for - in the book.
The villain is not overly memorable, though I enjoyed his death.
The girl, too, is rather bland, and I saw the twist surrounding her coming from the first few chapters.
Bond is pretty recognisable as the same Bond of old, but he does little that's unique or interesting.
Overall, the book is a decent addition to the continuation novels, but offers little that makes it special as the centennary tribute to Ian Fleming.
Book Review: Good to read you again Mr Bond
Summary: 5 Stars
Certainly a page turner and Bond's enemy is reminiscent of the Goldfinger / Oddjob combination. It harks back to the 60's but with issues that are still prevalent today. It would be interesting to see if this got made into a film as certain aspects that draw the suspense in the book would have to be technologically `updated'.
A very enjoyable read, Faulks has done a fine job.
Book Review: Great in spots, just OK overall
Summary: 3 Stars
Sebastian Faulks proves a better interpreter of James Bond and the style of his creator Ian Fleming than anything I've read before -- Kingsley Amis's "Colonel Sun" and several (though not all) of the John Gardner books -- but that's not saying that much. Faulks provides a few bullseye highlights that emulate Fleming's style close to perfectly -- a high-stakes tennis match, an increasingly desperate underwater exploration, a shootout on a plane, some successful asides of sly humor -- but Bond lacks his cutthroat testosterone with both the ladies and a couple bad guys that takes the edge off the character, and the tagalong girlfriend becomes incrementally more annoying. The book works in fits and starts, but disappoints overall because in sections it gleams with promise of what it could have been.