Devil May Care (James Bond) - Sebastian Faulks

I have to confess I have never read a James Bond novel, nor have they ever particularly appealed to me. I've watched films, but have always felt that the action-packed nature of Bond's adventures was likely to be better suited to the big screen than the small page. When I saw the new James Bond hardback in a charity shop for just 80p though, I thought I might as well give it a go. It's an interesting experiment in writing, since the author Sebastian Faulks is not just writing a new Bond book, but is deliberately trying to mimic the style of Ian Fleming. As such, you're not quite sure whether any praise or criticism of the writing style should be levelled at ...  Read the complete review

Ian Fleming was a bit of character. If you believe everything that you read about him you would get a picture of a womanising drinker hell bent on living life just like his creation James Bond. His attitude permeated his books and from day one Bond was a very dapper creation whose opinion of foreigners and women is not quite in tune with today's society. Over the years a succession of authors took over the Bond franchise and each one gave the hero a more up to date and rounded feel. By the books written in the 90s the Bond we knew was no longer to be seen. Therefore, when I read that a Bond was being written by noted author Sebastian Faulks in the style of Fleming I ...  Read the complete review

This year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. To mark this there are a number of exhibitions and events taking place to celebrate someone who gave us one of the cinema's iconic characters and a literary figure that still sells today. Events throughout the year include exhibitions about Fleming at the Imperial War Museum in London and various Art shows relating to the well known and well loved jacket covers of the novels. As Fleming sadly passed away over 45 years ago, the Ian Fleming Publications Ltd proposed to mark this event in the only way they knew how, and that was to release a Bond novel, but who would write ...  Read the complete review

I'll be the first to admit that I've never been a massive Bond fan until I saw Casino Royale. I personally thought that this film was much better than the rest of them and when I saw the new book come out I thought I would give it a try. The interesting thing about the book is that it is the first Bond book not written by Ian Fleming. Instead, Sebastian Faulks has written it. However, Mr Faulks did apparently read all of the other Bond books written by Ian Fleming in order to get an idea of how he wrote the books so as to try and repeat it. I never read Ian Fleming's books so I can't really say how well it's written compared to the others. The book ...  Read the complete review

I have never really got round to reading the james bond books by Ian Fleming, which is depite owning every bond film and a book which apparently details the life of the real james bond, a book that i both believe and yet am still slightly confused by. But anyway, this is a release by Faulks looking to revive the james bond books following the successes in recent years from other forms of the bond archives. I read this book on holiday in about a week, shifting through the pages on a nightly basis, and i can tell you that this apparent pace of reading, for me, was not because of lack of time, as the book was in fact borrowed from someone, but because i become ...  Read the complete review