Review of "Devil May Care: The New James Bond Novel," by Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming

 Review of

Devil May Care: The New James Bond Novel, by Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming, ISBN 9780385524285

Four out of five stars

Strong villain, a but weak in the good guy area

 This continuation of the Bond saga by a writer other than Ian Fleming has the necessary precondition for a good Bond story, a powerful villain bent on world conquest and destruction. Dr. Julius Gorner is a brilliant chemist that has branched out into the area of opiate derivatives. Gorner is playing both sides of the legal fence, manufacturing and selling to legitimate medical interests as well as to the underworld. 

 Not content to simply being incredibly wealthy from his earnings, Gorner has a plan to dramatically extend his delivery of street opioids. He also has a pathological hatred for England, citing the British actions in China that are known to history as the “Opium Wars.” The British victory in those two wars meant that they could import addictive opium into China and reap tremendous profits at the expense of Chinese misery and death. 

 This leads to the recall of Agent 007 James Bond. The timeframe is during the Vietnam War, as there is friction between the Americans and British over the lack of British support  for the American action in Vietnam. Bond travels to the European continent and then on to Iran, where he makes connections with Iranians acting as agents for Britian. Gorner has managed to acquire nuclear weapons that he plans to use against Soviet targets while leaving a residue indicating British involvement. 

 It is this aspect of the story where the plausibility takes a leap beyond the acceptable. It is extremely difficult to acquire nuclear weapons along with the expertise to use them. By simply dumping massive amounts of drugs into the United Kingdom, Gorner could extract all the revenge he wanted. Bond acquires a beautiful female sidekick, but circumstances prevent them from being sexually involved during the mission. Very unlike Bond. 

 The action follows the Bond formula leading to a confrontation between Bond and Gorner at the end. Of course, Bond is successful and at the end the new agent 004 is revealed, opening the possibility of a sequel. It  is a good story  it was refreshing to “see” Bond in action again.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review of "The Autumn Dead," by Ed Gorman

  Review of The Autumn Dead , by Ed Gorman, ISBN 0345356322 Four out of five stars An aging ex-cop is handed a case to retrieve a case   Jack Dwyer is an ex-cop that now works for a private security agency. Most of what he does is bust shoplifters and other petty criminals. He is a bit overweight and has few prospects to improve his situation. However, he has an interesting past that is focused on his high school years.   A woman that was a flame of his in high school and has retained her beauty suddenly pops back into his life. She offers Jack a significant amount of money to retrieve a suitcase from the house of a man she had been living with. Since she has a key and claims that the suitcase is really her property and she still has a significant sway over Jack, he agrees to take the job.   When he gets there he finds the owner unconscious from a blow on the back of the head. This is the first hint that the case is much more complex than Jack thought. Hi...
Read more

Review of "The Forty-Minute War," by Janet and Chris Morris

  Review of The Forty-Minute War , by Janet and Chris Morris, ISBN 0671559869 Three out of five stars Absurd initial premise and bad ending   This book begins with an absurd premise, not the event, but the context. A group of committed terrorists manage to acquire a nuclear weapon and a plane. The manage to fly it from Saudi Arabia to Washington D. C. where they detonate it. Distraught over the knowledge that his wife and family have been killed, the American President orders a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. They retaliate and it is all over in 40 minutes. After ordering the strike, the American President takes a gun and kills himself.   There are two reasons why this premise is absurd, one major and the other minor. The major one is that the intelligence services of the United States were aware of the nuclear weapon and had an elite anti-terrorist team on the ground ready to take out the terrorists. However, the team was given a stand-down order. Whil...
Read more

Review of "Heat," by Mike Lupica

  Review of Heat , by Mike Lupica, ISBN 9780142407578 Five out of five stars More about life than sports   Satchel Paige is arguably the all-time best baseball pitcher. One of his teammates once said, “The good lord didn’t give Satchel an arm, he gave him a whip.” Michael Arroyo was also born with what his father said was, “the arm.” Even though he is still young enough to play Little League baseball, Michael can throw an 80-mph fastball and he has excellent control. His goal is to help his team move on to the Little League World Series.   While baseball is his joy, his life is complicated. His father brought Michael and his seventeen-year-old bother Carlos with him in an escape from Cuba and they now live in New York City. Their father died suddenly of a heart attack and the boys are terrified that social services will learn of their plight and either separate them into foster care or send them back to Cuba.   With the help of some kindly neighbors, the ...
Read more