New James Bond novel

Here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/jeffery-deavers-007-bonds-shaken-...

Has anyone read any of the novels assigned by Ian Fleming Publications?

Beyond Ian Fleming, I have only read Devil May Care and Charlie Higson's Young Bond series. I'm thinking about reading Raymond Benson's books. Do you recommend them?

I might give Carte Blanche a try because I devour anything Bond, but Ian Fleming had that "je ne sais quoi" that no other author can seem to capture. You might tell from my previous posts, that I'm not a big fan of the films. Though I watch them, to me these new books fall into that same category.

I enjoyed Sebastian Faulks' attempt to write in the style of Ian Fleming up to a point and am looking forward to getting into Jerrfrey Deaver's Carte Blanche.

The only other serious attempt I can recall an author making to write in Fleming's style is, of all things, Christopher Wood's movie novelisation of The Spy Who Loved Me. He made a really good effort, and was only sunk by the publisher's use of a tiny typeface which made the book hard work to read.

I read some of the Gardner novels when they came out back in the late 80's. They were very different from the Fleming novels but were still an interesting read. Updated from the 60's basically.

I quite liked the first one of the Gardner's, Licence Renewed, but struggled with many of the others - I even recall the author being somewhat disparaging about them in an interview.

It appears that Glidrose, as Fleming's literary executors were known at the time, prevented him doing anything very interesting with the character of Bond.

The result was that Bond became a faceless action man instead of the flawed, fascinating reflection of Ian Fleming that we had known previously.

I'm about twenty chapters in (they are short chapters) and Carte Blanche is a terrible disappointment - written without flair or any noticable sense of excitement. I'm really struggling to gather the enthusiasm to finish it.

I have tried reading Raymond Benson's High Time to Kill and just couldn't get into it. I can't put my finger on it, but I'll just re-read Fleming the rest of my life.

My favorite non-Fleming Bond novel is "James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me" by Christopher Wood. More than a novelization he fleshes out the characters and really does a good job of channeling Fleming. It's easily better than any of the other continuation novels.