Devil May Care

This James Bond novel has been penned by Sebastian Faulks. I had heard about his literary novels and was curious to see his version of the iconic British spy. I can’t claim to be a die- hard fan of the James Bond series, but I do enjoy watching the movies and reading the novels. It is the swinging si......more

First, I have a confession to make: I’ve never read anything by Ian Fleming, or anything by Sebastian Faulks, for that matter. All I know about “the name is Bond, James Bond” I learned from the movies, specifically the ones starring Messrs. Dalton, Brosnan and Craig --- and a couple of half-remember......more

Reading this directly after Kingsley Amis’s ‘Colonel Sun’, really does show up the flaws in this other ‘literary’ Bond novel. For a start, Faulks does not get anywhere near as close to Fleming’s voice as Amis did. Whereas ‘Colonel Sun’ could have been mistaken for an actual Ian Fleming novel, this s......more

From the way the cover is worded, "Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming", I assume that Faulks was trying to write a real, Fleming-style Bond book. I think he succeeded - he definitely did his homework. The whole book is peppered with references to Fleming's books, from Bond's wardrobe preference......more

Some things in life are meant to be experienced in specific formats. For James Bond stories that format is cinematic, at least in this day and age. Meaning that when the original books came out, they must have been great fun, but this pastiche mostly comes across as hopelessly dated. It's only fun t......more