Review by C.J. Bunce
We you aware a James Bond tie-in story of the King Charles III era called His Majesty’s Secret Service has already been published? It’s a novella by Charlie Higson, author of several earlier tie-ins for the franchise. (Hey, I shared the idea for this tie-in title in my review of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service here at borg months earlier!). If you weren’t aware this was already published like me, you probably want to check out Bond expert Mark Edlitz’s third exhaustive look at the James Bond franchise, James Bond After Fleming: The Continuation Novels, available now here at Amazon. In a window now where we have no current scuttlebutt about a forthcoming Bond movie, now is the time to dig back into Fleming’s original 13 novels (and stories) or check out the dozens of continuation stories and novels. Edlitz covers them all with plot descriptions and commentary in a hefty 504-page treatise–the definitive book on the James Bond tie-in tales.
Edlitz continues his signature research style displayed in his The Lost Adventures of James Bond (reviewed here at borg) and The Many Lives of James Bond (reviewed here at borg), as well as in his singular Movies Go Fourth (reviewed here). As readers will find in his latest Bond work, Edlitz is a diehard Bond fan, like many of the writers who have been tapped over the past six decades to write their own impressions of the British master spy. I have slowly been reviewing Fleming’s original novels, so far eleven of the thirteen reviewed novels, referenced here at borg. I just don’t want to get to the end. I also have reviewed the major Dynamite Comics tie-ins, and the original James Bond comic strips, which cover some of the best Bond spy tales. So what are you in for with the Bond continuation novels and stories?
As Edlitz puts it, “In the novels that followed Fleming’s own, Bond has been stripped naked and dunked into cold Artic water, attacked by a tarantula bat while showering, served a sandwich filled with spiders, married a woman under gunpoint, saved Miss Moneypenny from kidnappers, rode a battlecruiser with Margaret Thatcher and George
H.W. Bush, and investigated the mystery of who killed his son. Bond has battled nefarious organizations named The Union, The Scales of Justice, the Brotherhood of Anarchy and Secret Terror, and Children of the Last Days. He’s squared off against villains like Zoltan the Magyar, Maximilian Hepworth Blade, serial killer David Dragonpol,
Æthelstan of Wessex, and confronted henchmen named Tree-Trunk, Mimic, and Caber. He’s charmed Cindy Chalmer, Easy St. John, twin sisters Heidi and Hedy Taunt, Roan Power, Felicity Willing, and Jeopardy Lane. The spy has gone undercover as a mercenary, computer expert, journalist, and, unexpectedly, as a pornographic video salesman. This book charts his ongoing adventures.” No doubt somewhere in there, any Bond fan will find his/her next Bond fix.
Edlitz begins by revisiting the passing of the copyright rights from Fleming to others over the years–a clean and swift summary that will be interesting and useful to any Bond fan. It all leads into Fleming’s estate making the decision to allow continuation novels, and later spin-off novels, in the first place. In an effort to block pirating of the James Bond name in unofficial works, Fleming’s family took a “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach and decided to allow continuation novels to saturate the market. The book features two parts, first a brief chronological history of publication, then a giant survey of each continuation and spin-off. Chapters include the expected breakdowns along with a “Bastard Meter” recounting how bad Bond gets in the story and an “Egg” meter–Edlitz’s accounts of the writers’ repeated preoccupation with James Bond’s love of, and frequenting ordering of, egg dishes in the stories. The summaries are helpful, an easy way to give the reader an idea of which book has features that will appeal to them over the others. It also fits each book in the context with the original novels and stories, and includes continuity differences, tidbits like Bond’s approximate age, and key trivia from each book (you, too, may want to try Pinaud Elixir shampoo). Note: As detailed in the book, some Bond tie-ins are lost with only partial pages remaining, ready to be sought and found by an ambitious fan. Readers may find strange the Christopher Wood adaptations–James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me and James Bond and Moonraker–adaptations of movies adapted already from Fleming novels, until you realize how different the movies were from the novels of the same name.
The biggest Bond writer after Fleming was John Gardner, who wrote more Bond novels than Fleming, 16 between 1981 and 1996, including two novelizations of movies not based on Fleming stories: Licence to Kill and GoldenEye. His works take up more than 100 pages of the book. Edlitz takes his book onward, continuing where prior works, like Raymond Benson’s The James Bond Bedside Companion (1984) and Andrew Lane and Paul Simpson’s The Bond Files (2002), left off. Edlitz brings it all current, a 58-year document on all aspects of Bond tie-in stories, from 1965 to 2023. And these aren’t only the novels, as some of the featured works are novellas and stories, including those published in magazines. Another interesting tidbit: works from the 21st century make up half of the book. And spin-offs: Young Bond, Bond’s nephew, son of Bond, and stories starring Moneypenny. It’s interesting how fans rarely speak of James Bond canon like they do of Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Planet of the Apes–it seems the Bond stories have a wider playing field than the other giant entertainment franchises.
Which Bond novel has an homage to Julian Bashir, the doctor on Deep Space Nine who had his own Bond adventure? Did you know the James Bond Junior novels aren’t about Bond’s son, but his nephew? A scene from one of the tie-in novels was incorporated into an actual Bond film, believed to be the only one scene adapted from the novels to the screen. Which is it? You’ll have to read the book to find these answers and more. Like Planet of the Apes is known for its clever titles, readers will no doubt spy which titles sound sufficiently like a “real” Bond story. Fans of Doctor Who know that a larger world awaits them with the wide range of Doctor Who tie-in audio dramas, and it seems like the path of the tie-in novel was the similar but different way for Fleming’s heirs to communicate with Bond’s fan base (and keep the money coming in). What if Bond audio dramas had been the journey for the future exploits of our favorite spy?
Books (and great titles) that jumped out to me of interest include By Royal Command, The Moneypenny Diaries, Carte Blanche, Heads You Die, Trigger Mortis, and Zero Minus Ten, which seems to have a similar setting as Donald E. Westlake’s rejected movie script-turned-novel, Forever and a Death (reviewed here). As with Edlitz’s two previous Bond books, James Bond After Fleming: The Continuation Novels is supplemented with sketch art (from Argentinian artist Pat Carbajal), peppered with black and white and color photographs of some of the books discussed, plus an appendix of marketing artwork and other indices.
As we eagerly await the next Bond movie–and choice of Bond actor–here’s your chance to further explore the character through the lens of other fans, who took their ideas to the official tie-in route. James Bond After Fleming: The Continuation Novels available is now here at Amazon.
