The second installment in V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic trilogy transports me easily, and enjoyably back to Red London, as well as fiving us glimpses of White and Grey Londons, but before you pick it up, a little warning… this is book two of a trilogy, you have to know that this one is going…
Tag: bond
Black Widow (2021) – Cate Shortland
The MCU roars back to the big screen with an emotional and action-packed thrill ride that gives Scarlett Johansson a long over due Black Widow solo film, set between the events of Civil War and Infinity War/Endgame, director Cate Shortland brings us resoundingly back into the big screen spectacle that is the MCU and defines…
GoldenEye (1995) – John Gardner
John Gardner’s penultimate 007 novel is a short, uninspired adaptation of the 1995 film, GoldenEye which saw Pierce Brosnan finally step into the shoes of James Bond. I’m not sure if Gardner was simply tired of writing Bond books at this point, or if he was less than impressed with the film’s script and was…
The Man From Barbarossa (1991) – John Gardner
James Bond is back in John Gardner’s eleventh outing with the secret agent. And it was going to happen sooner or later. I just couldn’t get into this one. While I love the idea of tying Bond in with the real political landscape of the early 90s with events that would lead up to the…
Licence Renewed (1981)- John Gardner
In the early 80s, the estate of Ian Fleming reached out to author John Gardner to continue telling stories about James Bond, 007, and to perchance, bring him into the 80s. This involved a bit of a retcon moving the events of the previous novels from the 50s/60s to the 60s/70s. Gardner’s first effort, Licence…
Octopussy and The Living Daylights (1966) – Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming’s final James Bond book, the second published posthumously and the fourteenth 007 book overall is a collection of previously published quartet of short stories. And it’s a great collection to go out on, though of course Bond would continue to live on under other authors, and of course, as an ongoing film franchise….
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963) – Ian Fleming
The eleventh 007 book, and tenth novel, by Ian Fleming is this week’s entry on the Book Shelf, and you could see how the film series would begin to influence the continuing novels as we get a mention of Bond’s parentage, with his father being a Scot, and there is an increasing sense of Connery…
The Spy Who Loved Me (1962) – Ian Fleming
The tenth James Bond book, and the ninth novel, is this week’s 007 Book Shelf entry, and it’s a bit of a unique creation. It’s a small, almost non-event in the life of secret agent James Bond, and is told from the first person perspective of the heroine of the tale, French-Canadian Vivienne Michel. Recently…
Die Another Day (2002) – Lee Tamahori
Pierce Brosnan returns for his fourth and final outing in Die Another Day, the 20th canon James Bond film. Directed by Lee Tamahori, the milestone film is a bit of a fumble on the part of the writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade as they throw in tons of visual nods and references to previous…
Thunderball (1961) – Ian Fleming
The ninth book, and eighth full novel,in Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007 series is up this week. And this one is a bit of a special case. It was originally concocted as a screenplay, and early editions gave sole credit to Fleming, whereas future editions, much like the film(s) that would later be developed from…
The World is Not Enough (1999) – Michael Apted
Pierce Brosnan’s third outing as Ian Fleming’s James Bond is the next 007 film for me to view following my reading of For Your Eyes Only, having previously reviewed all the preceding 007 films to that point. This one is a mixed bag as it has perhaps the worst female lead casting for a Bond…
Licence to Kill (1989) – John Glen
Timothy Dalton’s second and sadly final outing as James Bond is this week’s 007 feature to buddy up with the Bond Book Shelf. This one came along at an important point in my life. It was my last few weeks in Bermuda, I was in love for the first time with my first girlfriend (Tracey)…
