After a little hiatus, I’m back to doing another ranking list. This time it’s the James Bond novelizations from authors Christopher Wood, John Gardner, and Raymond Benson. So how do you rank them?
My list is as follows:
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LICENCE TO KILL – John Gardner – My favorite Bond film is also my favorite novel/novelization. Like the tagline says: “James Bond out on his own and out for revenge.” Great idea. Back in the day, it was an original premise. Helping with all that is a story inspired by the Akira Kurosawa classic, Yojimbo. After his best friend Felix Leiter is maimed on his wedding day and his new bride killed, Bond resigns from the service and goes rogue on a one man mission of vengeance. He expertly manipulates the villain Franz Sanchez by turning his greatest strength into a huge weakness by making his absolute value of loyalty slowly turn him paranoid. Great villain, great set pieces, and a great Bond.
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TOMORROW NEVER DIES – Raymond Benson – A story ahead of its time–one that is more relevant today than back in 1997. It still holds up well. Elliot Carver, a media baron creates circumstances to put the U.K. and China on the brink of war. It’s all part of a plot with Chang, a Chinese general looking to initiate a coup for power and, in return, Carver receives broadcasting rights in China and, with it, higher ratings. Great action, especially with the terrorist bazaar and the car park chase, a terrific Bond girl in Wai Lin, and a solid villain.
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GOLDENEYE – John Gardner – I like this one, but I prefer the movie version and I don’t think it’s quite as good as LTK. Bond is sent to investigate what happened to a stolen Tigre helicopter that is impervious to an electromagnetic pulse and discovers that he must stop his old 00 pal, Alec Trevelyan, from stealing billions of dollars from London banks and unleashing an EMP over the city immediately afterwards to cover up his crime. Great story with a memorable cast of characters from Trevelyan and computer nerd Boris Grishenko to Jack Wade and Russian mobster Valentin Zukovsky. But it’s the sexy femme fatale Xenia Onatopp who steals the show. The opening sequence at the Archangel facility and the tank chase are also top notch and highly entertaining.
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JAMES BOND, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME – Christopher Wood – The first Bond novelization. There’s a lot of good stuff here, but I can’t help feeling that the story could have been fleshed out just a little more. It seems a little abbreviated. Other than that, it’s solid. Bond is sent to investigate the sudden disappearance of a British nuclear submarine and learns he must stop a madman from nuking New York City and Moscow to start World War III with the intention of causing mankind to live under the sea. Fantastic henchman in Zbigniew Krycsiwiki aka Jaws, a good Bond girl in Anya Amasova aka XXX, and a memorable opening scene that admittedly and understandably plays better on the big screen. Still, a nice adventure that started the whole 007 novelization “series”. Hopefully, Amazon will get back to doing those–IF they do original screenplays rather than continuation adaptations.
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JAMES BOND AND MOONRAKER – Christopher Wood – Wood’s second novelization is comparable to his first and in some ways, I like it better. My favorite part is Bond’s spacewalk. Very tense and gripping scene. Oh, how I wish that could have been incorporated into the film. That would have been so awesome. Story-wise, Bond is sent to discover what happened to a Moonraker space shuttle that was being transported by plane and seems to have disappeared after the plane’s wreckage was found. He then learns that he must stop the megalomaniacal Hugo Drax from exterminating mankind from space with a deadly poison so he can create a master race from “perfect” physical specimens. Drax is a good villain and Jaws returns, but he’s not quite as memorable here as in the previous novelization. Still, a solid entry.
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THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH – Raymond Benson – Bond falls for the villain. Interesting premise, but doesn’t quite land as well as it could have. Still, I like the novelization a little better than the film. I think that might be due to the henchman Viktor Zokas aka Renard who is better developed and more of a threat here than he seems to be in the film, though I still think the climactic fight could have been better handled by the screenwriters, which would, in turn, would have allowed Benson to write it differently as well. As for the story, Bond is sent to protect Elektra King whose father was just assassinated. Renard, Elektra’s kidnapper, appears to be the one behind it, but Bond finds out that Renard and Elektra are, in fact, in league with each other and must stop them from setting off a nuclear bomb to giver her oil company’s pipeline control of the vast oil reserve production from Eastern Europe/Western Asia. Elektra is a good character and a returning Zukovsky is entertaining.
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DIE ANOTHER DAY – Raymond Benson – Bond must stop a mad North Korean colonel from unleashing a solar-powered satellite on the demilitarized zone and invading South Korea. To be clear, this is not a bad novelization, just my least favorite. There are good bits like the opening sequence in North Korea and Bond’s escape from the British warship and his journey to Hong Kong. The sword fight with the villain Tan-Gun Moon aka Gustav Graves is a highlight as well, but I just can’t shake the feeling that Benson didn’t put as much effort into this one. Actually, I have that sentiment with Gardner too. They put a lot of effort into their first novelizations and it shows. Both are excellent. But they seem to do a little less with their second effort and, in Benson’s case, a little less in his third. Maybe I’m being a bit unfair and those stories just aren’t as good as their first ones. Both authors did include a little something extra to all their stories that were not part of their respective films and those inclusions did help add to their individual overall novelizations. But the latter stories just don’t seem as good as the first ones.
So how do you rank the James Bond novelizations?