Rank The Rest Of The Continuation Authors' Main Girls

Books Other Continuation Authors
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This week’s ranking deals with the rest of the continuation authors’ main Bond girls. Those authors eligible to be included are: Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, Sebastian Faulks, Jeffrey Deaver, William Boyd, Anthony Horowitz, and characters from Charlie Higson’s On His Majesty’s Secret Service. Other authors available to be used–if you wish–are Samantha Weinberg, Kim Sherwood, Vaseem Khan, and characters from Raymond Benson’s Felix Leiter novel, The Hook And The Eye.

So how do you rank them. My ranking is as follows:

  1. Joanne Brochet aka Sixtine – FOREVER AND A DAY – (Anthony Horowitz) – One of the very best Bond girls in the entire series. She is smart and very independent and makes an entertaining companion for James Bond. Truly a classic character.

  2. Anya Amasova aka XXX – JAMES BOND, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME – (Christopher Wood) – Bond’s rival agent on the Soviet side who teams up with him on the mission. She’s another entertaining character, although I think I like her better in the film played by Barbara Bach.

  3. Holly Goodhead – JAMES BOND AND MOONRAKER – (Christopher Wood) – A NASA-trained CIA agent who teams up with Bond and winds up going around the world with him–literally and figuratively. Conversely to Anya, I think I like Holly better in this novelization than I do in the film.

  4. Jeopardy Lane – TRIGGER MORTIS – (Anthony Horowitz) – Another American agent who teams up with 007 to take down the villain, Jason Sin. Jeopardy is a likable sort whose most memorable scene is probably her meeting Bond clandestinely in Sin’s castle home, which leads to their discovery and a dramatic leaping escape into his moat.

  5. Ragnhei∂ur Ragnarsdóttir – ON HIS MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE – (Charlie Higson) – A fun character who you’re never fully sure whose side she’s on. A favorite scene of hers is her clandestine meeting with Bond in his room while staying at the villain’s lair.

  6. Scarlett Papava aka 004 – DEVIL MAY CARE – (Sebastian Faulks) – The first female 00 agent. I like her, but she keeps Bond and the reader a bit off-balance throughout the novel, and Faulks damages her character a bit by having her inexplicably make up the villain, Julius Gorner’s backstory instead of just presenting it as is, which was perfectly fine as is.

  7. Jane Moneypenny – THE MONEYPENNY DIARIES: GUARDIAN ANGEL – (Samantha Weinberg) – Who can dislike Moneypenny? She is great here and serves as a really good ally and Bond girl in this story. Very enjoyable.

  8. Bheka Jordaan – CARTE BLANCHE – (Jeffrey Deaver) – This was a different take on the Bond girl role as she doesn’t like Bond initially and is very slow to warm up to him–in fact, you could say she never fully does–although she does come to respect him. I would have liked her better is she had come around more though.

  9. Aleesha Belem aka Blessing – SOLO – (William Boyd) – For some reason, I can’t fully wrap my arms around Blessing–maybe it’s because she shot Bond. She’s ok overall, and is a competent agent, but I can’t rate her any higher.

  10. Katya Leonova – WITH A MIND TO KILL – (Anthony Horowitz) – This is another different take on the Bond girl in that she was previously a tormentor before becoming the Bond girl and falling for 007. It is interestingly done, and you do kind of like her, but you also can’t quite forget what she did to our man Bond. As a result, she lands here.

  11. Ariadne Alexandrou – COLONEL SUN – (Kingsley Amis) – I’ve never been all that wild about Ariadne–I guess it’s because of her political naïveté and going behind Bond’s back with the Soviets. Other than that, she’s ok, but not all that exciting.

  12. ??? – THE HOOK AND THE EYE – (Raymond Benson) – Due to the novel’s recent release, I’ll elaborate more on this character in the hidden details so as to avoid any potential spoilers.

Summary

Dora Wysocki – A true hard-boiled film-noir-type of detective story deserves a femme fatale that may or may not be on the side of the angels and in THATE that is Dora. She starts out nice–if a little mysterious–and then becomes downright puzzling before she truly winds up as a bad seed. And it’s her betrayal of Leiter that lands her in this spot. It’s appropriate for the story, but that doesn’t mean I have to like her more because of it.

  1. Tangiers Local Dancing Girls – THE MONEYPENNY DIARIES: FINAL FLING – (Samantha Weinberg) – These girls only get a brief mention during Bond’s mission into the Congo, but they’re the only girls mentioned, so they get the Bond girl spot by default.

  2. Bond’s Russian Masseuse – THE MONEYPENNY DIARIES: SECRET SERVANT – (Samantha Weinberg) – Like the Tangiers Local Dancing Girls above, Bond’s Russian Masseuse only gets a brief mention from his Soviet brainwashing experience, but she’s the only woman mentioned, so she too gets the Bond girl spot by default. I place the masseuse lower than the dancing girls, however, because Bond said he would pass some time with the dancing girls which intimates that they were/would be good looking and he’d have a relationship with them, whereas the masseuse is never described in TMDSS, so I don’t know for sure if she was good looking or not. (But seeing as this is the 007 universe, you can–and I do–assume that if the Soviets were going to give him a masseuse, it would be a good looking one to help keep him pliable.)

So how would you rank the rest of the continuation authors’ main girls?

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