I’m surprised that more people haven’t really talked about reading Q yet. It’s kind of a shame. At the same time, I get it. We still haven’t gotten a US release yet. As for Q book 2, I noticed the mention of gold. Maybe a foreshadowing of Goldfinger connections? I could see it. Maybe some unique riddle promotional emails could keep the guessing up, again.
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Yeah the lack of US release is really stifling some of the conversation on it. Of course there’s also the negative attitude around these parts regarding anything that’s not a new Bond movie or Bond novel, which would also stifle conversation on it.
I ordered a copy from the UK and I quite enjoyed it. This Q’s background was interesting and I’m curious if we will end up getting more backstory on how he left MI6, or if he’ll ever return. It definitely wasn’t a standard Bond novel, but it wasn’t trying to be one either.
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Honestly, we try to be as supportive and welcoming to new releases from IFP as humanly possible. CBn is one of the places where spinoff ideas were already pitched over 20 years ago, when the ‘regular’ continuations ran out with Raymond Benson. We used to have a vibrant fanfic section back then and several members published their own 00 section adventures with their own original characters. Contrary to some comments, our members embraced the idea and some ran with it to publish their own stuff eventually.
The problem is, you first have to have a concept fans are interested in: The Moneypenny Diaries did it by showing events in Bond’s world from a different perspective; Young Bond took the spirit of the adventure novel, of Dr No and Treasure Island, and presented five distinct variations on it with a Bond that was gradually growing into the familiar character. Finally, Kim Sherwood got to write the story of her OO agents, and that too met with some interest here (I purchased her first book twice).
From time to time Bond came to that intersection where his own world bleeds into that of the classic crime mystery, when he investigates the last steps of Major Tallon or Hannes Oberhauser - or when Milton Krest chokes on his own repulsive incel status symbol. Gardner set Bond on the scent of a serial killer - and while that may not have been the best Gardner continuation at least it was something different from the formula and one wonders what P.D. James or Elizabeth George might have achieved with a Bond continuation.
Now the Q Mysteries. Perhaps the biggest problem here is that Q is a lot of things, but mainly interesting for the brief - less than one minute per film on average - interaction with 007. Even the Whishaw version is a bit player chiefly responsible for exposition. He’s not popular on his own beyond the bits we glimpse in the films. It’s plain he wasn’t recruited as a young coder from the schoolyard by Silva and they didn’t make up the 0101-section responsible for digital warfare and systems manipulation. It’s also plain Whishaw’s Q may draw paycheques worthy of a Major - but he’s never had a military rank and his only uniform was that of his school.
Major Boothroyd on the other hand is Fleming’s tribute to his reader, a character that appears for one and a half pages filled with facts about small arms. He gets to feel up Bond’s biceps but that’s the whole extent of their relationship. Gardner spun it a bit further, evidently mirroring the films (that he did not watch!). But the whole fabric this character is made of is so flimsy… Really, The Further Adventures of Major Boothroyd/TAFKAQ is not the first title I would pitch to a publisher.
So the lack of interest here may be lamentable, but cannot be helped other than possibly by raving reviews and word-of-mouth. So please, let it not discourage you to review, discuss and praise The Q Mysteries here if the book(s) merit it. I’m sure many fans will be thankful for a recommendation when they wouldn’t otherwise have discovered a book on their own.
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I have recently finished reading this. It wasn’t something I was planning on reading, but I was given a copy for Christmas, so it would have been rude not to give it a go.
One thing that struck me while reading it was that it doesn’t really fit anywhere in the Bond canon. It’s contemporary, so it’s not in continuity with Fleming, but it doesn’t tie into the films of the time either.
In a way that made me realise that Bond now exists in a similar space in popular culture to characters like Sherlock Holmes or Robin Hood. Audiences broadly understand the world and the basic setup of the character, even if individual stories don’t share the same continuity. They can exist independently while still feeling recognisably part of the same mythos.
I’m of the opinion that if you want to do a spin-off, it needs to be sufficiently different to the originating story to justify its existence, which this story does. However, it also carries a downside where I feel it’s one rewrite away from being a completely original story. No matter how many times they name-drop Bond, the story feels far removed from his world of espionage. But then again, if it were a completely original story, would I have read it?
It came across as rather forced that characters with no connection to MI6 kept referring to him as ‘Q’.
But overall, it was an enjoyable enough read. Quite lightweight, but that’s fine. And who knows, maybe I’ll pick up the second one when it comes out.
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Everyone enjoying these spin-offs are welcome to enjoy and discuss them.
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I’m personally very interested in reading this entry (and sequels if this one is at least decent), but I feel like there are other Bond novels that I’m prioritizing instead in the near-term. As I mentioned in another thread, the back-catalogue is quite sizable and there are still a bunch I haven’t read (Moneypenny Diaries, Sherwood, Higson Young Bond, Cole Young Bond, Benson’s Felix novel, etc…). Exactly when I’ll squeeze this one in, I don’t know. While I anxiously devoured the Horowitz trilogy immediately upon each entry’s release (and they are some of my favorites), I unfortunately have neither the time nor the bandwidth to do that with each new IFP release.
It’s a shame, really, because I genuinely enjoy the continuation novels more than most, but with a busy job and the little ones at home, my reading time has dropped off from where I’d like it to be. Truth is, I wouldn’t be averse to IFP giving us some downtime moving forward, but it seems with multiple releases per year that they’re going the opposite route…
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I can’t believe I’m saying this, but for a mystery series like this, it feels like Solitaire would fit the main character better than Q. I understand that Q is more marketable. However, realistically, after her time and occupation with Mr. Big, I’d say that she would try detective work after she was free.
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I wouldn’t know about Solitaire, she seemed to already have made a living prior to get involved with Big (in the book that is), some kind of cabaret mentalist act that baffled even Big. I would think she probably went back to that after her adventure with Bond. Though in all fairness I rarely think about Solitaire outside Live and Let Die’s pages. She’s a mysterious figure that doesn’t seem to exist for any other reason than this tale.
But former intelligencers in some kind of detective sideline in ‘retirement’ has plenty of ancestors, as countless CIA/FBI operatives turning to private security contractors attest to. Fleming let Leiter end up with Pinkerton and hinted the burnt out Bond might share a similar fate one day. Even George Smiley had at least two brief episodes as mystery-solving privateer.
Personally I think Bill Tanner might have been a more natural choice for a mystery spinoff. He certainly appears more often in the books and, contrary to ‘Q’, he’s already been described as Bond’s friend. Arguably, even Moloney is a closer ally to Bond and possibly a better fit for a cosy crime mystery series.
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Lasted sixty-four pages, then set it aside.
Nope.
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