I have the same feelings about the late Straub‘s works. Some I liked at the beginning but struggled to finish. His pacing is much slower and his style appeared less gripping than King‘s pedal to the metal.
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No Time to Die: The Making of the Film by Mark Salisbury. A lot of interesting details that I didn’t know. The one thing that I will spoil is that Blofeld’s death was generally written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. We sometimes joke about Cubby, Harry, Michael and Barbara co-directing the Bond movies. On NTTD, more than one person says Daniel Craig basically co-directed at times. In particular, Blofeld’s death. Overall, a quick read with lots of fun information.
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Interesting. The Blofeld scene felt very odd and out of place, character wise, to me.
James Bond Radio, at the time, summed the scene up well, saying it felt like Craig and Waltz were rehersing and just trying things out. Craig’s acting felt hokey and completely different to how he performs in the rest of the film.
The weakest scene in the film in my opinion due to the performances.
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I think both actors knew that SP had written their relationship into a corner. EON knew that mistake, and was trying to fix it up real quick.
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I read that, too. And I am not surprised Fukunaga was pushed away.
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Been meaning to read the first one, ive only heard good things.
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SAS Rogue Heroes by Ben MacIntyre. Terrific stuff
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It’s pretty solid. I perked up more when things veered off into new territory, which was reasonably well balanced with the fan service portions. It’s definitely worth a read if you like the Burton-verse.
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As a life long Batman reader I can only say it’s bloody perfect!
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Resurrection was a good Batman story despite aspects not feeling pure Burton (Batman was too chatty for my liking). The Easter eggs were fun and worked well. If this is Miller’s last book I’m interested to see how he wraps up characters like Knox and sets the stage for Returns. Riddler obtaining the Batmobile blueprints and passing them on to the Red Triangle Circus Gang would be a nice touch.
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Wow.
This is a book you’re going to remember. It’s audacious. It comes in at about 800 pages and I ate everyone of them up.
Most of the book is an old time spy thriller.
And then it takes a twist.
It’s a twist so big it changes the genre of the book. If you suspend disbelief and go with it, a great read is in hand. You’ll want to immediately discuss it with someone who’s read it.
I had a blast.
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Keeping 007 Alive by Mark Edlitz. This is a phenomenal piece of Bond behind the scenes. Any fan should have this, even if they are not into the continuation novels. Edlitz gives the authors a chance to explain themselves and their “trials” between IFP and the plotting and writing of their novel(s). It actually doesn’t get as repetitive as you might think. IFP rules have changed overtime. Read it to better understand the passage of time, in rules.
As for the authors themselves, here are my personal favorite reflections. Props to John Gardner (or his son Simon speaking for him), for just wanting to keep going. He made a goal, and kept to it. Raymond Benson is the only author to write his books with the movies in mind. IFP demanded it. Sebastian Faulks and Charlie Higson come off as a bit egotistical, Faulks basically says he was surprised to be asked to do it (he turned it down at first). Thankfully, he said yes, as he wanted to try something different. Jeffery Deaver said that he wrote a Jeffery Deaver novel with James Bond in it. Kim Sherwood said that her trilogy would have been announced earlier but like most other media things, COVID killed it. IFP said that during the John Gardner-Raymond Benson years, they generally just wanted the books to keep coming out. From Sebastian Faulks to Anthony Horowitz (at least) they wanted them to be a special event every couple of years. IFP wanted to keep a familiar writing voice for a while. Thankfully, Horowitz wanted to stick around. Now, IFP really is continuing and pushing spinoff novels. There may be more of them (unannounced) being worked on right now! Those are just a few details as a whole.
Overall, I can’t recommend this book enough. Mark Edlitz and the author show us how tough it can be to write an iconic character like James Bond. I also recommend his other books, as seen on his website.
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Right now, I’m reading Traffic: A James Bond Story in the Fan Fiction (‘Creations’) section of this website.
My next novel will either be Dr. Sleep , the sequel to The Shining. Or The Life of Chuck, all 3 stories by Stephen King. The Shining is one of my all time favorite novels of any genre.
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