As we don’t know if Charlie Higson is coming back, I’d like to revive this thread with my picks for the future in general of Bond continuation authors.
Quentin Tarantino: the one author that I would trust with a period piece Bond. Whether it would be set in Fleming’s timeline or not, I would trust him to get the time period right.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: A witty modern day Bond would for her. Apparently, some of NTTD’s wittier scenes are unsurprisingly hers. A unique voice for literary Bond.
Stephen King: The least likely of choices, sure, but he could bring a horror theme that Bond can often lack.
Charles Soule: A good world building author. He would be good for a villain spinoff.
Claudia Gray: Another good world building author, could focus on partnerships throughout her stories.
Geoff Johns: He could build a shared universe in the Bond world. With some good origin stories throughout for everyone.
Christopher Nolan: If EON doesn’t come to terms with him directing, IFP could let him write his own book. I would trust him with that.
David Koepp: He has written lots of action, suspense, horror and spy stories to boot. A Bond novel should have all of those things. He could pull it off.
My fear with a continuation author is being around as long as John Gardener. I’m happy we got him, but towards the end it seemed he was just writing Bond for the sake of writing it. It seems like most of the continuation authors are happy with their Bond work. Just not Sebastian Faulks. He was a really unhappy, ungrateful author for Bond. Jeffery Deaver has always liked my Tweets related to Carte Blanche. As for my picks, it’s mostly wishful thinking. But I know QT, CN and PWB are fans of Bond, who could give the continuation novels a unique writing style. Most of the continuation authors want their books filmed, why not start getting film writers involved in writing books? Just some observations and some fun ideas for now.
I’d prefer the next Bond novel to be written by a professional author, not a filmmaker. The skills are not interchangeable.
The author would ideally consider him/herself a devotee of the Fleming novels and not just the films.
I’ve always thought it would be interesting to see Martin Amis have a go. As a young man he had the opportunity to read and provide feedback on the draft of his father’s continuation effort.
Look at Quentin Tarantino and David Koepp on that list. Both have written very good novels.
And what about Charlie Higson himself? He’s a filmmaker and author and you called OHMSS “top notch” in the other thread and wished he would write more…
I don’t doubt that filmmakers can write passible or even good books.
I’d just rather see a creative play to their best-know strengths when it comes to Bond. If Tarantino were to be involved with Bond, I’d rather it be in the capacity of a film director.
As for Koepp, I find his screenplays to be near unbearable, so I don’t want him anywhere near Bond.
I think Higson is better known than the above two to be profilic in several areas (film, television, books), so it feels more natural for him to take on a Bond novel.
You cannot seriously think that because someone has talent as a writer, they automatically will be skilled at filmmaking.
If Tarantino and Higson are good authors, it is because of their capacity as writers, and not as directors. There may be some aspects of the skillsets that overlap, but success in one does not equal success in the other. Hence, they are not interchangeable.
I did not think it would be an odd take to want a Bond book to be written by someone who primarily writes books for a living.
There’s no irony at all. Higson is an acclaimed writer independent of his film work and has a substantial bibliography to back it up.
Quentin Tarantino has written exactly one novel which was based off a film he directed. I haven’t read it so I cannot speak to it’s quality, but I would not consider that reason enough to let him write Bond.
There are enough talented novelists in the world who should be given a shot over someone who wouldn’t even be working in their primary medium.
Relax, my friend. You are reading into the couple sentences I wrote way more than is there.
To clarify, I only wanted to say that it is possible for someone who is primarily a filmmaker to write a good book and I wouldn’t want them excluded based solely on that, because doing so would have excluded someone like Charlie Higson, who’s Bond work we ended up enjoying.
As I said above, these people are just some of my suggestions. I don’t (sadly) know many modern day full-time authors who could write a great James Bond novel. Any suggestions from anyone are welcome! You think that anyone would have suggested Sebastian Faulks before Devil May Care? Probably not. I don’t want JK Rowling, that’s for sure. Maybe Steven Knight, seeing where his Rey Star Wars movie goes.
I have some more recommendations for future James Bond continuation authors. They come from mostly Sherlock Holmes and Jack Ryan stories. I’m also trying to name authors born after the 1950s, as IFP seems to be obsessed with hiring writers from that decade. There are some expectations though.
Laurie R. King: Author of the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes stories. A good author to use for a legacy character. I consider her Mary Russell books canon to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s books. Maybe she could write Solitaire or Honey Ryder as a main character, after their Bond adventure.
Guy Adams: His work is almost purely British. He’s written a few books on Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who. Why not add James Bond to keep the British end up?
James Lovegrove: More Holmes: but a fair amount of crossovers. Is it time for Holmes and Bond too meet, officially? I know there’s a short story of them meeting, but how about on a actual case?
Sherry Thomas: A novelist of young adult fantasy, historical romance, and contemporary romance. Common themes in her work include unrequited love, love betrayal, and fate. Source: Wikipedia. Things that Bond is arguably known for.
Michael Chabon: A writer of a variety of genres. Could write a great supporting cast, particularly a Bond girl and villain, who feel outcast.
Mark Greaney: Tom Clancy’s original literary heir. He learned from the best. He’s work in spy series, namely Jack Ryan and The Gray Man. The spy part of Bond has been missing from Bond books, and he definitely could bring it back.
Mike Maden: He’s worked in the political field, he has experience working with real life issues. Like Ian Fleming. Another Jack Ryan heir.
Marc Cameron: A life long Bond and Indiana Jones fan. He writes a lot of adventure books, so he could be a great contender for Bond moving forward.
Sophie Hannah: The only official book writer for Hercule Poirot. For settings, she could do James Bond justice. With unique ideas and expressions of certain places.
All of these writers, (including several of our actual Bond book writers) I would love to see write and revive the Indiana Jones literary series. Indy has the potential to be a great book series as the characters I’ve mentioned. I could see Bond also crossing over with some of these characters. In particular Jack Ryan as President, imagine Felix Leiter working for him! I wish that IFP would better plan out the book series. They shouldn’t be like the MCU, with a book every 3-4 months, but at least 2-3 books a year would be great. These authors could take James Bond, his characters and his world very far, if given the chance.
Mick Herron is the first name that comes to mind for me as he’s my favorite author currently working in the spy genre. Admittedly he’s more le Carré than Fleming (I like to describe Slow Horses as le Carré if everyone was really sarcastic) but he does drop the occasional winking reference to Bond so I think he could make the switch.
Another thought would be Ben Aaronovitch. He’s more from a sci-fi/ fantasy background, he started as a screenwriter for Doctor Who in the 80’s and is currently best known for his Rivers of London fantasy series (there’s a department in the Metropolitan police that deals with magic). I feel that he could tap into the larger than life elements that Bond is know for.
I agree. However, while it wouldn’t happen, I’d be down for lead-in stories or standalone adventures set in the timeline of the next Bond, or even past Bonds. It’d be interesting to see how the sales would compare to books set purely in the literary world, ala Horowitz and Higson.
First time posting here - there must be one, right?
To add up to thread, I’d love to read a Bond novel by Robert Harris. He seems to be comfortable with both period pieces and modern settings, but I definitely see him on a cold war plot.
Besides, Charles Cumming or the already mentioned Mick Herring would have my favors, too. I’d not dislike to see William Boyd returning, either.
More out of box, Gillian Flynn has a touch to scratch under the surface of her characters, that could benefit for a modern days Bond.
Ken Follett recently returned to the spy genre, too. If you ever wanted to read a brick on James Bond…
Another author that I think would write a great Bond novel would be James Patterson. While he’s a bit old, he is a thriller writer. He also co-authors his books, which means that there is a chance he wouldn’t get lost in his ego. I think that he and all the other writers I’ve mentioned would be great for a Bond Short Story collection. It’s time Bond got some short stories again. Like this Sherlock Holmes collection.
