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My fear upon opening Devil May Care was that it would just be a book version of a James Bond movie. Now, I like a good Bond flick as much as the next person, but I've waited years for someone to successfully pick up the mantle of Ian Fleming. Along comes Sebastian Faulks to satisfy that craving. Devil May Care picks up right after Octopussy, successfully reviving one of literature's most captivating heroes. True, it's not exactly Fleming, but the character is dead-on, the writing crisp, and you can't beat Bond as an escape from your day-to-day drudgery! Recommended by Lynn, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Devil May Care is the newest installment in the iconic James Bond series. The book will be released worldwide on Ian Fleming's birthday, May 28. Written by novelist Sebastian Faulks, Devil May Care is set in the cold war. Picking up where Fleming left off in 1966 with Octopussy and The Living Daylights, Faulks, writing as Ian Fleming, has created the perfect continuation of the James Bond legacy. Devil May Care features all the glamour, thrills, and excitement that one would expect from any adventure involving Bond...James Bond.
Review:
Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was born on May 28, 1908, 100 years ago today. In 1964, at the age of 56, having completed 12 Bond novels, he died of a heart attack, one apparently hastened by his fondness for the cocktails and cigarettes he wrote of with such affection. Despite Fleming's death, more than 20 additional Bond novels, authorized by his estate, have appeared, written by John Gardner,... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Raymond Benson and (once) Kingsley Amis. Now, to mark Fleming's centenary, we have yet another Bond adventure, this one by the English novelist Sebastian Faulks, best known for his 1993 best-seller "Birdsong." I was never a great fan of the Bond books. I read a few of them (and saw a few of the early Bond movies) in the 1960s and thought them harmless fun, if a male fantasy of seducing gorgeous babes and defeating fiendish villains was what you wanted. As it happened, a vast audience wanted just that. Better spy novelists have come along — John le Carre, Robert Littell, Charles McCarry and Alan Furst among them — but none has approached the success of Fleming and his designated successors. Highlights of the Bond novels have entered popular culture: 007 and SMERSH, Miss Moneypenny and Pussy Galore, Goldfinger and Dr. No, "shaken, not stirred" and "Bond, James Bond." With more than 100 million books sold over 55 years, Bond is the most enduring fictional character since Sherlock Holmes. Like all the Bond novels, "Devil May Care" features, along with its heroic secret agent, two other essential figures: The Villain and The Girl. The former is Dr. Julius Gorner, said by Bond's boss, M, to be "potentially the most dangerous man the Service has yet encountered." Gorner, a Lithuanian, has a rare deformity: His left hand is "completely that of an ape. With hair up to the wrist and beyond." When this unfortunate fellow attended Oxford after World War II, other students laughed at his monkey's paw, as they called it. This led him to hate England so obsessively that by the mid-1960s, when the novel takes place, he had devised not one but two plans to destroy it. First, having become the world's foremost drug czar, he will flood England with heroin: "I think I can change most of your cities into drug slums by the end of the century." But impatient for his revenge, he hatches a more immediate scheme: to fake an English attack on a Soviet nuclear facility that will cause the Soviets to nuke London. "Tomorrow I shall launch an attack that will finally bring Britain to its knees," he pronounces. Bond's job, of course, is to stop this Anglophobic monster. His efforts are complicated by the arrival of a mysterious beauty called Scarlett Papava, whose long, elegant legs and other physical charms are described breathlessly. Scarlett, claiming that her sister is in Gorner's clutches, joins Bond's search for the hairy-handed villain. Thanks to some highly improbable plotting, both are soon Gorner's prisoners. ("Looks like a trap," Bond declares, as he walks into one.) Their captor takes them, bound and helpless, to his fortress in the Persian desert and shows them the huge drug factory where hundreds of heroin addicts toil as his slaves. ("They work twelve hours a day in return for water, rice and heroin.") The villain taunts Bond by forcing Scarlett to parade naked before the workers and announcing his intention to donate her to them. The scene manages to be both dumb and offensive. Of course, if you think Bond is going to let this good woman be raped by several hundred crazed heroin addicts, you're as dumb as the scene is. The essence of the Bond novels is for the hero to blunder into hopeless situations and then miraculously escape them. He does that here, repeatedly, as the action moves among London, Rome, Tehran, Moscow and Paris. Bond is shot at by men on motorcycles, nearly drowns twice, is beaten like a gong by various thugs and becomes embroiled in a bloody gun battle on a plane headed for Russia that's loaded with nuclear weapons. Stirring stuff, but we know that Agent 007 will survive for another sequel, perhaps forever. Between fights, chases and shootouts, and a slow-paced romance with long-legged Scarlett, Bond indulges in the brand-name snobbery that has awed us common folk for more than half a century. He smokes Chesterfields and cigarettes ordered from Turkey; he drinks Johnnie Walker Black and other expensive whiskeys, admires Chateau Batailley 1958 and finds all soft drinks "more or less repellent." He dislikes croissants and diplomats, loves good marmalade, carries a Walther PPK, drives a Bentley Continental with an Arnott supercharger and brings Miss Moneypenny boxes of Perugina Baci chocolates from Rome. We're advised that good caviar "should smell of the sea but never the fish" and, in the best "shaken, not stirred" tradition, that black pepper should be "cracked, not ground." All this social and culinary guidance seemed more urgent to me in my youth than it does today. For me at least, the Bond fantasy has not aged well. Faulks has said he intended to write a "lighthearted" novel, and "Devil May Care" has its amusing and entertaining moments, but there were other moments when I thought it would never end. My advice is to invest your $25 in a good bottle of wine and wait for the movie. Reviewed by Patrick Anderson, whose e-mail address is mondaythrillers(at symbol)aol.com, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group) (hide most of this review)
Review:
"[I]njects new life into the formula....Devil May Care is in many ways a stronger novel than any that Fleming wrote, both because it's better written and because it has all the Bond lore to draw upon. It's a satisfying thriller in its own right..." Charles McGrath, The New York Times Book Review
Review:
"Though Devil May Care is no literary landmark...it comes commendably close to the original and, provided you know what to expect, provides some real, retro pleasure." The Dallas Morning News
Review:
"[A] smart and enjoyable act of literary resurrection. Among the now 33 post-Fleming Bonds, this must surely compete with Kingsley Amis's for the title of the best." The Guardian (U.K.)
Review:
"[A] serviceable madeleine for Bond nostalgists and a decent replica of past Bond escapades. But if you didn't pick up Devil May Care convinced that Bond was an enduring pop-cultural landmark, you would not come away with that conclusion." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Review:
"[A] near-effortless read, and considerable fun....Faulks' writing is fine....But, unlike Fleming at his best, he doesn't quite elevate the boyish material above the bar of dignified nonsense. (Grade: B)" Entertainment Weekly
Review:
"On the whole...it is a book Fleming fans will enjoy — provided they don't take it too seriously....Faulks has clearly worked hard to emulate the master's distinctive, journalistic style." The BBC News
Review:
"It's all likely enough in an undemanding sort of way, but it compares with the real thing in about the way a sour apple martini compares with the proper cocktail, shaken not stirred." Los Angeles Times
Synopsis:
James Bond is back. By invitation of the Fleming estate to mark the centenary of the Bond creator's birth, acclaimed novelist Faulks picks up where Fleming left off, writing a tour de force to electrify Bond fans everywhere.
Synopsis:
Bond is back. With a vengeance.
Devil May Care is a masterful continuation of the James Bond legacy–an electrifying new chapter in the life of the most iconic spy of literature and film, written to celebrate the centenary of Ian Flemings birth on May 28, 1908.
An Algerian drug runner is savagely executed in the desolate outskirts of Paris. This seemingly isolated event leads to the recall of Agent 007 from his sabbatical in Rome and his return to the world of intrigue and danger where he is most at home. The head of MI6, M, assigns him to shadow the mysterious Dr. Julius Gorner, a power-crazed pharmaceutical magnate, whose wealth is exceeded only by his greed. Gorner has lately taken a disquieting interest in opiate derivatives, both legal and illegal, and this urgently bears looking into.
Bond finds a willing accomplice in the shape of a glamorous Parisian named Scarlett Papava. He will need her help in a life-and-death struggle with his most dangerous adversary yet, as a chain of events threaten to lead to global catastrophe. A British airliner goes missing over Iraq. The thunder of a coming war echoes in the Middle East. And a tide of lethal narcotics threatens to engulf a Great Britain in the throes of the social upheavals of the late sixties.
Picking up where Fleming left off, Sebastian Faulks takes Bond back to the height of the Cold War in a story of almost unbearable pace and tension. Devil May Care not only captures the very essence of Flemings original novels but also shows Bond facing dangers with a powerful relevance to our own times.
Sebastian Faulks's seven previous novels include the international bestseller Birdsong (1993), Charlotte Gray (2000), and most recently Engelby (2007). He lives in London, is married and has two sons and a daughter.
Linda Wilkins, January 19, 2009 (view all comments by Linda Wilkins)
Devil May Care is a great start for Sebastian Faulks as the newest author of authorized James Bond novels. This book begins with Bond on a 3 month sabbatical recovering from what he calls "the two B's"= brainwashing & bereavement". His sabbatical is cut short with the understanding that he will still be required to be followed-up for psychological fitness by medical staff.
His newest assignment is to shadow the sadistic & power-crazed Dr. Julius Gorner, a pharmaceutical giant. The beautiful Scarlett Papava has her own personal reasons for pursuing Dr. Gorner & hassels Bond into allowing her to come along on the pursuit.
In addition to the evil Dr. Gorner is Chagrin whose use for chopsticks is quite perverse. Bond's fight for his life & his sanity shows that his will to live is as strong as ever.
I do hope that Mr. Faulks continues writing James Bond novels. There are 48 Bond novels by my count & as of this date I have read 34 of them. This includes Jim Hatfield's unauthorized The Killing Zone & Charlie Higson's authorized Young James Bond novels.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No (2 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)
My fear upon opening Devil May Care was that it would just be a book version of a James Bond movie. Now, I like a good Bond flick as much as the next person, but I've waited years for someone to successfully pick up the mantle of Ian Fleming. Along comes Sebastian Faulks to satisfy that craving. Devil May Care picks up right after Octopussy, successfully reviving one of literature's most captivating heroes. True, it's not exactly Fleming, but the character is dead-on, the writing crisp, and you can't beat Bond as an escape from your day-to-day drudgery!
by Lynn
"Review"
by Charles McGrath, The New York Times Book Review,
"[I]njects new life into the formula....Devil May Care is in many ways a stronger novel than any that Fleming wrote, both because it's better written and because it has all the Bond lore to draw upon. It's a satisfying thriller in its own right..."
"Review"
by The Dallas Morning News,
"Though Devil May Care is no literary landmark...it comes commendably close to the original and, provided you know what to expect, provides some real, retro pleasure."
"Review"
by The Guardian (U.K.),
"[A] smart and enjoyable act of literary resurrection. Among the now 33 post-Fleming Bonds, this must surely compete with Kingsley Amis's for the title of the best."
"Review"
by Janet Maslin, The New York Times,
"[A] serviceable madeleine for Bond nostalgists and a decent replica of past Bond escapades. But if you didn't pick up Devil May Care convinced that Bond was an enduring pop-cultural landmark, you would not come away with that conclusion."
"Review"
by Entertainment Weekly,
"[A] near-effortless read, and considerable fun....Faulks' writing is fine....But, unlike Fleming at his best, he doesn't quite elevate the boyish material above the bar of dignified nonsense. (Grade: B)"
"Review"
by The BBC News,
"On the whole...it is a book Fleming fans will enjoy — provided they don't take it too seriously....Faulks has clearly worked hard to emulate the master's distinctive, journalistic style."
"Review"
by Los Angeles Times,
"It's all likely enough in an undemanding sort of way, but it compares with the real thing in about the way a sour apple martini compares with the proper cocktail, shaken not stirred."
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
James Bond is back. By invitation of the Fleming estate to mark the centenary of the Bond creator's birth, acclaimed novelist Faulks picks up where Fleming left off, writing a tour de force to electrify Bond fans everywhere.
"Synopsis"
by Random House,
Bond is back. With a vengeance.
Devil May Care is a masterful continuation of the James Bond legacy–an electrifying new chapter in the life of the most iconic spy of literature and film, written to celebrate the centenary of Ian Flemings birth on May 28, 1908.
An Algerian drug runner is savagely executed in the desolate outskirts of Paris. This seemingly isolated event leads to the recall of Agent 007 from his sabbatical in Rome and his return to the world of intrigue and danger where he is most at home. The head of MI6, M, assigns him to shadow the mysterious Dr. Julius Gorner, a power-crazed pharmaceutical magnate, whose wealth is exceeded only by his greed. Gorner has lately taken a disquieting interest in opiate derivatives, both legal and illegal, and this urgently bears looking into.
Bond finds a willing accomplice in the shape of a glamorous Parisian named Scarlett Papava. He will need her help in a life-and-death struggle with his most dangerous adversary yet, as a chain of events threaten to lead to global catastrophe. A British airliner goes missing over Iraq. The thunder of a coming war echoes in the Middle East. And a tide of lethal narcotics threatens to engulf a Great Britain in the throes of the social upheavals of the late sixties.
Picking up where Fleming left off, Sebastian Faulks takes Bond back to the height of the Cold War in a story of almost unbearable pace and tension. Devil May Care not only captures the very essence of Flemings original novels but also shows Bond facing dangers with a powerful relevance to our own times.
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