“We are ten deep into John Gardner” *Roger Moore eyebrow raise*

Gardner taking Bond away from the events in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe isn’t going to last long as the next novel, The Man from Barbarossa, is going to get very topical very quickly! Also, I suspect the weekend thing M does is Gardner (who had a long-running espionage fiction career outside of Bond that’s worth reading) referencing the real-life defection of Burgess and MacLean in 1951. Part of how they got away was that the MI5 agents tailing MacLean home on Friday afternoon stopped following him at his train station, allowing him to go home, meet up with Burgess, and flee the country that very evening. MI5 realized it Monday morning when they couldn’t trail him. It’s one of those stranger than fiction but very British stories that Gardner taps into I think.

Calvin would you ever consider making a video tour of your Bond memorabilia? Showing us in detail of the books on your shelf, the art on your wall, the props behind you? It would be cool to hear details of each piece, and maybe a good way to give shoutouts to the artists and authors?

The weekend thing may sound silly, but IIRC (and it's been years since I studied it), one of the Cambridge spies timed their escape to Russia to coincide with the infrastructure that would have pursued them all going home for the weekend because that's what the British did.

Ah, my favourite Gardner one. Right classic that one. Bond's dynamic with Rushia is top notch, Brokenclaw himself makes a wonderful antagonist and that final battle sequence is beyond amazing.

For some reason when I heard “Brokenclaw”, I immediately thought about Blofeld’s cat breaking a claw and the Blofeld getting it manicured… don’t know why, but it was funny lol

Thanks for doing these Gardner books as there rarely discussed online and glad you had some fun with this one. I agree Gardner's love interests are pretty token and forgettable so far. Though you've got a bit to go to the Raymond Benson books, it's worth noting [excluding the film adaptions] they are covered by two omnibuses [Union Trilogy and 'Choice of weapons'] which including the uncollected short stories.

“Ten deep into John Gardener” - hope you at least took him out to dinner first!

It's been a while since I read this one (I think it was September/October 2019) so my thoughts are vague, but I remember: A) Being annoyed that Gardner has Bond drinking afternoon tea even though Fleming states that Bond hates it - it brings out the inner Alan Partridge in me shouting "Stop Getting Bond Wrong!" Country-cottage Bond strikes again! B) Brokenclaw is one of Gardner's more memorable villains, helped by the fact that the book is named after him so it sticks in the brain more. But also his motivation is a bit more fleshed out than other Gardner villains who are simply evil because the story needs someone to be evil otherwise there won't be a story. C) That bit at the end does stay in the brain, it's a good bit of writing, though it is let down a bit by the fact it seems to conclude just a bit too quickly. Like Gardner looked at the calendar, saw his deadline was in a day, and so rushed through it to get it finished.

All these descriptions of Brokenclaw make me wish we had a Bond novel from a Bond villain's POV.

I don't think I've ever come across a Bond fan as enthusiastic about Brokenclaw as you are in this video, but I'm delighted that you had a good experience with the novel. I quite liked beginning and the end of the novel, but the middle section not so much. One thing that this book has going for it is that Brokenclaw is a pretty memorable character, and I liked Ed Rushia as well. But like you, I have great difficulty remembering characters from Gardner novels because so few really make much of an impression. Good luck with The Man From Barbarossa. To date, John Gardner is the only person I have come across who likes that novel. I found it a real slog, and I am generally quite fond of Gardner's Bond novels. But The Man From Barbarossa is bottom of my ranking.

Awesome video, Calvin. Honestly I love this series you’re doing. Can’t wait to see it continue!

Thanks man, Really cool as usual to hear what all these writers can come up with to expand the world of a character. Like what they do with Conan or Star Trek books. I really should start reading more :) I take it Calvin that you went to the filming locations for 'VERTIGO' while you were in San Francisco?? I'd love to go to all the locations where 'The love Bug', Mrs Doughtfire and Basic instinct were filmed and throw some flowers in the sea by the golden gate bridge for Zorin ;)

This man is going through hell for us XD

Wow, I'm so happy you liked this one, Calvin. I read all the Gardner books as they came out and I had very much the same reaction as you. I think it's right up there with his best. However, back in the day it was trashed and I've never encountered anyone who agreed with me. Until now. :)

Ooo yea very good keep up the good work! I’m still waiting on the review on the “technical bond spoof” The Cannonball Run (1981) W/Roger Moore playing himself and Bond!

Calvin, I enjoyed your review! Good insights as to Gardner taking Bond to the US to avoid discussing the end of the Cold War. I'm also wondering if he wanted Chi Chi to seem like a more substantial relationship because of monogamy/the AIDS crisis, not unlike Kara in TLD. Gardner must have been grappling with a lot of the same issues of Bond's relevance/place in the world as Eon was in this same era.

Echoing your thoughts about it being set in a place you went on holiday - I remember liking the bits set in Victoria, Canada for precisely the same reason. I went to the same part of the city that Bond goes to and I remember thinking whilst reading that Gardner did a good job describing it.

I just read this one, I'm also going through all the Gardner books, I would say its my favorite one so far. Though to me none of these even come close to the actual Fleming novels.

When I read the Gardener's books I was young and thoroughly enjoyed them. I was around 15/16 when the first edition of Licence Renewed came out and I really liked it because thankfully I wasn't as cynical as I've subsequently become. Anyone who reads them now will think they're awful because it's a different time.

Honestly a lot of these Gardner novels sound pastiche. Just insert random generic plot mechanism here, a couple of interchangeable forgettable characters with predictable plot twists and you have yourself a new airport thriller each year.

Early drafts of what became Licence to Kill was going to be set in China and the 'lost' third Dalton movie [covered in Mark Edlitz book which started being developed in May 1990] was going to be partly set that region. Interestingly, this novel [released August 1990] though set in the USA involves the Chinese characters and there government. Given as you say there was probably a desire from Eon+ Gardner to stay away from Eastern Europe/USSR during this period, China was used as an alternative [especially as the Tiananmen Square protests occurred from April to June 1989].

When I first heard the name Brokenclaw I thought that it was a slight reference to Blofeld's Shatterhand name

Great Video as always. Agreed BrokencClaw is one of the books that sticks out from the Gardners. Really glad that you continue this series. There some more crazy books coming up! 😅 So hang in there. The final ritual Bond and BrokencClaw go through is similar/inspired by a ritual portrayed in the Richard Harris Movie A Man Called Horse .

My favorite John Gardner 007 novel has always been "Death is Forever". It's fantastic, in my opinion. Definitely read that if you haven't already.

THANKS FOR ALL YOU DO MR DYSON!

Thanks for the amazing video

Wait until you get to Raymond Benson’s Bonds. I enjoyed all of them

10:43 The Bond reference Book 'The Bond Files' when looking at the movies/books have several categories including 'James Bond, Fashion Victim'. The entry for this book has the amusing 'Well, that depends on whether being stripped naked and having your private parts smeared with rancid animal fat counts as a fashion statement!'.

Proper loving these videos! Gardner that I’ve read, bearing in mind I was born in 77 are just mental. But Gardner’s Herbie Kruger books which he was writing during this time as well and his early Boysie Oakes novels are superb! The Bonds paid the bills the others I mentioned are the meat of his writing.

Brokenclaw is an oddity. I liked it more when I was younger and the villain is the best Gardner had in some time. It’s more like a Fleming or Bond film villain. It’s very Goldfinger esque. There are some good passages but over time the plot keeps taking odd turns and kinda falls apart. The finale with the o kee pa is fantastic and one of the most vivid passages in Gardner’s entire tenure. I was waiting for the reaction to this sequence! Man From Barbarossa is a total about face in tone where Gardner goes full Cold War political intrigue like contemporary thrillers. Death Is Forever is another burst of energy and is probably my favorite later Gardner. The final three books are a bit all over the place and bizarre. I like the idea of a serious potential love interest but Never Send Flowers is BIZARRE. Seafire is messy but at least more Bondian. Coldfall is pure “what the heck am I reading?!”. The UK shorter text is simply called COLD.

Thank you for these excellent reviews. Looking forward to you reviewing the Raymond Benson novels.

Gardner was so hit and miss. I love his books, but my goodness... he really had hard time blending "real" world espionage with Bond Fantasy, and the hybrid never really worked. You gotta go one way or another 100% and Gardner could never get there. Benson, on the other hand, did Bond Fantasy very well, albeit he was probably directed to write like the movies. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on Benson when you finally get to him.

Aah, Brokenclaw, where he managed to surpass the craziness of FSS... :D

It's been a while since I read this one (to take a line from another comment) but I remember this novel being horrible. The Asian-American girl spoke like an old English woman which threw me off, and the novel just didn't grab me. I may read it again later to see if my take changes, but this book (Bond or not) didn't do it for me.

cool review as always

When is the next in depth movie review coming, I really really enjoy them and wish they were a bit more often, but I do understand they are difficult to do too!

It could stray too far away from Bond but I'd love your take on Clive Cussler's work. Dirk Pitt always struck me as an American Bond type and McConaughey is much more then all right all right all right in the Sahara adaptation if you've seen it?

I was wondering if he started this book with Goldfinger in mind where he had already tangled with the protagonist before he realised this was to be the main baddie?

The title alone just seems like some hack trying to write a title that sounds Bond-like, and just used "Goldeneye" as a template. Brokenclaw...Tailoredhand...Silverfin...Takenface...Oldenguy...

Glad to know how it ends. I couldn’t get through this one.

Great review of my favourite Gardner Bond novel. Definitely the strongest villain of this Bond era.

Oh yes, I totally remember the torture scene from the Last King of Scotland.

I just cannot get into the Gardner novels. Don’t know why, but I cannot.

Thank you for this and for the rankings thus far, more food for future thought -- do you think Barbara Broccoli should look these over?

James Bond was vacationing in Canada? That seems kind of dull for a jet setting superspy.

I believe Gardner himself doesn't think much of this book. My impression of this novel form reading it in the Nineties was Memorable villain, forgettable plot, thus I was surprised to read the title of this video. The ending with Bond and Brokenclaw running about dragging buffalo skulls form their legs seemed a bit silly to me. The only saving grace for me was the character of Brokenclaw, who is a well rounded character we get to know him throughout the story instead of having him turn up in the final act.

Hey Calvin, would you consider reviewing the pilot of Hart to Hart? It’s a suspense series with a lot of Bond connections- Tom Mankiewicz wrote and directed it, Jill St. John appears, and Clifton James plays a sherifff

Great book especially if you like San Francisco and ❤😊🎉

10 down 4 to go for John Gardner Books. I hope you get a chance to review the man with the dragon Tattoo.

Bassam Barradj and Clover Pennington-Jones. How did the memory do?

I always thought that Steve Seagal could play brokenclaw in a film adaptation of this.

Was bored deciding what to watch then Calvin solves the problem

Do you think any of these would be turned into movies?

Bond follows a striking and erect man around for most of the day, but we swear: No gay here. Unrelated, then Bond went to San Francisco.

2:06 - Erect, you say? Oh my!

do a review of double or nothing, which I'm pretty sure will be the Bond film reboot.

btw calvin have you read point blanc by anthony horowitz, from the alex rider series? I just finished reading it, and it was a almost exact copy of OHMSS. like... did no one notice? there is no copyright issues? horowitz is a very good writer but the structure of the novel was completely OHMSS. I found it odd, besides that was a very pleasent reed because OHMSS is probably my favourite Fleming novel.

An Asian villain named Brokenclaw? Inspired by The Claw in “Get Smart” perhaps?

Brokenclaw is not my favourite Gardner novel that would be Icebreaker and/or Licence Renewed) BUT I think it is my favourite novel of Gardner´s "second (weaker) half" of his tenure and I consider this novel underrated. Brokenclaw is a very good villain and probably Gardner´s best. I always imagine Steven Seagal als Brokenclaw. About "slower pace" ... wait until you get to "The Man from Barbarossa". I hardly remember anything about it but only that I hating it from start to finish and it was a slog to get through

Calvin, I'm glad you enjoyed Brokenclaw but I'm afraid I found it familiar and underwhelming. I've been getting through the Gardner books this year, re-reading the first 9 now (excluding LTK) and I hadn't read BKC since the early 1990s as a teenager. So I remembered virtually nothing about it. I do agree with you that the main villain is the most interesting of Gardner's so far, but I found the plot frustrating. He seemed to be up to a couple of things - nicking the submarine intel and also trying to hack into the financial system, but the implications or reasons were never really fleshed out convincingly. The love affair with Chi-Chi came out of nowhere and there was nothing special about her - just another cardboard cut-out Gardner Girl I'm afraid. He doesn't write well for women - a criticism made of Fleming which supposedly resulted in the misfire TSWLM concept. The Blue Ridge Mountain trick with the house was a bit of a letdown resolution to Bond's confusion (and put that bloody Kingsman song in my head) and overall I found the book plodding and predictable. The final lines again proved that Gardner can't do humour very well and he should maybe avoid trying to leave us laughing - just go for a happy ending, Bond's inner monologue or even a philosophical musing. In saying that, it was entertaining and never confusing. It was about the right length and killing a villain with a bow and arrow is at least memorable! But overall, this one ranks as "Satisfactorily Average" and my Gardner rankings are now: 1. NLF 2. SCRPS 3. WLD 4. ROH 5. FSS 6. IB 7. BKC 8. NDMB 9. LR

I think John was mind-casting Dwayne Johnson as the title character.

😮🎉

113😮🎉

The best books he released were... 3. Licence Renewed 2. For Special Services 1. Icebreaker. The rest were average at best.

Anyone with a SAAB 900 in it

Let me put it to you this way. I’ve read all the Gardner books, except the last three which I still have to finish. Every single Bond book he wrote is utterly forgettable. I just sold about 12 of them back to a bookstore not long ago. I have no interest in revisiting them.

Calvin, you should really consider reviewing some of the Dynamite Bond comics. Many of the writers have a very good grasp of the character -- in some cases I'd say a better grasp then some EON screenwriters.

The Gardner novels should have been produced as Bond movies long ago

The next one is REALLY boring by the way.

You know you've completely lost the plot when John Gardner books seem exciting.

Why do you only talk about James Bond movies