A Bond girl coming back and turning out to be evil and the main villain would have been an interesting way to end things; I really thought that's where it was going.

Raising a glass of Prosecco is certainly fitting. The Gardner era is over and IMO the most uneven era of Bond novels has come to an end. Obviously I haven’t read all the Gardner novels, but your videos have made a detailed and bloody entertaining precis of the novels. So I raise a glass or two to your commitment 🥂 And I really hope you enjoy the Benson era.

I feel like Calvin is graduating college, such a proud achievement

“Boffing the bimbos prolly” 10/10 greatest bond line ever

I can't believe that we've reached the end of the Gardener books. It's been such a wild ride with so many unexpected twists and turns, but overall it has been such a great time to look at this piece of Bond history. A nice glass of champagne feels most fitting to close this chapter of James Bond.

Next up: Raymond Benson's 12 James Bond books, including the last 3 novelizations of the Bond films: *"Tomorrow Never Dies",* *"The World Is Not Enough",* and *"Die Another Day".*

My good sir, your channel has led me down a very interesting rabbithole. A few months ago I knew SOME of the Bond movies, and I remember liking them just fine, but I never thought about them after that. And then for some ungodly reason KZfaq recommended me one of your movie reviews and now I have watched every EON-produced Bond movie and started reading some of the books. What a trip. But in all honesty, thanks for "re"-introducing me to what are now some of my favourite movies in terms of sheer fun.

Honestly, I wish they would just pump out Bond novels again a la TOM CLANCY or ROBERT LUDLUM. Good luck with Benson. He's definitely a fan.

We are in your debt, Mr Dyson. Your Gardner reviews have been thoroughly entertaining and I've watched them from the beginning. I look forward to your take on the Benson era. Nobody does it better.

Very well done for making it to the end of the Gardner era. I have really enjoyed your reviews, often more than I enjoyed the novel you were reviewing. And so to Benson...

Oh Gardener what a ride of emotions this has been

I love the Prima guides on the bookshelf. Nostalgia!

Fun fact : The Hardcover to this is EXTREMELY rare and near impossible to find.

The only thing that would've made this better is a chilled bottle of Phuyuck 74. Congratulations on completing the John Gardner series, it's been a wild ride!

These John Gardener videos have been a highlight, especially as I am fairy unlikely to ever read them myself. Thank you for giving me insight into this strange world where Bond drives a SAAB

Calvin, I couldn't help but notice the large stack of steelbooks behind you. Would love a video on those, as I'm a big physical media fan, and am curious as to how you came about getting these particular steelbooks.

You are certainly right, Calvin! Let's raise a glass to the John Gardener Era Of James Bond Novels!🍸

Best bond channel, best review but if there’s ever a face that’s done all the Gardener novels.. we’ll it’s yours! Thank you

Congratulations, Calvin! It's been a great journey through all these Gardner novels, and we are proved in the fire for having come through. Looking forward to the final wrap-up video, and everything beyond... I love that a name as simple as COLD makes this FBI guy fall out of his seat! I wonder if he ever gets tripped up, like if an old lady on the street tells him it's a cold day and he gasps "How/What do you know about COLD?!"

I was there for the whole Gardner run and loved every thought you shared about them. I look forward to your thoughts on Benson, which will give you a very different experience. Keep up the fun you create!

As a fellow Bond enthusiast, I also made this venture through all the Gardner books. I finished around the time you started to make these videos so I was pretty excited to get your take on them. You did have a pretty healthy gap in these videos at the height of NTTD, so I was concerned you weren't going to come back, but I'm glad you did. We are both in agreement as to the best Gardner Bond book in the series. I felt Role of Honour was the worst, by a very large margin. Yes, I also agree that the Gardner books are a bit of a slog and can only really be endured by true literary Bond fans. There are interesting nuggets in the series here and there but overall nothing too endearing. I am excited for your venture into the Benson novels. Pierce Brosnan was the Bond of my youth and you can tell that's the Bond, Benson is shooting for. I absolutely loved Benson's run of novels. I think you will too. One thing to try to get your hands on if you don't already is 'The James Bond Bedside Companion' by Benson. Absolutely phenomenal book and my Bible growing up.

Well done, look forward to your Benson reviews!

Thank you so much for this series! Looking forward to what's to come.

Congrats on getting to the end of Gardner. I feel relief and I'm not even re-reading them! I definitely prefer Benson's books, though I think they still come with quite a few problems. Excellent series, looking forward to seeing what you make of the Raymond Benson Era!

It has to be said, Gardner was a much better writer when working with his own creations. If these books haven't totally done you in, I'd recommend checking out one of his Boysie Oakes books. Oakes is a guy who gets mistaken for a man of action and recruited into the secret service, when he's actually an incurable coward scared of violence and afraid and things like flying and heights. It's quite a clever combination between thriller and parody.

Well done getting through Gardner! The Raymond Benson era I find a lot more entertaining. They read like Bond movie scripts though. Can't wait for you get to where Bond makes a sperm donation.

Congratulations on finishing the JG novels Calvin. Cheers!

Being honest, the idea of a group of professional criminals radicalized by a crackdown on organized crime - going from mafioso to politically-motivated militia members - is actually a pretty cool idea. A commentary on the unexpected consequences of such a crackdown would be pretty interesting to explore, and could probably lend itself to some interesting moments. Mind you, I don't think Gardner would be the one to write that story, but it's a neat idea nevertheless.

Not sure I'd watch nearly twenty videos reviewing a series of books I'll never read if it were were anyone else, but since it's you Calvin...

This series of videos on Gardner novelizations really does feel like those KZfaq videos titled "I so that you don't have to." The thing with James Bond is that to me it is an iconic series (of novels and movies) that feel super important, particularly as someone from the UK. When I was a kid, the Bond film on TV on Christmas Day was absolutely the main event. Bond at the London Olympics with the Queen is another example of how important the character seems to be. But, for all that, it feels like no-one gave a damn about the continuation novels. Was Gardner the only person who wanted to do them? Did publishers think he was good, or was he just the only person available. In the modern day, with fan fiction for franchises like Doctor Who and Harry Potter, there is a lot of trash but also some fairly talented writers. Or, let me say that another way, Gardner just feels like Bond fan-fiction. I don't want to seem ungrateful for all the work he put into the series, but really? Is this the best the world could do for Bond novels? I would assume that the subsequent continuation authors are the mega-fans who grew up with Bond and who were determined to do better. I guess we'll find out in the next episode of "I read a Bond continuation novel so you don't have to."

10:30 I despised that- Bond's fiance is dying yet he's got a 'consolation prize' of Beatrice. A recovered Flicka could have been Bond's partner in part 2. Maybe Gardner wasn't allowed to have Bond marry again to avoid contradicting the film series [even if it was Bond marrying Flicka on her death bed] but it's so badly handled. Spoiler: I know a lot of people weren't happy with the recent 'Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One' death of Ilsa Faust, especially as it seemed mainly there to 'motivate the male hero' like many examples of the widely disliked fridging' trope [and throw away a fan favourite character] but at least she went down fighting rather than how Flicka is delt with.

I really hated the way Flicka was killed off. She had been one of my favourite things in the later Gardner novels, and I liked her chemistry with Bond, so for her to be killed off, and to be killed off in such a throwaway fashion, it left a real bad taste in the mouth for me. My suspicion is, knowing he was wrapping things up and passing the torch to a new author, he didn't want to burden his successor with a wife character they might not want to use, so wrapped up her storyline. I get that, but still, was there not a better way of doing that? Even if she had to die, did she really have to die off-screen, as it were? Poor Flicka deserved better. Just made me angry - it felt like I was being told "fuck you for caring and becoming emotionally invested in that character!" And on that note, Sukie's character in this book is just so weird here. I had really liked her as well, she had been one of the few Gardner Bond women who had stuck in the brain, so when she reappeared here, suddenly a villain and suddenly a psychopath, I was like "wait, what? When did that happen? Gardner... you did read Nobody Lives For Ever, didn't you? Because this isn't the character I remember."

I must say well done for persevering with the pulp that was John Gardner. Look on the bright side, you'll never have to go through that experience ever again! Oops, Never Say Never!

Benson is much more fun. They star Pierce Brosnan essentially. Though they do have so many little stereotypical tropes for the settings, they are also evocative of Moore and Connery - very nineties.

Calvin, you reminded me why I hated, I mean, HATED, Cold when I read it back in the day. It was the bizarre re-characterization of Sukie, from what I think is one of the best, if not the best, Gardner novel. It was just one twist too many for me.

Calvin, thanks so much for doing these! I know they’re not the best, but I’ve always been so fascinated by these books! As a Bond-movie fan when a kid, I wish I knew about these then!

Great reviews!! Keep em coming!!! It is a pleasure to watch your videos!

I look forward to your Raymond Benson reviews! Thanks for taking the bullet for us in reading every Gardner novel! 😀

Here's to you Calvin! 🍸

This is definitely the most bizarre Gardner Bond and very inconsistent. I really disliked the treatment of the Sukie character. The book echoes many past Gardner books seemingly as a knowing way of acknowledging it is the final book. Ultimately it doesn’t really work and is frequently baffling. The two different US and UK texts and titles confuses things further.

Bravo chap! I haven't read 16 books in my lifetime. -From Colorado5

I can't believe this is the final one.

Congratulations on finishing the Gardner books! I really enjoyed your reviews of them as they were so entertaining.

Been a wild ride, really excited to see and hear your thoughts on the Benson novels!

Really enjoyed your John Gardener book reviews.

One thing I wanted to say was that Gardner wasn’t just updating the character for the 80s when he began, but was also “updating” Bond novels to be more in line with popular spy fiction of the time. Fleming wrote what I call “pulp espionage,” light and simple stories with larger-than-life villainy. Gardner was writing in the height of Len Deighton, John Le Carre (long established by this point in espionage fiction), and Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity published in 1980), and while I would never claim Gardner was aiming so high (or succeeded if he was), I feel he was clearly taking influences from the new espionage novels of the time. I don’t think Bond novels would have survived if they had been written like Fleming’s during the 80s. I had been a Bond fan, both Fleming and the Films, before Gardner even wrote his first novel. I liked him a lot, but had my own issues here and there, though to be fair, I had issues with a few of the Fleming’s as well. I have enjoyed your videos (though disagree with a few of your rankings) and look forward to your Raymond Benson continuation. (I disliked how his read more like the movies than they did the books to me.) If you haven’t, or didn’t intend to, I highly recommend Charlie Higson’s Young Bond series. They were amazing and some of my favorite Bond novels.

Great series of reviews, looking forward to the Benson Bonds. Have only just read Ten Minus Zero for the first time. Have to say I enjoyed it much more the the three Garner’s I read (Licence Renewed, For Special Service and Licence To Kill 😱).

Congratulations, Calvin! May the Benson era be more consistently entertaining than the Gardner one.

Congratulations! Looking forward for the next chapter of books reviews! :)

Great video series, loved watching all of these.

Crazy you got through them all, almost can't believe it 😂! I'll raise a glass to that though 🥂! There's some highs and a lot of lows to Gardner in my opinion but it's been fun watching you read through the madness as well. I feel Benson knows and likes the character of Bond better, so I reckon you'll enjoy the Benson books although I'm more excited for you getting to the modern run of continuation novels. There's some genuinely great Bond stories to be found there, especially Horowitz trilogy.

Christopher Woods did the first Bond book I ever read (the Moonraker novelization) but the second Bond book I read was a Gardner book being Icebreaker.

A great series of reviews. You're a better man than me, I gave up after Scorpious...

Well done on completing your Gardner odyssey Calvin. I read most of them in my twenties and I found them quite a rewarding segment of the Bond universe. I think one of the reasons was that I liked having a big package of Bond adventures that hadn't been adapted for the screen. I've reread a few of them and I think I've found them a little more frustrating on rereading than I did first time round. No doubt if I'd had to break them down and analyze them as you have done I might have been more critical first time around. But even though they can be a bit bizarre and overly twisty at times, the Gardner books are the continuation novels that I have the most affection for. I think he is probably the best thriller writer amongst the coninuation authors. His non-Bond novels tend to be highly regarded by spy fans. I hope that you will enjoy Benson. As a fan of the Brosnan ers I suspect that you will get on with them somewhat more than Gardner.

I once did an interview with Raymond Benson. He said he was told he had the continuation novel gig in 1995 at the official James Bond convention at New York City. I don't know exactly when Gardner told Glidrose (now Ian Fleming Publications) he was through.

00:09 Honestly Calvin, It wouldn't have mattered if it wasn't Bollinger as your a true Roger Moore fan anyway and you deserve it ;) 21:58 and well done for saying that too :)

My compliments to you, Calvin, on getting through all of the Gardner novels! I can claim to have read them but, thanks to which titles were in my local public libraries and what I found secondhand over the early-mid noughties, I never read them in order. And while I’ve wanted to in the past, your reviews may have put me off of that! I do recall how inconsistent they were in quality and perhaps none more so than this one (which I read fairly late in my reading of the Gardner novels). But I tip my hat to you for getting through them all and don’t blame you for wanting a break before heading into the Benson novels.

Excellent video as always! I can’t wait for you to get to the Anthony Horowitz 007 books he’s my absolute favourite author

Congrats on finishing the Gardner era. Your reviews are great.

Re: Benson ... I'd suggest skipping over Mid-Summers Night Doom. It was commissioned by Playboy and takes place at the Playboy mansion. I won't say any more.

Awesome! Now on to the Urine fixation era Calvin! Hope you like scenes set in bathrooms!

Congrats on getting to the end! 🎉 I read all the Gardners just before Spectre, and not sure I will ever again, but I enjoyed watching your journey through the books.

Thank you for reading Gardner Bond so I didn't have to! Have only read License Renewed and that didn't encourage me to read anything else by him. Will probably do so one day after I've finished all the other Bond books. Am happily anticipating your reviews and views of the Benson books which I have read and enjoyed.

I guess Gardner also copied Fleming's style of having each novel FOR THE MOST PART be stand alone and then bring story elements back later near the end of the series. After Casino Royale, Vesper is never even mentioned until OHMSS which is fitting because later in the novel Bond of course married Tracy (as short lived as the marriage was). TMWTGG, despite Fleming not knowing it'd be his final full length novel, feels like it's the end of Bond's story because at the end it's heavily implied that Bond is gonna settle down with Mary Goodnight. So despite how hit or miss Gardner has been, it's good that he was able to conclude his Bond's story line. And congratulations on finally finishing them haha. These videos have definitely been entertaining and in many cases you've saved us all so much time in reviewing his novels so we don't have to read them if we don't want. Great video! Cheers!

The end of an era. I wonder what you’ll review next? Bond novels from other authors?

Congratulations Calvin! 🍸Fair play for sticking with this, a Bond channel of your size needn’t produce such niche content. Thank you for keeping the literary end up. 👏

From how I have understood the quality of the Gardner novels from these reviews, Prosecco seems appropriate

7:49 I presume Gardner had the climax of 'Rambo: First Blood Part 2' in mind when writing that sequence at the time but I liked the MI: Fallout link. 9:39 Given Bond girls returning was not something the film series did at that time, I wonder if Gardner felt he couldn't do it for the books but after having Flicka in a second book with Seafire without any push back, he felt it was now fair game as long as it was his characters, not the Fleming ones. 17:40 Sukie in this book compared to the version in 'Nobody Lives For Ever' is pretty much 'in name only' and that book was released 10 years prior to this one so you have to wonder what the point of it was.

Congratulations Calvin! You have achieved a remarkable feat! To be fair to Gardner, he kept the franchise going and tried to keep the sense of outlandish characters and events, especially in keeping with the 80s films. I am about 2/3rds through Gardner and the same through Benson. Very different writers! The first Horowitz book, Trigger Mortis, is my favourite post-Fleming. Jump to Horowitz as soon as you can!

This Era was something else. John was certainly not Ian and this Era certainly does not hold a candle to the classic. I'm highly interested for the next era

That Prosecco looks great 🍾 👌🏻

Aside from Gardner bringing back some of his characters and clearly treats this as a finale of his tenure, I found COLD rather bland and among his worst. Another evil organization and another lackluster climax. To me it felt that this was just another job that he wanted to finish. I am certain that will you enjoy Benosn´s books. They are not in Fleming´s style but you can clearly see that Benson is a fan and put put a lot of thoughts in his novels, which I found very thrilling and original (which I can not say about most of the Gardners). I just finished "The killing Zone" (that infamous fan-novel that was long mistaken for an official novel) and i can honestly say that this was even worse than anything that Gardner, Faulks, Deaver and Boyd put on paper.

You should consider doing the Alex Rider books. I'm sure you'll enjoy em as much as James Bond

Perhaps Gardner’s tenure ends with Bond trapped in some sortof weird avant-garde never-ending ouroboros where every time he reaches the end of COLD he finds a new female M being put in her office, but then every time he thinks he’s dealt with the Goldeneye satellite, Flicka suddenly appears in her hospital bed alive again.

Thank YOU for going through the Gardner books so I don’t have to 😅 you are the goat Calvin!

Thanks for the book reviews! It's especially appreciated since Babs has made it clear she has no more interest in her movie franchise after Craig's departure.

This was the first James Bond book I ever read. Found it at a rummage sale.

It's been a hell of a ride. I feel kind of sad now that John Gardner's done. He is my favorite Bond writer.

Bravo sir!

Yikes, the description of COLD sounds chillingly prophetic. 😱

Congratulations at finally completing the whole set, similar to Sean Connery I have a love/hate attitude towards these Gardner novels, some are superb ie, NOBODY LIVES FOREVER, WIN LOSE OR DIE, others ok (ICEBREAKER) and many are awful and even worse (ROLE OF HONOUR) Boring to me ! Fleming's were never like that, it took me 40 years to complete the whole series, starting in 1983 with ICEBREAKER, eventually getting the hardbacks on each release, all but giving up on them, before being drawn back again and again, finally did COLD in April this year, it was the worst of the entire run ! I think Gardner was tasked with coming up with plots year after year when the muse well, was dry Benson is a really good writer and I looked forward to each novel in turn, excited to hear your opinion on those, it's more of a pleasure without a doubt

Ah geez there's twelve Raymond Benson novels and a further three before Calvin gets to Anthony Horowitz' first.

You know they ran out of ideas when they name it “Cold”.

Which title do you like more - “COLD” or “Cold Fall”?

I have no idea of what the next couple of authorised writers will produce, but I sincerely hope that they get back to something that feels like Fleming, even if Bond is still based in contemporary times for the book releases. The Gardner period just feels 'meh'.

Honestly and i know i am in the minority Raymond Benson is my favorite Bond author period like better then fleming… No i am not related to the man No he is not paying me Yes i am serious So i am both scared and excited to hear my favorite bond reviewer cover my favorite bond author

I honestly thought Flicka died at the end of SeaFire....

I’m honestly surprised that you weren’t really that high on the book. Your synopsis of it actually sounded really engaging. It’s also interesting that Gardner went the route of two time periods here, almost like he saw what they did in Golden Eye and decided that he wanted to give it a try in his own way.

Wait until you get to _The Facts of Death_ - it was too over the top for _Die Another Day._ Enjoy!

Feelings on Benson aside, there are several shorts (that others have noted) you'll have to seek out, but also there is a three book omnibus of sorts called the UNION TRILOGY. It is important because the omnibus also included the full version of his first Bond short story, BLAST FROM THE PAST. All other releases of the story are edited, dropping approximately 1/3 of the story. (Without spoilers, the story annoyed me fiercely for it seemed way too important (and a great subject matter) to waste on a short story.)

You should do the young bond series next.

The only good thing about the Gardener novels were the hardback covers by Richard Chopping. Did you ever do a video about Richard Chopping - his cover art is fantastic. It’s a real shame they don’t try and do these sort of covers for the new books.

So Calvin, did you know James Bond was a World War II veteran after he was born in Wattensheid, Germany in November 11, 1920 in the novel universe for the James Bond origin comic after the Young Bond chronicles?

If you want to keep a strict continuity, you should really cover the James Bond Jr novelizations before you hop on to Raymond Benson 🤠🤠🔫

Hey Calvin, weird question, please answer it, don't know if you addressed this before, if you did, ignore it I guess. Who do you imagine as Bond & the MI6 regulars when you read these books? I think that if it was me, it'd be new non-existing people that fit within the archetype, not necessarily one of the actors who portrayed the character. Is that where your mind goes, or it's always one specific actor, or you go back and forth sometimes (I do that sometimes with some books, many actors "cast" in one role). Also curious if, for example, when you read Casino Royale and Moonraker, you'd imagine Craig and Moore specifically. That's it, kinda random stuff but I thought of it right now and wanted to know.

I also have the same feeling towards John Gardner's Bond books.....he has a couple good ones, but the rest are painfully mediocre. I enjoyed Raymond Benson's books much better. The Man with the Red Tattoo is my second favorite bond continuation novel (Nobody lives forever is #1) . Also, Raymond Benson is very active on his Facebook fan page, he always responds to fans questions and comments, I bet he would be willing to do a ZOOM interview with you..

Now you've finished, I see you're moving onto Raymond Benson's continuation books, well I wish you luck and will be interested to know what you think. Could you do us a favour. Please review them on their own merit and against each other like you did with Gardner ones. Don't compare them to how good they are compared to Gardner's till you've read them all, because whilst they're aren't bad, (a couple are poor) I preferred gardner, not only for stories but his style of prose.

Gardner created quite a body of work and like it or loathe it he did it in his own style. Although he was influenced by outside trends quite a bit. Although i think this was him baring the responsibility of keeping the Bond franchise alive. As i recall Bond wasn't very popular through the 80s. Largely as I see it as a combination of Moore hanging on too long, by about 3 movies and the attempted move to make Bond more woke in the Dalton movies. Which i think people weren't ready for. I don't know what book sales were like but if Gardner felt like he was fighting for the survival of the Bond franchise, without much support, then i wouldn't blame him. I'd recommend the Gardener books to any Bond fan. As Calvin points out there are many annoying literary tactics deployed by Gardner, such as characters having 2-4 names they go by! But the books are worth a look all the same.

As an overall story, which is better Calvin? COLD or No Time To Die?

To get all of the Benson stories, you need to track down issues of Playboy and TV Guide.