Yeah, Gardner loves him some twists. Shame he only knows two: ‘baddie turns out to be a goodie’ and ‘goodie turns out to be a baddie’. It got to the point where I would begin a JG Bond book and ask: “well, which character’s going to be the turncoat this time?” I thought it worked OK here for the most part, but when Brad turned out to really be a good guy I was like “again?!” I liked the uneasy dynamic of the group, and how it tapped into the whole Cold War paranoia, and that even the CIA, Mossad and MI6, despite being on the same side, don’t fully trust one another. Also, I liked the setting, and I think Gardner did a good job at capturing the foreboding nature of it, a place so cold that you have to wear 15 coats just to go outside or else you die, and where it gets dark at 2 PM. Fleming often had Bond in luxurious warm climates, so I thought it made a nice change up. And yes, that torture scene was very effective.

I say go for it. I honestly can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the Anthony Horowitz works - Trigger Mortis and Forever and a Day.

I’m really enjoying this series, it’s very entertaining listening to someone talk about the absolute insanity that occurs in these Gardner novels!

Mr Dyson your dedication to James Bond is the best thing ever. Thankyou for regular videos, we really appreciate it, you are the best at what you do and a treasure to the James Bond fandom!

It is my favourite Bond from Gardner ! I really like the cold atmosphere of finland portrayed in the book and also the setup with its twists and turns. I was fascinated by this page turner - so much that one day i am planning to do a cold roadtrip to finland.

Breaking it up would be a good idea. Since a lot is one offs, like Devil May Care, Carte Blanche and Solo, and most go back to the 50's-60's setting for Bond. This would also open up the way to an interesting comparison between stories set in the classic era of Fleming and those in a more contemporary setting :)

As a Finn I am obligated to like this book. And as a Metal Gear fan I enjoy over the top triplecrosses.

Calvin, please do ALL THE GARDNERS in a row! They get better and they start to connect to each other more! Don’t do the newer ones in between (Horowitz, Faulks etc.), that would dilute from the experience of Gardner’s Bond. I can understand your frustration with the early Gardners but the good ones are coming. Role Of Honor and Nobody Lives For Ever shouldn’t be separated, and from there on they get better and better (if you ask me). To me, Nobody Lives For Ever (1986), No Deals Mr. Bond (1987), Scorpius (1988), Win Lose Or Die (1989), The Man From Barbarossa (1991) and Death is Forever (1992) are as intriguing as Fleming’s work. Please keep doing the John Gardner reviews in sequence (without the later authors interspersed). Keep up the good work👍

Can't believe it's been over a year since the last Bond book review, still holding out hope we'll see another one soon!

At this point in the series, it seems Gardner was committed to having Bond have a PTSD flashback to Tracy’s death once a book, and by this stage I found it was getting kind of repetitive, because they really didn’t add much. I think a better writer could’ve made them gel into the plot better, the way Gardner wrote them felt to me it was just a reference for reference’s sake - a solitary paragraph each book to show he knew the Fleming canon. I think he wanted it both ways: he wanted to show a man affected by his wife’s brutal murder, but he also wanted to write the same Bond character we know and love, so that’s why I felt it never really clicked. Thank goodness he dropped the motif in later books because it did get to the point where I was like: “he mentioned Tracy’s death - drink!”

Honestly, it's a little strange, but Gardner's last few books kind of mirror his first few. Never Send Flowers has a lot in common with Licence Renewed, if only that it is "Bond is locked in his room in a murder mystery castle and must escape", and SeaFire shares at least one thread with Icebreaker in that it's "Bond vs. the 4th Reich".

So I ordered a all the John Gardner bond novels in one lot of paperback books off eBay for just over forty dollars. The package arrived yesterday and along with the Gardner novels the seller had included the Christopher wood novelizations.

This was actually my favourite of the Gardner novels. I loved the ice-bound setting. It made it feel very different as that environment gives the whole thing a lot of scope for inventive and tense sequences. You're absolutely right. That torture scene certainly does stand out and is possibly the highlight of the whole book. I certainly preferred it to For Special Services. I felt For Special Services strayed a little too far into The Man from U.N.C.L.E. territory with the whole ice-cream plot. I read this when it first came out and at that time you did tend to read the Gardner books with the films in mind as the novels where released with as much regularity as the movies back in the day but the style of the John Gardner books can be very repetitive. The same plot twists over and over again. Please do feel free to review some of the more recent Bond stories just to refresh the palette.. I don't have a problem with that. Then you can return to Gardner refreshed. I would be interested to hear your take on the Raymond Benson books as I didn't particularly like them very much. I found them instantly forgettable and I didn't think they had particularly standout villains. Some people like them though. Perhaps you will actually prefer them to Gardner. An interesting well, reasoned review as always Calvin.

I seem to remember enjoying this one more than a lot of the Gardner books, and I think all the conflicts between the team members was a big part of that. The torture sequence has been rebranded as the Win Hof Method and you pay $6.99 a month for it now. And, yes, the double-triple-quadruple crossing at the end was a bit of a blur.

Will you be reviewing the young James Bond books?

This was one of first Bond books that I read. I was a teenager and came across it in a bookstore, and had no idea Bond books were still a thing after Fleming died. I enjoyed it for the twists and turns, and at some point I do plan to read it again knowing who’s really on which side to see if the story makes sense.

Calvin, THANK YOU for reviewing these books! Somewhat like your first Bond-novel experience, I first came across this novel in a second-hand store and was fascinated! I'd heard of the Fleming novels, but never read them--when I came across this book, I couldn't believe Bond had these adventures that I'd never heard of! This got me to go back and read all the Fleming novels, and continue through the Gardner novels. Overall, I feel like the Gardner novels range from poor to good...but despite that, I enjoyed each of them for giving me a new Bond adventure, and I recognize that it's got to be hard to write an inventive story for a character who's not really allowed to grow. I also remember coming across a post somewhere by John Gardner's son, who mentioned how many unpopular ideas attributed to Gardner are actually mandates by the publisher. Anyway, thanks again, and keep 'em coming!

Hi Calvin ! Thanks for the upload, always a welcome addition to my Sundays :) I think you should intertwine the Gardner books with the film novelizations, those are the books that I'm actually most curious to hear your opinion about ;) cheers mate !

Thank you for these reviews Calvin. It's been some years since I have read the Gardner books, so its good to have these as a reminder. The continuation novels fall into three sections for me: The Gardeners, The Bensons, and then the stand alones - although I do hope Horowitz develops into series too. So, for me, to break things up, I would insert a stand alone between the Gardeners and the Bensons.

I can't think of anyone in the world, who could do these reviews, any better than you Calvin. Highly entertaining.

Everytime I read a gardner the first 1/2 is a page turner. I think "Wow he's not bad at all". Than all of a sudden I find myself completely uncompelled with what ever the hell is going on. Usually right before the pre climax too. I would like to see your thoughts on Raymond Benson. He gets a bad rap, and his writing is very underdone, but I personally enjoyed that. It allowed the Bond fan to draw upon their own idea of character, and universe than being fed over stuffed "wanna be Ian" lingo.

I’d love to see you review Devil May Care. The macro image of Bond had changed so much by ‘08 so I’m interested to see if you think that changes the approach of the book. On an unrelated note, part of my lockdown viewing has been the BBC’s Spooks from back in the day, and I love to know what you think about that as well.

Hi Calvin, I prefer you going on with Gardner's books. The chronogical order is more interesting I think (ps : your channel is my favorite Bond channel of all)

Any chance getting a hold of James Bond Jr by R.D. Mascott?

I'd definitely like you to cover the more recent bond novels as they are more linked to my generation and I've always wondered how they measure up to the Fleming stories (especially as Faulks lived like Fleming for months on end when writing)

I hope you can get back to these at some point. Breaking them up may be a relief, yeah, though the building agony was entertaining in a way haha

I’m loving that you’re doing the post Fleming Novels. Could you do Never Send Flowers and Carte Blanche next as they’re my two favourites, with Zero Minus Ten and High Time To Kill close behind. They’re the entries I’ve been reading after watching the films. I’m weird but because I watched the films first, I want to read the novels which no film has had any influence from. So apart from a 1st edition of The Spy Who Loved Me, I’ve not bought or read any other Fleming novels. I have all of the non film based novels post that era. I’ll get them once I finished the rest lol

Also known as "Mission in Finland, James Bond" in Finland.

Another great review! You deserve a million subscribers!

It would be nice to see Bond driving a SAAB 900 Turbo in the movies. It seems Fleming hated Germans because they are portrayed always so negatively in his books and now Gardner doing so in this one. It would be nice to see this book get filmed because Bond is in Finland. I am from Finland and that would be the most exotic place for a Bond adventure.

Well as the only post-fleming novels I have read are only Trigger Mortis and Carte Blanche, I would love to hear your thoughts on them

I read Icebreaker about 25 years ago and 2 years ago again. I liked Icebreaker the first time I read it a lot. The second time not quite as much, but it was still a good read. Yes, John Gardner does make a lot of characters do changes like in this novel. But it was suspenseful.

Tbh, i'm really enjoying seeing these reviews come out chronologically, like, i enjoy hearing about the evolution of literary bond as the novels go along. However, if you feel like you would enjoy it more by breaking the reviews up with new ones here and there than do it! I'll watch no matter what 😂

Hey Calvin! Love the videos! If you need a break, why not do a review of Forever and a Day? It's a standalone prequel, and Horowitz is a master writer!

Hi Calvin. Another great piece of work. I'd love to see your review of Carte Blanche by Jeffrey Deaver. I always found it to be very filmic and wondered why it was never converted to a screenplay. A good writer could turn it into a better screenplay than some of the Brosnan/Craig stories.

Hey Calvin, loving the vids lately. Finally got the time to catch up! I was wondering, would you ever consider reviewing or perhaps just talking about the bond soundtracks ? I'm an avid music lover so the scores of bond have always stuck with me. I would love to hear your take on them. that goes for anyone else reading this as well, would love to hear some opinions flying. Anyways take care y'all!

I recently found your channel and I'm enjoying this series. Will you be continuing it in the future or was this the last Bond novel you'll review?

Break up the monotony and enjoy yourself. Appreciate the candor and honest reviews where not everything is always perfect with this universe etc

Break it up! Contemporary ones will make a nice mix. Although interested to know your thoughts on Nobody Lives Forever (the best of the ones ones I've read by JG) and Never Send Flowers (Bond enjoys Disneyland)

How to go forward is up to how you want to do it. I am happy either way.

Would like to hear more on your thoughts about each book series I would have said go with how you thought it up a few Gardner books then some of the brand new ones and back to Gardner then Benson

If you'd like a 'wild card' novel try Clive Cussler's Night Probe where there is a supporting character implied to be an aging bond

Are you ever going to read the Raymond Benson ones? I think you might like them.

Hi, are you gonna make A review of moonraker? Would love to check that out.

Get used to the double and triple crosses in the future books!

Gardiner plays on the duality and contradictory personality traits within many characters, much like Fleming did with Bond and his relationships with women. Even strict ideologues have internal struggles sometimes.

I think you'll enjoy the Horowitz books far more than the Gardner ones, so maybe go through with your idea of breaking the series up a little? I'm perfectly happy either way, just whatever helps keep your sanity intact!

I love this book, mainly because it was my read on the commute when needing to travel 1 hr to get to school in the train. i usually don't read on commutes, because, i prefer to keep my eyes and ears peeld, but loved this book durring that time. i want to read it once more, but i have so manny books and comics to read, on the ever growing pile, that it's hard to start, when so much is still unread. i need to get my hands on a complete collection of these books in english

Definitely review the Horowitz novels. Trigger Mortis is especially great. Honestly, I'd imagine given Horowitz is a genuinely great popular novelist I'd imagine they surpass any of the Gardner novels in quality (I know the authors of Devil May Care, Solo, are fairly renowned too _ I've read them years ago but remember almost nothing of them - but I think the consensus is Horowitz's are the best). He (Horowitz) has a new one coming out this spring so I'd love to see you do his first two before then and you'll be up to date with the contemporary literary Bond trilogy (so far) - hearing your release date-ish review of the new one would be awesome! (Not that they - obviously can only speak for his first two - share any continuity to speak of. It'd just be cool to have a contemporaneous review for With a Mind To Kill (Horowitz's 2022 release). Love your stuff, take care

Yeah I think it would be good to have a mix of Gardner and contemporary!

If you do decide to take a break from Gardner, I highly recommend checking out Horowitz. Personally, I put Trigger Mortis and Forever and a Day in the same league as the original Flemming books.

What I always wondered was how old was Gardner's M supposed to be, in his 80s?

Enjoying these reviews as I’m making my way through the series & trying not to compare them to Fleming’s books.

I like the plan of jumping around a bit.

I haven't read this one since it first came out. Your review reminded me of the frustrations I had with the endless plot twists. As for the Gardner books, I read a few more after Icebreaker and I don't recall them getting much better. I haven't read the contemporary ones but I hear they're better. Give yourself a break and mix it up.

I'd love to hear your reviews of the Benson books. They sound like an improvement on the Gardner books. I totally visualised Brosnan as Bond in those books.

James Bond taking on neo-Nazis would be a good Bond film.

Solo by William Boyd is a really interesting Bond story set back closer to the Fleming times if I remember right. You should definitely check that one out if you want a break from Gardner. I read it several years ago, but I really enjoyed it

Hi, huge fan of Bond and of you. Im also reading the Gardner books and im up to Role of Honour. I would love for you to go in order if possible.

Calvin, have you heard of the James Bond radio dramas from BBC Radio 4? You should listen to those and review them because they're adaptations from the novels. They have done 9 so far. I would recommend that you listen and review them in production order instead of chronological order. Dr. No was the very first one they did back in 2008. I have them all on my own channel.

I would be up for you breaking up these reviews with the post Raymond Benson novels as they are mostly 'stand alone' so can be read out of order [ though, except for Jeffery Deaver's novel, they try to tie in with Flemings canon in some way.

Will you be looking at the young bond books?

The title screen when you get to Coldfall should say it all...😂

It’s an interesting concept forcing Bond to work with other agents from other nations but thinking about it, the villain is kinda weak in that it’s the problem of show dont tell. Gardner keeps telling us these guys are bad, but we don’t really see it. Overall I find Gardner’s run on James Bond the equivalent of popcorn film James Bond, you’re in, 2 hours later, you’ve had your popcorn, watched some explosions and witty campy fun and then you forget about 90% of it with a day. Very formulaic but there’s a campy charm to it. I’m convinced he must have had Roger Moore in mind because his tone really would fit Roger Moore’s campy bind.

I would recommend alternating the Gardner books with others.

I really like Icebreaker, with the set up of Bond forced to work along opposite agents, what could go wrong? Even your allies can't be trusted. With Gardner, at least I appreciate that it's original, something a rarity these days. I'd love to see you review the Young Bond novels!

A silly, enjoyable book but very convuluted. I've done my best to read the Gardener series, but Scorpius was such a slog and I'm struggling to motivate myself to finish Win, Lose or Die - it's not looking good for my plans to complete the series... I might have to leave it up to you Calvin!

I've got a lot of time for Icebreaker, would have liked to have seen it adapted into a Daniel Craig Bond movie. I dont envy Calvin wading his way through the rest of the Gardner books though. Looking forward till he catches up with, Devil May Care, Carte Blanche, Solo etc....Edit: Definitely up for you staggering the reviews as you suggest!

Devil may care is really good and so are the Horowitz books. Would be a welcome break from Gardner for you. Although, you'll probably won't want to go back to Gardner afterwards:) Hang in there, the Raymond Benson books relate more to the Fleming books and that's the next chunk of work after Gardner.

I'm interested in seeing the series continued to be read chronologically to see how the portrayal of Bond evolved as the years went by - but seeing your hilarious befuddlement at Gardner's writing is certainly a big plus as well.

This was a page turner for me, definitely the most exciting of the 3 Gardner books I've read so far. However, Bond is really just along for the ride. So many plot twists and double and triple crosses that everything has to be explained to Bond (and the reader) in an exposition dump at the end of the book. Bond does kill the big bad in the end, but that's literally all he does and even that is not really of his own doing. There is the skeleton of a great Bond novel here, but it could have used another rewrite so that Bond actually figures something out and has some agency. But at least it is a quick read.

The CIA should have sent Leiter. Maybe the Soviet agent could have come from FRWL.

I would put the John Gardner books on hold as they are all set in the 1980s. I'm not sure if you want to know when the others are set but the Jeffrey Deaver book is somewhat of reset set in the 2000's. The Sebastian Faulks and Anthony Horowitz ones are set in the 60s. In fact the devil-may-care Sebastian Faulks story comes with its own theme tune if you are able to get hold of the penguin issued unabridged CD collection.

I really like this novel it reads quite well if you stick with it from start to finish. Rather more like a movie than the Fleming novels. I can imagine Timothy Dalton in this one as Bond and Joe Don Baker as Brad Tirpitz...

I think you should review the Anthony Horowitz JB books, they are supposed to be very good and work well with Fleming's continuity (As do solo and devil may care).

I hope you review the continuation novels in the order of; Colonel Sun Devil May Care Carte Blance Solo Trigger Mortis Forever and a Day I really enjoyed the Gardner novels and Icebreaker. I particularly enjoyed Nobody Lives for Ever and No Deals, Mr. Bond

I honestly wouldn't mind the next Bond films being set around the era of WW2. It would be interesting to see a period piece Bond film.

The William Boyd 007 novel Solo is very good. I highly recommend it. The plot is believable and the tone of the story is serious. Timothy Dalton would have been great in a film version of this book.

It's your channel, so by all means do what you would find to be mostenjoyable. I've always found the Gardner books to be difficult reads and even the highest quality ones only approach the lowest of the Fleming novels. I would say all of the recent novels 2008-present are better than the Gardner efforts.

Have you seen Crossplot (1969) starring Roger Moore I think you would get a kick out of it and it also involves spies the full film is up on KZfaq if you dont mind 360p

I thought Carte Blanche was a fantastic read. I would love for you to review some of the other more-recent books.

When is the spy who loved me review coming And Sandor is in Dr No

I read this one as a kid! Mostly because the only violence allowed was violence towards Nazis

In the novelisation of license to kill there is a sub plot where we follow Sanchez for a few chapters an in his internal monologue we find out he has a thing for Felix’s wife. And Dario is also a transvestite and bond finds out when he opens the car door for himself after bond and Dario shag it’s a really emotional read.

5:03 DeJa Vu, or a glitch in the Matrix?

William Boyd's Bond novel, "Solo" is worth a read. Boyd is a great author (An Ice Cream War & Brazzaville Beach are excellent) although Solo is not one of of his best books.

My Bond ranking of Fleming and Gardner: 1 - You Only Live Twice (1964, Fleming) 2 - From Russia With Love (1957, Fleming) 3 - Death Is Forever (1992, Gardner) 4 - Moonraker (1955, Fleming) 5 - Win, Lose Or Die (1989, Gardner) 6 - OHMSS (1963, Fleming) 7 - Nobody Lives For Ever (1986, Gardner) 8 - Casino Royale (1953, Fleming) 9 - Dr. No (1958, Fleming) 10 - Thunderball (1961, Fleming) 11 - The Man From Barbarossa (1991, Gardner) 12 - Never Send Flowers (1993, Gardner) 13 - Live And Let Die (1954, Fleming) 14 - No Deals, Mr. Bond (1987, Gardner) 15 - Seafire (1994, Gardner) 16 - Goldfinger (1959, Fleming) 17 - For Special Services (1982, Gardner) 18 - The Spy Who Loved Me (1962, Fleming) 19 - Cold Fall / COLD (1996, Gardner) 20 - Licence Renewed (1981, Gardner) 21 - Icebreaker (1983, Gardner) 22 - Scorpius (1988, Gardner) 23 - The Man With The Golden Gun (1965, “Fleming”) 24 - Role Of Honor (1984, Gardner) 25 - Brokenclaw (1990, Gardner) 26 - For Your Eyes Only (1960, Fleming) 27 - Diamonds Are Forever (1956, Fleming) 28 - Octopussy And The Living Daylights (1966, Fleming) However much I love the original Fleming books, I must beat the drum for the John Gardner’s and say that they have not aged as badly as Fleming’s novels. I think most Gardner books keep a fairly evenly good quality as spy yarns, with a handful being superior. Fleming’s work is more spotty.

i 100% support breaking up the Gardener books (In fact I suggested in a comment on one of your last Fleming ones doing all the 1950s and 60s based books before Gardener to try to spare you this ordeal!) The two Horowitz Bonds are in the top three continuation novels with Colonel Sun for me, and the others are passable at worst. On the other hand my bottom ten would be 80-100% Gardener books :p The regular betrayals are so predictable, the books are lifeless and I don't think its a coincidence that the only one that people think is okay-ish is the one that's less than half as long as the others. (Nobody Lives Forever) Save yourself and break them up.

I hope you review more of Gardner's Bond books so I don't have to read them.

Carry on in order, always best to see how things evolve chronologically. If you really don't like them, you're gonna struggle getting back into them if you switch to the newer or better stuff.

I think Icebreaker would make a great Netflix TV show with all it's twists and turns

Do a James Bond carte blanche book review

You probably have read (considering it’s one of your favourite 007 movies) the John Gardner GoldenEye novel. If not, would you? Also a review would be appreciated...

Carry on with John Gardner’s James Bond books. Then I like you to review Trigger Mortis and Forever And A Day.. To see what you thought of Anthony Horowitz take on James Bond.

I gave up reading 'Icebreaker' - thanks for reading and reviewing the whole thing don't think I'll bother going back to reading it. Please review some of the more contemporary books and go back to the Gardener ones at a later date. I'm not so familiar with those. I gave up reading spin off books because they were so bad. There's not one that I read that I ended up thinking I love to see this turned into a film. More like thank goodness they weren't. Die Another Day was a masterpiece compared to some of these terrible books.

Yes, break it up with Charlie Higson's Young Bond books!

A general softening of M being played by Robert Brown... up until License to Kill where he goes really Fleming for no particular reason other than that the writers wanted him to. Maybe that's why he got fired and replaced with Dench's M :p

Odd question but were you walking in Wimbledon Common earlier today? I swear it was you.

I never got into Gardner however his later hooked like Seafire were actually kind of cool I love Bensons works and am nervous about you reviewing them as I feel like I am the only person who loved Raymond Bensons’ books I remember at 11 I always hated the first few chapters of books because they were usually slow until I read bensons which has bond killing someone and having sex in the first chapter at that point I was hooked For me post Fleming it goes Benson Gardner Deaver (I liked the book but the lack of sex in it bothered me somewhat not that bond has to sleep with every woman period but it’s supposed to be male fantasy escapism and Bond not sleeping with his coworker because she is engaged even though she clearly wants to cheat doesn’t seem like my 007) Horowitz Faulks Boyd Horowitz I don’t like because he adds a lot of reality tv drama elements to it faulks had bond getting high which pissed me off and Boyd was beyond boring So yeah I am in the minority but I want a sequel to deaver’s Carte blanche

I'm very much enjoying these reviews, but equally can understand you wanting to break them up. Especially as this is really the format setter for the Gardner series. If you're not keen on this one, it might become a bit monotonous. Though the next couple at least play with things a bit more. On the relationship to the films, Gardner did always insist he'd never seen a Bond film after Moonraker, specifically to avoid accusations of being movie rather than book inspired. How true that is, I I don't know. I hope he had a big catchup after he stopped writing the series though. Amusingly, the first American editions of some of his later 80's novels used the same Bond silhouette on the cover that was very obviously based on Pierce Brosnan. To the point EON had a "Can you drop that?" word after Timmy took over.