Haha, regarding Felix getting fed to the shark for a second time, I'm reminded of a line by John McClane in Die Hard 2, "How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?"

John Gardner: It's unrealistic that Sanchez would use Stingers in his evil plan! Also Gardner: Felix gets mauled by a shark twice in the exact same way, and also Bond has now met two men named Milton Krest who own boats called the Wavekrest

On John Gardner's website, it used to have an interview he did with Raymond Benson where they went through book by book and he gave his thoughts on them. It's not there anymore, but it can be found using the Wayback Machine (jump back to 2018 or so). He mentions how "there are huge jumps in the screenplay, which you can do on screen; but with a book you need to explain things. So I had to add a lot to explain how Bond got from here to there, that sort of thing." Which is one of the biggest differences between film and book I noticed (also with his GoldenEye novelisation) - for instance, when Bond flies the plane full of money away, it's never explained in the film what he does with it and I never questioned it. But Gardner's right, if a book hadn't explained that it would've been a major 'hang on a minute' moment. Thankly for Gardner he'd set Scorpius in Florida so he could bring back a minor character back to fill that hole - I do wonder what readers not familiar with Gardner's books, just wanting to read the book of a film they enjoyed, thought. Did any of them think "huh? Who's this random bloke out of nowhere?" (Also, the inclusion of this character and the fact Bond is still a Commander make me think this book was meant to be released before Win, Lose or Die. Indeed, this Benson-Gardner interview puts LTK between Scorpius and WLoD, which I think is the better order.) In the same interview Gardner mentions that he hated writing this book because the screenplay would constantly be changing and they were always couriering him new pages. Apparently when he wrote the GoldenEye novelisation he stipulated that he'd only do it if they gave him more freedom "to 'add and subtract' what he wanted and not be held to the screenplay _during_ shooting." And yeah, that's the biggest difference between Gardner's two novelisations. LTK feels, for the most part, like the film in book form - GoldenEye feels more like an earlier draft, but with more moments of Gardner going "I don't like this bit, I'm going to improve it." Spoiler alert: Gardner did not improve it.

Maybe it's the talk of pie, maybe it's the fact Killifer's played by Everett McGill, but when Felix got fed to a shark for a 2nd time, all I can think of is the Giant from Twin Peaks saying: "It Is Happening Again."

9:34 "not again" Can't help but think of John Hurt in Spaceballs reliving his Alien experience in the diner.

Many years ago I lived near Gardner and met him at a party. He was chatting to a guy who worked at one of the nearby airbases and asking him about flight simulators. You could see a Bond episode forming in his mind. He was very charming and I've been a fan since.

Gardner got the city wrong of where Felix had his first shark encounter. It was St. Petersburg, FL, not Miami.

"Oh my God, they maimed Felix!"

Also similarly to the Della scene, the mention of Tracy when Bond meets Anya in the film Spy Who Loved Me is not replicated in the novelisation by Wood...

The differences between the book and the film may not all have been of Gardner's doing. I don't know for certain, but I think it is possible that in order to have the novelisation ready for publication at the same time as the film was released, he may have had to work from an earlier draft of the screenplay.

What a coincidence, just got this novel gifted to me from my wife today. Gonna have to read it soon.

You have been far kinder to the Gardner books than I tend to be. After such a long gap before you picked them back up again, I thought they'd done you in!

Here's how Gardner should have handled the Milton Krest/ Hildebrand Rarity continuity issue; replaced Krest with a new character, but keep the Wavekrest and have Bond comment that he had encountered the boat's previous owner. I think it would be consistent with the whole Leiter/ shark issue.

Don't worry Felix, John Mcclane knows what it's like to have something unlikely happen to him twice.

Alan Dean Foster was the king of novelisations, adapting original scripts like Star Wars and Alien with all the missing bits from the theatrical releases. He wrote an unofficial sequel to New Hope called Splinter of the Mind's Eye where Luke continues to fancy Leia a lot more and first fights Vader .. Then Lucas began to distinguish between Canon and Not .. And so, who owns the Bond canon?

Happy new year calvin! Thank you for being here constantly in these past few years providing us with such good content and humour.

A thing I remember bugging me is that Gardner still refers to Bond as 007 in the narration even after he goes rogue, e.g. he uses Bond and 007 interchangeably for dialogue tags. He's lost his licence to kill, Gardner, he shouldn't still have his Double-O number! I know it's a really nitpicky point, but still, considering the whole point of the story is that he's not working for MI6 this time, referring to Bond as 007 kinda undermines that.

Fun Fact: John Gardner's *"Licence To Kill"* made a change of pistol for James Bond; replacing the PPK with a Walther P38K, and his novelization of *"GoldenEye"* has Bond use a ASP 9mm Pocket Pistol with Glaser "shotgun-like" rounds. Luckily, Raymond Benson's novelization for *"The World Is Not Enough"* had 007 reusing his old PPK, which ironically replaced his brand new Walther P99 that was first introduced in both the film & novelization of *"Tomorrow Never Dies".*

Happy New Year, and a nice way to welcome in said year, a video on my favourite Bond film😊 Read the novelisation some years ago when it appeared on Kindle download. It is an interesting curio on what is my favourite Bond film. I’m glad that the key lime pie passage was picked up on, not to mention M’s attitude towards Bond’s mission against Sanchez, remember scoffing at that chapter. However I want you to confirm one thing, is it my imagination or was there a chapter on Bond purchasing or borrowing a speed boat from a civilian friend of his? The reason I bring it up is because Gardner goes into detail on Bond’s doubts about approaching his civilian friend, whom thinks that Bond is a travel writer. I know a similar scene was cut from the film, although the boat owner was not a friend.

It was this book that cemented Timothy Dalton as my Gardner Bond mental image.

enjoyed my Echo reading it to me and the GoldenEye book also. thank goodness Tomorrow Never Dies was a proper audiobook Calvin.

Forget Felix getting mauled by sharks in each new novel. I want Calvin to do all the characters' voices.

Happy new year @calvindyson Love the first video of 2023 is about Dalton ;) Looking forward to all you post this year

Great Video, Calvin! 😊 i would in the future like to see some more ranking/re-ranking videos from you because i cannot find them on youtube. (perhaps because i live in australia) and just because i love to hear your opinions and you a a really great entertainer.

I read this just a few months ago having picked it for 25p in a charity shop. I like that "Q" gets more to do in the novel after his final appearance in the film. Also loved Calvin reading the passages from the novel (loved the Moneypenny & Pam!!)

1:10 I remember when Quantum of Solace came out they put all the Fleming short stories into one book [for the first time] and made Quantum the title story to fulfil that idea! 4:45 I know you've got a few more Gardner books to battle through first but I found this aspect noticeable in the Raymond Benson books as he tried to tie Fleming's 50/60's novels in with Brosnan's portrayal [which by his own admission was more influenced by the films than the novels]. 18:30 He is referred to as Captain after this novel but I don't think the discrepancy is addressed. Gardner later changes Bond's gun but has to use Walther PPK for Goldeneye so he probably wasn't allowed to change film continuity in these novelisation.

Wait until the Goldeneye novelization.

I think the funniest part is that Bond rattles off several missiles that are nowhere near man-portable SA-8s and Chapparals are mounted on trucks and the latter was adopted from missiles fighter jets use

In the next novel, Bond once again marries a woman called Tracy who is murdered on their honeymoon...

Even in a novelisation of a film the reader would have already seen, Gardner tries to shove in a surprise villain twist.

Another entertaining video, as always. You’re surely one of my highlight creators on all of KZfaq. Please continue to give these book reviews, as I find them interesting, and hilarious.

I believe I'd commented on some of your past videos about the possibility that Della and James had been an item, or at least had a fling, and that her marrying Felix was possibly due to James introducing them. Nice to hear now that in the novelization that had been the case. =D

As I've said before, I'm happy you're pushing through the Gardner novels because I couldn't do it haha. Push on though because the modern continuation novels from Devil May Care up to present are all pretty great, including a couple I'd put up there with some of Fleming's best so there's better things to come.

I can't remember if Bond has used his standard later Gardner books cover identity of "James Boldman" yet, but I once saw a post on a forum say that by this point, they started calling the series the Captain Boldman books because they were now so far removed from Fleming, and that always stuck with me. Benson had a very different out of book continuity approach to the novelisations, he always insisted that was the only time he was writing with Pierce Brosnan in mind as Bond.

Could you do a remake of your Connery bond reviews please, because they are from a long time ago and the microphone isn’t as good and I want to hear your new opinions! Thanks

Ha ha! "Oh no, they maimed Felix!" "You bastards!" Brilliant review of this book. I enjoyed this book and felt it was a bit more 'normal' than his previous few. I haven't got much further than this yet, though!

Happy New Year, Calvin!

Novelisations were big business in the 80's where some [such as Rambo: First Blood Part 2] would get on the best sellers list. They have declined in more recent years [probably due to the rise of home media] though there still around [Kingsman: The Golden Circle got a novelisation for example]. Often they were worth a look as they would usually be based on an earlier draft of the script and scenes deleted/changed during filming would be present [The script for Terminator Salvation/4 was changed so radically during filming, author Alan Dean Foster wrote a new novelisation from scratch]. The author was usually restricted in what they could change [Foster wanted to keep some of the characters from Aliens around for his Alien 3 book but was vetoed]. The exception was David Morrel as the author of First Blood he was able to negotiated being able to make changes when he novelised the 80's sequels [Rambo 3's novelisation is very different from the final film].

Man: Oh my GOD that shark is coming to eat us Felix: First time?

So was there a bowl of petunias on Felix's bedside that went "Oh no, not again!" when Bond enters Felix's room?

The movie kind of went ignored for me as a kid. After reading the novelization I went back and watched it as an adult. Now it’s one of my favorites.

How I enjoyed your review! Please continue your reviews of the Gardner novels, nobody does it better!

This is quite funny as Dalton is generally considered to be one of the most Fleming book-accurate Bonds lol

I always found the film novelisations not as much fun as his original stories. Too familiar to whats going to happen next, it spoils the read.

When reading Gardner's own novels, I can't stop imagining Bond as Connery in his Never Say Never Again look (but not the same style). Who do you think Gardner had in mind when writing?

I've always found that film novelizations generally end up either being a translation of the script into book form that adds very little too the story or they add a lot of extra details that had to be left out of the film script either for time or story flow reasons. One of the best ones I've ever read was the novelization of Jason Lives: Friday The 13th: VI because it was actually written by the guy who wrote and directed the film so he was able too put in all the details that he'd had to cut from the movie which actually did a really good job of fleshing out the story and adding depth too the characters including jason himself. One of the worst ones I've ever read was stephen king's storm of the century because it's literally a shot for shot translation of the script from the tv movie into book form. I do remember reading this one in high school and quite enjoying it becuase it struck a nice balance between being faithful too the story as seen in the film while also adding just enough new stuff too keep in intersting.

Christopher Wood’s novelizations are probably better as he was working with his own material. You could argue that they are the truer version of the story he had in mind as they were not restrained by film budgets or producer overwatch. Whereas, Gardner here is having to polish somone else’s gold, as it were. I give props to him for correcting the Stinger error of the film. No doubt the CIA, who has script approval, would not have allowed the producers to say Sanchez has American prototypes bought on the grey market from the CIA’s off book deals in South America 😂

I think what is kind of galling about Gardner having Felix get the shark attack twice is that the film cast David Hedison as Leiter, the first time a Leiter actor reprised his role. Hedison, of course, played Leiter in "Live And Let Die". So was Gardner trying to say that, well since Leiter was injured in the novel, and he was in the film, and the guy who played in the first film is now back in the new film, that therefore he needs to re-do the attack? But the main reason why Leiter comes back in "License To Kill" is because they wanted to do the shark attack as a call-back to the film.

Have not read it for many years, but do remember the eye popping bit about Felix Leiter being attacked, again, for continuity purposes. A remember for some of us that you read these novels by Gardner so that we don't have to ;-)

Maybe a novelization ranking going into these from here on? Each of the Pierce Brosnan movies got a novelization.

I remember reading this back in the day. The Felix thing was odd but at the time I found it interesting and appreciated the continuity. Then of course I had to read Live and Let Die to find out how it happened to Felix the first time. You may know this already, but just like the film the novel in the US used the UK spelling of licence, however it's still spelled license in the US version of Gardner's License Renewed.

Oh I never knew they never released a film book version of the 80's Bond films until License to Kill!! Its weird because you'd think you want to really promote your movie in any way possible, especially since Bond came from books originally. Is there a moment of dialogue Calvin when Bond is captured by the Hong Kong narcotics that as Bond is lying down he tells the main HK agent "I saw you in Sanchez's office, your working for them!" and THATS why the HK agent replies in the film "We're Hong Kong narcotics you B****sterd !" . I wonder why they cut that line out and I wonder if they used that later on instead as ADR or something for when Bond confronts Pam as he's reaching for her gun. It makes sense for why the HK agent says that line to him now in the book but it doesnt makes sense why he'd say that to him in the movie, its weird. I do often wonder (and the same with QOS) if there wasnt a writers strike, what would Richard Maibaum have added to the script as he turned in a first draft and M G Wilson had to just write the rest himself, is that right too? Oh and 13:06 wonderful impression man, a spitting impression of Caroline Bliss ;)

Have you reviewed the Moneypenny Diaries? They are releases by the estate, but partly follow the movies by making Moneypenny-Bond have significant interactions. I liked the first one a lot.

Very interesting review. I think this was probably trying to appeal to a wider audience than Gardner's regular readers [I seem to recall the first edition had pictures from the film in the middle but I might be wrong] which probably was another factor in the book-hence why Q appears when Qu'te would probably have fit in better with Gardner's world. I look forward to the other novelisation's when you get around to them.

Had this novel and the comic adaptation. Licence to Kill is my 2nd favorite Bond movie.

Well done for continuing this Gardner series on towards the bitter end! I started them at least 15 years ago and I still haven't got the courage to finish the few that remain:p I'm curious as to why you decided not to do a ranking video at the end though... surely that would have been a low effort way to continue using all this hard work?

Honeymoooooooon

Wow, Gardner's Bond is a REALLY bad judge of character! Haha. I guess since there couldn't be his usual double agent this time round, he felt the need to have his Bond's naivety come through somewhere else. Regarding that stinger scene, that *dialogue* sounds cumbersome! 😅

To be fair, *"For Your Eyes Only"* did get a 2-issue comic book adaptation (even a "illustrated paperback" of the comic) of the 1981 film from Marvel Comics of all people.

The Shark "If I remove this artificial leg will you die?" Felix "It would be incredibly painful".

Maybe Gardner felt he wouldn't meet his quota for that year......or he felt he was entitled to not have to come up with the entire plot & characters for once......

(Bond finds Felix maimed by a shark for a 2nd time.) Bond: NOT AGAIN! Truly 1st class writing by Gardner.

The halfway mark has been crossed! The Calvin Gardner reviews end confirmed for 2025!

I just sold a ton of my Gardner novels yesterday. I just can’t get into them at all. I did keep LTK, however, because it has Dalton on the front cover. Still have to read Goldeneye by Gardner. I just can’t justify Gardner’s books taking up shelf space because I’m an avid reader and need the space for more books. Lol

"Marriage And Maiming". Just a typical Saturday.

does anyone know the exact time when Calvin abandoned his clip on bow tie and opted for the open neck shirt? It seems to be something which has happened without any fanfare. Or did Calvin ever have one on? Is Calvin's bow tie simply a false memory, residing in my memory banks along with Dolly and her braces?

Very enjoyable review! With respect to Bond still holding the rank of Commander in this book, while I do not know exactly when John Gardner wrote this book and the other one that was published in 1989, where he does indeed promote Bond to Captain--Win, Lose or Die, in the US at least, the novelization of Licence To Kill was published as early as May of 1989, and Win, Lose Or Die was not published until late July. Thus, the promotion occurred later in the literary timeline--at least omn this side of the pond! I had seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade the weekend it opened. It came out on Wednesday, May 24, 1989, and I saw it that Friday, May 26, 1989. Now, the next day (or possibly even before I saw the film) I went to my local Waldenbooks to pick up the novelizationby Rob MacGregor, and much to my delighted surprise they also had John Gardner's novelization of Licence To Kill, which I happened to see as, thankfully, the store employees had placed it on the shelf with the cover facing out so it immediately caught my eye. I had been a Bond fan for about ten years at that point, and had read all of the Gardner novels as they were published. While I knew that Win, Lose or Die was on its way that summer (probably by seeing an ad for it in the paperback version of Scorpius in the bookstore---I did not buy the parperback as I had the hardcover so I can't verify that), I had no idea that a novelization was in the works. While I was a member of the American fan club at that time, I do not recall it being mentioned in their magazine Bondage or their newsletter Bondage Quarterly, and aside from the British Fan Club, which I would join later, there were very few other sources readily available which would have bothered to cover such a momentous event! (You kids today have no idea how spoiled you are😉) Needless to say, I bought it right then and there, along with the Last Crusade novelization. As Licence To Kill was not scheduled for release in the US for nearly another two months, I could not resist temptation and consumed the novelization as soon as I got home, and finished it within 24 hours. I loved it, and was very happy to see Gardner take pains to keep it within his and Fleming's literary canon. While it does indeed strain credibility for Felix to be fed to a shark twice, he does pull it off and has Bond remember the horrible note pinned to Felix rather than have it appear a second time. While it is odd that there are two Milton Krests in the literary continuity, I did not have a real problem with it. I did indeed notice and appreciate how he had M subtly instruct Moneypenny to call Q in to help Bond out, as Gardner's characterization of M is a real strength of his books. Throughout his books, he continued to flesh M out as a father figure for Bond, and by having M revoke Bond's "licence within the service", Gardner maintains the fact that the 00 section had been abolished from the beginning of his tenure. As I said, I loved the book, and while this is no slight on the Indiana Jones novels--and I read all of the prequel books by Rob MacGregor--I was never compelled to delve into the Indiana Jones novelization, and it still sits on my shelf, unread. Now, having heard your review, I am really curious as to why there was no reference to Cedar Leiter. We may never know!

Calvin, will we perhaps see a Skyfall In-Depth movie review from you this year? I'd love to finally see it.

Brokenclaw's up next. My favourite Gardner book. Can't wait.

@calvin are you intending on doing any YT shorts?

Are those first edition Bond novels on your shelf behind you in the video? 🙂

We all were waiting for the reaction to shark attack Pt2. 😂 The whole experience of Gardner’s LTK is a bit softer due to it being Gardner’s Bond and not having the more bleak focus of the film. You can tell he was a bit stuck between the various drafts and the best moments are absolutely what he added such as the aftermath of Bond escaping with the plane and money. Some of the deleted scenes are present in similar fashion. The film had script troubles and setbacks due to the Writers Guild strike which didn’t help. On Goldeneye Gardener was able to make a bit more solid experience overall. Both stand out as a separate entity from Gardner’s Bond novels just as Benson’s do. All the novelizations should be considered separately. Funny to read this and also reflect on the film sort of borrowing from Gardner in Bond being in Key West and then having Gardner write the novelization.

Have you ever read the Fleming novel adaptations done for the British newspaper comic strip that have been reprinted by Titan Books?

I gave up with Gardner after the second book, but bought this one a while back because I was curious. I think I read it constantly shaking my head, and when the shark went for Felix’s prosthetic limbs instead of the juicy, tasty fleshy one I think I wet myself laughing. From what I have read the Gardner books are god awful, and your reviews only enhances that opinion. But I do love these reviews, long May they continue!

Gotta licence to keel, and you know, I'm aiming straight...for your bed - gotta lie sense to keel. Lie sense to....KEEEEL.

Have you watched Glass Onion yet? are you gonna review it?

Any plans on doing any more james bond comics? I would recommend Hammerhead as a slightly more brosnan-esque adventure that's amazing.

Sorry if you've covered these in the past Calvin, but what do you think of the Toby Stephens radio portrayal?

you just got a subscriber ;)

Calvin do you kind of wish that someone made a prequel story setting up the events to Licence to Kill?

9:08 Maybe it's a shark per marriage deal.

Can't wait till you get onto the modern era of Bond continuation novels

I have to say that this and the Goldeneye novelisations should be read outside the Gardner series of books. And your complaints about the feeding of leiter to the sharks, again are quite strange to me. You have to remember for those who only read the Fleming books at this point would find it strange that he had already got injuries. So he incorporated the injuries he already had, and I felt that chapter handled quite well. In fact it's a more enjoyable read than the spy who loved me novelisation. But we all have our own tastes . Good review though. And not going to lambast you as it is your opinion and that's fine 🙂

0:04 I tried reading Mr. Gardner’s first Bond book, “License Renewed.” I couldn’t get through it, finding his writing monotonous and dull. I must have started reading that book 3-4 times. Eventually it wasn’t worth the effort. I’ve never bothered trying his following Bond books figuring they would be no better. To this day I wonder why Flemming’s estate chose him to write Bond novels. To me, he doesn’t have the flair to follow in Flemming’s footsteps.

Why not go with some other kind of cutting device? Chainsaws are mentioned in the film, maybe you could play off that with some kind of other method for Felix to get maimed?

Why did he force this adaptation of a screenplay into his own continuity when it could’ve easily been a standalone thing is MY QUESTION.

"Oh my gosh! They maimed Felix!"

Charlotte Brontë: 'Reader, I married him.' John Gardner: 'Reader, I maimed him.'

I guess it goes to show how I feel about the Gardner books, that I think Licence to Kill is "his" best work?

I was strangely hopeful that twice maimed shark attack Felix could have had a weird crossover with Six Million Dollar Man… Gardner missed his shot 😂

Felix, when he's about to get maimed a 2nd time: "Ah, sh*t. Here we go again."

Oh jeez! I’m so glad I never got around to reading the Gardner books. Sounds painful judging by those excerpts.

Why did the novelization have to maintain continuity with the book series

For Queen and continuity..

John Gardner it’s a lot like Stephen King, they have a very large output with some very zany unique ideas

a florida surfer was attacked by a shark twice in the same year so its farfetched but not that farfetched.ouch.

The only continuity is there's no continuity

If Dela was a friend of Bonds before she met Felix then Bond had definitely pumped her before Felix. I assume Felix would have known that as well...... Best to leave that detail out of the film......

Felix must have ptsd from baby shark by now

Gardner's books have really become a favourite of mine. Despite all my criticisms of them! Has anyone read Death is Forever? Goodness, the amount of characters and double crossing and general paranoia is off the charts!