BOOKS,  BOND BOOKS

So last year, I posted an entry here on the blog that I had bought and was going to re-read the John Gardner authored James Bond continuation novels as they had just been newly republished in high-glossy over sized paperbacks.  I did read a few of them but then got sidetracked into a bunch of non-fiction.

However, when I first read the Gardner books many years ago, I made a table document that included notes and comments about the books so if you have any interest in these books, and I highly recommend them to any literary Bond fan, here is the table (the pics below are the original paperback covers to the Gardner novels):

 

Title	Places	Girl(s)	Villian(s)	Villian’s Employer	Villian’s Project	Minor Villians	Allies	Highlights	Remarks
License Renewed (1981)	Dublin; London; Scotland; Paris; Perpignan	Lavender Peacock	Anton Murik	Self-employed	Blackmailing major powers with threat to cause nuclear meltdown in 6 nuclear power plants around the world	Mary Jane Mashkin; Franco; Caber	None	Fight with Caber; high frequency torture; fashion show sequence; fight on plane	More like the films than the novels, but moves quickly and is suspenseful; updating a little disconcerting; good Bond villain and girl; one of the best Bond books and probably Gardner’s best
For Special Services (1982)	London; New York; Washington DC; Amarillo, Texas; Cheyenne Mountain; Louisiana	Cedar Leiter; Nena Bismaquer	Blofeld's Heir (Nena Blofeld)	SPECTRE	Gaining control of the Space Wolf Satellites	Markus Bismaquer; Walter Luxor; Mike Mazzard	Felix Leiter	Plane hijack; elevator incident; Grand Prix; raid on Cheyenne Mountain; encounter with Blofeld	New SPECTRE plot interesting and involving but Blofeld twist not very effective; great use of irony
Icebreaker (1983)	Libya; Finland; USSR	Paula Vacker; Rivke Ingber	Konrad von Glöda (Aarne Tudeer)	National Socialist Action Army (NSAA)	Bringing about a "Fourth Reich" with a new fascist army	Kolya Mosolov	Brad Tirpitz	Snow plow battle; ice water torture; Fencer attack on Ice Palace	Fun but has no real depth; good locations and plot twists; Nazi plot a little trite

 

Role of Honour (1984)	London; Monte Carlo; Oxfordshire; "Erewhon"; Switzerland	Persephone (Percy) Proud; Cindy Chalmer; Freddie Fortune	Tamil Rahani; Jay Autem Holy	SPECTRE	Knocking out U.S. nuclear power by using a computerized scheme and the "help" of Bond	Simon; General "Rolling Joe" Zwingli; Dazzle; the Arab boy	Peter Amadeus	Erewhon training camp sequence; airship climax	Better than average; good characterizations but plot a bit farfetched; good Bond girl but absent through middle of book; a bit choppy and segmented hindering flow of narrative
Nobody Lives Forever (1986)	France; Switzerland; Austria; Florida Keys	Sukie Tempesta; Nannie Norrich	Tamil Rahani	SPECTRE	Sponsoring a competition to bring James Bond's head to Rahani	Der Haken; Steve Quinn	None	Highway gun battle; assault on Klinik; climax on Shark Island	Excellent personal plot for Bond; action scenes well done; no adequate Bond girl with double cross at end very unsatisfying
No Deals, Mr. Bond (1987) Bad Title; Originally to be titled: Tomorrow Always Comes	The Baltic; England; Ireland; Paris; Hong Kong; Cheung Chau Island	Ebbie Heritage; Heather Dare	General Konstantin (Kolya) Chernov	Department 8 of Directorate S, KGB (formerly SMERSH)	Eliminating all participants in a defunct espionage operation (Cream Cake)	Mischa; Norman Murray	Maxim Smolin; Swift	Shootout at Three Sisters Castle; "hunt" on Cheung Chau Island	Complex and involving up until cliched "most dangerous game" finale; plot a little far-fetched; better on detail; very sexy Bond girl, location of finale a bit dubious (perhaps Berlin would have been better); a lot of extraneous characters and appearance of Murray at finale does not work; brutal extermination of traitor at conclusion very effective

Scorpius (1987)	London and environs; Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; Washington DC	Harriett Horner	Father Valentine, aka Vladimir Scorpius	Self-employed	Assassinating major political figures, using "brainwashed" religious followers to do his bidding	Hathaway; Bailey	"Pearly" Pearlman; David Wolkovsky	Fight at Avant Carte HQ; massacre at Puttenham clinic; climactic assault on Ten Pines Plantation	Gripping and violent; Scorpius persona unnecessary; fate of one of the better Bond girls a surprise
Win, Lose or Die (1988)	Gulf of Oman; England; Italy (Ischia); Spain; The Atlantic; Gibraltar	Beatrice Maria da Ricci; Nikola (Nikki) Ratnikov	Bassam Baradj, aka Robert Besavitsky	BAST (Brotherhood of Anarchy and Secret Terror)	Holding U.S., Britain, and Russia for ransom by kidnapping the President, PM, and Soviet Head of State during an international summit meeting	Abou Hamarik (The Man); Ali Al Adwan (The Snake); Saphii Boudai (The Cat) (Clover Pennington); Felipe Pantano; Sarah Deeley; Donald Speaker	None	Villa Capricciani sequence; investigative work aboard Invincible; Bond's meeting with Bush, Thatcher and Gorbachev; Sea Harrier battle; assault on Invincible	Good plot; Bond's return to Naval duty interesting; most engaging love affair yet in Gardner books but does break the flow of the narrative a bit with the excursion; one of the better ones with Bond falling hard for girl
Brokenclaw (1990)	British Columbia; San Francisco and environs; New York; Washington State	Sue Chi-Ho (Chi-Chi)	Brokenclaw Lee Fu-Chu	Self-employed, but is agent of CELD and CCI (Red China's CIA, SIS, and NSA)	Stealing and selling plans of a submarine tracking device and its "antidote" to Red China; breaking into Wall Street's computer system and wreaking financial havoc	Bone Bender Ding; Gory Fox; Fozen Stalk Pu; Wood; Nolan; General Hung Chow H'ang	Ed Ruisha; John Grant	Assault on Brokenclaw's burrow; O-kee-pa ritual	Secondary project of villian concerning Wall Street completely unnecessary; Fun, fast read, but seems too unreal for a Bond story with very quick conclusion; some events are too fantastic; some character inconsistency; good villain and good ally

The Man From Barbarossa (1991)	New Jersey; London; Florida; Moscow and environs; Stockholm; Arctic Circle; Baku, Azerbaidzhan	Nina Bibikova; Stéphanie Adoré	General Yevgeny Yuskovich	Self-employed/"The Scales of Justice" (Chushi Pravosudia)	Overthrowing Russia's central government and reinstating communism; aiding the Iraqis in the Gulf War; embarrassing Britain and France; destroying Washington with nuclear strike (a bit dubious addition to plot)	General Gleb Berzin	Pete Natkowitz; Bory Stepakov; Nigsy Meadows; Michael Brooks; Emerald Lacy; Henri Rampart	Camera team's abduction to the "Lost Horizon"; Bond's masquerade as a Russian officer; final skirmish in Baku	Complex and more political than most; not much action, more intrigue; a bit slow moving with Bond more as an observer than participant; good scene with M reacting to Bond's "death"; no adequate Bond-girl
Death is Forever (1992)	Frankfurt; Berlin; Ost-West Express; Paris; Venice; Calais; London	Elizabeth "Easy" St. John	Wolfgang Weisen ("The Poison Dwarf")	Self-employed, but formerly of the HVA (East Germany's old intelligence agency)	Performing terrorist act in the Eurotunnel, thereby wiping out major EC political figures; seeking revenge against Cabal spy group	Monika Haardt; Harry Spraker (Tester); Alex Ritter; Felix & Hexie; Michelle Gris; Claude Gaspard; Dominic & Dorian	Praxi Simeon (Sulphur); Bruin (Ariel); August Wimper (Orphan)	"Spider sandwich" ploy; dispatch of Felix & Hexie on train; takeover of Weisen's villa; battle inside Eurotunnel	Gardner's most violent and action-filled story yet; complex but excellent Post-Cold-War plot; over-abundance of characters not being what they seem; reminiscent of Icebreaker; after sacrificial lamb of Bond girl whom Bond falls in love with no satisfying replacement; ending is a bit quick and depressing

Cold Fall (1996)

England; Washington DC; Italy; Idaho; Geneva; Lake Massaciuccoli

Beatrice Maria da Ricci; Toni Nicoletti

General Brutus Clay

COLD (Children of the Last Days)

Instigating a right-wing, fascist coup on the U.S.

Luigi Tempesta; Angelo Tempesta; Clay's bride (Sukie Tempesta)

Eddie Rhabb; MacRoberts; Fliss

Investigation of airline disaster; jet ski chase; Cobra battle; M's retirement

Interesting plot structure -- half in the past, half in the present; good use of returning characters but Sukie’s turn is not very satisfying; Flicka’s demise handled well; nice scenes with M; one of the better ones

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

If you got to know me a little, you would find out that I'm one of the few regular people that is on Twitter.

One thing that I like about Twitter is that you can get sent all kinds of interesting and funny and amazing pics, so I'm going to be posting those pics that I find interesting or funny or amazing.

So

without futher ado here is the

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

WAVE CLOUD

 

 

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?

It's time for a new feature on this blog which will once more feature YouTube clips that I think are incredibly cool or incredibly funny and are a must-see for everyone.

YOU TUBE FILM MUSIC CUE OF THE DAY

This feature on my blog showcases one of my great loves and personal hobbies:

FILM MUSIC.

I am a passionate fan of film music and my collection of film music is vast but I want to combine that with a visual aspect (which film music should be aligned too) so I'm going to use You Tube to accomplish this goal.

I will search through You Tube and find videos that feature film music and embed those videos on this blog.

THE MATRIX - SUBWAY FIGHT

One of the most overlooked film music accomplishments of the last decade was Don Davis' trilogy of scores for The Matrix movies.  Here is the subway fight between Neo and Smith from the first movie and what is interesting to note is the nature of the music and how it seems to repeat the same musical figure over and over again.  This is characteristic of a kind of music known as Minimalism where small musical fragments are repeated over and over again in what is known as an ostinato pattern.  So what we have here is Minimalistic film music.  Very interesting and distinctive.

 

 

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?

It's time for a new feature on this blog which will once more feature YouTube clips that I think are incredibly cool or incredibly funny and are a must-see for everyone.

Ok, I'll admit it, I'm a pop music fan.

Back in the day, I was a huge fan of the pop music during the early 2000s such as Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.  So when Danity Kane came along about a decade later, I gave them a listen (I mean come on, its a boy band made entirely of great looking girls, you bet I gave them a listen) and I especially liked their first single which was the song "Damaged" as a really good pop song (nowadays when I watch the video, I sorta feel like a dirty old man but its still a good song).

So, here is the video of the song and don't anybody tell me that they "kane" stand it!!!

CHRISTMAS MUSIC RECOMMENDATION

 

Every year from Thanksgiving to Christmas I listen almost exclusively to Christmas music.  I find that it helps me get in the Christmas spirit and I just like Christmas music.  I've been doing this for many years so by this time I have a bunch of Christmas CD and I would like to recommend one that I discovered last year and am really enjoying this year.  

It is by the Christian acapella jazz group Take 6 called The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.  

If you have never heard of Take 6, they are a group of six African-American men who sing jazz-like original Christian songs without any instrumental accompaniment (most of the time, some of their albums do have instruments).  Their eponymous debut album was released in 1988 (which IMO is one of the greatest Christian albums of all time) and they went on to release several albums through the years winning Grammy Awards along the way.  In fact, when they debuted in 1988, they were nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist which almost never happens for a Christian group.

This album is, in fact, their third Christmas album that they have released (their first Christmas album, He is Christmas is also a really great album) and it came out in 2010 and although I'm a fan, I didn't even know it was out until last year when I saw it at the B&N where I work.

Here is the tracklist for The Most Wonderful Time of the Year:

1. "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"
2. "White Christmas
3. "Grinch Introduction/ The Grinch/"You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"
4. "Sleigh Ride"
5. "I'll Be Home for Christmas"
6. "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear"
7. "The Sugarplum Dance (Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy)"
8. "I Saw Three Ships"
9. "Jingle Bells"
10. "Christmas Time Is Here"

You really must hear this album to appreciate it because Take 6's vocals are so layered and spot-on, it will take your breath away.

Here is a short preview video of a couple of the songs so you can sample that signature Take 6 sound:

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

If you got to know me a little, you would find out that I'm one of the few regular people that is on Twitter.

One thing that I like about Twitter is that you can get sent all kinds of interesting and funny and amazing pics, so I'm going to be posting those pics that I find interesting or funny or amazing.

So

without futher ado here is the

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

MODERN HOUSE
You definitely couldn't walk around naked in this house!?!