Devil May Care - Reviews

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Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by The Sweeney »

I've bought the novel, but still haven't read it yet (I'm saving it for my holidays).

Has anyone else read it yet? If so, what's it like? The reviews I have been reading have been pretty damning towards both the novel and the author.
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by carl stromberg »

The Sweeney wrote:I've bought the novel, but still haven't read it yet (I'm saving it for my holidays).

Has anyone else read it yet? If so, what's it like? The reviews I have been reading have been pretty damning towards both the novel and the author.
I am showing my usual tightness and aiting for the paperback. :lol:

If the reviews are damning, then the book is probably good. :twisted:
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by katied »

I skimmed it at Barnes And Noble(U.S. bookstore chain for those in the UK or elsewhere).I thought it was alright.
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by Blowfeld »

I purchased this books twice after I inadvertently left the first copy at home. Well at least now I possess a UK and US copy.
Thumbing through it I have not been overly impressed. I put it (my current copy) aside to read it on the plane next week.
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by Blowfeld »

Sebastian did an admirable job of parodying Ian. Unfortunately in order to judge his book we have to compare his tome to Ian's work.

A remarkable feat was accomplished writing this book. Sebastian clearly researched everything Ian wrote thoroughly, including his work outside of 007.

With the praise for the monumental task the author undertook out of the way I can't give 'Devil May Care' more than 2 1/2 stars out of 5. May be too generous at that.

'Devil May Care' repurposes an extraordinary amount of content from earlier 007 adventures penned by Ian, however fails famously in bringing anything new or indeed interesting to the table. Sebastian takes liberties in bringing the 007 saga forward from the place and time Ian had left it. The majority of his contributions feel distinctly out of place in the world Ian created, M practising yoga to name one.

To me the touches that made Ian's tomes so memorable were his descriptions of everything from food to clothes and automobiles, the flourishes of language used to impart the feeling of the character and places he would go. The authenticity he brought to his fantastic tales was not inconsequential as Sebastian proves. Much of what Sebastian adds feels like it came directly from an encyclopaedia. Dry tasteless descriptions, facts, and interpretations of a place viewed not by a familiar contemporary rather a stranger, an outsider looking in some thirty decades out of place. Someone who never viewed the lands he is writing about anything beyond a couple of National geographic photos spreads.

In imaginary lands, under imaginary condition Ian Fleming made his fantastic plots, characters, and adventures make perfect sense. The world lost a gifted author when Ian died.

Sebastian did an admirable job but 'Devil May Care' ultimately is nothing more than glorified fan fiction. Gifted fan fiction at that.

I'd recommend this tome only to fans of Ian's unassailable work, but only as a tribute and only to those unafraid of disappointment.
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by carl stromberg »

Blowfeld wrote:Sebastian did an admirable job of parodying Ian. Unfortunately in order to judge his book we have to compare his tome to Ian's work.

A remarkable feat was accomplished writing this book. Sebastian clearly researched everything Ian wrote thoroughly, including his work outside of 007.

With the praise for the monumental task the author undertook out of the way I can't give 'Devil May Care' more than 2 1/2 stars out of 5. May be too generous at that.

'Devil May Care' repurposes an extraordinary amount of content from earlier 007 adventures penned by Ian, however fails famously in bringing anything new or indeed interesting to the table. Sebastian takes liberties in bringing the 007 saga forward from the place and time Ian had left it. The majority of his contributions feel distinctly out of place in the world Ian created, M practising yoga to name one.

To me the touches that made Ian's tomes so memorable were his descriptions of everything from food to clothes and automobiles, the flourishes of language used to impart the feeling of the character and places he would go. The authenticity he brought to his fantastic tales was not inconsequential as Sebastian proves. Much of what Sebastian adds feels like it came directly from an encyclopaedia. Dry tasteless descriptions, facts, and interpretations of a place viewed not by a familiar contemporary rather a stranger, an outsider looking in some thirty decades out of place. Someone who never viewed the lands he is writing about anything beyond a couple of National geographic photos spreads.

In imaginary lands, under imaginary condition Ian Fleming made his fantastic plots, characters, and adventures make perfect sense. The world lost a gifted author when Ian died.

Sebastian did an admirable job but 'Devil May Care' ultimately is nothing more than glorified fan fiction. Gifted fan fiction at that.

I'd recommend this tome only to fans of Ian's unassailable work, but only as a tribute and only to those unafraid of disappointment.
A nice review there!
Sebastian did an admirable job but 'Devil May Care' ultimately is nothing more than glorified fan fiction. Gifted fan fiction at that.

I'd recommend this tome only to fans of Ian's unassailable work, but only as a tribute and only to those unafraid of disappointment.
This seems to sum up many of of the reviews I have read.
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by Blowfeld »

carl stromberg wrote:
A nice review there!
Thank you!
carl stromberg wrote:
Sebastian did an admirable job but 'Devil May Care' ultimately is nothing more than glorified fan fiction. Gifted fan fiction at that.

I'd recommend this tome only to fans of Ian's unassailable work, but only as a tribute and only to those unafraid of disappointment.
This seems to sum up many of of the reviews I have read.
Although 'Devil May Care' is a decent read, it suffers becasue it requires that it be compared to Ian's body of work.
To me it was worth reading once and unlike Ian's books it probably won't be read again. However it will have a permanent place on the bookshelf next to John and Raymond's books as part of my collection .
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Devil may care, but few others will

Post by Blowfeld »

Devil may care, but few others will as Bond formula loses licence to thrill
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Published Date: 29 May 2008
By David Robinson
REVIEW
IT IS 1967, and Britain is going to pot. The Stones have been arrested for using it, and as James Bond drives down the King's Road from his Chelsea flat, he notices it is "packed with long-haired young people" and smells "the bonfire whiff of marijuana he'd previously associated only with souks in the grubbier Moroccan towns".

There is a war on drugs, but it's not going on here – yet. Whether we will need one is down to whether 007 can shut down the operation of Dr Julius Gorner, who is about to flood the West with harder drugs, like heroin.

Naturally, the two will soon meet, and once Gorner has Bond in his clutches he will, of course, spell out his evil plans. ("One day, Bond, I will make as many heroin addicts in Britain as Britain made in China.") In case we haven't gathered the full extent of his villainy, Faulks gives Gorner the requisite disability – in this case, a hairy ape-like hand with a non-opposable thumb.

And so it goes. The Bond books franchise – which, unlike the films, had been in severe danger of stalling (the last one, The Man With the Red Tattoo, written by Raymond Benson, sold only 5,000 copies) – is up and running again. The publicity machine has given Devil May Care the kind of hoopla we've previously seen only with Harry Potter – but is it worth the fuss?

I think not. If you forget the hype, there's not the slightest thing special about this book.

Here, after all, is a world where simplicity and superlatives reign. Bond, we are repeatedly told, is "unique"; similarly, Gorner is "the most dangerous man the Service has yet encountered". Everything is signposted. If that apelike hand isn't a giveaway, how about the tennis match Gorner has with Bond in which he is revealed as a cheat?

That chapter's title is "Not Cricket". Not life, either.

As for motivation, there's always the love of high-class tottie – in this relatively chaste Bond book, one Scarlett Papava. But there's also a deeper chivalry involved. Scarlett urges Bond to rescue her twin sister, Poppy, who is Garner's drug slave.

She may not be much more than a cipher, but Poppy Papava (Papaver somniferum is the Latin for the opium poppy) does, at least, have a witty name to live up to.

By now we're in the Shah's Iran. The drugs plot has spiralled into a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. The world (or at least Britain, soon to be targeted by retaliatory missiles) has only one man to save it, and…

Well, you can guess the rest, right up to the closing lines, which are sure to hint at a goodly amount of heroic sex. Because that's the template Faulks is working to, for all its preposterousness. As anyone who has heard him on Radio 4's The Write Stuff will know, he is an accomplished parodist, but here he sticks assiduously to his brief.

He hasn't messed with the formula, that old Bond brew of macho play, cruel villains (with pliers to remove tongues and chopsticks to bang out eardrums) and cosmopolitan sophistication (stuffed quails with rose petals washed down with a nice Château Batailley '45, anyone?) is all present and correct.

But 36 novels into the Bond story, the formula is stale. Perhaps it's time to retire Bond. If he doesn't go willingly, try the carotid takedown: "Only 11lb of pressure to the carotid artery stops bloodflow to the brain, and once the flow has stopped, consciousness is lost in ten seconds."

Well, it always works when 007 does it anyway…


• Devil May Care, by Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming, is published by Penguin, price £18.99

FACT BOX

• Ian Fleming wrote 12 Bond novels, plus two collections of short stories.

• The name James Bond was appropriated from a celebrated ornithologist because it sounded "as ordinary as possible".

• In Fleming's novels James Bond went to school at Fettes in Edinburgh, the same public school as Tony Blair.

• Bob Holness, presenter of 1980s and 1990s TV game show Blockbusters, was one of the earliest to portray 007 in a 1956 South African radio version of Moonraker.

• Actors reported to have been considered for the role of Bond over the years include David Niven, James Mason, Cary Grant, Clive Owen and Mel Gibson.

Find this story at http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/jamesbo ... 4129973.jp
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by McGee's sister »

Only a daft theatre producer like Ms Broccoli could believe DMC was a lost Fleming book.

OK, like the guy mentions rape a couple of times but he does not have near the passion for it Bond's creator did. I can see how she might have gotten this book confused between Bond creator's books and the trolley schedule if shes not paying attention. :roll:

This is the most god forsaken crap to come out of the Bond book line in years!

Avoid it! It is not a classic and will not be acted out on the stage anytime soon!

No point in reading now it is there ;)
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by katied »

What's insane is that there are quite a few people that think that DMC should be the basis for Bond 23 because there happens to be a Algerian character in DMC. It's not like EON owns the rights to DMC and even if they did,I don't think that they'd make DMC into a Bond film.

By the by, Mcgee's: Oceanside in California,or somewhere else?
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by McGee's sister »

Oceanside in California, that is where home is when I have the luxury being there :)

DMC is not worth turning in to a Bond film there is no imagination to be found in it.
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by Dr. No »

Welcome to the forum McGee!!

Hope you don't mind if I ask about your name (member name)?
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by The Sweeney »

Just read this rather dismal effort on holiday. I actually hoped it would be better than I thought it was going to be too. Sadly I was wrong.

Faulks may have managed an attempt to replicate Fleming, but the most important, essential ingredient was lacking from his novel, and that was being inside Bond's head. Faulks makes little, or no attempts at being inside Bond's thoughts, his reflections, feelings, emotions, etc. and because of this, the book fails terribly. Without that unique, special ingredient, the book reads like a dull screenplay rather than a novel. We (the reader) are completely removed from the action. It also lacks Fleming's acute observations of people, making this book seem lifeless, with the characters in it like robots.

The book is very disengaging. It isn't at all gripping either, and there were many times when I really didn't want to continue with it.

After reading it, I really felt the urge to go and read a proper Fleming novel afterwards to rid myself of the memory of it. Total waste of time.

3/10
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by Blowfeld »

Good point Sweeney.
Sebastian tried a few times to mimic how Ian related what Bond was thinking and feeling, it fell far short.
The problem is when reading this book it has to be compared to how Ian wrote. Ian Fleming was unique, how he wrote fiction was indicative of leading a very interesting life and being a product of his times.


If someone has never read Ian's books then this might be convincing.

While Reading it I almost put it down once or twice, at times I had to convince myself to continue with it. It was not particularly engaging because it was obvious where he was coming from, what the secrets were and how the solutions were going to come about. If I had Thunderball with me I just might have set it down for awhile. The other book had with me was the new Indiana Jones, which isn't that engaging either. Right now the new Jones book is set aside as I re-read Colonel Sun.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend Devil May Care but it is worth reading once.
In retrospect I think I gave Sebastian too much credit for trying.
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by Dr. No »

What kind of book collectors are you guys?

Me I have a few Bond paperbacks and don't care if I get the newest editions because the garage sela and library fund raiser books read the same.

Do you guy go out and buy the books as soon as they come out? Do you wait for a deal? Do you collect all the editions?
The new Indian jones and the Crystal Skull is a $20 book, DMC is a $20+, I guess they are first editions.

I collect dvds and don't often rebuy a movie because it is a new edition, the latest bond dvds is a good example. IF they hadn't beena gift I wouldn't have bought them.
Some movies I buy and don't care for so we sell or give them away. I don't mind spending money on a dvd because I can use them over and over again and see as building up a collection of our favorites.

I'm curious if you guys handle books the same way.
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by The Sweeney »

I made a point of collecting all the 60's Pan Book paperback editions, as well as the original 50's hardback editions (reprinted).
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by carl stromberg »

Interesting review here: http://n007.thegoldeneye.com/dmc_review.html

Most of my Fleming books are used and many are falling to bits!
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by Blowfeld »

I do spend quite a bit on books. It is unfortunate I bought two of Sebastian's book. Circumstances conspired and the blighter got lucky becasue of my mistaken curiosity.

I collect books of different genres. My favourite are 007 books, those I try to collect in hardcover, when available.
Books penned by Ian Fleming, my fondest desire would be to own those as first edition (Jonathan Cape-UK), sadly that is not piratical so I pick them up as I can. Some are book clubs editions, a few are reprints/facsimiles and I do have a couple that are genuine first editions.
The books after Fleming I pick up however they are available. Some UK editions and some US, does not matter to me so long as they are hardcover. Usually they are inexpensive and often cost less than a paperback edition.

I have fond memories of the ol' Pan books. As a child I had a book case full of them and Doctor Who books. :D Wish I still had them.
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by Dr. No »

thanks for the candid answers guys.

I was wondering about it because some of you seem really dedicated to the books. DMC is universally panned but you guys paid top price for it (twice! :shock: ).
I completely understand wanting to collect Ian Fleming's books, the 1 or 2 AF books i read were not veyr good IMHO.

I guess if i could have any flemign book First edition it would be Dr NO, I love the story adn the cover. But i suppose you knew that already ;) :mrgreen:

Most of my books are paper backs well used adn well read. nothing could be better IMHO :D
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Re: Devil May Care - Reviews

Post by The Sweeney »

Dr. No wrote:thanks for the candid answers guys.

I was wondering about it because some of you seem really dedicated to the books. DMC is universally panned but you guys paid top price for it (twice! :shock: ).
I completely understand wanting to collect Ian Fleming's books, the 1 or 2 AF books i read were not veyr good IMHO.

I guess if i could have any flemign book First edition it would be Dr NO, I love the story adn the cover. But i suppose you knew that already ;) :mrgreen:

Most of my books are paper backs well used adn well read. nothing could be better IMHO :D
Funny enough, Dr. No was the first Bond novel I ever read, so I've got a real soft spot for it.
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