Devil May Care | Sebastian Faulks

Devil May Care | Sebastian Faulks | Entertaining novel that covers all the basics, nothing new, but still fun

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Devil May Care

	Devil May Care Sebastian Faulks Doubleday, 2008 - 278 pages average customer review:based on 72 reviews view larger image
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Bond, James Bond!

No spoilers! We just finished read Devil May Care, the new James Bond novel by Sebastian Faulks, writing as Ian Fleming. The novel was commissioned by the Fleming Estate for the 100th Birthday Anniversary of Sir Ian Fleming.

It takes place back in the 60s Cold War, right after the Casino Royale/Quantum of Solace movies. It reads like Ian Fleming and is quite enjoyable, short of our inability to translate the French and knowing nothing of tennis! Any true Bond fan should read this novel -- before the screen play comes out!

Entertaining novel that covers all the basics, nothing new, but still fun

I've seen all the Bond movies, and read all the Gardner and Benson novels, but only one Ian Fleming novel. So, I'm a big Bond fan, but a casual fan of the novels. I can't compare Devil May Care to any Fleming novels, but I can compare it to the James Bond universe in general. The new Bond novel by Sebastian Faulks fits right in.

The novel is set in 1968, which really makes no sense unless Faulks is continuing Fleming's series and setting the novel at the time of the earliest movies. But with Bond, you can't get caught up in the timeline. You'll get nowhere with that.

This novel has a plot that covers all the basis. You have a madman with a physical deformity bent on destroying Britain. This madman has a henchmen who feels no pain (like Renard in the World is not enough.) You have Bond and the bad guy Gorner matching wits in a game of tennis (Goldfinger and golf). You have a battle to the death in a plane that is pilotless and about to crash (Living Daylights). You have a beautiful partner named Scarlett Papava and Felix Leiter and Rene Mathis also helping Bond. You also have a few chapters where Gorner gives a play by play detail of what his evil plans are when it would be easier just to kill Bond.

I breezed through this novel. It is nothing new and all of it is very familiar, which can be good and bad. I didn't particularly care for the weakness Bond showed or for his weakness with a woman early in the novel. Still, it is nice to have Bond back in novel form and I recommend this book as something to hold fans over until the new movie comes out this fall.

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Not a pastiche - more a cute review of the past

SPOILER WARNING

- Plot ending not revealed - but the raison d'etre of the book is

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Remember the 20th movie with Pierce Brosnan where they worked in a "gadget" or a "scene" from the previous 19? Well Devil May Care is a book version of the same working in scenes or elements which mimic parts of the original books.

Bond damaged by his last mission and back from a sabattical and not quite trusted, May the "Scottish treasure" still fusses over him, the three ring Morelands are consumed and M gets bees in his bonnet and sends the staff off on his latest health kick. It is all there - though the Sea Island cotton clothing is there at least three times I recall and rather over sets the scene. It is all fun to look out for. But it is a little over played and by half way you are beginning to wonder if the mission will actually get going.

Just at the point I was about to give up - it does get going and it is a page turner to the end. Though I think at least two of the twists or baddy reappearances at the end could have been dropped to get to the final denouement quicker! (but then we wouldn't have made all the flashbacks needed from each Fleming book).

So where does that leave us?

Not all Fleming's Bond novels were top notch and a couple were not that good. Fleming struggled to avoid being formulaic.

Well it is like a better than middling good Fleming but not his best. It IS formulaic - but not overly so. If you liked Fleming's writing and are keen on Bond - you should like this addition to the canon and will have fun looking out for the throwbacks to all the other books. If you are new to Fleming's Bond - try the some of Fleming's originals first before you try this one. If nothing else - it will help you "get it" when you read it.

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More like Bond's other brother.

I guess I was hoping for more intrigue, more espionage, and more of the ole' Bond charm! It lacked a true plot development; this one was too cut and dry, too straight-forward and too shallow for me. Seems like a 'been there, done already' plot. It lacked the high-tech gadgetry, character build, and Bond was drinking morning, noon and night. I feel he was portrayed too much as an alcoholic. It was fairly entertaining but not nearly as in-depth as Ian Flemming's stories.

Bland, James Bland [no spoilers]

James Bond returns in "Devil May Care", which follows "The Man With The Golden Gun". The poorly edited tale has few moments of cleverness and wit amid ordinary action. It has been many years since I have read a James Bond story but I recall enjoying Ian Fleming and the John Gardner variety. Yet Bond seems less charismatic, possibly because he recently lost his wife.

The plotline is not deep in betrayals and conspiracies. For the most part there aren't any major surprises. At times James has a great cynical sense of humor but passes through the mission quite numb. The unremarkable Bond Girl does not stand out like past ladies. The nemesis has the behavior of a spoiled child and his henchman is a slight copycat of the pain resistant terrorist Renard from the movie "The World Is Not Enough". I expect better material for a James Bond novel. Hopefully a further adventure will contain more Bond-like behavior after he has time to mourn along with better editing.

Typically the Bond titles have an association to the storyline, however I have no idea the meaning behind the title.

Thank you.

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