Bond and M are attacked at M’s home, Quarterdeck, and the baddies seek to kidnap them for some nefarious purpose. Given Colonel Sun was published in 1969, six films into the cinematic adaptation, I have to wonder whether the film series was beginning to have an effect on the writing of the books, with readers now demanding the faster pace they were used to from the big screen version. Unlike many of Fleming’s novels, we don’t have to wait long for a burst of action. Bond’s routine is less character-focused and more to simply set up that he can now be easily followed… James Bond feels like James Bond, which is perhaps all we need for the first novel without Fleming, to prove it is possible, but while Amis captures the character, he doesn’t add much to him. But this is all we get on the matter and the character work for Bond is relegated to mere snatches throughout. I must find some way of breaking out of it.” He looks at the other golfers and claims “the thought of becoming indistinguishable from them was suddenly repugnant.” I thought for sure this would be the starting place for a character journey or arc for Bond, giving us further insight into his thoughts on work and his addiction to it. We catch up with Bond a year after The Man with the Golden Gun where he’s becoming a creature of habit, living a boring routine of office work and golf.
Throughout the novels Bond describes Bill Tanner as his best friend yet it never feels like it, they don’t spend time together, whereas Colonel Sun immediately finds them golfing together and finally sells their relationship. Amis clearly has some elements of the Bond canon he wanted Fleming to explore but now he’s able to do so instead, and I share the interest in them. It’s maybe not as punchy and pithy as Fleming but is certainly poetic and intense. This book is very much written from a fan’s perspective and this shines through from time to time, yet what pushes the novel past any potential pitfalls is that Amis is a writer who can unquestionably pull it off because his prose is incredibly strong. That is not to do the novel a disservice, it is simply what it is.
‘Continuation novel’ is the correct and proper term for what Colonel Sun is but ‘fan fiction’ could also be applied.
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