The 007 Re-Read Project: Icebreaker by John Gardner

Today, we're taking a look at John Gardner's third James Bond novel, Icebreaker, which I remember enjoying when I first read it about 25 years ago. Last time, I was disappointed when For Special Services failed to hold up to my initial reading of it back in the day. Will Icebreaker fare better? Read on to find out! (Or just skip to the end, if you want; I can't really stop you!) As always, I won't give away the entire plot, but there are

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Dozens of terrorist acts are carried out across Europe, with the neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Action Army claiming credit. James Bond, stealing a couple of days respite in Helsinki after completing a training exercise in the Arctic Circle, runs afoul of what may be a pair of their agents. Returning to London, he is assigned to Icebreaker, a multinational mission featuring agents from the CIA, KGB, MOSSAD, and MI6. Bond has been specifically requested. After a quick briefing, he is dispatched to join the group, and mission, already in progress. 

CIA agent Brad Turpitz, Nicolai Mosolov of the KGB, and the MOSSAD's Rivke Ingber are Bond's teammates. It immediately becomes clear that none of the agents trust one another, and Bond himself harbors doubts about each of them. Predictably, he quickly gravitates toward the shapely blonde Rivke, despite a shocking revelation about her that directly relates to the mission at hand. With the team already splintering, Bond faces an uphill struggle to complete the mission in any capacity. 

The novel has a fairly strong beginning, and the concept of the mission itself is ripe for interesting drama. It's clear early on that one of the Icebreaker agents is a double agent, actively working to destroy the team and prevent them accomplishing their mission. Naturally,  a reveal is expected, and we definitely get one. Unfortunately, I found myself getting sick of all the double- and triple-crosses long before the story ended. It got to the point of self-parody, and I wouldn't have been bowled over if we'd gotten one more in the final few pages. 

Another problem is the villain. Oh, did I forget to mention him in the synopsis? That right there tells you the main issue with him. Count von Gloda is an imminently forgettable villain, even more of a disappointment after the memorable nemeses in 007's first two outings under Gardner's pen. Attempts to make him seem a major threat, such as a ludicrous passage in which Bond wonders if he has finally met his match in this man, are laughable. He's as bland as they come, and that's a major sin in a series whose entries largely live or die based on the strength of their villains. 

Gardner does keep things moving briskly, however, and the plot is always interesting even as it descends into absurdity at times. He does have a tendency to frequently switch between dialogue and third person narration when delivering exposition. This is a stylistic touch Gardner uses frequently, and it always mildly annoys me for some reason. Gardner constructs a torture scene so sadistic that it rivals some of those in the Fleming novels. This is easily the most gripping scene in the entire novel. 

The following scene, however, may well be the low point of the entire novel for me. Bond blabs a bunch of secrets he's just endured a horrendous torture to avoid spilling to the enemy, while he is still held captive within the enemy's stronghold! This only occurs to serve the plot and lead to yet another pair of double crosses, and the whole thing makes Bond look incredibly stupid. He curses himself for it a couple of pages later, offering up a very weak explanation as to why it happened, but it's clear why it really did. Gardner was a good enough writer to advance the plot in the way he desired without having Bond act so wildly out of character here, so it's annoying that events unfold in this way. It makes for a very weird scene. 

NOTABLE QUOTES:

Bond did not smile. Perhaps it was his background in the Royal Navy, and working all those years close to M, but he considered smoking while someone else ate to be only a fraction above smoking before the Loyal Toast.

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For a flitting second, Bond experienced the strange sensation of a clammy hand running down his spine. Because he had not really met von Gloda face to face, or even read a full dossier on the man, Bond felt an unusual unease. In that fraction of time, he even wondered if, at long last, he might have met his match. (Oh, come on!)

__________________________________________

Von Gloda stood, hands clasped behind his back, a tall straight figure, every inch a soldier. Well, Bond reflected, at least he was that - not the pipsqueak military amateur Hitler had proved himself to be.

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"SMERSH has what I understand is called, in criminal parlance, a hit list. That list includes a number of names - people who are wanted, not dead, but alive. Can you imagine whose name is number one on the chart, James Bond?

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Despite the issues I had with this novel, I still enjoyed it well enough. It's not great, but not bad, either; Icebreaker is very much a middle-of-the-road 007 adventure. There is far better Bond material out there, but if you want to sample some of the non-Fleming Bonds, you can do a lot worse. There's definitely a trend being established here with these books not holding up nearly as well as I had hoped, and that's a bit worrying. I still have about a dozen more Gardner Bonds to get through, after all! Hopefully the next novel in the series, Role of Honor, will break the streak of disappointments. We'll find out together next time!

The 007 Re-Read Project: For Special Services by John Gardner

Then-new Bond continuation novelist John Gardner's 007 debut, License Renewed, had been a critical and commercial success, and he sought to raise the stakes a bit with his follow-up novel. I remember enjoying this one quite a bit when I read it about 25 years ago, so I was interested to see how it would hold up. Grab hold of your martinis, and let's find out! As ever, I won't blow the entire plot, but there are  

SPOILERS AHEAD!

After assisting the SAS in foiling a string of violent mid-air plane robberies, James Bond finds himself summoned to M's office. He finds M sitting with an attractive young woman who seems oddly familiar. M introduces her as Cedar Leiter, the daughter of his old friend Felix! Flabbergasted, Bond sits to listen to the mission briefing. A scrap of paper found on the body of an FBI agent in the swamps of Louisiana indicates the existence of a resurgent SPECTRE, led by someone calling themselves Blofeld. Bond is sure it can't possibly be his old nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld-- with some justification, as even in the often comic book-esque world of 007, Blofeld received just about as definitive a death as possible-- but either way, a revived SPECTRE in any form is a threat to be taken seriously. And Bond, of course, has a personal interest in unmasking this new Blofeld.

The trail leads to Markus Bismaquer, an immensely wealthy (former?) Nazi sympathizer who has built his own private city in the middle of the desert in the American west, complete with a full-scale replica of Tara from Gone with the Wind. The dead FBI agent whose body yielded the SPECTRE clue, along with several other agents, had been sent to investigate suspicious activity at Bismaquer's compound. Bond and Cedar ingratiate themselves with Bismaquer and infiltrate his compound. They meet Bismaquer's wife, Nena, and his Smithers, Walter Luxor. In a shocking turn of events, Nena quickly falls for Bond, and warns him of the imminent danger they face. As for Luxor, Bond quickly begins to suspect that he may actually be the head of SPECTRE, rather than Bismaquer. Bond and Cedar investigate both of their prime suspects, and attempt to uncover SPECTRE's plan, as the rest of SPECTRE's top-level members begin to arrive for a meeting that will surely signal its initiation. And unbeknownst to Bond, Blofeld has reserved a key role in their plot just for him...

 One of the biggest issues with this novel is its pacing. There's a sizeable section early on that sees Bond and Cedar masquerading as a professor and his wife who have uncovered extremely rare prints in a bid to attract Bismaquer's attention. A group of extremely generic thugs hassle them, leading to a tussle and a halfway decent death trap. This entire section of the novel is so inconsequential that it seems to have been included solely to pad out the page count. The prints serve as a method to get into Bismaquer's compound, but that could have been easily achieved without wasting several chapters. Bond's cover identity is so useless that he just ditches it after the second thug attack, and things proceed just fine. At least when Gardner brings the leader of the thugs back later in the novel he serves a more important purpose. 

Once we're in the compound, there's quite a bit of standing around and talking, but there's nearly always a sense of things moving forward. Personally, I found it impossible not to read Bismaquer's dialogue in the voice of the Rich Texan from The Simpsons! Whether that's an asset or a hindrance depends on your own sensibilities. Bismaquer is easily one of the chummiest of Bond villains, and several scenes lend credence to Bond's suspicion that it may be Luxor who is actually leading SPECTRE. Luxor has a pretty interesting appearance and background, and he serves as the antagonist in the novel's best action setpiece. I found the revelation of the new Blofeld pretty satisfying, along with the identity of the person who helped Bond near the novel's end. Both reveals defy expectations in a very interesting manner, though the new Blofeld is sadly dispatched far too abruptly. 

There is one more thing that simply has to be addressed, and that is the character of Cedar Leiter. There's nothing really problematic about the concept itself, though it may age Felix a bit more than many readers would like. The real problem is the constant effort to force a romance between the two, though Bond does vehemently resist it. Still, even though the novel itself acknowledges how inappropriate and downright creepy it would be for Bond to have a sexual fling with the daughter of his best friend, it ends with a situation that seems guaranteed to lead there, anyway. It's nice to see Felix himself appear at the end, but the whole "gift of a daughter" thing is just stomach-churning. Even in 1982, this had to seem pretty fucked up, right?

Notable Quotes:

 "The Silver Beast" was the nickname members of the service had given to Bond's personal car-- the Saab 900 Turbo: his own property, with the special technology built into it at his expense. Jibes about it being Bond's "toy" received only a polite smile from 007; and he knew that Major Boothroyd, the Armourer, had constantly sniffed around the machine in an attempt to discover all its secrets: the hidden compartments, tear gas ducts, and new refinements recently built into the bullet-proofed vehicle. 

(The Silver Beast was a beloved part of the Gardner Bonds, and I love the idea of Q having a bit of professional jealousy over Bond having it modified elsewhere on his own dime!)

___________________________________

   Bond did not blush, even though "gentlemen" was scarcely a word ladies used to describe him. 

___________________________________

 "To be honest with you, Bond... if it wasn't for that predatory Nena woman, I'd put Bismaquer down as a faggot."

"Right the first time," Bond said.

"Lawks-a-mercy." Cedar  gave a satisfied smirk as they turned into Tara's main drive. "I'se sick, Mizz Scarlet, I'se sick." 

(Notable for all the wrong reasons. This one has several layers of "HOLY SHIT!" packed into it. Product of its time, and all that, and people can bitch about things today being "too PC" or "woke" all they want, but I'm still glad we don't commonly see exchanges like this in our entertainment these days.)

____________________________________

 

This novel didn't hold up as well as its predecessor, and certainly not to my memories of reading it when I was a teen back in the late '90s, but I did find plenty to enjoy within its pages. The possibility of the Cedar romance is problematic, and I could hardly believe the quote above when I read it, but that is the novel at its absolute worst. You have to keep the context of the time in which the novel was published in mind when you read one of these, and enjoy it based on its merits despite things that stand out in a negative way. Not everyone can do that, and that's okay, but this is definitely one to skip if you can't compartmentalize certain elements of it in that way. If you can, however, give this one a read. The problematic bits don't come close to overwhelming the good bits. It's not one of the best Bonds, but it's well worth a read. It's also worth noting that this new version of SPECTRE sticks around for awhile, so the novel does have a long-term impact on the series. Next time, we'll be looking at another one I remember really enjoying, Icebreaker! Hopefully it'll hold up a bit better. See you then!

The 007 Re-Read Project: On His Majesty's Secret Service by Charlie Higson

So... it's been quite a bit longer than the couple of weeks I'd planned for. I won't go into detail, because that's really not what this blog is for, but let's just say that real life got in the way. After losing my dad early last year, in particular, it was pretty difficult to care about things like updating my blog. Recently, however, I've been feeling that itch again, so I'm back to do a bit of scratching. Admittedly, this post is a bit of a cheat, as this book is only a few months old, and I'm reading it for the first time. To help me ease back into the habit, however, I figure it gets a pass. Plus, this'll keep everyone from having to wait years for me to re-read it to give it eligibility! 

Charlie Higson, no stranger to the world of James Bond, was asked to write his first adult 007 novel to compliment the coronation of King Charles III, with the proceeds going to the National Literacy Trust. Bond is put on the tail of Aethelstan of Wessex, a wealthy eccentric who claims to be the true king of England, and aims to disrupt the coronation. Raising the stakes is the discovery of the dead body of 009, who had previously been sent on the same mission. Time is short, and Aethelstan is sure to be on high alert after discovering 009's infiltration of his organization. Bond must contend with a gaggle of wealthy lunatics who have bought into Aethelstan's cause, an army of mercenaries, and the enigmatic Ragnheidur, the requisite femme fatale of the novel. 

The novel is definitely among the shortest Bonds-- Higson was given only three weeks to complete it-- and it feels a bit condensed, as Higson does his best to fit in as many of the expected scenarios as possible. It's still a rather scaled-down adventure compared to what we normally get, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Most of the characters are rather bland, and the main villain is a particular disappointment, which is surely a consequence of the novel's accelerated creation. Bond himself rings true, which is unsurprising, given Higson's prior experience with the character. (Albeit at a different stage of his life!) Ragnheidur is easily the most memorable supporting character, and I would welcome her presence in a subsequent Bond adventure, however unlikely that seems. The Budapest setting is quite nice, too, though we don't get to spend much time immersed in the local atmosphere before the story becomes barricaded within Aethelstan's castle for much of its length.

As the novel is set in the present day, we have to endure references to social media, and a heaping pile of political discourse. It would be pretty damn tough to avoid politics, given the story's subject matter, but it may be a bit much for some readers, whether or not you agree with the views expressed. I didn't find this detrimental, but if you think it might bother you, be warned! There was an occasional line that just sounded odd, or out of character-- hearing M refer to blogging just doesn't seem right, 2023 setting or not-- though I feel many such idiosyncrasies would likely have been eliminated if the novel had been given more time to gestate. 

Notable quotes:

 Bond didn't like the codewords and acronyms that were increasingly creeping into the MI6 vocabulary. He felt they were designed to soften the reality of what they did. D37. Looked harmless. But it was a desperate thing. An emergency flare. A shout for help. A dying scream for your mother. No content. Just a digital blip that communicates when an agent has important information but knows they won't be able to parachute out with it. 

There was no acknowledgement that the English were outsiders, themselves... Why pick one small point in history? Why not try to put a Celt on the throne? Or go further back and put a Neanderthal there?

Bond hated fighting. If a fight started it meant all else had failed. It was a last resort. Fighting was painful and things got broken. If you did get into a fight, then you had to shut it down as fast as was humanly possible. 

 Working for the service had been the making of him but the ruin of him too. It had left him unfit to do anything else.  

Despite the shortcomings enumerated above-- and I truly do believe that most of them were due to the book being completed so quickly-- OHMSS is an engaging, if quick, read. I enjoyed my brief time with it, and I find myself hoping that Higson gets the go-ahead to write a full-length novel of the adult Bond very soon! That's all for today, but I'll be back soon to dive back into the Gardner Bonds with For Special Services. I won't pretend to know exactly when, but it definitely won't be another 21 month wait!

The 007 Re-Read Project: License Renewed by John Gardner

So yeah, that was a bit more than two weeks. I never thought I'd be able to stick to a weekly or bi-weekly schedule indefinitely with this project, as I always have plenty of other books on deck and would need the occasional palette cleanser, at the very least. Beyond that, real life sometimes gets in the way, so there are some weeks where I just don't get to read as much as I'd like. All that said, I really didn't expect it to take me over a month to re-read John Gardner's debut 007 novel! About a third of the way through, I realized I was forcing myself to continue, and I stepped away from it for a few weeks to focus on other things. That's not a condemnation of the novel itself, I just think I'd gotten a bit of Bond book burnout after re-reading the entire Fleming series and the first handful of continuation novels in the span of a couple of months. Returning to the novel after that break, I devoured the remainder of it in short order. 

Gardner's inaugural 007 adventure sees the intrepid agent infiltrating the inner circle of Anton Murik, a brilliant nuclear physicist who lords over the town of Murcaldy, quite literally, as he is its Laird. Murik has hired a dangerous terrorist to further an enigmatic plot that is easily on par with the most apocalyptic Bond villain plans we've ever seen, and it is up to Bond to figure out the Laird's plot, and disrupt it as only he can. Murik himself is an effective villain, with a rather birdlike visage topped by a shock of white hair. From my first readings of the Gardner novels more than twenty years ago, I remember him as one of Gardner's strongest antagonists, but I wouldn't quite rank him in the upper echelon of Bond villains. His right hand man, Caber, makes for a very effective henchman, and his final scene seems to have been influential in one of the major setpieces from the Timothy Dalton film The Living Daylights. Murik's ward Lavender Peacock checks off most of the boxes one expects from one of Bond's leading ladies, and while she tends toward the bland side, her backstory is at least pretty interesting. The story of the Muriks that led to the status quo we see in the novel sound as if it would make for a pretty good novel in its own right! 

When Gardner was hired by Glidrose (now Ian Fleming Publications) to continue the literary adventures of 007, he endeavored to pluck the character from the '60s and drop him right into the (then) modern day, fully intact. (Though he did lower his alcohol and tobacco intake.) For anyone trying to do a version of Bond in the modern day, I think that's the right approach, and Gardner was mostly successful on that front. Gardner made no attempt to emulate Fleming's style; again, I think that was the right call. Gardner was already an accomplished and respected author in his own right, and one author subsuming their own style in an attempt to replicate that of another is rarely something that works well, anyway. Though Bond himself is more or less unchanged, the world has definitely moved forward. The change most relevant to Bond himself is the abolishment of the British Secret Service's 00 section! Thanks to M, however, Bond basically remains a 00 agent in all but official classification: "As far as I'm concerned, 007, you will remain 007...There are moments when this country needs a trouble shooter-- a blunt instrument-- and by heaven, it's going to have one. They can issue their pieces of bumf and abolish the Double-0 section. We can simply change its name. It will now be the Special Section, and you are it." There is also a new face in Q branch, the niece of Major Boothroyd, Q himself. Given the rather cringy nickname Q'ute, she is the main liaison between Bond and Q branch in the novel. Bond's beloved Walther PPK has been withdrawn from use, and has been replaced by the Browning 9mm, occasionally supplemented by the unauthorized Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum he keeps in a secret compartment in his car. 

Speaking of his car, it's not the Aston Martin or Lotus Esprit that was familiar from the film series, or the Bentley Bond typically drove in the novels. Gardner updated Bond's wheels in the form of a Saab Turbo, outfitted with an array of modifications on his own dime, much to the consternation of Q Branch, who seem to have a bit of professional jealousy over the whole thing. The car's modifications include a digital HUD, bullet-proof glass, self-sealing heavy-duty tires, and reinforced bumpers, among other things. As Gardner states in the acknowledgements, "Everything provided by Q Branch and carried by Bond-- even the modification to Mr. Bond's Saab-- is obtainable on either the open, or clandestine, markets." This grounded approach to Bond's gear is appreciated, particularly given some of the excesses of the films, and even later novels. 

There are some very effective scenes in the novel. The torture scene springs immediately to mind, and the wrestling match between Bond and Caber-- yes, really- is quite engaging, as well. The nighttime escape from Murik's castle is also quite well done, and its denouement hinges on something that occurs earlier in the novel, in a nice call-back. There are definitely a handful of scenes that are rather odd, and some that simply don't work. The chapter that follows Bond on his date with Q'ute features a very bizarre scene that seems very out of place, and really had me wondering exactly what Gardner was going for. It reminds me of the ELO sex scene from the 1979 version of Dracula with how bizarre and out-of-place it seems. The villain having Bond at his mercy, yet failing to kill him outright, is a series trope we're all familiar with, but it's stretched nearly to its breaking point here. Even Bond himself seems completely baffled that Murik hasn't already killed him, at one point! The Laird really starts to come off like a massive dipshit by the end of the novel. Gardner tries to justify Murik's keeping Bond alive, but it gets to the point where it simply wears too thin, and you can overtly feel the hand of the author at work. 

 

Notable quotes:

Governments could come and go; crises could erupt; inflation may spiral, but-- when in London-- Bond's breakfast routine rarely changed.

With his mane of white hair, against the face in the darkness, the visage took on the appearance of a negative.

There were desperate mental counter-measures to interrogation by drugs, and 007 had been through the whole unpleasant course at what they called the Sadist School near Cambridge.

Bond could smell death-- in his head rather than nostrils.

Murik leaned forward with one of his little pecking movements. Strange, thought Bond, how the man could look so distinguished, with that mane of white hair, yet give the impression of being a bulldog and a bird at the same time.

Murik's eyes again stirred into that unpleasant deep movement-- the deadly molten lava, which seemed to betray a hint of madness. That he was wholly mad, in his genius, Bond did not doubt. Only a maniac would take the kind of risks this small monster was about to embark upon. 

Why Murik had not already killed them was almost beyond Bond's comprehension. 

John Gardner's run as author of the Bond novels can still be rather divisive among fans of the literary 007, but regardless of how the quality may have fluctuated further down the road, License Renewed is a strong debut. There are certainly some aspects that strain credulity a bit, even by Bond standards, a few hokey elements, and a couple of rather bland supporting characters, but there are also some very strong scenes, a well-developed villain, and the excitement of seeing James Bond once again take up arms against some of the worst the world has to offer. Gardner's novels definitely have a different flavor than Fleming's, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, and based on my re-read of this book, I'm looking forward to revisiting the rest of his run. That's it for today, but I'll be back soon with Gardner's second 007 opus, For Special Services. I remember liking that one quite a bit, so here's hoping it holds up well! 

The 007 Re-Read Project: James Bond and Moonraker by Christopher Wood

Much like the book we looked at last week, James Bond and Moonraker was written by Christopher Wood based on his screenplay for the film. Unlike The Spy Who Loved Me, however, Moonraker actually has some ties to the original Fleming novel, tenuous though they may be. This results in a rather odd situation, as the book is written as if it is canonical to the previous novels, but features specific characters and concepts Bond has already encountered. It's not a big deal, of course, just a bit of weirdness you have to handwave away. I was particularly interested to read this novelization, as the movie is one of the most derided of all the Bonds. With the alterations Wood made to James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me to make it more in the vein of the literary 007, I was curious about whether or not a similar approach here would make it more serious and grounded than the movie. There are quite a few differences between novelization and film, but as with Wood's previous book, there's no way of knowing which are due to the book being based on an early draft of the screenplay, and which are due to changes made with the intention of making this book mesh better with the others. Whatever the case, it makes for an interesting reading experience. As ever, I do my best not to blow the entire plot, but there are SPOILERS AHEAD! 

Things kick off with the mid-air hijacking of the Moonraker, a space shuttle that can travel into space and back to earth, landing like a normal airplane. It was created for NASA by Hugo Drax, an ultra wealthy businessman who doesn't want to cede control of space to the Russians. As the Moonraker was being loaned to the English government in exchange for sharing some top-secret tech of their own, the secret service is now involved. Bond heads to Drax's estate to begin his investigation, and quickly develops suspicions about Drax himself. Bond's eventual ally in his investigation is the hilariously-named (even by James Bond standards) NASA pilot and CIA agent Holly Goodhead. Once Bond becomes a big enough concern, Drax enlists the aid of none other than the indomitable Jaws to snuff him out. 

Wood again writes Bond far closer to Fleming's version than what audiences were currently seeing onscreen, and that is to the book's advantage. Many of the more controversial aspects of the film-- the gondola hovercraft, the double-taking pigeon, Jaws's girlfriend, to name a few-- are absent, and the overall tone is more serious. There are several sequences that are downright intense, some of which are played for laughs in the movie. A couple of the movie's strongest scenes are absent, such as the fate of poor Corinne (named Trudi in the novel) and the shooting scene with Drax and Bond. Drax himself is virtually identical physically to the character in Fleming's novel, and there's a nice reference to his predilection for playing bridge, which featured heavily in the Fleming novel. Bond wonders to himself what side he fought on back in the war. Surprisingly, we never get any background information on Drax, so we're left to wonder along with him. It could be that Wood's intent was for the character to share the same history as the Fleming version, but his overall demeanor and Ra's al Ghul-esque motivations are incongruous with that. In any case, he's an effective villain, and I find him more interesting than the previous book's Stromberg. Drax's first henchman, Chang, seems an attempt to create an Oddjob sort of villain, but he receives no development, and falls far short of that standard. His battle with Bond in Venice is a highlight, however, and far more violent that anything we'd see in any of Moore's Bond movies. 

Holly fares much better as a heroine than Anya did in Wood's previous book, getting the better of Bond on a couple of occasions, and her skillset proves absolutely vital in the book's final act. Jaws is, if anything, even more formidable than before, and seems to be virtually indestructible. (His survival of the destruction of Atlantis in the previous book, by the way, is not explained. Where he is shown to clearly have survived in the movie, the novelization saw him in a situation seemingly guaranteed to result in his doom. I wondered how Wood would address it, if at all, and it turns out that he didn't. Not a big problem, just worth pointing out.) Without the addition of his girlfriend-- though he does save a female astronaut from Drax's space station during the climax, she's clearly not the same character-- his turn hinges entirely on Bond pointing out how he himself will ultimately be disposed of once Drax no longer has need of him, as he clearly will not fit into his idea of genetic perfection. His scenes following his face turn are far stronger than in the movie, and one gets the sense that his selflessness in saving Bond, Holly, and the unnamed astronaut are an attempt to condone for all the horrible things we've seen him do prior to this. It's a strong (possible) end for "the man with murder in his mouth."

Notable quotes:

There may have been something slightly vulgar about the display of so much wealth, but it was a very genuine vulgarity.

"I want you to look after Mr. Bond, Chang," [Drax] said slowly. "See that some harm comes to him."

The voice was as cold as that of a mid-western Baptist schoolmistress making her first trip east of the Great Lakes.

Poor Q. He produced equipment for every contingency and yet was furious whenever one arose.

"Mr. Bond--" the voice echoed down from above, and conveyed a note of genuine regret "-- you defy all my attempts to plan an amusing death for you."

His smile was like a crack on a gravestone.

"At least I will have the pleasure of putting you out of my misery."

Whatever your feelings about the film version-- personally, while I find all of the common criticisms of it valid, I still like it and enjoy watching it for some damn reason-- James Bond and Moonraker is a damn entertaining book. The plot meanders a bit, as does the movie, but Wood keeps a quick pace, and his wit and clever turns of phrase keep things enjoyable. It's a bold, sprawling adventure, exciting and ridiculous in equal measure, much like the movie itself. I find myself wishing that Wood had written more Bond novels, particularly some not based on the movies. Recommended. 

That's it for today, and I'll be skipping next Monday, but fly back here in two weeks, as we move into the John Gardner era! 

The 007 Re-Read Project: James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me by Christopher Wood

James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me occupies a rather odd position in the Bond bibliography. Despite sharing the title with one of Fleming's original Bond novels, the film version of The Spy Who Loved Me bears absolutely no resemblance to its contents. This was apparently a condition that Fleming himself insisted upon when he sold the film rights to the Bond books, as he was dissatisfied with the novel. (He wasn't the only one!) Rather than release a tie-in edition of the book that bore no relation to the movie, it was decided to have screenwriter Christopher Wood write a novelization with a slightly modified title to differentiate it from the Fleming original. This was one of the only books that I was unable to find during my Bond book binge of the mid-to-late '90s. Well, that's not exactly true; while I was able to find copies for sale online, they all commanded prices that were well out of my comfort zone, particularly for an old paperback. (There was a rather nice hardcover edition published in the U.K, but I was unaware of that at the time, and given that it went for far higher prices, it wouldn't have mattered anyway!) Thankfully, it was made available as an ebook back in 2013, and I was finally able to acquire a copy. (Oddly, it was delisted at some point, and a quick web search didn't turn up any explanation.) As always, I won't blow the whole plot, but there are SPOILERS AHEAD! 

It will come as no surprise to those who have made a habit of reading novelizations that there are a number of differences between this book and what you see in the movie. This is undoubtedly due to its being based on an earlier version of the script, but it may also be due in part to a desire to make it more congruous with the previous Bond novels. Aside from some of the dialogue, it's quite difficult to picture Roger Moore as the Bond of this book. There's a level of violence and gore that we have yet to see in any Bond films, let alone those starring Moore. There's a torture scene that particularly stands out in this regard that is certain to make male readers squirm as much as the infamous carpet beater scene from Casino Royale. Many of the outlandish setpieces from the film are here, but Bond himself is clearly modeled on Fleming's Bond. 

M's characterization is much closer to the film version than the literary, however, and his conversations with Bond are about the most casual you're likely to come across. Anya Amasova is given a great deal more background, though she remains a character defined more by her sexuality than her personality. Most of her scenes seem to pivot around how greatly she is desired by the men in her life, chiefly Bond and her boss. Speaking of her boss, he is explicitly called out as the head of SMERSH in the novel. It seems a rather odd choice, as SMERSH had been disbanded in the world of the novels by the time Thunderball was published. Whereas Walter Gotell's General Gogol is a relatively benign presence in the film, his counterpart in the novel, General Nikitin, is an utterly loathsome creature, so duplicitous and lecherous in nature that it stretches belief that M would behave so affably toward him even under direct orders. 

We also get quite a bit more background on Stromberg, here given the forename Sigmund, and the steel-toothed giant Jaws. Jaws himself is nearly as memorable as in the film, and serves as Stromberg's one and only henchman. (Lesser underlings Sandor and Naomi are not present in the novel.) Jaws is dispatched with quite a bit more finality than in the film, and it'll be interesting to see how Wood explains his presence in the Moonraker novelization, if it's addressed at all. The Stromberg of the novel differs massively from his film counterpart, though his goals remain the same. With his bald head and fashion sense, he almost seems to have been cast in the mold of Doctor No physically, but he has his own rather unique characteristics to set him apart. His ritual when something upsets him is more comical than intimidating, however, and it's probably for the best that the filmmakers didn't include it in the film version! He doesn't reach the upper echelon of Bond's nemeses, but he is a memorable villain nevertheless.

Wood makes a valiant effort to replicate the Fleming Sweep, though he doesn't achieve this consistently. The novel is a quick and easy read, however, and retains a feeling of density despite its brevity due to the sheer number of events. Not all of these receive proper fleshing out. Anya's sudden turn during the climax comes literally from nowhere, and without the slightest peek at her mental or emotional state to rationalize any of it. The actor's performances just barely manage to make the moment work in the film, but the novel doesn't have Roger Moore's charisma going for it, so the scene falls completely flat, and is immediately glossed over with no explanation. The book ends differently than the film, though they still escape from Stromberg's stronghold in the same manner. There's an epilogue that shows the pair reuniting after their adventure, but it sadly doesn't amount to much. There's a hint that Anya has defected, but we're left with no details about that, either. 

Notable quotes:

Women you pick up in casinos are either straightforward whores or have run out of money playing some ridiculous system. Either way they are going to be very expensive and probably very neurotic. (Yikes!)

Bond felt a sense of unreality. He had been dropped onto the roof of the world and he had done nothing to earn these spirit-enriching vistas, the reward of those who had bravely scaled the face of a mountain. Bond preferred his pleasures hard-won.

(As Bond is relentlessly accosted by merchants in the Cairo marketplace.) Bond felt like a man swimming against the tide. If anyone tried to sell him dirty postcards, he might go under.

Stromberg turned slowly like a man in a trance and Bond found himself staring into eyes that were two long corridors leading nowhere. He realized that Stromberg was completely and utterly mad. "You do not understand, Commander Bond. I want to destroy the world."

The two departing submarines were now framed in the gaping bows of the Lepadus. It was like a painting. A painting of the end of the world.

The tight, cruel line of Bond's mouth divided like a trap being sprung. 

While the novel ends rather weakly, the climactic scenes carry much of the bombast of the film version, and that helps make up for the small disappointments of the final chapters. Its memorable action sequences, (mostly) interesting characters, and the novelty of contrasting it with the film version make it well worth the read. I wouldn't call this a great book, but it's a good one, and definitely in the upper tier of non-Fleming Bond novels. I'm looking forward to tackling Wood's other Bond novelization. Recommended.

That's all for this time, but infiltrate your way here again next Monday for more! 

The 007 Re-Read Project: James Bond: The Authorised Biography by John Pearson

James Bond: The Authorised Biography is a rather odd, but fascinating, book. A bit of online research reveals that Pearson, after writing his acclaimed biography of Bond creator Ian Fleming, conceived of a similar biography of James Bond himself, treating him as if he actually existed. Ian Fleming Publications, then called Glidrose, was intrigued by the idea, and officially sanctioned the book. Like Colonel Sun, I had not heard of it during my numerous bookstore raids back in the '90s. Unlike Amis's opus, I didn't have the good fortune to stumble across it, so it was a few more years before I learned of its existence. It was out of print at the time, and like the movie tie-in novels by Christopher Wood, used copies on the secondary market were priced beyond my comfort zone. I put it on the backburner and basically forgot about it for a number of years. It was made available as an ebook in 2012, and I finally got it shortly afterward. However, I pretty much forgot about it once again until I began this series of posts, so I've just finished reading it for the first time! As always, I endeavor to avoid giving away everything, but there will be SPOILERS AHEAD!

The novel kicks off with the author receiving a letter following the publication of his Fleming biography that reminisces about meeting Fleming in the company of a young James Bond decades earlier. Pearson is taken aback by this, and initially dismisses it as the confused rambling of an elderly lady, but is intrigued by the other possibility. Further investigation draws the attention of the secret service, who eventually takes him to where Bond is recuperating in Bermuda. Over the course of several weeks, a sometimes reluctant Bond tells Pearson the story of his life, covering quite a bit of ground that had been only vaguely alluded to in the Fleming novels, at best. We get an actual date of birth for the first time-- 1920-- and details about the climbing accident that claimed his parents' lives, followed by young Bond being taken in by his aunt Charmian. Pearson draws from the obituary that appeared in You Only Live Twice, nicely fleshing out the bits of information which readers had been drip-fed previously. There are quite a few missions detailed outside of what we see in the Fleming novels, many of which are on par with Fleming's own short stories. For the first time ever, we see what Bond was up to during World War II, as well as the origin of his facial scar. Suffice to say, it's a visual reminder of an event that harmed him far more emotionally than physically. Bond's relationship with Fleming is explored at length, and it is a rather complicated one. Bond seems to have felt great affection and dislike for him in equal measure. In any case, Fleming is a pivotal figure, even in a world in which Bond actually exists. 

I do think the in-universe reasoning for the publication of the Bond novels is pretty nonsensical, however. It's posited as a solution to SMERSH's vendetta against Bond-- a remnant of the failure of their assassin to kill him during the events of Casino Royale-- by making them, and the world at large, believe that he is merely a fictional character. But surely the relation of actual events, many of which SMERSH was directly involved with, would blow the whole thing? I suppose that maybe it was intended to create the illusion that "James Bond 007" was a codename used by multiple agents who had done these things, along the lines of the severely misguided theory some hold in relation to the film series, but that doesn't really work, either. If that were the goal, SMERSH would simply endeavor to figure out who the agent in question was in the Casino Royale mission, discover it actually was Bond, and they'd be right back where they started. But whatever, it's one of those things you have to simply hand-wave away for the whole thing to function. By the time you reach this point in the book, what's gone before has been engaging enough to make it worthwhile. 

I also had some issues' with M' characterization in parts of the book, particularly a certain revelation that rears its head late in the story. It really just didn't work at all for me, and seems massively out of character, but it's a small enough part of the whole that it doesn't do any real harm. Another minor issue is the sudden rise of larger-than-life supervillains once the narrative reaches 1953, where the Fleming novels begin. All but one of the novels are said to be true events, but everything prior to them was so grounded and realistic that the abrupt appearances of such epically malevolent beings as Goldfinger and Dr. No is rather incongruous. It's as if Mr. Freeze and Clayface suddenly popped up in The Dark Knight Rises. Again, though, you're immersed enough in the narrative by this point that it's easy to simply go with the flow. 

Notable quotes: 

James loved his father but could not speak to him of anything that mattered, worshipped his mother, but could not forgive her for rejecting him. In years to come a lot of women were to pay the price of this rejection.

War is a dirty business, but some men's wars are dirtier than others.

He knew that whilst in ordinary war it is the last battle that counts, in the secret war there could never be a final battle, only the ceaseless ebb and flow of murder and betrayal.

I asked him if he saw the James Bond films.

"Oh yes... At first I was a bit put out to see that Connery fellow supposedly playing me, but I suppose that's normal... it was rather, shall we say, disturbing. I felt as if my character, my whole identity, had gradually been usurped by someone else."

In the end, the "real" James Bond turns out to be quite different from his pop culture counterpart, but quite like him, as well. This book isn't a quick read, but for anyone who loves a good biography, even a fictional one, it's a damn good one. For Bond fans, it's essential. I find myself wishing that Pearson had written more Bond novels, featuring the "real" Bond or otherwise. Recommended.

That's it for today, but blast your way back next Monday for more! 

The 007 Re-Read Project: Colonel Sun by Kingsley Amis

Published in 1968, Colonel Sun by Kingsley Amis (using the pen name Robert Markham) is the first non-Fleming Bond novel, and continues the story of the intrepid agent quite well. As mentioned before, I had no idea this book existed before I happened upon it in a used book store, despite hunting down all the 007 books I could. (That may seem odd, but was easy to be missing key information like that in those days-- the internet existed, sure, but it wasn't ubiquitous, and I certainly wasn't able to access it whenever I wanted.) I devoured it, blazing through the entire book in an evening. I liked it quite a bit, and deemed it a worthy follow-up to the work of Ian Fleming himself. That was more than two decades ago. When I revisited it a few days ago, I remembered almost nothing from the story, and had no idea how well it would hold up. (That will certainly be an ongoing theme as these re-reads proceed!) Fair warning, while I always endeavor not to blow the whole plot in my reviews, there are SPOILERS AHEAD! 

The novel follows Bond as he pursues a group of mysterious kidnappers into Greece, seeking to recover his boss, the head of MI6, M. The opening is one of the best and most memorable from any Bond novel, Fleming's included. After that, the story does sag a bit. There are some nice bits of action in the middle portion, but that section of the novel is rather slow overall. Fleming had a way of imbuing his stories with a sense of headlong energy that propels the reader forward, affectionately referred to by fans as "the Fleming Sweep." Amis does a good job with this novel overall, but it is definitely lacking that crucial trademark of Fleming's. Fleming had a way of delivering numerous details without it seeming like an infodump, a skill that is very difficult to duplicate, and Amis doesn't really pull it off here. That said, there are some pretty strong characters, and as the scope of the conspiracy Bond is trying to unravel widens, they serve to keep the story centered. Ariadne is a much better-developed heroine than we get in most of the Fleming stories, and Litsas serves more than adequately in the "sidekick" role. Both prove to be crucial to the plot, which is always nice to see, as such supporting characters are often little more than window dressing.

Any lingering gripes about the story's slowness in the middle portion of the novel are easy to overlook once the final section is reached. In the titular villain, Amis has delivered a fiend worthy of standing alongside some of Fleming's best. His odd admiration, almost affection, for Bond even as he sets about destroying him in the most sadistic manner he can conceive of is extremely unsettling. The torture scene is quite possibly the worst Bond has ever been subjected to; only the infamous carpet beater scene in Casino Royale is even in the same league. The 2015 film Spectre drew from this novel for its torture scene. Witness this passage, and its similarity to the monologue delivered by Blofeld in the film: 

    "So, then. Where? Where does a man live? Where's the inmost part of a man, his soul, his being, his identity? One can do very unpleasant things to a man's fingernails, for example. Or to his genitals... but all this happens, so to speak, somewhere else. A man can watch himself being disemboweled and derive great horror,  as well as pain, from the experience. But it's going on at a distance. It isn't taking place... where he is."

    Sun came over and knelt beside Bond's chair. He spoke in a half-whisper. His throat was trembling. "A man lives inside his head. That's where the seat of his soul is. And this is true objectively as well as subjectively. I was present once-- I wasn't directly concerned-- when an American prisoner in Korea was deprived of his eyes. And the most astonishing thing happened. He wasn't there anymore. He'd gone, though he was still alive. There was nobody inside his skull. Most odd, I promise you. 

    "So James, I am going to penetrate to where you are, to the inside of your head."

When first watching that movie several years ago, I had no memory of the events of Colonel Sun, so I didn't immediately get the reference. The scene, specifically the dialogue, seemed dimly familiar, but I had no idea where I'd heard it, or something similar, before. My jaw dropped when I reached this scene on my re-read! It's utterly chilling, and it made for one of the strongest scenes in the film, as well. I'm sure it's old news to anyone who'd read this book more recently than I had at the time, but I was pleased to see that the filmmakers had actually drawn from one of the continuation novels! 

After Bond manages to escape from the absolutely brutal torture, he and his allies manage to unravel the enemy plot, as well as the enemies' lives, naturally. Sun himself gets an epic sendoff worthy of a villain of his stature. The final scene is a scream, as a high-ranking member of the Russian government thanks Bond for his assistance, with veiled references to the countless times Bond has run afoul of them (often totally screwing up their plans) over the years. This is all in the subtext, but given the epic clashes they've had over the course of his career, it's a very amusing undercurrent to their conversation. This scene also signals that their governments are acknowledging that they are no longer enemies as they once were, and Bond is even offered an award for his service to the Russian government! It's a fascinating scene, and Amis handles it very well. 

Notable quotes:

Bond looked round the unpretentious room with its comfortable benches in dark-blue leather, its decorous little groups of business and professional men - quiet men, decent men, men who had never behaved violently or treacherously in their lives. Admirable men: but the though of becoming indistinguishable from them was suddenly repugnant.

Bond was hiding a grin at the memory of having read somewhere that hatred of tobacco was a common psychopathic symptom, from which Hitler among others had been a notable sufferer. (Yikes! I don't know where Bond [or Amis] read that it was a psychopathic symptom, but I certainly couldn't find anything about it anywhere! It is true that Hitler hated tobacco, though.) 

From the air, [the island] Vrakonisi looks like the blade of a sickle drawn by a very drunk man.

There was an interval just long enough for the thought that the cessation of pain was an infinitely more exquisite sensual thrill than the wildest spasms of love.

Even with a middle section that often drags, Colonel Sun is a very good novel. Its riveting opening, well-developed characters, fantastic finale, and fascinating villain make it a strong read. It's generally regarded as one of the very best, if not the best, of all the non-Fleming Bonds, and revisiting it has reminded me why. Recommended.

The Bond book bonanza barrels, uh, forward next Monday! Be here! 

Rant Reads: The 007 Re-Read Project

As longtime Rant readers remember, this blog began as a classic horror blog. It quickly expanded to encompass pretty much anything that interested me, and has been taken over by toy reviews in the past few years. While there's nothing at all wrong with that, I've been wanting to expand the range of content again recently. As part of that, the 007 Re-Read Project was born.

I've been a Bond fan for decades. My fascination with the character and his world extends nearly as far back as my love for MOTU, dinosaurs, and Batman. Roger Moore is the first Bond I remember seeing; I have hazy memories of watching The Spy Who Loved Me when I was very small. I would come across the movies on TV every so often, and would usually drop whatever else I was doing so I could watch. While I enjoyed the goofy excess of the Moore Bonds, Sean Connery was darkly charismatic in a way unlike anyone else I had ever seen, almost like a charming villain who was on the side of the "good guys." He quickly became my Bond of choice. I remember seeing trailers for License to Kill when I was 10, and I badly wanted to see it. Trips to the theater were rare, however, so I didn't get to see it until I got a VHS copy of it a couple of years later. (And it didn't disappoint! Contrary to the dismissive views of it you'll find scattered across the internet, I think it's one of the best in the series. It also ranks with Dr. No and From Russia with Love as the movies that are closest to the Fleming novels.)

I was vaguely aware that there were James Bond novels, but I don't remember ever seeing any of them in stores. During the six year gap of the early '90s, which saw no Bond movies, and very little media featuring the character at all, Bond kind of faded into the background for me. I would still watch the occasional movie on TV, but that was pretty much it. Then, 1995 rolled around. A new Bond was on the way! Goldeneye was the first Bond movie I got to see in the theater, and it reignited my love of the franchise. I was talking about it with a friend at school some time later, and suddenly remembered that there were all these books I'd never read. I mentioned this to my friend, and he revealed that he had actually read some of them, and proceeded to rave about how awesome they were! I resolved then and there to track some of them down.

This was easier said than done in the US in the '90s. The original 007 novels by Ian Fleming were inexplicably out of print, so one was limited to any remaining stock that might be lingering at local bookstores, along with whatever they could find at the library. I managed to find a paperback copy of a single book at the local Books-a-Million. Thus, my first Bond novel was The Man with the Golden Gun. Definitely not the best choice, as this is generally considered some of Fleming's weakest work, but it was good enough to make me want more. A trip to a the local library turned up another half dozen or so novels, and I resumed my reading with the novel version of my favorite movie: Goldfinger. I was hooked.

Over the next couple of years, I tracked down all 14 of Ian Fleming's Bond books, even accruing a couple of first editions along the way. Thanks to a gift from a friend, I discovered that there were an additional fourteen novels and two movie novelizations penned by John Gardner, who picked up 007's adventures beginning in 1981. (The gift was a hardcover copy of Seafire, which he had come across while perusing the BAM sale tables. As much as I had dug through those myself, I have no idea how I missed seeing it!) I hunted all of these down in short order, though his novelization of the film License to Kill took a bit of doing. 

A year or so later, I had started working at BAM, and had a customer ask me if we had any copies of Zero Minus Ten by Raymond Benson in stock. I checked to make sure that we carried it-- BAM had no inventory system, you could only check the microfiche to make sure that we carried a title before going to look for it on the shelf, a system that was woefully outdated even in the late '90s-- and took him to the fiction section to show him where it was. Removing it from the shelf, I saw that it was a James Bond novel! (I'm still shocked that the publisher's promotion of the books was so poor that even someone like me, who made it a point to buy and read these novels, and even worked in a bookstore, had no idea that it even existed prior to this!) Handing the customer a copy, I grabbed the other one for myself. I quickly devoured it, and while it wasn't on par with the best of Fleming, I enjoyed it quite a bit. A quick search of the author's name on the BAM computer revealed that Benson's second Bond novel had recently been released in hardcover, so I ordered a copy, and the collection continued to expand.

In the midst of this, while in a used book store in town, I came across a paperback Bond novel I had never heard of before. It had nice pulpy painted art on a white background, with the title Colonel Sun emblazoned across the cover in large block letters. Written by Kingsley Amis under the pen name Robert Markham, it was a curiosity to me. It had been published only a couple of years after Fleming's final Bond book, yet the lists of books I'd hunted down had not mentioned it. As I commence re-reading the Bond continuation novels, we'll begin with it. Be here next Monday! 

October Bookstravaganza!

The past few days have been very good to me when it comes to scoring interesting books. Between our two local used bookstores and a few thrift stores, I've snagged 42 books for $9! A few of them were for other people, but that's a hell of a deal any way you look at it.

First up is this nice hardcover copy of the Carl Sagan classic Contact, which I picked up at Goodwill for $1.50. The book section there is normally pretty pitiful, so this is the first time I've actually found a book I wanted there. It's even a first edition!
(I also found a stack of records for Cindy, but that's a whole other topic.)

A trip to the Book Rack (the one off of Highway 98) introduced me to these three gems. I've had an old mass-market paperback copy of The Phantom of the Opera for years, so this 75th anniversary hardcover edition seemed like a wise trade-up. Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu series is one of the great old pulp lines i always enjoy; and President Fu Manchu was a total no-brainer for a dime. As for the King Kong book, I've always had a fascination with short-lived oddball series and genre projects that failed, and the 1976 DeLaurentiss version of King Kong most certainly fits into the latter category. I've flipped through the book, and it looks like a pretty comprehensive chronicle of the making of that train-wreck of a movie.

A newly-opened thrift store yielded this new edition of Octopussy, part of the Penguin line that has those great pulp-ish covers. I've admired these editions for a long time, but I can't justify the price since I already have multiple editions of all of the Fleming Bonds. I wasn't about to pass one up for fifty cents, though. The Frank Yerby book, A Woman Called Fancy, came home with me because I've been interested in his work since I first found out about him some time ago. Yerby was one of the first successful black authors in America, the first to have a million-selling novel, and the first to have his work adapted as a movie. I always pick up his books when I run across them, finances allowing.

A dollar and change got me these three trashy adventure novels at the other Book Rack(the one on 13th Avenue). I haven't actually read any of these series, but I figured they were worth a shot at their dirt-cheap prices. Anyway, just look at that Enforcer book! Calling Doctor KILL!!!! How in the hell could I have walked out of there without that?!?!!

Now, here comes the motherload! One of the local thrift stores, Bargains and Blessings, looks like  a garage sale vomited inside the building. Piles of stuff everywhere, with minimal organization, but most of it is dirt cheap. I walked in there literally for the first time in years, and walked out with an armload of books, all for a dime each. It was glorious. This is the kind of score that keeps me looking as regularly as i can manage at various thrift stores, through all the dry spells when I come across nothing but diet books and "Left Behind" garbage. Eventually, I know my vigilance will pay off. A couple of these books are for Braxton, my nephew, including the Bradbury classic Fahrenheit 451, which anyone who is literate should read at least once. Several of the books were things I knew Cindy would like, and she's already taken them home, so no photos of them.

As with Octopussy, I already had these Fleming Bond books in other editions, but I can't resist buying them when I come across some with cover art I don't already have, as long as they're cheap.

Damn near everything else falls firmly into the trashy adventure novel genre. Some of these series are new to me; my instant favorite is The Penetrator. I've already read one of them, and trust me, you will be seeing more about this series. There are a couple of Mack Bolan books in the mix; honestly, I tried reading a couple of these when I was a teenager, and the series focus on gun porn just didn't do anything for me. For a dime, though, I figured I'd give 'em another shot. The old science-related books are just cool, and they were both in really good shape too, especially considering their age. I got the Empire Strikes Back adaptation because I remember having it when I was little, and this one was in fantastic condition.

So, I'm swamped in books, many of them thoroughly trashy, and loving it. If only I'd run across a copy of the Overload series, which features a pair of ex-commando truckers who roam the country, doling out righteous ass-beatings to any random asswipe who deserves it, or Body Smasher, the wrestling adventure series that features Captain Lou Albano, this would've been a haul to tell the grandkids about someday!