The title isn't that impressive - at least, when compared to the franchise's history of books and movies - after all, you can't get larger in the spy thriller milieu than 007. Luckily, the book's cover places that well recognized '007' branding quite boldly on the pages; in fact those numbers leap out - plus adding in relatively smaller - but still noticeable letters the announcement that this book happens to be the new James Bond novel for good measure just to get the reader's attention... otherwise, I'd have passed it by. Yeah... yeah... judging a book by its cover may be an old warning - but it's a Bond book... surely its got to be nice, right?
How about the story itself? For starters, its a book by Jeffrey Deaver - a man known for his intelligent man's thrillers (anyone remember Bone Collector?), but it doesn't stop there... Deaver gives a more human, more realistic Bond - one who is good at what he does, but then so is his support organization, and its here where I like Deaver's work. Another thing I liked... he modernizes Bond - so this is not the Bond of the Iron Curtain era... (as was the approach of the previous Bond novel I read), rather this is a Bond of the 21st century. This transforms Bond into someone more like his current silver screen counterpart in terms of the gadgets he can have access to - but the book gives us all a glimpse of Bond likewise at work with, and at times... suffering the fools behind bureaucratic red tape, or one he conveniently bypasses as he needs to respect the different turfs of local agencies when he's on British soil. That easily changes, of course, when he's outside the U.K. where his 'carte blanche' status is in effect.
Let's not forget that Bond's stories likewise deal with villains worthy of the Bond stature as well, and Mr. Deaver introduces us to Theron Hydt of Green Way - a company whose business is recycling waste (as I said, modernized), plus Nial Dunne, who would be Bond's physical antagonist; and how about another tradition with the Bond franchise, namely femme fetales with catchy names... even here Jeffrey doesn't veer from tradition with Felicity Willing - a willing partner, if you;re teh right man for her plans - she's also a philanthropist sending food to areas where people are starving.
I won't go into too many details as I might spoil anyone's reading pleasure - suffice it to say that that this is a good, credible, Bond adventure - with believable gadgets and believable characters, and even long time Bond fans will enjoy the cameos of long time Bond allies Agents Mathias and Leiter (did I spell Felix's last name right?), proving in this book that Bond is ever as intelligent and resourceful as he needs to be. Naturally, Jeffrey isn't Jeffrey if he did not place the clues on the table - and the reader is left either following Bond's line of thoughts... or wondering 'when did that happen?'
For more clues as to how this novel reads out, see this link for an excerpt, courtesy of amazon.com:
Carte Blanche
If you like Bond - grab a copy now.
Let's not forget that Bond's stories likewise deal with villains worthy of the Bond stature as well, and Mr. Deaver introduces us to Theron Hydt of Green Way - a company whose business is recycling waste (as I said, modernized), plus Nial Dunne, who would be Bond's physical antagonist; and how about another tradition with the Bond franchise, namely femme fetales with catchy names... even here Jeffrey doesn't veer from tradition with Felicity Willing - a willing partner, if you;re teh right man for her plans - she's also a philanthropist sending food to areas where people are starving.
I won't go into too many details as I might spoil anyone's reading pleasure - suffice it to say that that this is a good, credible, Bond adventure - with believable gadgets and believable characters, and even long time Bond fans will enjoy the cameos of long time Bond allies Agents Mathias and Leiter (did I spell Felix's last name right?), proving in this book that Bond is ever as intelligent and resourceful as he needs to be. Naturally, Jeffrey isn't Jeffrey if he did not place the clues on the table - and the reader is left either following Bond's line of thoughts... or wondering 'when did that happen?'
For more clues as to how this novel reads out, see this link for an excerpt, courtesy of amazon.com:
Carte Blanche
If you like Bond - grab a copy now.
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