Devil May Care (novel)
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| Devil May Care | |
 First Edition UK Hardcover |
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| Author | Sebastian Faulks |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | James Bond |
| Subject(s) | heroin, Iran, Vietnam War, MI6, Deuxieme Bureau, Ekranoplan, James Bond |
| Genre(s) | Spy novel |
| Publisher | Penguin 007 |
| Publication date | 28 May 2008 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
Devil May Care is the thirty-sixth James Bond novel. Written by Sebastian Faulks ("writing as Ian Fleming"), it was published on 28 May 2008, the 100th anniversary of Bond creator Ian Fleming's birth.[1]
The popular novelist, famous for Charlotte Gray and Birdsong, was selected by the estate of the late 007-author in 2006, though his identity was not revealed to the public until July 2007 when a publishing date for the work was officially announced along with its title.
The novel is set in the Cold War in 1967 (and in Ian Fleming's original continuity, following The Man With The Golden Gun) and the action is played out "across two continents, exotic locations and some of the world's most thrilling cities".[2] U.S. publisher Doubleday later confirmed one of the locations as Paris. [3] The book also features numerous references to past Bond novels by Fleming.
Many online and print sources erroneously stated that Devil May Care will be the first new James Bond novel published since 1966. In fact, dozens of full-length Bond novels were published, officially, between 1968 and 2002 by the authors Kingsley Amis (as "Robert Markham"), John Pearson, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, and Raymond Benson. In addition, Charlie Higson and Samantha Weinberg (as "Kate Westbrook") have been publishing Bond-related novels since 2005. Faulks' book is, however, the first novel to focus on the adult James Bond, as conceived by Fleming, since 2002 and, as noted above, it takes place in the time-frame of Fleming's original novels, the first such book since Amis' Colonel Sun (discounting the spin-off Young Bond and The Moneypenny Diaries lines).
The jacket artwork features the model Tuuli Shipster, muse of the British photographer, Rankin. Tuuli said: "I was thrilled that Penguin chose me to be their Bond girl. It’s fantastic to be involved with something so iconic."[4] She was also involved in the book's launch on board HMS Exeter on 27 May 2008.[5] The cover photograph was taken by British photographer and commercials director, Kevin Summers. The jacket image was created by the design agency The Partners.[4]
Devil May Care has been published in hardback by Penguin Books in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Europe and in Ireland. In the US it has been published by Doubleday. Many of the publishers will be using this jacket. Penguin are launching a brand new imprint – Penguin 007 – under which they will publish all their Bond titles, including Devil May Care.[4]
Devil May Care has become Penguin UK's fastest selling hardback novel ever, with 44,093 copies sold in its first four days. [1]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
A savage execution in the desolate outskirts of Paris sets in motion a chain of events designed to lead only to global catastrophe, as a tide of lethal narcotics threatens to engulf Sixties Britain, a British airliner goes missing over Iraq and the thunder of coming war echoes around the Middle East.
Dr Julius Gorner has a strong distaste for Britain and wishes to flood it with drugs but is impatient and decides to attack the Soviet Union with nuclear warheads disguised as British pilots to cause a nuclear strike on London from Russia.
James Bond is assigned to the case and first meets Gorner at a tennis match through Scarlett Papava, who wants him to help her rescue her twin sister, Poppy, from Gorner. Bond beats Gorner at tennis and finds out about his factory in the Middle East when Poppy visits him at the risk of her own life. Bond travels to Persia and meets his contact there, Darius Alizadeh before investigating a warehouse identified by Poppy to find an Ekranoplan stored there used by Gorner to smuggle his drugs into the Soviet Union before shipping it round the world to his other factories.
Bond goes back to his hotel room where he meets Scarlet again and she accompanies him to the warehouse again where Bond attempts to get photographs of the Ekranoplan but Gorner's right hand man, Chagrin is waiting for them and Bond and Scarlet are captured. They are taken to Gorner's base in the desert where he shows his factory off to Bond before getting him to accompany Chagrin in transporting his drugs across the desert where Afghani rebels usually attack them.
Bond is used as a distraction for them while Chagrin and his men travel past safely. Bond barely survives the ambush and is taken back to the base. Gorner reveals his plan to attack the Soviet Union with nuclear warheads with his men impersonating British pilots and therefore leading to the Soviet Union launching a nuclear attack on London. Gorner stole the British airliner to use it to attack the Soviet Unions Holy grail of nuclear weapons and Bond will be flying the plane.
Bond is taken back to his cell but manages to escape and lets Scarlet escape the building and hide on the British airliner while he lets himself get caught again. In the morning, he is taken onto the plane, but before the airliner can drop its bomb on the Soviet Union's stock pile of nuclear weapons, Bond takes out the guards with Scarlet's help who has been hiding on the airliner all along. They use a parachute to jump to safety as the airliner crashes into the mountains.
Meanwhile, Felix Leiter and Darius know about the Ekranoplan and a potential attack on the Soviet Union and meet with CIA agent J.D. Silver, who goes to call Langley so they can send fighters to take out the Ekranoplan. Silver turns out to be working against them and tries to stop them from contacting Langley. Darius manages to contact M before he is killed by Silver and is about to kill Felix when Darius' driver, Hamid saves him by killing Silver. RAF Vulcan bombers launch a surface-to-air strike on the Ekranoplan in time and destroy it before it can reach its target.
Bond and Scarlet travel through the Soviet Union and head back to Helinski but Chagrin attacks them on a train from Leningrad. Bond manages to overpower him with Scarlet's help and end up killing him when trying to push him out the window of their carriage and Chagrin is decapitated when they enter a tunnel.
Bond and Scarlet make it to Helinski and travel to Paris where Bond reports back to M who tells him he needs to meet the new 004 after the last one died in Germany. Bond travels round Paris and goes on the Mississippi paddle steamer, the Huckleberry Finn, to waste time till the meet. However Gorner has tracked him down and tries to kill him on the boat, but Bond overpowers Gorner's hitman before going after Gorner. Bond manages to shoot and wound him but Gorner doesn't give Bond the pleasure of killing him and jumps into the river to escape, but ends up getting pulled into the paddle of the Huckleberry Finn and is killed.
Bond goes to meet 004 after Rene Mathis smoothes things over with the local police concerning Gorner's death and finds out 004 is Scarlet, and she made up the whole Poppy story so he would let her help him otherwise he wouldn't have worked with Scarlet if he had known she was a '00'.
[edit] References
- ^ Faulks pens new James Bond novel. BBC News (2007-07-11).
- ^ Sebastian Faulks Named As Centenary Novelist. MI6 - The Home Of James Bond (2007-07-10).
- ^ First DMC thrilling city revealed: Paris. Literary 007 (2007-07-11).
- ^ a b c Devil May Care Cover Revealed. MI6 - The Home Of James Bond (2007-12-03).
- ^ "New Bond novel launched in style", BBC News, 27 May 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-28.
[edit] Reviews
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To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup because it is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (June 2008) |
- The Bookseller summary of reviews
- Publishers Weekly extremely positive, starred review
- Christopher Hitchens, Financial Times extremely negative
- Jeffrey Westhoff, Chicago Sun Times extremely negative
- Euan Ferguson, The Observer moderately negative
- Matthew Lynn, Bloomberg moderately negative
- Eric Felten, Wall Street Journal moderately negative
- Mark Lawson, The Guardian almost entirely positive
- David Robinson, The Scotsman solidly negative
- Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times generally negative
- Sam Leith, The Telegraph almost entirely positive
- Michael Maiello, Forbes extremely positive bar one serious objection
- Janet Maslin, New York Times negative
- Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly reasonably positive, B grade
- Peter Millar , The Times, reasonably positive, 3/5
- John Preston, The Telegraph almost entirely positive
- Charles McGrath, New York Times positive
- Charles Cumming, The Spectator extremely positive
- David Sexton, The Evening Standard positive
- The Economist positive
- Patrick Anderson, The Washington Post negative
[edit] External links
- Penguin007.com - Official website for Devil May Care.
- Ian Fleming Centenary Official website for the 2008 Centenary events.
- The Literary 007 - Fansite devoted to Devil May Care and the literary James Bond.
- Sebastian Faulks on the Appeal of James Bond (Retrieved on 2008-05-31)
- Devil May Care launches in high style (Retrieved on 2008-05-31)
- Collectors Guide to the Books (Retrieved on 2008-06-02)
- 007 in 008: Back to your Books, Mr Bond John Grimond, The Economist
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