2020 Anniversary BONDS

HAPPY NEW YEAR and welcome to another year of The Book Bond. 2020 marks a few anniversaries, any one of which is sure to make someone feel old!

60th Anniversary

Ian Fleming's For You Eyes Only 

Published April 11, 1960

A departure from the full-length James Bond novels, For Your Eyes Only is a stunning collection of five stories that sends 007 to Bermuda, Berlin, and beyond, and places him in the dangerous company of adversaries of all varieties.

30th Anniversary

John Gardner's Brokenclaw

Published August 2, 1990

During a vacation trip to San Francisco, James Bond confronts a complex espionage plot and his deadliest enemy yet--Fu-Chu Lee, an evil super-criminal known to both the underworld and intelligence agencies as Brokenclaw.

25th Anniversary

John Gardner's GoldenEye

Published November 1995

Once Xenia worked for the KGB. But her new master is Janus, a powerful and ambitious Russian gang that no longer cares about ideology. Janus's ambitions are money and power; its normal business methods are theft and murder. And it has just acquired GoldenEye, a piece of high-tech space technology with the power to destroy or corrupt the West's financial markets. But Janus has underestimated its most determined enemy. . . James Bond

20th Anniversary

Raymond Benson's Doubleshot

Published May 4, 2000

The criminal conspiracy called the Union has vowed its revenge on the man who thwarted its last coup - James Bond. As the Union's mysterious leader sets out to destroy Bond's reputation and sanity, 007 edges closer to the truth about their elaborate plan to destroy both SIS and its best agent.

Other anniversaries include Moonraker (65th), The Man With The Golden Gun (55th), The Quasimodo Gambit (25th), SilverFin (15th) and Trigger Mortis (5th).

Two JOHN GARDNER manuscripts at auction

John Gardner's original manuscripts for Brokenclaw and SeaFire are up for sale via Heritage Auctions. Both include handwritten corrections and come from the collection of Gary Firuta.

You can view and bid on Brokenclaw (lot #45416) and SeaFire (lot #45417) at Heritage Live Auctions. The auction ends tomorrow, September 15.

More JOHN GARDNER covers by Michael Gillette

Here are two more Michael Gillette covers for new German editions of John Gardner's Win Lose or Die and Brokenclaw. These will be released in March 2016. You can get more info at publisher Cross Cult.

Win, Lose or Die

Brokenclaw

Gillette did the cover art for the 2008 Centenary editions of the Fleming Bond novels, and well as a German reprint of Colonel Sun.

Thanks to Simon Gardner.

WIN LOSE OR DIE and BROKENCLAW released in U.S.

Pegasus has released (a few weeks early) their next two John Gardner James Bond reprints, Win, Lose or Die and Brokenclaw.

Pegasus appears to have skipped over Licence To Kill. Perhaps the U.S. publisher isn't going to reprint the novelization as Orion did in the UK? The next two books, The Man From Barbarossa and Death Is Forever, are scheduled for release on February 6, 2014.

• Purchase Win, Lose or Die on Amazom.com
• Purchase Brokenclaw on Amazon.com

Visit our special Gardner Renewed page for links and release dates for all the Gardner-Bond reprints in the U.S. and UK.

WIN LOSE OR DIE and BROKENCLAW coming to U.S. in 2013

Good news. My fears that Pegasus wouldn't finish reprinting the John Gardner James Bond novels in the U.S. appear to have been unfounded.

The next two original books in the series, Win, Lose or Die and Brokenclaw are now available for pre-order on Amazon with a May 1, 2013 release date. (Curious why they skipped over Licence To Kill.)

Visit our special Gardner Renewed page for links and release dates for all the Gardner-Bond reprints in the U.S. and UK.

Orion releases NO DEALS, MR. BOND and BROKENCLAW

The next two John Gardner James Bond reprint from Orion have been released in the UK. No Deals, Mr. Bond and Brokenclaw are now shipping from Amazon.co.uk.

That's right, I said Brokenclaw. For whatever reason, Orion has jumped the release of Brokenclaw ahead of Scorpius, Win Lose or Die, and Licence To Kill. I'm not sure why, but I'm not complaining. I've always considered Brokenclaw to be one of the most underrated of all the Gardner Bonds. In fact, I think it's the best of his later books.

The next wave of five Gardner releases will be on August 2. Visit our special Gardner Renewed page for links and release date updates for all the Gardner-James Bond reprints in the U.S. and UK.

SILHOUETTE-GATE (UPDATED)

In yesterday's blog about the John Gardner U.S. hardcovers, some fans have wondered why The Man From Barbarossa uses a different silhouette of 007 on the cover art.

The story I read (although for the life of me I can't remember where) was that around the time of the release of Brokenclaw in 1990, Danjaq/Eon Productions complained that the silhouette Putnam was using on their Bond books looked too much like Pierce Brosnan. As we know, Brosnan had narrowly missed out on becoming Bond in 1986 and in 1990 Timothy Dalton was still the "Bond of record."

Eon's sudden sensitivity with any Brosnan-Bond connection might have also had something to do with a flurry of news reports around this same time that claimed Kevin McClory was once again planning to make an unofficial James Bond film, Atomic Warhead, with...Pierce Brosnan. Brosnan was also being linked to a possible (unofficial) James Bond TV series.

So when the The Man From Barbarossa rolled around in 1991, Putnam used a different silhouette. However, it's still from the same batch of images that had been created for the 1980s Ian Fleming Berkley paperbacks (this one came off Doctor No), so all it might have accomplished was to smooth things over until Eon's anxiety passed. By 1992 the "Brosnan-like" silhouette was back, and by 1995 Pierce Brosnan himself would be James Bond.

Anyway, that's the story I heard, but like I said, I cannot find the original source, so maybe I'm just spreading gossip. But that oddball The Man From Barbarossa cover offers some evidence that this story could be true.

UPDATE: 

Okay, I've finally found the source. Interestingly, it was not so much the cover of Brokenclaw that caused the "problem", but a full page ad for the book in the New York Times Book Review that used the cover silhouette (wish I had that ad!).

According to Frank Swertlow's "Hollywood Freeway" column in the L.A. Daily News (Aug 3, 1990), Brosnan's spokesman Richard Guttman said that "Pierce has received at least 30 phone calls" about the Brokenclaw ad, which the article notes "bares a striking resemblance to Pierce." This same story, along with Guttman's quote, appeared in USA Today.

Now, this all seems to be part of a continued campaign by Brosnan's publicists to keep him in the public mind as 007 (and tweak Eon over their selection of Timothy Dalton over Brosnan in '86). This campaign had gone on for years. Brosnan had done two Diet Coke commercials in a Bondian persona (below), and also appeared in various print ads with a Bondian look. Also, as I stated above, in 1990 he was flirting with working with the dreaded Kevin McClory on a rival Bond film, Atomic Warhead.

So it's debatable whether this Brokenclaw ad was really drawing public comparisons, or if this was just Pierce's people finding another way to tout their man as the Bond of public choice.

And, yes, I think this small publicity flare up could have been the reason the traditional silhouette took a one book hiatus in 1991 with The Man From Barbarossa.

 

Brosnan's best "tweak"

BROKENCLAW gets cover art and a new release date

Simon Gardner has posted on the official John Gardner Facebook page cover art for Gardner's Brokenclaw, which was not included in the batch of covers unveiled last week by Orion. We also have news that the book will now be released on July 5 along with No Deals Mr. Bond. (These release dates have been fluid, so watch my Gardner Renewed page for the lastest updates.) Cover art is by Dan Mogford.

Released in 1990, Brokenclaw was John Gardner's 10th James Bond novel. Written while he was ill, Gardner later said he wasn't happy with the book. But Brokenclaw is actually one of my favorite John Gardner 007 novels. I think Brokenclaw Lee is one of his most Flemingesque villains, and the ending, in which Bond has to endure the Native American O-kee-pa ritual, is fantastic. This is one I can see Daniel Craig in. (Yes, I know, Bond mistakenly drinks tea in it.)

Pre-order Brokenclaw at Amazon.co.uk.

Thanks to Simon Gardner and Louisa Gibbs at Orion.