Anniversary BONDS for 2024

HAPPY NEW YEAR and welcome to another year of The Book Bond. Here's a rundown of the Bond novels that will be celebrating notable anniversaries this year. Break out the bookmarks and champagne!

70th Anniversary

Ian Fleming's second Bond novel brings 007 to the United States on the trail of gangsters and pirate treasure. Live and Let Die was published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on April 5, 1954.

60th Anniversary

Ian Fleming sends James Bond to Japan in You Only Live Twice, published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on March 26, 1964. It was released in the U.S. in August by the New American Library.

40th Anniversary

John Gardner planned to take a break after his inital three book contract, but 1984 saw the suprise publication of his fourth Bond, Role of Honor, relased by Putnam in the U.S. in September and Jonathan Cape in the UK on October 4.

30th Anniversary

John Garder nears the end of his run with his 13th orginal Bond adventure, SeaFire, first published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton in August 1994 and by Putnam in the U.S. in September. 

25th Anniversary

My favorite Raymond Benson Bond novel, High Time To Kill, turns 25 this year. The book was published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton on May 6, 1999. The U.S. edition from Putnam (pictured here) was published on June 7, 1999.

10th Anniversary

Steve Cole continues the Young Bond series with his debute novel, Shoot To Kill, which finds young James in action in Hollywood. The book was released in the UK by Random House on November 6, 2014. There was no U.S. release.

Happy reading!

ROLE OF HONOUR 1985 Coronet paperback

It's been a while since I've had any news to post, so I thought today I'd share a favorite cover. I'm a sucker for covers that show Bond's car, and the new Bentley Mulsanne Turbo was a big part of John Gardner's fourth Bond adventure, Role of Honour, so this was a great choice of image.

This cover was among a batch of Gardner UK paperback revamps from Coronet released in 1985. If things stay slow, I'll share some more!

What kind of mission is this exactly?

Here's a 1986 Spanish edition of John Gardner's Role of Honor (Misión de Honor) with pretty unusual cover art. One might be justified in thinking this is a sci-fi novel and 007's mission here is a mission to Mars!

Title: Misión de Honor

Author: John Gardner

Year: 1986

Publisher: Grijalbo

Michael Gillette covers for ROLE OF HONOR and NOBODY LIVES FOREVER

The James Bond novels by John Gardner are being reprinted in Germany with original cover art by Michael Gillette (who did the covers for the Ian Fleming Centenary editions in 2008). License Renewed is out already; For Special Services and Icebreaker are due next month. Now two more Gillette covers have been revealed. Role of Honor and Nobody Lives Forever will be published on July 27, 2015, and can pre-ordered along with the rest of the books at Cross Cult.

Role of Honor

Nobody Lives Forever

CLICK HERE to check out the other John Gardner Bond novel covers by Michael Gillette. The artist also illustrated the cover of a new German reprint of Colonel Sun.

Thanks to Simon Gardner.

MORE BIG NEWS: Gardner signs for 3 more!

As we wait for details of Young Bond 6 and/or the Solo paperback cover art, I'm filling the current news void with some "big news" from the past. Today we have an item from the September 1983 Bondage Quarterly newsletter, which was put out by the American James Bond 007 Fan Club from 1975 to 1991 (this is how we got our Bond news before the Internet, kids). In this item we learn that John Gardner has signed on to write three more Bond novels. Hurrah! No title yet for Gardner 4, but it looks like Bond will be getting and new car and the plot will feature…ready for it…airships! Unfortunately, we will have to wait an extra year for the new book. Or will we…

Click to enlarge.

We know now that the new book was Role of Honor, the new car was a Bentley Mulsanne Turbo, and the year break did not happened between Icebreaker and Role of Honor, but would come before the next book, Nobody Lives Forever.

JAMES BOND enters the computer age

Here's a Brazilian trade paperback edition of John Gardner's 1984 Bond novel, Role of Honor. What I like about this cover is that it plays up the technological theme of the book. Gardner's fourth book was the first 007 adventure to really involve James Bond in the age of computers. (The movie Bond would follow suit a year later in A View To A Kill.) But this angle wasn't featured on many covers or adverts, which instead played up the idea that in this book Bond leaves the service and becomes a free agent.

I also like how this cover anticipates the poster art for 1997s Tomorrow Never Dies with a tuxedoed Bond against a backdrop of monitors.

Visit The Book Bond's special Gardner Renewed page for links to all the John Gardner James Bond reprints in the U.S. and UK.

Coming...

Here's one of my favorite covers for John Gardner's Role of Honor. Kinda reminds me of the Skyfall teaser poster. But you might be wondering which edition this is. It's pretty uncommon, as are all the covers in this specific collection of Gardner (and Benson) books in my collection. So stand by while I dig these out and do some scanning and I will have the details for you soon.

Second wave of UK JOHN GARDNER reprints now shipping

The second wave of John Gardner UK reprints from Orion are now shipping from Amazon.co.uk. The books are Icebreaker, Role of Honour and Nobody Lives For Ever.

Orion is reprinting all the John Gardner James Bond books in paperback with terrific new cover designs by Dan Mogford. Next up will be No Deals, Mr. Bond and Brokenclaw on July 5 (no, I don't know why Brokenclaw is being released out of order).

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

ROLE OF HONOR and NOBODY LIVES FOREVER now shipping in the U.S.

The next two John Gardner U.S. reprints from Pegasus, Role of Honor and Nobody Lives Forever, are now shipping from Amazon ahead of the official May 1 release date. Below is the final cover art, which is different from what we see online.

Now, for some reason, Pegasus has decided with these two books to do a somewhat different fusion of their own series design and the UK covers from Orion. While they've changed the font for "John Gardner", they've retained the title font from the UK edition on the covers and, most critically, the spines. Gardner's name also falls in a different spot on the spines. These means these two books don't exactly match Pegasus' first three releases, nor their next two.

Hmmm...

Okay, this doesn't matter to those who just want to read the books. But for us crackpot collectors who wanted a uniform set of new Gardners on our shelves, it's a little off-putting that they are now...not uniform. But they are still great to have.

Check out our special Gardner Renewed page for links and the latest release date information on all the Gardner-Bond reprints in the U.S. and UK.

Bond on a ROLE in 1984

Continuing my look back at vintage advertisements for the John Gardner James Bond books, here's what you saw when you opened your Los Angeles Times Book Review section on Sunday, October 7, 1984. Having broken the Ice in '83, Bond was back in...

Role of Honor is due to be reissued in a new paperback edition by Pegasus in the U.S. (May 1) and Orion in the UK (May 10).

Useless trivia: I worked in the Topanga Plaza Waldenbooks you see listed here when Role of Honor was released. I made sure it had a nice display. :)

Limited John Gardner THE JAMES BOND COLLECTION box set released in UK

The John Gardner JAMES BOND COLLECTION box set from Orion Books has been released in the UK. Limited to an initial print run of 200, the set contains the new hardcover reprints of Gardner's first five 007 novels: Licence Renewed, For Special Services, Icebreaker, Role of Honour, and Nobody Lives For Ever. The books all feature their original UK cover art.

The set is currently 44% off at Amazon.co.uk, bringing the price down from £80.00 to £44.80.

Visit our special Gardner Renewed page for information and links for all the current and upcoming John Gardner-James Bond reprints in the UK and U.S.

The John Gardner James Bond Box Set features the original UK cover art (above).

The ROLE OF HONOR paperback you want

The 1984 early export paperback

Here's a paperback from my collection that I've always had a thing for. This is a 1984 early export edition of Role of Honor released to international markets at the same time as the UK and U.S. hardcovers. It's a mass market paperback that sports a cover design very close to what was used on the U.S. paperback released a year later, but with a few key differences.

What I've always liked about this edition is it's the Role of Honor paperback I always wanted. Call me anal-retentive, but as the License Renewed, For Special Services, and Icebreaker paperbacks all matched the color of their respective hardcovers, I expected Role of Honor would and should be yellow.

However, the paperback that was ultimately released in the U.S. was a dark gold or bronze (images below). Still nice, but it broke the theme. So when I first uncovered this edition at the late great Mysterious Bookstore in L.A., I was thrilled to finally have a yellow Role of Honor paperback to put on my shelf.

Another difference is the 007 silhouette is a bit larger than what was featured on the standard paperback. I've always thought this particular 007 silhouette was one of the best of the batch. These cover silhouettes were featured on the Fleming reprints in the '80s and later recycled on some of the Raymond Benson paperbacks, but for some reason this superior silhouette only appeared on Role of Honor.

The Role of Honor international paperback is tricky to find, especially without a faded spine. This is the same affliction that effects the U.S. hardcover (maybe that was the reason for the color change?). But if you have my madness (and if you're reading this blog, you probably do), this is the Role of Honor paperback you want.

The 1985 first U.S. paperback (left) and the 1987 reprint (right).

MORE JOHN GARDNER PAPERBACK COVER ART REVEALED

More cover art for the new UK paperback editions of John Gardner's James Bond novels have been revealed on Amazon.co.uk. This time we get a first look at Role of Honour, Nobody Lives Forever, and No Deals, Mr. Bond.

Click to enlarge

I love that Role of Honour has a blimp on the cover, and the mace on No Deals is appropriate, but a scorpion on Nobody Lives Forever? I don't recall a scorpion in the book -- I was hoping for a vampire bat (the book contains a terrific sequence in which a vampire bat is dropped into the shower with Bond). But this is probably because the original UK hardcover featured a scorpion on the cover, so...

These three books are due out on May 10, 2012. Check out our special Gardner Renewed page for pre-order links and the latest release date information on all the Gardner-Bond reprints in the U.S. and UK.

007 refights the Battle of Waterloo; John Gardner's lost scene from ROLE OF HONOR

In a 1985 interview with Richard Schenkman published in BONDAGE magazine #14, John Gardner spoke at length about a key sequence he was forced to cut from his fourth James Bond novel, Role of Honor. Here is what Gardner had to say about the excised scene in full:

"One of the major pivot scenes in the book had been written. It's a very lengthy sequences in Bond and Holy played "The Battle of Waterloo", a very realistic computer program. One in one room, the other in the other room.

It was a strategic battle game, and it could be done; I checked it out with programmers. They had zoom-in capabilities, so they could see the troops on the ground, and I actually got Bond's mind onto the battlefield. They re-fought Waterloo.

I'd written this sequence first, to drop it into the book, and spent a lot of time on it. Suddenly, at the last minute, there was a message from the States saying, 'There is a computer game in Never Say Never Again. We can not use it. You can not use this idea.' Having lost that, I felt the the whole thing was weakened, and I had to put the Bunker Hill game in, which was played as a sort of role-playing game.

I thought I had gotten the modern equivalent of the famous golf game [from Goldfinger], or bridge game with Drax [from Moonraker]. I'd been looking to do that from the very beginning, when I started these books. And I knew I gotten it. I felt disgruntled and having to remove what I considered was a key sequence, and I think it weakened the book."

I've always found it odd why it would matter what was in Never Say Never Again, an unofficial James Bond film. But there was so much litigation surrounding that film, I guess everyone was being a little hyper-cautious. It's really a shame this scene has never seen the light of day. I love that Gardner says he "got Bond's mind onto the battlefield."

Back was I first lobbied for Gardner reprints on CBn, I suggested restoring this scene to Role of Honor if possible, or maybe just including it as an extra ala "007 in New York." Here's hoping this key scene still exists somewhere and one day we might all be able to read about "007 at Waterloo."

Visit our special Gardner Renewed page for information and links for all the current and upcoming John Gardner-James Bond reprints (including Role of Honor) in the UK and U.S.

ROLE OF HONOR and NOBODY LIVES FOREVER U.S. reprints in May 2012

1984 U.S. 1st edition

Listings have just appeared on Amazon for the U.S. trade paperback reprints of Role of Honor and Nobody Lives Forever from Pegasus. The listings show a release date of May 1, 2012.

There's no indication whether these editions will contain new introductions as will Pegasus' License Renewed, For Special Services, and Icebreaker reprints due for release on October 12, 2011.

It's also worth noting that Pegasus will release a new hardcover edition of John Gardner's 1974 Sherlock Holmes novel, The Return of Moriarty.

Visit our special Gardner Renewed page for pre-order links and the latest release date information on all the Gardner-Bond reprints in the U.S. and UK.

Orion releases ROLE OF HONOR and NOBODY LIVES FOREVER

Orion Books have released the next two hardcover reprints of the classic John Gardner James Bond title, Role of Honor (first published in 1984) and Nobody Lives Forever (1986). The books each feature their beautiful original cover art (above).

Today also sees the release of the License Renewed audiobook.

Simon Gardner says, "My father, John Edmund Gardner, was extremely proud to have been asked to take on the role of Bond continuation novelist, and if he were alive today he would be overjoyed to see his Bond novels back in print for a new generation of fans to enjoy."

Orion will release a Box Set of all five hardcover reprints in November, and then ALL the John Gardner James Bond novels in paperback with all-new cover art throughout 2012 and 2013. For the full release timeline, visit our special Gardner Renewed page.