and you expect me to believe that scarlett papava is a semi-russian name?

[theladyrose]

I don't think I could ever beat my friend's review of Sebastian Faulks' new 007 novel, Devil May Care: "Bond in DMC is more passive than a Gaydar bottom."

I wanted to like this book. I really, really did. But it's simply a travesty to have "Sebastian Faulks as Ian Fleming" printed on the cover. Just because a book has the James Bond formula down pat (it's a bad ripoff of Moonraker) doesn't mean that it's a Bond book; Faulks practically takes a connect the dots approach. The villain is marginally more interesting than James Bond. It's supposedly set in the 60's, but it sounds like the modern era with all of the drugs and the technology. And all of the references to Bond's past missions (On Her Majesty's Secret Service, You Only Live Twice, The Man With The Golden Gun) come across as awkwardly inserted, rather than as a continuation of the 007 literary timeline. And don't even get me started on Scarlett and the awkward attempts at political correctness that still leave me feeling insulted as a reader and disappointed. The attempted sex scene made me laugh harder than anything else that I've read in print for some time - and I don't think I was supposed to be laughing. Fleming was a prejudiced bastard at times, but at least you felt connected with the world, however flawed, that he was describing. He has these incredibly jaded observations and idiosyncratic characters that I love, whereas I couldn't find anyone in DMC remotely compelling.

I don't deny that Fleming was classist, racist and sexist, but what makes the Bond novels so compelling is that James Bond still makes a fascinating observer and compelling agent provocateur nevertheless.

I am disappointed that I wasted $6 in getting a used copy at the library.

Comments

papava?

[gandydancer.livejournal.com]

it's a really god-awful name.

yikes.

Re: papava?

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

Coupled with her twin, Poppy, and a god-awful henchman nicknamed Chagrin, I secretly wanted the villain to kill them all.

Re: papava?

[gandydancer.livejournal.com]

they should have been named Poppy and Scarlett Somniferum!

papaver somniferum, good golly, what very weak punny names. semi-russian? they should have gone all the way with the racism and made them asian lassies.

[andrew-day.livejournal.com]

Um. I read that as Scarlett Papaya. *hides*

Just to make you giggle.

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! There's this awkward subplot about Scarlett's twin sister Poppy. James Bond novels aren't supposed to enter botanical territory!

[akane42me.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh, I'm glad you wrote about this. I haven't gotten around to it, but was going to give it a whirl. Now it's bumped to the when-I-get-around-to-it list, where it likely will not see the light of day.

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

You're better off finishing up War and Peace :) MFU fic makes better spy reading, anyway!

[steed-peel.livejournal.com]

From this review in the Scotsman, "(Papaver somniferum is the Latin for the opium poppy)," hence the last name.

I was also confused by situations that didn't seem to fit in 1967/8. And as someone with special interest in the Nordic/Baltic region, I was appalled that early in the novel he depicts Estonia as an independent country, when it was still very much Soviet at that time. At least he gets his St. Petersburg/Finland geography right.

One scene that stuck out was Chagrin's last. It reads as if Faulksimeanfleming wrote it in two minutes on the back of an envelope to meet a deadline. Sloppy and rushed, to say the least...

Ah well, just a few months until the next film!

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

Ah, that makes more sense now. Faulks was so keen to emphasize that Scarlett's father was Russian, so I was surprised by the last name that didn't sound Slavic. The attempted pseudo-political correctness really skewed the time period for me even more.

Perhaps I've been jaded by the movies, but the villains' deaths were rather lackluster. What happened to Gorner reminded me a bit of Dr. No falling into the radioactive vat - kind of anticlimatic there.

I can't wait to see Quantum of Solace!

[tortillafactory.livejournal.com]

Mike insisted on buying it full price, but I'm scared to read it now. I wanted it to be good. :(

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

I hate to sound like a snob, but sometimes you're better off sticking with the original :( Or waiting 'til QoS comes out.

[hippiegal22.livejournal.com]

You know what's scary? Now I'm curious about the novel just to see how bad it is.