Carte Blanche

Spoilers Ahead. Both shaken and stirred, Deaver offers the most potent reinterpretation of 007 since Gardner’s License Renewed. With Carte Blanche, Deaver starts from scratch with a Bond barely three years into his 00 career in a story that manages to bring Bond into the modern day. Traditional characters like ‘M’, Mary Goodnight, and Felix Leiter are all on display, as well as some new additions; a new Q and a new potential romantic interest in Philly Maidenstone. The plot is kept tense with a ticking clock of only a few days before disaster strikes, but Deaver doesn’t lose the investigative part of the character, as Bond uses his wits to crack open the mystery of creepy Severan Hyd. The plot has a quite a few twists, as Deaver show more teases us throughout the story with a chapter cliffhangers that play with our expectations of what Bond would do, followed fast with unexpected reversals. One in particular, Bond shooting an unarmed man in cold blood as a test from the villains stands out in particular, although I think the Fleming Bond would likely have done things differently. Deaver’s Bond is a different character in many ways to the original, lacking the brooding and introspection of the Fleming creation. But the book is written I believe to drag in the fans of the films, especially the current ones with Daniel Craig and I think Deaver does a good job of it. One of the most important elements of any Bond story is the main villain and Hydt fills the oddity quotient well, recalling Drax from Moonraker with his strange rags to riches tale and fetish for age and dying. Having said that, its a shame he’s not the sole master villain here. Not wishing to ruin too much, but the book does offer a final twist that steals some of the thunder from Hydt, and it just doesn’t work that well for me. Its here where Deaver shows his mystery writer pedigree to give his audience one last twist, but really for the Bond faithful, one is not necessary. The final complication of a whole other plot that explodes in the last 80 pages or so the novel was one that didn’t hold my attention as strongly as the rest of the read. Most intriguing is the subplot involving Bond's parents and a possible spying past. The thread established here is certainly worth exploring and once the book is done, is probably the bit that makes the most impression for long time fans. The ending notwithstanding, the book offers plenty for 007 fans to enjoy. The decision to return Bond to the present day makes all the difference and puts it far superior to the last Bond book. What the chances are that someone will return to this reboot of Bond, I am not sure, but I would love to see more 007 adventures spinning off from this book. show less

James Bond: Organization Man? Say it ain’t so!

Yet this is exactly what Jeffery Deaver has given us in Carte Blanche, his reboot of the 007 franchise.

And the result is a pretty terrible book.

While Deaver is intent on reiterating Bond’s tastes in fast cars, sharp attire, and quality booze, he misses what originally made 007 such an iconic figure. Ian Fleming’s James Bond, arising from the conformism of the 1950s, carried the appeal of being an outsider within the system, someone who exercised the freedom of his “licensed-to-kill” status to create his own rules, bucking convention. Fleming’s Bond worked on very long tether from HQ as he pursued his quarries, as in his search for his nemeses from SPECTRE. He could be cold and show more arrogant, definitely not a team player. While a reader certainly roots for him, there are occasions that same reader might not be sure whether he likes him. Critics even came to characterize him an “anti-hero.” (In contrast to Deaver, the cinematic reboot casting Daniel Craig as 007 actually captures these character traits quite well.)

Deaver, on the other hand, wants to have a likeable James Bond, who loves his parents, cares about world hunger, only wounds his attackers if he doesn’t absolutely have to kill them, and is always “phoning home.” His relationships with all his colleagues at HQ are warm and chummy. His apartment decorations reflect sentimentality. Even in pursuit of a bad guy, Bond takes time to “smell the flowers,” noticing the beauty of his surroundings. At one point, Deaver has Bond asked himself, “What would M do in this situation?”—something Fleming’s Bond would never be caught doing. This is a sanitized Boy’s Life version of James Bond (an appropriate metaphor in more ways than one, since the book feels like it was written at a sixth-grade level).

As for the central villain, he’s a cipher, nothing more than a cardboard cut-out. Again, one of things that Deaver neglects is that Ian Fleming created villains who were memorable because they were even matches with Bond. 007’s confrontations with Le Chiffre, Drax, Goldfinger, and Blofeld held tension because they were resolved through a battle of wits, not gadgets. Over and over again in Carte Blanche, Bond proves he’s at least one step ahead of his adversaries, having outthought them at every step. In every one of these instances, the reader feels cheated because even when it seems Bond in danger, it is later revealed he wasn’t in danger at all because 007 had taken all the options into account and already taken countermeasures to keep the upper hand.

Fleming's 007 was a character who would probably be pretty insufferable if you had him as a friend, but he made for some pretty riveting adventures. Deaver's Bond is someone who would probably prove to be a good friend, but all in all, that makes him pretty boring. show less

I do not want to ruin the ending for anyone interested in reading this book. However, I will say that the story is formulaic of 007. Like many of the more recent Bond films such as "Casino Royale", this book has many themes and is much grittier than classic 007 movies like Dr. No.

With that being said, I will answer the essential questions?

1. Is the book entertaining? YES

2. Are some of the themes believable? This one's a bit mixed.

I like one of the characters' interest in recycling old computers and saving its hard drives to reassemble classified information and metadata.

If you know about metadata or work for government agencies such as libraries, museums or the FBI, you will find the nefarious intentions, which I will NOT mention due show more to spoilers, a bit of a stretch. But regardless of what you might think, this is a decent summer read but not a life-changer, either.

If you are an archivist, you may break out into NARA hives at the thought of some of the "recycling" ideas.

Another enjoyable story, but nothing fantastic, either. show less

It was great to read a James Bond (who will forever be Sean Connery in my head) book again. I think Jeffery Deaver did it justice. The action was non-stop and the creepy villain, Severan Hydt, with his long, yellow fingernails and perversion for all things dead was captivating. I loved the sexy girl's name too - Felicity Willing. She didn't fool James though. Very entertaining.

A wonderful addition to the James Bond collection. This modern day spy thriller focuses on the recycling industry and an evil mogul who strives to further enrich his bizarre passion for death and decay. Well written with unexpected twists and plot turns that keep you interested to the very end.

In the latest addition to the Bond canon, Jeffery Deaver takes our favourite thirty-something secret agent, uproots him from the 1960s and transplants him firmly into the twenty-first century, in the same way that the film of Casino Royale did a few years ago. The Bond I envisaged though wasn’t the gorgeous Daniel Craig, but the original and best, Sean Connery, and Deaver has succeeded in bringing Fleming’s original character up to date. All the trademarks were there – cars, quality booze, jet-setting, and women, including the superfluously named Felicity Willing! As far as women go though, this modern Bond has a very slight vulnerability – he is deeply attracted to his new secretary, Ophelia (Phillly) Maidenhead – a girl who show more rides a motorcycle. She does have a fiancé though, and Bond isn’t going to intrude.

The plot moves on at a cracking pace in typical Deaver style with, as he puts it, a surprise ending every few chapters. The surprises are not always cliff-hangers either – there is even the odd anti-climax or two which ups the ante for the next biggie. We start in Serbia, before moving to London and environs, then Dubai and Cape Town – all perfect locations for action.

The main baddie is a typical megalomaniac with a modern field of business – recycling – in all aspects you can think of. He is a nasty man who has a peccadillo – a lust for examining death and decay – from still alive but ageing, beauty queens to exhumed corpses. This fetish leads him to need fresh newly killed bodies to explore, and a partnership with an skilled Irishman who, throughout the book, remains almost unreadable. Together they have hatched the ‘Gehenna’ plot, and Bond will have to go undercover and use all the technology and personnel at his disposal to foil it. The moment I heard the word ‘Gehenna’ though, my alarm bells started ringing. Surely, using names such as a Jewish word for Hell for one’s dastardly plot, would similarly set klaxons off at GCHQ and other monitoring stations. Why don’t baddies choose fluffy names for their dastardly deeds?

Fleming may have been one of the first authors to use branding to highlight the lifestyle of his hero – Dom Peringnon and Aston Martins spring to mind, but Deaver takes that concept and slight overdid it for me. He also never forgets to let us know he’s updated the scenario – I found the constant reminders that we’re now in the 21st century were all too plentiful. Mentions of Top Gear, Guy Ritchie films, and the Two Ronnies(!), which are all so of their time, will date this book in a way that keeping it classic, as Fleming did, won’t. The one area of direct homage to Fleming is Deaver/Bond’s creation of a new cocktail – viz the ‘Vesper’ inCasino Royale. For info, a Carte Blanche is a double Crown Royal over ice (a Canadian Whisky I’m unfamiliar with), half a measure of triple sec, two dashes of bitters and a twist of orange peel.

On the whole, I thought Deaver’s Bond was well done – he’s obviously researched long and hard to make sure he got it right, going back to the original novels. The result is a good hybrid of Fleming’s Bond in a Deaver thriller. A few little Americanisms appeared to have got through – a woman is ‘keyboarding’ rather than typing at a computer for instance – but that is small beer. Deaver’s expertise in modern tradecraft is also admirable, but does require much explanation for all the new technology at Bond’s disposal. One nice thing was that Deaver has delved into Bond’s back-story to bring tantalising glimpses of growing up to life.

The supporting characters were great – especially Philly, and Percy Osborne-Smith, Bond’s counterpart in MI5. The love interests though were rather subdued, sublimated to the driving pace of the plot; (if this gets filmed, no doubt, they’ll be more prominent). The villains may have been rather one-dimensional as regards their personalities, but the detail they brought to the plot was impressive. The bickering between the government agencies made up for any deficiencies there though, and we get reminded of M’s first name … first revealed in Moonraker, but my lips are sealed.

In summary, this book is not perfect, but it was great fun, and a must for any Bond fan. (7.5/10) show less

And yet another difficult book to review. As any of my followers know, I'm a huge James Bond fan. So, I tend to really like James Bond books but I also expect a lot from James Bond books. With Carte Blanche, Deaver has "rebooted" the Bond series (much as Daniel Craig's Casino Royale did). While one or two elements seemed a bit off, all-in-all, I liked the way Deaver moved Bond into the post-9/11 (and 4/11) 21st Century, in particular the way new technology was both utilized and relied upon. It's hard to think of Ian Fleming's James Bond using an iPhone, but to Deaver's Bond, that device is just part of the standard operating kit.

As a story, Carte Blanche brought some fresh ideas to the Bond canon, including an interesting villain that show more had some of the traditional quirkyness of a Fleming villain, but without going off into the ridiculous. The motivations of another important character were also left murky until the conclusion in a way that offered the reader a bit of surprise. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the violent and morose elements of Bond's character, but his living in the high life was on wonderful display.

Hopefully, Deaver will return to Bond before too long. show less