Until very recently my experience of John Gardner's Bond novels was restricted the latter half of his tenure has a continuation author. Having stumbled across some of his earlier novels in a charity shop, I have begun to explore his earlier work, starting at the beginning with 'Licence Renewed', published in 1981.
I won't go into the obvious changes that were made by Gardner when trnsporting Bond into the 80s without the man ageing, rather I would just like to say how that I enjoyed the novel very much. It worked well as a Bond thriller, with interesting characters such as Caber the Scottish henchman. The scene at Ascot racecourse I particularly enjoyed - it seemed quite Fleming-uesque. However, I never really liked the character of Lavender 'Dilly' Peacock - I guess it was because I felt that since this was the 80s Bond must be a fairly veteran character by now, and Dilly seemed a bit young for somebody of Bond's 'experience'. Perhaps, I should instead regard Bond as a 'timeless' character in future, but it did seem a bit like Roger Moore and Lynn Holly Johnson in 'For Your Eyes Only' (interestingly, released the same year as Licence Renewed was published - perhaps that sort of thing was in fashion that year?)
The plot of the novel is not particularly inspired or original, but the story still works well thanks to the quality of Gardner's writing, and it appears that he was a little more enthusiastic here than he was in his later Bond novels. I certainly enjoyed this more than the later Gardner novels that I have read previously. Although this novel was never made into a film by EON productions, they do appear to have lifted a couple of scenes from this novel and used them in later Bond movies.
I am currently half way through 'No Deals, Mr Bond', and I shall post my analysis when I am finished. So far - I have enjoyed the tale immensely, it seems a more down to earth spy thriller which appeals to me more than the over the top Bond adventures.
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