The James Bond Bedside Companion (51 page)

(FOR SPECIAL SERVICES, Chapter 8)

So the ever-unchanging mission of James Bond is to act as St George against the Dragon, no matter what disguise the animal may don. It's an age-old theme, but one that works.

CHARACTERS

T
he eighties have brought a few changes in James Bond's possessions. He no longer drives the beloved Mark II Continental Bentley. He now sports a Saab 900 Turbo, complete with accessories from Q Branch. These accessories are not totally revealed in the first Gardner effort—each successive novel uncovers more of the Saab's secrets. Bond also owns, in addition to his flat off King's Road, a small country retreat some five miles out of Haslemere. He still uses Guerlain's Imperial Cologne and dresses in white Sea Island cotton shirts and navy slacks. And Bond basically looks the same:

. . . the bronzed good-looking face, with rather long dark eyebrows above the wide, level blue eyes; the three-inch scar which just showed down his right cheek; the long, very straight nose, and the fine, though cruel, mouth. Minute flecks of gray had just started to show in the dark hair, which still retained its boyish black comma above the right eye. As yet, no plumpness had appeared around the jowls, and the line of the jaw was as straight and firm as ever.

(LICENSE RENEWED, Chapter 2)

But there have been changes in the Service since the sixties. The Double-0 Section has been abolished, but M still insists on calling Bond "007." M tells him:

"As far as I'm concerned, 007, you will remain 007. I shall take full responsibility for you, and you will, as ever, accept orders and assignments only from me. There are moments when this country needs a troubleshooter—a blunt instrument—and by heaven it's going to have one. They can issue their pieces of bumf and abolish the Double-0 section. We can simply change its name. It will now be the Special Section, and
you
are it. Understand, 007?"

(LICENSE RENEWED, Chapter 2)

To keep up with the times, Bond is watching his health more than usual. He continues his morning habit of pushups, as well as a rigorous workout of leg-raising, arm-flexing, and breathing exercises. He takes a refresher course on combat and silent kills once a month, and practices shooting weekly at the electronic range below Regent Park's headquarters. He has curtailed his alcohol intake, and arranged for Morlands of Grosvenor Street to create a special cigarette with a tar content slightly lower than any currently available on the market In FOR SPECIAL SERVICES, Bond changes brands: his cigarettes are made especially for him by H. Simmons of Burlington Arcade, which is the earliest known cigarette manufacturer in London. He still carries the cigarettes, each with the distinctive gold bands, in his gunmetal case kept in his breast pocket.

In LICENSE RENEWED, Bond uses a Browning 9mm rather than the old Walther PPK. In addition, he secretly keeps an unauthorized Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum in a secret compartment in his Saab. The handgun is changed in FOR SPECIAL SERVICES to a Heckler & Koch VP70, a weapon which both M and Major Boothroyd insist will be carried by all officers in the Service. In ICEBREAKER, the model is changed again:

After some argument, mainly from Bond, the Armourer had agreed on Heckler & Koch's P7, "squeeze cocking" 9mm automatic in preference to the rather cumbersome VP70, With its long "double-action" pull for each single shot. The weapon was lighter and more like his old beloved Walther PPK, now banned by the Security Services.

(ICEBREAKER, Chapter 6)

The past continues to haunt Bond, and this is an aspect Gardner should emphasize more strongly, as it gives the agent realistic human qualities. When Q'ute, the girl from the Armoury, asks Bond about the white scar on his right hand, Bond becomes cold:

Bond glanced up sharply, his eyes suddenly losing their humor and turning to ice in a way that almost frightened Q'ute. "Someone tried to be clever a long time ago," he said slowly. In the back of his mind he remembered quite clearly all the circumstances which had led to the plastic surgery, that showed now only as a white blemish, after the Cyrillic letter
III
—standing for SH—had been carved into the back of his hand in an attempt by SMERSH to brand him as a spy. It was long ago, and very far away now, but clear as yesterday. He detected the break he had made in Q'ute's guard with his sharp cruelty. So long ago, he thought—the business with Le Chiffre at Royale-lex-Eaux, and a woman called Vesper—about the same age as this girl sitting on the workbench, showing off her shapely knees and calves—lying dead from an overdose, her body under the sheets like a stone effigy in a tomb.

The coldness in Bond's mien faded. He smiled at Q'ute, again looking down at his hand. "A small accident—carelessness on my part. Needed a bit of surgery, that's all."

(LICENSE RENEWED, Chapter 5)

Moments like these are a pleasure in the Gardner books, for they link the novels with Fleming's series. They serve to remind the reader that they are part of the same saga, even though times have changed and Bond is basically not much older than when he last appeared.

FOR SPECIAL SERVICES is most successful in humanizing Bond because the plotline involves memories of Blofeld and the murder of Tracy. Early in the story, Bond lies in bed with the sleeping Q'ute but daydreams about his dead wife.

Gardner regresses in ICEBREAKER, however. James Bond in this story never uses his wits or intelligence to solve anything. He walks blindly into traps and is fooled over and over again by false identities. The most unbelievable action on Bond's part is allowing Kolya Mosolov to lead him into Russia when 007 knows that the entire operation is a trap. He walks conveniently into the NSAA's arms as a result Fleming's James Bond would have had better sense.

The villains are an interesting bunch. LICENSE RENEWED's Anton Murik is a typical Flemingesque villain, similar to Aunc Goldfinger or Hugo Drax. He's a civilized, brilliant scientist who walks with the stride of a "Scottish chieftain." As usual, Murik is obsessed with proving his genius to the rest of the world, and it is soon clear that he is another megalomaniac out to demonstrate his superiority over the underlings on the globe. He is untrustworthy, even to his own men—he hires 007 to assassinate Franco, the man Munk used to train and organize the terrorists taking control of the power plants around the world. He even plans to kill his own ward, heroine Lavender Peacock, to prevent the girl from becoming the rightful heir to the Murcaldy title. Nena Bismaquer (later revealed to be Nena Blofeld) of FOR SPECIAL SERVICES is the most successful villain Gardner has created. She is a beautiful woman whose face gives a hint of sensuality Bond finds "more than engaging." But her eyes give her away: they burn with a hatred which Bond recognizes later as the same evil that lay in the black eyes of Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Nena Blofeld succeeds where many villains have failed, and that is to seduce Bond into trusting her completely. Bond makes love to her and he is completely taken off guard by the surprise revelation of her identity. There is another peculiarity which fits the perverse Blofeld mold: Nena has only one breast. The other is flat, like a boy's. ICEBREAKER's Konrad von Glöda, alias Aarne Tudeer, is an elderly but statuesque ex-Nazi official who is the leader of the NSAA. At one point
in the story, Bond thinks that von Gl
ö
da may be his match. But there is nothing in the character development which might give Bond these thoughts. Compared to his previous adversaries, von Gl
ö
da is
nothing
.
He is a cardboard villain without even a convincing obligatory "how I came into power" speech. Von Gl
ö
da is a plot device—nothing more.

Gardner's heroines are formidable. LICENSE RENEWED'S Lavender Peacock looks like a "young Lauren Bacall." She is brave and intelligent, and thankfully possesses none of the neurotic tendencies which plagued some of the Fleming women such as Tiffany and Tracy. Mary Jane Mashkin, in the same book, seems to be a direct imitation of the Fiona character from the film
Thunderball.
She attempts to use her seductive charms on Bond, but fails miserably. From then on, she is an enemy; she gets even with Bond during the obligatory torture scene—this time with the use of a high-frequency soundwave transmitter. FOR SPECIAL SERVICES introduces the reader to Felix Leiter's daughter, Cedar. It was never mentioned in previous novels that Felix was married or had children, but Bond here claims he knew that Leiter had a wife. Cedar is working for the CIA, undercover, and even her father does not know it. She proves herself to be quite useful—while in a New York hotel room, she and Bond are held at bay by four thugs. When Bond gives her the signal, she overcomes her opponent with skill and proficiency. But she is also typical of the Bond-girl mold: she falls for 007 early in the novel, providing a pleasurable romantic subplot to the story: Cedar wants Bond, but he resists on the grounds that she is the daughter of his best friend. Their constant byplay sometimes reminds one of a Rock Hudson/Doris Day comedy, but it's an interesting twist to the standard "Bond meets girl, girl sleeps with Bond" story. At the end of the novel, Cedar is blatantly making it clear that she wants to go to bed with him, while 007 remains gallantly impassive. He assumes a fatherly stance with her, and even calls her "daughter." At one point he threatens to "warm her pretty little backside" if she doesn't stop flirting with him. She replies, giggling, "Oh. Promises." ICEBREAKER's Paula Vacker, the character most easily labeled the heroine, is a beautiful blonde from Finland with large "grey-flecked eyes," and lips "built for one purpose." This is about all one learns about Paula except that she manages to fool 007 a couple of times into believing she is one thing and then another. Paula's objectives in the story are very contrived; hence, she is unbelievable as a character.

M is practically ignored as a character in the first two Gardner efforts. Only in ICEBREAKER does the author provide a good Bond/M confrontation scene reminiscent of the old days. M is angry at 007 for stopping in Helsinki after the Service training exercise in the Arctic. This foolishness almost costs Bond his life as well as the security of Operation Icebreaker. But then M takes the responsibility for Bond's actions, explaining that he should have been more explicit with 007's instructions. At this point, Bond thinks M may be withholding information.

M remained silent for a full minute. Above him, Robert Taylor's original
Trafalgar
set the whole tone of M's determination and character. That painting had lasted two years. Before then there had been Cooper's
Cape St. Vincent
, on loan from the National Maritime Museum, and before that . . . Bond could not recall, but they were always paintings of Britain's naval victories. M was the possessor of that essential arrogance which put allegiance to country first, and a firm belief in the invincibility of Britain's fighting forces, no matter what the odds, or how long it took

(ICEBREAKER, Chapter 4)

This passage is the most descriptive Gardner has written about Bond's stodgy old boss—and it's a good one.

Recurring characters still appear: Bill Tanner, the Chief of Staff, the reliable Miss Moneypenny, and even Felix Leiter himself makes a brief entrance in FOR SPECIAL SERVICES. One new character Gardner has created is the previously-mentioned assistant in Q Branch. Ann Reilly, nicknamed Q'ute, becomes good friends with Bond after a shaky start, and it appears that the couple are occasional lovers.

HIGHLIGHTS AND OTHER INGREDIENTS

T
here is an overabundance of gadgetry in all three Gardner efforts. In LICENSE RENEWED, the best is perhaps the cigarette lighter filled with a knockout gas, which Bond uses to put away Murik's henchman Caber during a wrestling match. In ICEBREAKER, Bond is equipped with a customized briefcase containing two Sykes Fairbairn commando knives (all screened so that they do not appear on airport X-ray machines). 007's most handy device in this story is the "VL34," a so-called "Privacy Protector," a small, advanced electronic bug for detecting listening devices planted in
hotel
rooms.
The Saab 900 Turbo contains hidden
compartments, a bright light attached to the rear bumper for blinding tailing drivers, a handy communications phone hidden in the dashboard, and a clever fire-extinguishing system which automatically douses any flames. This last item figures prominently during one highlight of FOR SPECIAL SERVICES in which Bond is challenged to a Grand Prix-style race by one of Markus Bismaquer's henchmen.

Of torture scenes, ICEBREAKER provides the most interesting one. Bond is hung naked in igloo-like surroundings and is repeatedly dipped into freezing water.

All things considered, how do the Gardner books compare with the Fleming series? Although the updating of the character and his world takes some getting used to, James Bond is still basically the same man he was in the sixties. Gardner lacks the elaborate command of the English language so distinctive in Fleming; but the new author's stories are fast-moving and engaging narratives. Though all are weak in plausibility and detail, they valiantly attempt to recapture the spirit of the original series. FOR SPECIAL SERVICES is by far the most successful of the three books, and ICEBREAKER is definitely the weakest. Gardner will be continuing the series with three more books. One must acknowledge the fact that he had a truly difficult task to perform—following in Ian Fleming's footsteps. Despite the faults of the new series, Gardner must be credited with having guts to continue the Bond saga at all; and, as the sales of the books attest, he must be congratulated for pulling it off.