Bond. James Bond. In the 007 Case Files, join me as I read all of the James Bond books, encompassing Ian Fleming and beyond. For Your Eyes Only: there’s spoilers ahead.
If we were to compare the various Bond writers the way we do the actors portraying the spy, then John Gardner is probably the Roger Moore of the bunch.
Sure, Gardner’s tenure spanned Moore, Timothy Dalton, and the start of Pierce Brosnan’s run. Starting in 1981 with Licence Renewed, he has to date served as the longest writer on the series, longer than even Ian Fleming.
He is revered and affectionately mocked in equal measure by fans, mirroring the mixed sentiments Moore elicited from cinema audiences. Like the actor’s portrayal, he could be action-packed and technical, sometimes awkwardly sexy, and often with tongue planted in cheek.
So, with his final novel COLD (aka COLD FALL), first published in 1996, he releases what is arguably his most ambitious and complex novel of the run. Depending on where you are in the world, the two different titles for this book reflect either the US or UK market. Yet it’s the former that retains something closer to Gardner’s vision, splitting the novel into two books: “Cold Front” and “Cold Conspiracy.”
It opens with the explosion of a plane on the Dulles International tarmac, so this was perhaps not my best choice to start reading as my own flight was boarding. It results in the death of one of Moneypenny’s close friends, but also Bond’s former love interest, the Principessa Sukie Tempesta (from Nobody Lives Forever).
So, Bond is even more surprised to encounter Sukie on the run during his investigation. Pages later, she’s apparently killed (again) in a car accident. After teaming up with US agents, Bond finds that there is a vast conspiracy between the hitherto unknown (to Bond at least) criminal Tempesta family and the extremist group COLD (Children of the Last Days) led by retired Army general Brutus Clay. In their initial encounter, Bond comes out on top during an exciting helicopter battle.
The second half of the book picks up five years later, with the gap filled by earlier novels Never Send Flowers and SeaFire. COLD and the Tempestas are apparently trying to overthrow the US government, so the US government hires Bond to drop in and take them out. No prizes for guessing who causes COLD’s fall.
COLD is a divisive entry in the Bond canon. On release, Kirkus Reviews called it “a junk Bond: clumsy, predictable, and utterly lacking in…elegant insouciance.” A quick environmental scan of the various Bond discussion forums sees opinions split down the middle, with very strong feelings in either direction.
Yet it’s hard to dislike something as unabashedly over-the-top as this. M’s kidnapping, which seems to be habit forming for the old man, reveals that Bond views him as something of a father figure. The aforementioned helicopter fight is genuinely gripping. Perhaps it is only the climax, where a few too many coincidences have to be believed, makes the denouement feel alternatively rushed and lacking.
Still, after 15 years of writing Bond, Gardner grabs the opportunity to take one final stroll through his own universe, reminding us of his distinctiveness from Fleming. Getting a chance to revisit some of his own characters, and maybe rewrite their fates a little bit, he leaves us with hints that the incoming M is a woman. Thus, the transition to GoldenEye, which Gardner adapted a few years earlier, becomes canonical. Gardner is free to exit stage left.
With COLD, the Gardner era comes to a close – but it’s not the end of the Bond continuation novels. He would be succeeded by Raymond Benson, who had previously written the non-fiction The Bedside Bond Companion (1984). Still, Gardner brought a style that few would say has been repeated. It was bold, occasionally unsuccessful, sometimes forgettable, but always full of charm and action. It was, in other words, Bond. James Bond.
James Bond will return…in Blast from the Past.
