I Wish Everyone Understood This

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Note that the article said that the source was the "post-Fleming" James Bond books - ie, the ones written by someone else after Fleming's death. These are probably rather less well-known.

Well, I admit they are unknown to me. I've read but one James Bond novel by Fleming, and no others. I didn't find the one I read particularly good. I have read and much prefer Le Carre (and am looking forward to seeing Gary Oldman as George Smiley; I am also looking forward to next week's release of teh new Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law). OTOH, I have seen all of the James Bond movies. To my taste, Pierce Brosnan made the best Bond. I always felt that Sean Connery didn't have sufficient smoothness to be running in the upper crust circles. Brosnan, OTOH, seemed tailor made for the part.

I also preferred Sean Bean and Robbie Coltrane in the villain roles. I though Bean was particularly good in Goldeneye.

[Prestidigitweeze]

I don't know if you like William Gibson or not (he's fallen out of fashion), but John Le Carre was one of his models. The whole time he was writing Neuromancer, he sent letters to a friend, most of which I happened to see. In one of them, he said he hoped his book would be a tenth as good as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. At the time, that was his favorite by Le Carre and might be still.