License Renewed

I first became interested in "shadow-fiction" as a teenager, when I read a few of the original James Bond novels from the 1950s and 1960s. These were very different from the movies: more hard-edged, less cartoonish, featuring more real espionage and adult themes and fewer outrageous chase scenes and goofy gadgets. Ian Fleming's Bond may have been a ladies man who lived in high style, but he was also a very tough, shrewd operative who could hold his own with the Quillers, Callans and Helms of the fictional spy world. I was hooked. I went on to devour all twelve of the original novels, and developed a love for the spy-fi genre that has never gone away.

After Fleming's death in 1964, the Fleming estate commissioned the first Bond "continuation novel", Colonel Sun, authored by Kingsley Amis and published in 1968. Then the literary Bond laid dormant until the series was revived in 1981, when veteran spy novelist John Gardner published the first of his 14 continuation novels, License Renewed. I'd never read any of these books; they get rather mixed reviews, and I knew they could never match the magic of the original Fleming novels. But I'd always been curious to see how the literary Bond might evolve in the 1980s and beyond, so I finally acquired a lot of them and decided to find out.

As License Renewed begins, Bond's romantic weekend is interrupted by an urgent call from his boss M summoning him to the office. Something big is afoot, and Bond's special talents are required. We quickly learn that times have changed at the Service: the double-O section has been abolished and Bond is now an investigator for something called "Special Services". Though Bond's "license to kill" has been revoked, M makes it clear that he still considers Bond his go-to man for wet-work and will look the other way if someone needs to be offed in the line of duty. Also, gadget-master Q has been replaced by a nerdy but attractive woman nicknamed "Q'ute"; Bond has traded his Bentley for a Saab, his Walther PPK 7.65mm for a Browning 9mm, cut back his smoking and drinking habits, taken up jogging and martial arts, and generally seems to be a more well-behaved, health-conscious, politically correct man of the eighties. While this would seem to negate much of Bond's appeal, Gardner also gives Bond more up-to-date knowledge of spycraft, better command of modern technology and stronger physical health. On the whole, I think it's a positive evolution of the character.

M informs bond that Anton Murik, a disgraced but brilliant Scottish nuclear physicist and wealthy lord of a castle, has been seen meeting with an arch-terrorist named Franco—a master of mayhem and disguise surely modelled on the most notorious terrorist of that era, Carlos the Jackal. With reason to believe the two are up to something big and bad, M orders Bond to infiltrate Murik's operations and find out what he can. Using a clever ruse at a racetrack and a well-prepared cover identity as a mercenary, Bond soon gains Murik's confidence, offers his services and gets invited to the lord's castle. There he discovers that Murik wants him to kill Franco for undisclosed reasons, and Bond plays along. He also gets acquainted with Murik's vivacious young ward, Lavender Peacock, his collection of antique weapons and his brutal gang of Highland henchman—most notably the giant Caber. 

Many typical Bond shenanigans follow, as he pokes around the castle, learning things he's not supposed to know, seduces Miss Peacock to his cause, earns the lethal wrath of Caber, makes use of Q'ute's clever gadgets, and attempts a daring escape. In classic Bond villain fashion, Murik eventually informs Bond of his foolproof scheme, which involves terrorist attacks on multiple nuclear plants and extortion that puts SPECTRE to shame. But it's all for a good cause. He also keeps Bond alive far longer than necessary, and as you can probably guess, this doesn't work in his favor. 

There are some exciting action scenes—especially when Bond goes into Jason Bourne-mode to evade pursuers through a crowded European town, and has a climactic fight with Caber aboard a plane. The plot was well thought-out, timely and a even prophetic; at one point Murik essentially predicts the Chernobyl disaster that was five years in the future, and his use of multiple suicide terrorist squads to inflict mass destruction foreshadowed 9-11 two decades early. On the negative side, Murik wasn't the most compelling villain, there wasn't much chemistry between Bond and Peacock, and Gardner's writing lacked Fleming's sinister flair.

All in all though, I thought this was a worthy and entertaining successor to Fleming's Bond novels. Gardner sticks to the Fleming formula, making just enough changes and updates to keep it interesting. While it doesn't match the genius and class of Fleming's novels, with less "sex, sadism and snobbery" (the three keys to Bond stories, according to some critics), License was a fun first adventure for the new Bond. I look forward to seeing where the author takes the series from here.

Get a copy of License Renewed here.