Hello folks sorry for the lack of posts have been busy finishing uni, graduating, moving etc anyway I have decided to turn over a new leaf and kick start the new year by actually doing this blog properly in the next couple of weeks I shall write a review for each of the best books I’ve read in 2011 and then continue onwards

Well seen as this is my first official book review, I thought that I would make it a goody by reviewing the new book of my favourite literary character….James Bond (if you were thinking Harry Potter, shot yourself now!!). This new official ‘James Bond OO7’ novel is written by Jeffery Deaver who is commonly known as the author of the Lincoln Rhyme series of books which due its brilliance garnered a feature film in the form of The Bone Collector starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, and the lesser known but equally brilliant (in my opinion) Kathryn Dance series. The premise of this book is essentially a reboot of the Bond Universe with the idea of possibly fitting it into the the Daniel Craig films. The Book is set in 2010/2011 and features a new organisation called the Overseas Development Group who’s mandate is ‘to protect the realm at any cost’ which is basically an updated form of MI6 featured in the Fleming novels. All the old characters are promptly introduced all except for Q who is now a department, M is an old man again, Moneypenny is still his assistant/secretary, Bill Tanner is the Chief of Staff, and Mary Goodnight (first featured in the novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and in the film The Man With The Golden Gun) is Bond’s secretary, as well as old favourites Rene Mathis and Felix Leiter. There is also bevy of new characters introduced such as Ophelia “Philly” Maidenstone, Percy Osborne-Smith and of course the villians who are suitably unnerving, freakish and surprising.

The story takes place over a week and revolves around a terrorist incident which starts in serbia with train derailment and climaxes in South Africa. There is also a subplot which is designed to help establish the new ‘timeline’ involving Bond’s parents. Now to the important part is Deaver’s Bond as good as Fleming’s Bond? the answer is YES Deaver’s Bond is everything that Fleming’s Bond is just updated to our time which is absolutely brilliant and will garner no criticism from me.

Deaver’s Bond is now a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq instead of a World War II veteran and Cold War secret agent as originally conceived by creator Ian Fleming but still keeps his original backstory.

Now on to the actual review….This book is brilliant, the only criticism I have apart from the fact that the next one hasn’t been announced yet! Is that certain characters lack depth with regards to their motivations and backstory for example Rene Mathis and crucial character in Fleming’s Bond as the ‘cover Bond’s back whilst he is in Europe’ character yet in Deaver’s Bond he has a single paragraph where he does Bond a favour over the phone (Deaver could of elaborated that they have worked together and are good friends etc). another character that suffers this way though not as much is ‘the irishman’ whose name I name I won’t reveal in case you haven’t read the book yet in this case you get a bit of back story and motivation but I feel that it isn’t enough for such a crucial character.

I know this review isn’t really objective seen as I am a massive Bond fan and am eagerly awaiting Bond 23 next year but considering I was initially sceptical when I first heard about this book considering Deaver’s writing style which sometimes can be seen as slow or overly detailed, he has somehow found the right balance between story, pacing, detail and character development that keeps the reader entranced and wanting to continue reading I admit to almost missing my tube stop several times whilst reading this. In conclusion this is a brilliant start to what is hopefully a new era of Bond novels.

Welcome to my book blog/review thingy which I’m purely doing to stave of boredom. My aim for this blog is to try to read, review at least 2-3 books a month mostly focusing on crime novels with a bit of fantasy, sci fi, comedy and some classics thrown in for good measure