LICENSE RENEWED. John Gardner. 1981.After the debacle of Colonel Sun by Kinsley Amis -- the first 007 novel since the death of creator Ian Fleming -- James Bond was reintroduced and reinvigorated by John Gardner in this excellent thriller which began a whole new series of Bond novels by Gardner. In this adventure Bond is up against the potent combination of Anton Murik -- a nutty physicist who is outraged that the world has rejected his new ideas for nuclear plants as “unsafe” -- and Franco, one of the world's most dangerous terrorists. To gain money to build his devices and prove the scientific community wrong, Murik, with Franco's aid, comes up with a scheme to take over several nuclear power plants and cause simultaneous melt-downs unless a massive ransom is paid. Of course, he has no intention of letting Franco keep his share of the money, and hires Bond, whom he thinks is a mercenary, to assassinate the terrorist. Then there are the two women in Murik's life: his niece Lavender Peacock, who seems to be on the side of the angels; and his girlfriend Mary Anne Mashkin, who appears not only to be Murik's partner in business but in other ways as well. Murik is the Scottish Laird of Murcaldy, although he may not have the right to the title. (In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Ernst Stavro Blofeld also pretended to be something he was not.)
The climax takes place on a giant starlifter aircraft in which Bond has a chilling fight to the death with Murik's lieutenant Caber, and there are exciting sequences at festivities in Perpignan in the French Pyrenees (including a fashion show in which Lavender is a model). Murik almost approaches the level of a classic Bond villain, although Franco is not developed nearly as well.
Verdict: Suspenseful, well-paced, and well-written, overall this is a Damned Good Show! ***1/2.
Was this one ever used as the basis for a James Bond film?
ReplyDeleteNo, even though Gardner came up with some excellent plots and villains in the twelve or so Bond novels that he wrote, they were never turned into films. Gardner also wrote the novelization of "License to Kill" but it was based on someone else's screenplay.
ReplyDelete