James Bond Gets Carte Blanche: Throbbing Extracts Of Manhood

JAMES Bond has a new adventure. Thriller writer Jeffery Deaver was apporached by Ian Fleming Publications to write a James Bond novel. (In 2004, Deaver won the Crime Writers’ Association’s Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for his book Garden of Beasts.) He agreed. He created ‘Carte Blanche‘.

Says Deaver:

“In the world of espionage, giving an agent carte blanche on a mission comes with an enormous amount of trust and constantly tests both personal and professional judgement. Part of the nonstop suspense in the novel is the looming question of what is acceptable in matters of national and international security. Are there lines that even James Bond should not cross?”

Carte Blanche sounds not a lot unlike Licence To Kill. Here’s the blurb:

“The face of war is changing. The other side doesn’t play by the rules much anymore. There’s thinking, in some circles, that we need to play by a different set of rules too . . .”

James Bond, in his early thirties and already a veteran of the Afghan War, has been recruited to a new organization. Conceived in the post-9/11 world, it operates independent of MI5, MI6 and the Ministry of Defense, its very existence deniable. Its aim: To protect the Realm, by any means necessary.

A Night Action alert calls James Bond away from dinner with a beautiful woman. Headquarters has decrypted an electronic whisper about an attack scheduled for later in the week: Casualties estimated in the thousands, British interests adversely affected.

And Agent 007 has been given carte blanche.

Yep, Navy boy Bond’s been in land-locked Afghanistan. Here’s an extract. Read the bits we’ve pulled out and see if you can spot the central theme running through all Bond’s works:

Sunday
The Red Danube

Chapter 1

His hand on the dead-man throttle…

Of course, he was not piloting a glistening Pacific 231 steam locomotive towing elegant mahogany-and-brass dining cars, suites and sleepers, where passengers floated upon vapors of luxury and anticipation…

The boss and the bureaucrat had regarded each other with the eyes of officialdom and, after a pause, settled for “Just be very careful”…

There were eight notch positions on the throttle, number one being the lowest. He was presently at five and he eased back to three to slow the train as it entered a series of turns…

As the cars entered the straight section to the bridge the driver shifted up to notch five again and then six. The engine pulsed louder and faster and there came a series of sharp clangs from behind…

Then, for no reason at all, except that it made him feel better, he tugged at the air horn…

Plus ca change for the Priapic Bond…

Anorak

Posted: 25th, May 2011 | In: Film, Key Posts Comment | TrackBack | Permalink