An excerpt of Double or Nothing is published

Relatively minor spoilers. But those who are super spoiler adverse should leave now.

The Times today published an excerpt of Kim Sherwood’s Double or Nothing novel, which introduces new 00-agents.

The excerpt is a briefing scene between Moneypenny, now in charge of the 00s, and agent 004, Joseph Dryden.

Dryden is a veteran of the British military. “Moneypenny considered 004 the most experienced of her new generation of Double-0s,” Sherwood writes.

Essentially, the scene covered in the excerpt spells out the stakes of the story. Climate change is a big theme in the story. A tech billionaire “claims he can reverse the climate crisis and save the planet,” according to an Amazon promo of the novel.

Sherwood is introducing new 00-agents, with James Bond missing.

The Times also published an interview with Sherwood. The author says James Bond creator Ian Fleming “has influenced me hugely.”

In the interview, Sherwood said Ian Fleming Publications “wanted to expand the universe, widen it out.”

The Times summarized it this way: “Along the way, it makes Fleming’s cast of MI6 spies less male and less white than before.” Dryden is British-Jamaican. Johanna Harwood (named after a screenwriter of Dr. No and From Russia With Love), 003, has a French-Algerian mother, The Times said. Sid Bashir, 009, is British-Asian.

The excerpt and interview can be found by CLICKING HERE. The stories are behind a paywall.

The Times provides a preview of Horowitz’s new Bond novel

Cover for With a Mind to Kill

The Times, one of publisher Rupert Murdoch’s “respectable” U.K. publications (as opposed to his trashy tabloids), has provided a preview of Anthony Horowitz’s third James Bond continuation novel, With a Mind to Kill. The novel is scheduled to be published at the end of this month.

Horowitz’s new story begins with a funeral. After a botched attempt to kill M by a brainwashed 007 in Golden Gun, M’s “burial” is now arranged and faked to fool the Russians, allowing Bond, who has now got his patriotic senses back, to go back behind the Iron Curtain to collect intelligence.

Bond must ingratiate himself with evil Colonel Boris, an expert in mind control with a place called “the magic room” in his lair, where 007 has already endured isolation, psychedelic drugs and torture.

Horowitz told The Times he penned the tale “long before the invasion [of Ukraine] began. And I’m just aware that I don’t want to be, as it were, promoting it on the back of what’s happening. It’s difficult, but it is timely, that’s for sure.” 

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is a former official in the KGB. He is suspected of ordering the murders of his opponents.

Horowitz’s continuation novels are based on the timeline of Ian Fleming’s original Bond novels. Trigger Mortis took place in the middle of the Fleming timeline (after the events of Goldfinger) while Forever And a Day took place before Fleming’s debut novel Casino Royale.

With a Mind to Kill occurs toward the end of the Fleming literary timeline. Various Bond websites have already received their advance copies so expect a surge of reviews at the end of this month.

Second sampling of NTTD reviews

No Time to Die poster (date affected by COVID-19)

A bunch of No Time to Die reviews came out the same evening as the movie’s world premiere. But some critics didn’t rush their takes out as fast.

So here is a second sampling of reviews. The excerpts contain no spoilers. Make what you will of the excerpts.

JOE MORGENSTERN, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: “‘No Time to Die’ is the latest James Bond episode and the last one to star Daniel Craig. His performance elevates—all but ennobles—the dramatic core of an otherwise choppy narrative, a succession of impressive but impersonal action sequences and affecting interludes that lead to a stirring climax.”

LOU AGUILAR, THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR: “The last thing James Bond needs today is feminist input to match every other Hollywoke production. But No Time To Die is full of it – and worse stuff.”

KEVIN MAHRE, THE TIMES: “The film is a huge thundering epic (163 minutes long) expertly directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (of True Detective) and features a couple of audacious stylistic flourishes…It’s visually astonishing too. As filmed by the Swedish cinematographer Linus Sandgren (La La Land), it is easily the best-looking Bond to date, with each set piece an excuse to frame gorgeous compositions with richly covered lighting.”

A.O. SCOTT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: “As someone who grew up in the Roger Moore era, when defiance of every kind of gravity was the hallmark of the series, I have trouble adjusting my eyes to the darkness and the possibility of tears. I don’t entirely trust the emotions that the director (Cary Joji Fukunaga) and the screenwriting committee (Fukunaga, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Phoebe Waller-Bridge) put into play, or the weighty themes they reach for.”

K. AUSTIN COLLINS, ROLLING STONE: “It’s to (Daniel) Craig’s professional credit that his performance in No Time to Die, which comes out on October 8th (in the U.S.), bears little sense of that lack of giving a fuck. It wouldn’t fit this movie, which, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, very much carries the weight of culmination.”

The Times runs excerpts from Carte Blanche

News Corp.’s The Times of London today has excerpts of Jeffery Deaver’s new James Bond continuation novel, Carte Blanche. The Times is a subscription-only Web site, so you’ll have to pay to see it. You can CLICK HERE to access the Web site, where you’ll be prompted how to pay for access.

Poll by The Times finds it’s hazardous to be 007’s girlfriend

The Times of London did a survey in connection with the 50th anniversay of the publication of Goldfinger. The resulting article by Jack Malvern and Jeremy Duns finds the following:

The murder of Jill Masterson in Goldfinger, the third Bond film in 1964, set a precedent that has resulted in 16 of Bond’s 51 lovers coming to a grisly end. In Dr No and From Russia with Love, all four lovers escaped with their lives, but Sean Connery’s Bond became increasingly toxic. In Thunderball and You Only Live Twice two women were killed in assassination attempts aimed at the spy and one was eaten by piranhas.

To read the entire article, just click RIGHT HERE.