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charameiAnyone who reads these things is probably aware that I've been grousing for a while about my inability to find Young Bond 5: By Royal Command on the shelves in my favourite bookshop, and that this is directly related to the absurd amount of Doctor Who I've been reading lately (because those books are kept directly above Young Bond on the shelves). Well, I still have a backlog of Who - I always have a backlog of Who - but guess what WH Smith's finally restocked a couple of weeks ago?
By Royal Command (Young Bond #5, Charlie Higson)
By Royal Command is the last in the series, or at least the last to be written by Charlie Higson. Of course, this means that the ante needs to be upped.
Spies! Nazis! Communists! A fully-developed libido! The Obligatory Skiing Scene! Plots against the King! If there was ever any doubt that this series was Bond, it's gone with this instalment.
Like Hurricane Gold, By Royal Command is split into three parts. We start and finish in Austria, with a respite (hah!) at Eton in the middle. This is by far the most complex plot of Young Bond so far, though: it's a full-blown spy story, with all the complex international politics of the 1930s on show, and some innocent anarchists who've been duped into working for the wrong side just for variety.
Yet unlike Blood Fever*, this time Higson manages to pack it all in - and more besides. A whole host of villains from previous books return, not one of whom has any less than a stellar reason for being there - and James jumps to all the wrong conclusions, exactly as one would expect him to. The eponymous chapter is a delightful piece of misdirection (the royal command in question turns out to be 'Get my shuttlecock down from that tree'), and speaking of misdirection, there's a twist that I never once saw coming in five books' worth of setup. Better yet, to pack it all in Higson has to dial down his unnecessary exposition and description, though everything that needs to be explained is still explained - and not a moment before it becomes relevant. This is exactly how a spy book should be written.
He hit my squick point, too - hit it hard. I was reading on the train and got some very odd looks from fellow commuters as I gasped, cringed and squirmed my way through James trying to use a razor on the ropes binding his wrists, blind - but I could not stop reading. Please bear in mind that this is the same squick that, in Being Human, had me quivering in phobic terror on my seat, scared to watch episodes for fear of repeats, and, in a lesser instance, feeling mildly nauseated. This is just an illustration of how well Higson handles his horror material: he knows exactly how far he can go to terrify you without making you put down his book.
As for the history, it's perfect, and far fuller than it's been in previous books. Not only do we have the Nazis and Communists plotting against one another, we have innocents caught up in wars they don't understand, a very brief inside joke when James walks in on the Prince of Wales with a woman who has an American accent, and two little girls - one of them called Lilibet - playing badminton in a park in Windsor...
(Also, the Queen's cameo finally dates the novels! Lilibet's stated to be eight, which makes the year 1934. I've been struggling with the chronology for ages, and it's good to see that not only does Higson know what year it is, but it makes sense in the context of world history.)
We don't end with James taking up the mantle of spy, which is good - rather, his reactions to the whole thing are perfectly natural for a boy his age (apparently fourteen) caught up in something as huge and awful as a war. We do end with him getting kicked out of Eton after being framed for blowing up the chapel, which is a lovely way to frame the series while still leaving it open for a future author to pick up the torch and make Young Bond their own in future.
*Now I've read the entire series, I am extremely happy to report that Blood Fever is the only duff book in it. Silverfin still reminds me of the Randall and Hopkirk episode Strait Isle and Double or Die got a bit confusing, but Blood Fever was the only one with severe pacing or plotting issues.
Quote(s) of the book:
"I used to wonder what I might say to you if I ever saw you again. I practised lines... 'Ah, James Bond, we meet once more, but this time the outcome will be very different.' That sort of thing. But it never sounded right. It was all too - what is the word - 'corny'. I sounded like a cheap villain from a melodramatic American movie."
"Lilibet always hits it too hard."
If you only read one Young Bond, definitely make it this one. Although it reuses villains, it doesn't require too much foreknowledge of past events, and in terms of historical context, sheer complexity of plot and lack of Higson's more irritating traits as a writer, it's by far the best. Honestly, though, I would recommend the entire series. Except Blood Fever.
And, oh, did I mention that I have a backlog of Doctor Who? :p
Judgement of the Judoon (Tenth Doctor Adventures, Colin Brake)
I'm still reading through all the companionless books, though I keep seeing Donna ones that interest me. Eventually I imagine I'll work back round to Rose...
Anyway. Judgement of the Judoon is a crime novel, basically. It's not amazingly well-written: Brake tells far more than he shows, hand-holds more than Stephenie Meyer and has an irritating habit of referring to his characters by epithets (particularly bad in the case ofRok Ma the Judoon Commander), to say nothing of the fact that the plot was so formulaic that I worked out both of the 'twists' within paragraphs of their introduction. I got the feeling that he's another Who writer who thinks he's only writing for children, and therefore doesn't have to try as hard (wrong on both counts. Even if adults didn't read these, kids can tell good quality from bad). There's a bit of a heavy-handed moral/theme against judging people based on first appearances or prejudice, too.
What really made the book for me was the aforementioned Rok Ma. He's one of the two incidental companions - the other is a teenaged private dick called Nikki - and he's also a Judoon. A bright one, with a great sense of humor, who has almost all the good one-liners in the book. At one point he even pulls an allons-y, though not before he's heard it from the Doctor.
I'm a fan of Judoon as good-aligned NPCs more than as villains in any case: I adored SJA: Prisoner of the Judoon ('You pay! You display!'). And I always like a bit of stereotype-busting. Plus, Rok Ma is frighteningly competent, and really just needs to learn a bit of subtlety from, oh, a Time Lord or someone. If the 'traditional' companion arc is 'relatively harmless young woman is made Awesome For Life' then Rok Ma's arc can be seen as running parallel to that, but with a much shallower arc needed to transform him into a full-blooded Child of Time™. If only Colin Brake didn't hand-hold so much: I really didn't need to have it explained to me that the Judoon is capable of humour and making a joke every time the Judoon makes a joke, and I doubt most four-year-olds would either.
Not a fantastic book by any means, but it's saved from being utterly boring by a brilliant idea for a companion, executed decently.
I also got hold of one of the first Eleven books, Night of the Humans. I haven't read it yet - I'm working through the entirety of Kelley Armstrong's Darkest Power trilogy at the moment - but I was struck by how thin it is, even with the new larger page size. I did a wordcount, and it looks like the new books are 5,000 words shorter than the old ones: a Tenth Doctor book routinely counts to around 60k, whereas this one's only 55k. Easier to do for NaNo, I suppose, but I can't say I'm terribly in favour of the change. Wasn't 60k short enough?
By Royal Command (Young Bond #5, Charlie Higson)
By Royal Command is the last in the series, or at least the last to be written by Charlie Higson. Of course, this means that the ante needs to be upped.
Spies! Nazis! Communists! A fully-developed libido! The Obligatory Skiing Scene! Plots against the King! If there was ever any doubt that this series was Bond, it's gone with this instalment.
Like Hurricane Gold, By Royal Command is split into three parts. We start and finish in Austria, with a respite (hah!) at Eton in the middle. This is by far the most complex plot of Young Bond so far, though: it's a full-blown spy story, with all the complex international politics of the 1930s on show, and some innocent anarchists who've been duped into working for the wrong side just for variety.
Yet unlike Blood Fever*, this time Higson manages to pack it all in - and more besides. A whole host of villains from previous books return, not one of whom has any less than a stellar reason for being there - and James jumps to all the wrong conclusions, exactly as one would expect him to. The eponymous chapter is a delightful piece of misdirection (the royal command in question turns out to be 'Get my shuttlecock down from that tree'), and speaking of misdirection, there's a twist that I never once saw coming in five books' worth of setup. Better yet, to pack it all in Higson has to dial down his unnecessary exposition and description, though everything that needs to be explained is still explained - and not a moment before it becomes relevant. This is exactly how a spy book should be written.
He hit my squick point, too - hit it hard. I was reading on the train and got some very odd looks from fellow commuters as I gasped, cringed and squirmed my way through James trying to use a razor on the ropes binding his wrists, blind - but I could not stop reading. Please bear in mind that this is the same squick that, in Being Human, had me quivering in phobic terror on my seat, scared to watch episodes for fear of repeats, and, in a lesser instance, feeling mildly nauseated. This is just an illustration of how well Higson handles his horror material: he knows exactly how far he can go to terrify you without making you put down his book.
As for the history, it's perfect, and far fuller than it's been in previous books. Not only do we have the Nazis and Communists plotting against one another, we have innocents caught up in wars they don't understand, a very brief inside joke when James walks in on the Prince of Wales with a woman who has an American accent, and two little girls - one of them called Lilibet - playing badminton in a park in Windsor...
(Also, the Queen's cameo finally dates the novels! Lilibet's stated to be eight, which makes the year 1934. I've been struggling with the chronology for ages, and it's good to see that not only does Higson know what year it is, but it makes sense in the context of world history.)
We don't end with James taking up the mantle of spy, which is good - rather, his reactions to the whole thing are perfectly natural for a boy his age (apparently fourteen) caught up in something as huge and awful as a war. We do end with him getting kicked out of Eton after being framed for blowing up the chapel, which is a lovely way to frame the series while still leaving it open for a future author to pick up the torch and make Young Bond their own in future.
*Now I've read the entire series, I am extremely happy to report that Blood Fever is the only duff book in it. Silverfin still reminds me of the Randall and Hopkirk episode Strait Isle and Double or Die got a bit confusing, but Blood Fever was the only one with severe pacing or plotting issues.
Quote(s) of the book:
"I used to wonder what I might say to you if I ever saw you again. I practised lines... 'Ah, James Bond, we meet once more, but this time the outcome will be very different.' That sort of thing. But it never sounded right. It was all too - what is the word - 'corny'. I sounded like a cheap villain from a melodramatic American movie."
"Lilibet always hits it too hard."
If you only read one Young Bond, definitely make it this one. Although it reuses villains, it doesn't require too much foreknowledge of past events, and in terms of historical context, sheer complexity of plot and lack of Higson's more irritating traits as a writer, it's by far the best. Honestly, though, I would recommend the entire series. Except Blood Fever.
And, oh, did I mention that I have a backlog of Doctor Who? :p
Judgement of the Judoon (Tenth Doctor Adventures, Colin Brake)
I'm still reading through all the companionless books, though I keep seeing Donna ones that interest me. Eventually I imagine I'll work back round to Rose...
Anyway. Judgement of the Judoon is a crime novel, basically. It's not amazingly well-written: Brake tells far more than he shows, hand-holds more than Stephenie Meyer and has an irritating habit of referring to his characters by epithets (particularly bad in the case of
What really made the book for me was the aforementioned Rok Ma. He's one of the two incidental companions - the other is a teenaged private dick called Nikki - and he's also a Judoon. A bright one, with a great sense of humor, who has almost all the good one-liners in the book. At one point he even pulls an allons-y, though not before he's heard it from the Doctor.
I'm a fan of Judoon as good-aligned NPCs more than as villains in any case: I adored SJA: Prisoner of the Judoon ('You pay! You display!'). And I always like a bit of stereotype-busting. Plus, Rok Ma is frighteningly competent, and really just needs to learn a bit of subtlety from, oh, a Time Lord or someone. If the 'traditional' companion arc is 'relatively harmless young woman is made Awesome For Life' then Rok Ma's arc can be seen as running parallel to that, but with a much shallower arc needed to transform him into a full-blooded Child of Time™. If only Colin Brake didn't hand-hold so much: I really didn't need to have it explained to me that the Judoon is capable of humour and making a joke every time the Judoon makes a joke, and I doubt most four-year-olds would either.
Not a fantastic book by any means, but it's saved from being utterly boring by a brilliant idea for a companion, executed decently.
I also got hold of one of the first Eleven books, Night of the Humans. I haven't read it yet - I'm working through the entirety of Kelley Armstrong's Darkest Power trilogy at the moment - but I was struck by how thin it is, even with the new larger page size. I did a wordcount, and it looks like the new books are 5,000 words shorter than the old ones: a Tenth Doctor book routinely counts to around 60k, whereas this one's only 55k. Easier to do for NaNo, I suppose, but I can't say I'm terribly in favour of the change. Wasn't 60k short enough?