Colonel Sun [Import] [Hardcover]

Robert Markham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1968

The first James Bond novel written by an author other than Ian Fleming, after Fleming's death. Daliesque DJ art by Tom Adams.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 255 pages
• Publisher: Harper & Row; 1st US Edition edition (1968)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0224612948
• ISBN-13: 978-0224612944
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,919,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Fleming imitation ever!, April 13, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Savananh, Ga. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colonel Sun (Paperback)

Forget Raymond Benson. Don't even waste your time with John Gardner. They're hack writers who learned all about Bond from the movies. Markham (aka Kingsley Amis) knew enough about Fleming's vision of Bond to write "The James Bond Dossier", one of the first critiques of Fleming's series. "Colonel Sun" picks up right where Ian's final novel, "The Man With The Golden Gun" left off, and brings 007's career to a fitting close. The writing style is eerily like Fleming's, even containing dashes of the famed "Fleming Effect". Read this one, put in on the shelf next to your original 007 books, and forget about wasting your time with any other authors who attempt to write Bond.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A meaner and colder tone, but excellent Bond, September 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Colonel Sun (Paperback)

Colonel Sun is a sadist. So was Kingsley Amis, as the miniscule details of pain and torture are given as much relish as Fleming did about the class trappings that we enjoy. It's also clear that the style was more "modern" than Fleming, but it still remains true to the character that he built, more so than what's been coming about lately.

Even without the minor details, it's still a great Bond book; compelling throughout.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the world's most criminally overlooked novels, July 24, 2003

By 

Jeffrey Westhoff - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colonel Sun (Paperback)

"Colonel Sun" is far and away the best Bond novel written by a Fleming successor (a distant second would be Christopher Wood's surprisingly tense novelization of his "Spy Who Loved Me" script).

Kingsley Amis, who proved his knowledge of Fleming's writing in "The James Bond Dossier," creates a novel that's actually better than a few Flemings titles. The plot is engrossing, the villain is superb and after you read the torture sequence you'll never look at a screwdriver the same way again. Pure Bond greatness that deserves a wider readership. I hope Penguin adds it to its marvelous trade paperbacks, but I doubt it will happen.