Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard

Just published is another movie tie-in from an author I've been meaning to read, namely Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard.

This is actually a collection of some Conan short stories "personally selected by the makers of the new film and the greatest Robert E. Howard scholars". In any case it should prove to be a good introduction to the character.

The book features some movie art on the cover.

The movie itself stars Jason Momoa, following in Arnold's footsteps, as Conan. I know him from Stargate Atlantis which was a favourite TV show of mine. Here's another of the movie posters designs.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre

I must confess that I have yet to read any of John le Carre's novels. I'll make a special effort to read his Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which is being reissued to tie-in with the new movie staring Gary Oldman as George Smiley.

The paperback is due out on 4 August 2011.

Olen Steinhauer Kindle bargains

Just a quick note about a couple of bargains I found on Amazon UK's Kindle store, namely Olen Steinhauer's The Nearest Exit and the spy story collection Agents of Treachery for just 99p each.

www.amazon.co.uk

Bloodmoney by David Ignatius

Recently I read the new hardcover novel by David Ignatius, Bloodmoney, and thought it worth a mention here. Ignatius is perhaps best known for his novel Body of Lies as it was made into a movie by Ridley Scott a few years ago.

Bloodmoney is a present-day thriller, mainly dealing with the relationship between the American and Pakistani intelligence agencies. The plot deals with a secret off-shoot of the CIA that is sending off-the-books agents into Pakistan to bribe local warlords to stay out of the fight. Somehow the agents are being identified and picked off one by one.

Sophie Marx is given the job of tracking down the leak or mole responsible for blowing the identities of the agents. Along the way she discovers the unusual method being used to fund the bribery operation.

As a nice departure from the norm, the main "villain" is not some crazed terrorist looking to destroy the west. He's a university professor who's family was killed in a US drone attack and he is trying to balance the scales a little.

Overall the book was an entertaining enough read. I'm not a big fan of what I call "da Vinci Clones" and serial killer books so it's nice that there are still some authors out there writing espionage thrillers.

Faber & Faber Secrets and Lies

While browsing a local bookshop I spotted these eye-catching covers from Faber & Faber's "Secrets and Lies" themed series.

There are eight books in the series and two of them are books I've been intending to read for a while, namely Resistance by Owen Sheers and The Observations by Jane Harris.

You can see all the books in the series at http://www.faber.co.uk/list/secrets-and-lies/

John Gardner's James Bond reissues

I've just read that Orion are reprinting John Gardner's James Bond novels to mark the 30th anniversary of the publication of Licence Renewed in 1981.

The first five novels, Licence Renewed, For Special Services, Icebreaker, Role of Honour and Nobody Lives Forever, will get new hardback editions complete with their original classy cover artwork from the 1980s that was designed to match the cover designs of Fleming's hardbacks from the 1960s. The hardbacks will be out in June and July 2011.

Later all the books will get new paperback editions which is welcome as I believe they have been out of print since that late 1990s.

The Gardner Bonds are probably a littl bit underrated and it will be good to go back and reevaluate them. I suspect I'll be buying at least a few of the new editions.

http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/news/orion-publishing-group-celebrates-30th-anniversary-of-john-gardner-s-james-bond-titles

Carte Blanche review

As mentioned in a previous post the new James Bond novel by Jeffery Deaver, Carte Blanche, was published on 26 May. I managed to find a hardback copy in my local branch of Tescos for £5.00, a price I was quite happy to pay. I read the novel of the weekend and here are my initial impressions.

The book itself is very nicely presented. There is a nice glossy '007' embossed on the front cover and the dust-jacket has a pleasing satin finish. At around 428 pages the novel is quite a bit longer than previous Bond novels.

The character of Bond has been moved to the present day. He is now a veteran of Afghanistan and works for an organisation called the ODG, which is attached to MI6. A lot of Bond characters make appearances such as M, Miss Moneypenny (albeit briefly), Mary Goodnight and Felix Leiter. Q Branch still exists although there is no Major Boothroyd.

The story concerns an intercepted message that suggests an attack on British interests will take place at the end of the week, resulting in the deaths of thousands. Bond has to investigate and find out who the players are and what the plot is.

There are four main settings: Serbia, the UK, Dubai and South Africa. I thought there was relatively little time spent in Dubai considering how the book was being trailed as being set there. I think I probably enjoyed the early UK-set parts of the book more than the latter parts, maybe because of the passages describing Bond's thoughts on his appealing colleague Philly. I do have to say that I think Deaver has got Bond's 'voice' spot-on.

And there are definitely little touches of Fleming in the book, for example when describing Bond's Bentley thus:

'It had always been his goal to own one of the stately yet wickedly fast and clever vehicles.'

When I read lines like that I just smile.

If I have any complaints they would relate to some of the slightly contrived misdirection and that there were not enough 'Fleming' style chapter titles. As I read the book I thought up quite a few suitable ones.
It must be noted that the American Deaver must have done a lot of research on British pop culture. Top Gear, The Two Ronnies and  ASDA all get a mention. The only 'mistake' I picked up was one reference to 'Dr Who' instead of 'Doctor Who'.

Overall it was a very enjoyable read and I would not object to seeing Mr Deaver's name on the next Bond novel, whenever that may be!