I really have been on a tear this summer. Last week, I reviewed a bunch of summer books I read, and this week I have one more!

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The James Bond franchise seems to be taking a lot of hits lately. Back in 2022, for just $6.5 billion, Amazon bought MGM, who owned the 007 movie rights. Bu then earlier this year, an Amazon executive proclaimed that James Bond is “not a hero”. This—understandably—infuriated Barbara Broccoli, the keeper of the 007 flame.

Last week, it was reported that Amazon’s head honcho, Jeff Bezos, was saying that his new wife, Lauren Sanchez, might have a major role in the next Bond movie. From OK Magazine:

“He’s obsessed,” a Hollywood insider told OK. “This isn’t just fantasy casting — Jeff wants her on screen, period.”

And to make things even more interesting, there’s a lot of James Bond and James Bond adjacent adventures being published. There are new books focusing on the ancillary characters: Moneypenny, Felix Leiter and even Q. Dynamite Entertainment continues to publish some very solid 007 comics too.

(Although, to me, it’s hard to top Don McGregor’s 007 comics from Dark Horse Comics a few years back.)

And over at RetroFan – we’re getting into the act too! Issue #44 has several insightful 007 articles and interviews. More info (and a killer cover) to be revealed soon. Keep an eye out for Dan Greenfield’s excellent 13th Dimension site for deets.

One More Beach Book

That makes Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz (new-to-me but first published in 2018) all the more interesting. This a prequel adventure, and like Max Collins does with his mentor/hero, Mickey Spillane, Horowitz stitched together ideas and sequences from an unsold Bond TV pilot and used them in this thriller.

I had enjoyed Horowitz’s previous Bond adventure, Trigger Mortis.

Forever and a Day opens with a stunning scene, but then drifted into a more leisurely pace. It’ started out slow but when it picks up steam, it barrels along like a runaway train.

As this is a kind of a “James Bond: Year One” adventure, Horowitz did an excellent job setting the stage for the many 007 tropes (both cinematic and literary) in clever, unexpected ways. And still he found ways to tag all the bases and give longtime fans all the touchpoints they (we?) crave.

I should call out that the there are two super-creepy (but ingenious) evil plans in this book. I’ve read a lot of books with bad guys, but Horowitz, to his credit, came up with new and fresh twists. And just when you thought it was all over, he takes readers on yet another rollercoaster ride.

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My mom always thought this album was ridiculous. “Who needs a soundtrack to read a book?”, she scoffed. Well, it turns out… I did. I listened to Bond music for the last 4 chapters of this book and it was glorious.