 GARDNER GOES OUT WITH A BANG, 1999-08-23
John Gardner's final James Bond novel, known as Cold Fall in the USA, is a fitting way for him to lay his literary Bond to rest. Everything is as it should be, in total contrast to the dire offerings recently served up by Raymond Benson.Often under-rated by many Bond fans, Gardner's books have always struck me as being the basis for some superb Bond films. How sad then that his original stories were never used for the films, with Gardner having to be content with the odd novelisation. Buy this book and you will not be disappointed. It stands head and shoulders above any of Raymond Benson's Bond novels.
 Paper thin, 1999-09-09
Like Roger Moore, John Gardner continued his association with James Bond for too long. Cold is a desperately feeble book, built around silly set pieces linked with a paper thin plot. The trouble is we have read it all before, and much better than it is here. Gardner's early novels were enjoyable, clever and entertaining, Cold is none of these. Steer well clear of this!
Thank God It's Over (Gardner's Bond series that it), 1999-12-07
Although I'm a massive Bond fan and this book was published in 1996, I've put off reading it until now. That's because after ICEBREAKER each of John Gardner's successive Bond novels have been a disappointment. I've never really understood why Gardner continued to write the Bond books when he quite clearly lost all interest in the character and the series more than ten years ago. The James Bond who features in COLD is certainly not the character created by Ian Fleming, he's not even the character of the films. He's now just a kind of bland action man, more of a Bruce Willis Die Hard type than a British spy. The brutality and sexuality than make Flemings Bond so appealing are completely devoid in this novel. It's not just Bond who suffers either; all of the characters in COLD are bland and thinly drawn and the dialogue of Bond girl Beatrice da Ricci (please) is just embarrassing. Despite it's flaws COLD is probably the most satisfying of Gardner's books since ICEBREAKER. The first half of the book is intriguing, it's just a pity that John Gardner (and his readers) have difficulty sustaining interest until the lacklustre climax.
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