Devil May Care (unabridged) [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

A variety of authors have written 007 novels since the death of Bond's creator, Ian Fleming -- and the results have been mixed, to say the least. As 'Robert Markham', Kingsley Amis penned the very first post-Fleming Bond, and this attempt by a novelist better known for his 'literary' work was judged a success. Now, after a decade of less successful entries by such writers as John Gardener, we have another serious writer, Sebastian Faulks (author of such acclaimed novels as Birdsong), taking up the challenge.

Devil May Care has already collected a jaw-dropping amount of publicity, with even the Royal Navy helping to put the book firmly at the top of the best-seller charts (Bond is, of course, a naval commander), and few books have had such wind under their sails (the relaunch of the movie franchise with the re-make of Casino Royale and Daniel Craig's second Bond film, Quantum of Solace, is all part of the ever-accelerating momentum). Of course, this also gives the book farther to fall if it misses the mark.

Faulks' author credit on the book ('Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming') is both revealing and encouraging – the author has reportedly said that he undertook the task with total seriousness, and he has tried to work within the parameters of the Ian Fleming formula (Faulks re-read all the extant Bond novels and stories) rather than the more glossy film incarnation. Among several very canny moves by the author is his decision to keep his 007 in the 1960s rather than catapulting him into the 21st century (as other ersatz Fleming novels – and, of course, the films -- have done. So how successful are the results?

Fleming aficionados can relax – this is a sterling job of recreation, and a novel that functions with total authority in its own right. The evocation of time and place (or places, notably Paris and the Middle East) is impeccable, as are the plotting and detail (as colourful and violent as anything in Fleming); there is a satisfyingly unpleasant larger-than-life villain, Julius Gorner, with a grotesque deformity of the kind Fleming often gave such characters (the chapter 'The monkey's hand' gives this away) and grandiose, evil ambitions. Best of all, this is Ian Fleming's James Bond – not a superman -- worried about his health and his physical powers (which he fears may be on the wane). Delicious stuff in fact. Now... can Faulks be persuaded to write another such novel? --Barry Forshaw. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

That a literary novelist of Faulks's calibre should take on Fleming's mantle is a fitting tribute to one of Britain's greatest thriller writers. The Times --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

`Move over Harry Potter, the published event of this year will be the new James Bond book, Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

`The biggest literary thrill of 2008' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

`Fans of James Bond ... are in for a vintage year' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

`I fell to my knees and wept with envy and rage last week when I opened my morning newspaper to discover that Ian Fleming's estate had asked Sebastian Faulks to write the next James Bond book'
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Bond is back. With a vengeance.

‘There’s something I need your help with. The details are a little hazy at the moment, but I sense that it’s going to be something big. Very big indeed. Have you heard of Dr Julius Gorner?’

It’s a name that will become seared into James Bond’s consciousness. The name of a man who knows no master but his own power-crazed ego, whose wealth is exceeded only by his greed and who will stop at nothing until he has destroyed the very heart of Great Britain.

A savage execution in the desolate outskirts of Paris sets in motion a chain of events designed to lead only to global catastrophe, as a tide of lethal narcotics threatens to engulf Sixties Britain, a British airliner goes missing over Iraq and the thunder of coming war echoes round the Middle East...

Bond finds a willing accomplice in the shape of a glamorous Parisian called Scarlett Papava. He will need all her help in a life-and-death struggle with his most dangerous adversary yet – a man who would dance with the Devil himself.

Unabridged. Read by Jeremy Northam.

Penguin is delighted to be publishing DEVIL MAY CARE. When we heard that Sebastian Faulks would be taking up the mantle, we knew instantly there could not be a more fitting celebration of Ian Fleming's work. Not only has Sebastian picked up from where Fleming left off, but he has also brought his own exquisite prose to the cocktail party - and, in so doing, has written a tour de force that will thrill and satisfy every kind of reader and every kind of James Bond fan. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

My novel is meant to stand in the line of Fleming's own books, where the story is everything. In his house in Jamaica, Ian Fleming used to write a thousand words in the morning, then go snorkelling, have a cocktail, lunch on the terrace, more diving, another thousand words in late afternoon, then more Martinis and glamorous women. In my house in London, I followed this routine exactly, apart from the cocktails, the lunch and the snorkelling.

Sebastian Faulks --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Sebastian Faulks was born in April 1953. Before becoming a full-time writer in 1991, he worked as a journalist.

His French trilogy – The Girl at the Lion d’Or, Birdsong and Charlotte Gray (1989-1997) – established him in the front rank of British novelists. UK sales of Birdsong exceed 2,500,000 copies, and for this novel he was named “Author of the Year” by the British Book Awards in 1995. It is regularly voted one of the nation’s favourite books. Charlotte Gray has also sold over a million copies and was filmed with Cate Blanchett in the main part.

Faulks’s other novels include A Fool’s Alphabet (1992), On Green Dolphin Street(2001), the epic Human Traces (2005), and most recently Engleby (2007). His biographical study of three doomed young men of the 20th century, The Fatal Englishman, was published in 1996 and a book of literary parodies, Pistache, in 2006.

Sebastian Faulks lives in London with his wife and their three children.