SilverFin - A Good Opening For The Series, 23 Jan 2006

The prologue of the book brings up an interesting point I think: this isn't the average children's novel. It doesn't seem to be as magical or clean as say, a Harry Potter story is (although it has been quite some time since I last read one of those). I think it finds a niche somewhere between an adult-based murder/action novel and a more toned down Harry Potter fantasy story. I would have liked to see it even more in the direction of the grittier, Ian Fleming styled novels, but this is Young Bond. The eels are a great idea and used effectively throughout the entire story.

The first section of the story, ETON, tells of young "James", (a bit odd not to see it written as "Bond" all the time now) finding his way through school. Higson writes to make him seem like a loner or different than all the other boys at times, but it seems to generally work. I expected a childhood rivalry and/or confrontation(s) to occur, so they didn't really surprise me when they did.

So far at least, Higson has clearly made this his own James Bond, perhaps he has the benefit of not having to follow after Fleming like Gardner and Benson did with the older James Bond we're used to.

SCOTLAND is the next section of the book, and the poorest in my opinion. While Red Kelly makes for a fair ally (he really doesn't seem to be needed all that much), the weakest character by far in the entire story is "Bond girl" Wilder Lawless. Why, oh why, oh why did that horse have to be named Martini? She has little character development and that so called risque passage where she pins down James on the ground is more embarrassing and out of place than...hmm...risque. Stuffing leaves in his mouth?

THE CASTLE, the third and final section of the story is the best I would say. I look at the villains of movies and books as often being just as important as the hero. You need a strong villain to show off a strong hero. At least in SilverFin, we have a fairly good villain in Lord Randolph Hellebore. I'm not going to go deep at all into descriptions about him or his plan due to spoiler issues, but I think he is developed well from beginning to end.

At least in this final section we get to the action, the adventure, and the danger of a James Bond story. His escape from the castle, and the ordeals with the eels are well thoughtout.

The ending may not seem as too big a surprise to readers, it didn't to me personally, but it was still relatively enjoyable. I was pleased to see a change in Bond's actions and character towards the very end of the novel compared with what we see in the first sections of the story.

In the end, it's not a Harry Potter novel. It's darker and more distinct in it's own ways and being a change from the normal continuation novels may help it to become more enjoyable for some fans. We have a relatively good start to this series in SilverFin.

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