Unable to load image
Reported by:

The Fleming estate gave the new James Bond novel to a feminist lecturer who replaced Bond with a team of comically diverse agents

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61354672-double-or-nothing?from_search=true&from_srp=Q0OKfrNdGs&qid=1

Sherwood wears her politics on her sleeve too, so we have the strange combination of a writer telling us a story about government agents, while actively disliking the government - the police are the bad guys, the climate protestors the victims. More than once, in fact over and over again, the spies working for MI6 question why they are devoted to a colonial power that has caused so much misery around the world. We get lectures on climate change, capitalism, colonialism, as though Sherwood is determined to use this opportunity to tell us all how the world should be. The straining to be politically correct throughout results in some unintentional hilarity (no tigers were sacrificed in the making of this action scene!)

Our new Double-O agents in the central roles are a woman and a Muslim man. M has been shuffled off to semi-retirement and for some unknown reason his former secretary Moneypenny, with no military experience, is now in charge of the Double-O section. Poor Major Boothroyd (Q) has been replaced by a computer, with the credit for that invention not belonging to him but a Mrs Keator (who?) and run by two young upstarts Aisha Asante and Ibrahim Suleiman (both questioning why they serve Her Majesty after the way their ancestors were treated by the Empire). The 3rd new 00 agent - Dryden - tips the whole thing over the edge into parody - he's black, gay, comes from poverty AND deaf!

Apparently this is planned to be the first in a trilogy:marseyxd:

Surely the Fleming estate must have picked a writer with a long track record of working with beloved franchises and characters to let her make such wholesale changes?

https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/kim-sherwood

I am a Lecturer in Creative Writing. As a novelist, I contribute towards teaching creative writing and literature at postgraduate and undergraduate levels. I also supervise postgraduate dissertations, and am available as a PhD supervisor. I currently teach on the Creative Writing MSc and the English and Scottish Literature MA. Prior to joining the University of Edinburgh, I taught literature and creative writing at undergraduate level at the University of East Anglia (2014-2015); on the Critical and Creative Writing MA at the University of Sussex (2016); and co-developed a Creative Writing BA as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of the West of England (2016-2021). My debut novel, Testament (riverrun, 2018), was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Award, shortlisted for the Best First Novel Award, and won the Bath Novel Award and the Harper's Bazaar Big Book of the Year. In 2019, I was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. I am now writing a trilogy of Double O novels expanding the James Bond universe for the Ian Fleming Estate and HarperCollins. The first in the trilogy, Double or Nothing, was published September 1st 2022. My next literary novel is A Wild & True Relation, out with Virago in February 2023. The novel follows a girl who joins a smuggler's screw in eighteenth-century Devon, and explores women's writing and history in a subversive adventure story.

>Her second book

109
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

The Fleming Estate seems to hate their own legacy.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

:#moneypile:

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

This probably isn’t going to bring in the big bucks.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

No, but there's not exactly a dearth of Bond novels, is there?

If I trade getting my name out there for giving the family 95% of booksale profits, then they're probably not gonna say no, will they? It's probably a standard form on their website.

They probably don't have too many more years on that copyright, so they've gotta churn out some garbage FAST

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I mean, if their goal was to churn out some random garbage purely for the ip’s sake, they could get any number of random ghostwriters for cheaper than they likely got this person. And if they were going to insist on some larger effort with a big promotional push, they could’ve farmed it out to someone already known for pooping out grocery store thrillers like James Patterson.

This is pretty obviously ideologically motivated, imo. There’s no monetary reason to pursue some nobody feminist professor with an ip anywhere near as notable as James Bond.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Can you call it an ideological shift if the basis of it is still, Maybe this garbage will sell?

Like with Bud Light, you don't go woke to appease Twitter commies, you do it to hopefully drain what their landlords have left in their shallow pockets.

Unfortunately, though, they don't drink domestic beer (sans PBR) or read James Bond novels lol

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Maybe this garbage will sell?

DEI funding will flow in and it will sell a billion copies to be distributed in the name of 'empowerment' and 'decolonializing narratives.' Most will never be unboxed.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Because if there's one thing communists can all agree on, it's propping up Big James Bond, and keeping it from being embarrassed.

I hope you don't actually believe that lol

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I would say yes because I think the motivation would come in two parts.

First, it’s likely some out of touch loser at the estate’s pet project—a sort of representing the flemming estate as they modernize and adapt to the new world. Then only second, maybe they’ll even make some money. But that point probably doesn’t matter much. :marseyshrug:

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Not to mention that the Bond IP has been dwindling in relevance. Casino Royale injected some life into it but I question how much longer it will last.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Casino Royale would’ve been better if Bond was black :marseycracka:

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

:marseymanysuchcases:

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Link copied to clipboard
Action successful!
Error, please refresh the page and try again.