Double or Nothing

February 1, 2023
Recently we had Christine Wells' One Woman's War (2022), a WWII-era story about the woman considered by many to be the inspiration for Ian Fleming's character Miss Moneypenny, from the Bond novels. Now we're treated to a wonderful contemporary thriller featuring agents from the British government's Double-O program. The setup: James Bond is missing, presumed (by some) to be dead. While his fellow agents are struggling to come to terms with what Bond's death might mean to them, an urgent mission presents itself: a well-known billionaire claims he has found a way, based on new technology, to reverse climate change, but there are concerns that he might not be the world-saving humanitarian he claims to be. There are plenty of things in this outstanding thriller that will be familiar to Bond fans, while at the same time Sherwood introduces some new elements that make the environment feel fresh and just a little bit different (for example, you've never seen Q the way the character appears here). It's the first of a projected trilogy, and volume two cannot come soon enough.

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February 20, 2023
This entertaining James Bond pastiche, the authorized first in a projected trilogy, from British author Sherwood (Testament) introduces a diverse team of new 00 agents: 003 Johanna Harwood (of Algerian French descent), 004 Joseph Dryden (gay), and 009 Sid Bashir (Muslim). The trio’s multiple missions include discovering what tech billionaire Sir Bertram Paradise, a cross between Elon Musk and every previous Bond villain, is up to with his climate change solution, Cloud Nine, and looking for Bond himself, who’s been missing for 17 months. The action-packed plot takes the agents to predictably far-flung locales with ample opportunities for violence. Bond fans will welcome such familiar supporting characters as Bill Tanner, M’s roving chief of staff, and Bond’s CIA friend, Felix Leiter. No luxury brand goes unnamed, and Bond himself is quoted often. But there are also surprising changes: Q has been replaced by a supercomputer, and Moneypenny has become the 00 team’s leader. Sherwood’s refreshing update on the venerable franchise more than makes up for a narrative that at times gets bogged down with personal and intradepartmental drama. Readers will be curious to see what’s next for her team in book two. Agent: Jonny Geller, Curtis Brown (U.K.).

March 1, 2023
In the absence of James Bond, MI6's Double O service, whose chief of staff is now Miss Moneypenny, goes seriously woke. Sir Bertram Paradise wants to atone for his family's long history of extractive mining by saving the world. But the world may be in greater danger than ever because both Robert Bull, Paradise's security chief, and Dr. Zofia Nowak, the likely brains behind his Cloud Nine geoengineering project, have gone missing. Since 007 has gone quiet, presumably captured by the Rattf�nger terrorist group, M and Moneypenny dispatch several of his colleagues to step into his shoes by performing impossible tasks. Agent 009, Aazar Siddig Bashir, is assigned to rescue his ex-fiancee 003, Johanna Harwood, from slippery Rattf�nger chief Col. Mora, and once they're reunited, Johanna and Sid are set on Nowak's trail. Joseph Dryden, 004, a pansexual Jamaican who has one nonfunctional ear and whose language processing is monitored and controlled by his handlers, making him something of a cyborg, goes undercover as a member of Paradise's security detail, which is now run by his old friend Luke Luck. The high-velocity, high-casualty tale unfolds amid a cloud of anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-sexist attestations, urgent warnings about climate change, logistical details about weaponry and automotive engines, bits of wisdom culled from the operatives' experiences with Bond, and uneasy hints that they may have a mole in their midst. This kickoff to a new trilogy is a florid update to the Double O canon that desperately wishes it were a movie.

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