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Colonel Sun (1968)
Author: |
Kingsley Amis
(writing as Robert Markham) |
Published: |
28th March 1968 |
MI6 Rating: |
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Data Stream
Villains: |
Colonel Sun Liang-Tan |
Plot: |
Destroy a Soviet summit and frame the British Secret
Service |
Bond Girls: |
Ariadne Alexandrou |
Allies: |
Niko Litsas, Bill Tanner, M |
Locations: |
Windsor, UK; London, UK; Athens, Greece; Vrakonski |
Highlights: |
Scene at Quarterdeck, final battle |
Capsule Synopsis
When James Bond's boss, the enigmatic M, is kidnapped in
Greece, Bond must race to his rescue with only some local
fishermen to help! But 007 uncovers a plan to sabotage a
USSR summit... and the evil Colonel Sun is planning to frame
the British Secret Service for the crime!
Cover Artwork
The first edition
cover artwork was painted by Tom Adams in a Salvador Dali
style
with
dragon shaped clouds, melting
guns and
other surreal images. |
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Above: 1st edition Jonathan Cape hardback (UK) released
on 28th March 1968 |
Official Blurb (First Edition)
Lunch at Scott's, a quiet game of golf, a routine social
call on his chief M, convalescing in his Regency house in Berkshire
- the life of secret agent James Bond has begun to fall into
a pattern that threatens complacency … until the sunny
afternoon when M is kidnapped and his house staff savagely murdered.
The action ricochets across the globe to a volcanic Greek island
where the glacial, malign Colonel Sun Liang-tan of the People's
Liberation Army of China collaborates with an ex-nazi atrocity
expert in a world-menacing conspiracy. Bond finds himself working
in alliance with the beautiful tawny-blonde agent of a rival
secret service in the struggle to overpower this ruthless enemy
who discards the unwritten rules of espionage. Stripped of all
professional aids, Bond faces unarmed the monstrous devices of
Colonel Sun in a test that brings him to the verge of his physical
endurance.
Incredibly, the author adds his own imaginative impetus to the
Bond saga yet preserves all the excitement and eloquence, the
pace and glitter of a vintage Fleming novel.
Chapter Listing
- A Man in Sunglasses
- Into the Wood
- Aftermath
- Love from Paris
- Sun at Night
- The Shrine of Athene
- Not-So-Safe-House
- Council of War
- The Altair
- Dragon Island
- Death by Water
- General Incompetence
- The Small Window
- The Butcher of Kapoudzona
- 'Walk, Mister Bond'
- The Temporary Captain
- In the Drink
- The Dragon's Claws
- The Theory and Practice of Torture
- 'Goodbye, James'
- A Man from Moscow
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Right: British Pan paperback
1st edition (1970 onwards) |
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Synopsis
M is kidnapped from home, but Bond manages to escape the kidnappers
who waited for his arrival. Following a lead to Greece he deliberately
walks into the trap set by the beautiful Ariadne Alexandrou,
a Greek working for the Reds. The agents team up, with the
Soviets worried about a forthcoming 'event'. Meanwhile, the
British Head of Station disappears. Bond and Ariadne, who by
now are lovers follow a lead to Vrakonisi, a small island off
Greece where Chinese agent Colonel Sun Liang-Tan is holding
M. Ariadne enlists an old friend, Niko Litsas who wishes revenge
on von
Richter, a WW2 enemy for his atrocities. Litsas and Bond overpower
a guard ship meant to prevent their reaching the island, where
a Russian-led peace conference is taking place and Bond fears
it will be attacked by the Chinese, with his and M's bodies
left nearby so that everyone will presume they were responsible.
Ariadne proves unable to convince Russian General Arenski of
the plot, but he sets up a plan to lure Bond which 007 doesn't
fall for. Bond then sees Sun and von Richter setting up for their
attack on the Russians from Sun's neighbouring house, where they
deduce M is being held. They attack by night but are captured.
Sun then viciously tortures Bond in preparation for dumping his
body, but one of his disgusted female helpers cuts Bond's bonds
without the villain seeing. Bond stabs Sun and frees the others,
killing Sun's henchmen and preventing von Richter from firing
the mortar enough to hit the conference. Litsas finishes the
German off, but Bond finds that Sun has survived the stabbing
and now plans to come at Bond with a grenade. Bond reaches safety
and finally stabs Sun through the heart.
Kingsley Amis Forward (1991 UK Reprint) "I
wrote this book, sidestepping out of my career as a straight
novelist for the occasion, because
I was asked to do so and because I found the project irresistible."
"When
Ian Fleming died in 1964, it was felt that James Bond
was too popular a figure to be allowed to follow him.
Who was around that might provide a passable successor
to the
Fleming canon?"
"No doubt I seemed as likely a lad
as most. My last novel under my own name had had bits of
espionage
in it More to the point, I had published in 1965 what was
intended as a light-hearted and sympathetic survey of the
original thirteen volumes, 'The James Bond Dossier', most
of it written before Fleming's death and
approved
by him
in all but three tiny details, which I corrected. And,
as I said, I could not wait to try it."
"The best as well as the most
believable Bond novel to date" - Cleveland Amory,
Cosmopolitan
"First class" - The Daily Telegraph
"All the Bond ingredients are here" - The Evening Standard |
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Above: British Panther paperback 1st
edition (1977) |
"The experiment was an interesting one: Amis was a first-class
writer and a Bond fan, and what he produced was a workmanlike
job, though one reader at least blenched to find Bond drinking
rosé with his cold beef, or with anything else for that
matter" (Amis pointed out that Bond drinks rose in GOLDFINGER
- with sole meunière)" - Philip Larkin
Time Magazine Review (May 10th 1968)
His most devoted fans, including his publishers, simply could not bear to live
without him. Although Ian Fleming died almost four years ago, his creature,
James Bond, is back, resuscitated by British Author Kingsley Amis. A specialist
on 007, as he proved three years ago in the James Bond Dossier, Amis provides
a reasonably healthy, if slightly pale, replica. It remains to be seen whether
the trans planted heart will function smoothly (and profitably), or whether
it will provoke rejection symptoms. The new Bond lacks much of the comic-book
charm that connected so well when the camp craze was at its height a few
years ago.
He makes a halfhearted attempt to evolve
Bond from a set of gangliac reactions to a more speculative
character.
Unfortunately,
the technical gimmickry,
which was essential, has been discarded—although not the fancy man-of-distinction
brand names. As in the standard
007 diversion, weapons and women are fondled with equal ardor, though
sex is not nearly as important
as the inflicting and suffering of physical pain. Indeed,
Amis hits an almost pornographic intensity as his Bond
gets his eardrums probed with a meat skewer, his septum
stimulated by a broom straw, and his frontal lobe pummeled
with an incessant and derivative yak about the spiritual
union between the tormented and the tormentor. |
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Above: American Bantam paperback
1st edition (1969) |
The pedantic
sadist is Colonel Sun of the People's Liberation Army of
China, who wants to blow up some Russians and then blame
the incident on the West. Bond's problem is to stop him.
The reader has no problem except to try to enjoy himself
while awaiting the obvious.
Publication Timeline
1968 |
March 28 - 1st edition Jonathan Cape hardback (UK) released
May - 1st edition Harper & Row hardback (USA) released |
1969 |
1st edition Bantam paperback (USA) |
1970 |
1st edition Pan paperback (UK) |
1977 |
1st edition Triad/Panther paperback (UK) |
1991 |
1st edition Coronet paperback (UK) |
1993 |
1st edition HarperCollins paperback (USA) |
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