Review: Mr. Fleming, Meet Mr. Bond
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 20, 2014
Everyone knows Ian Fleming as the creator of larger-than-life superspy James Bond, but his own life story, especially his exploits during World War II, are somewhat larger than life as well. Most scholars agree that Fleming's own experiences helped mold the character and exploits of Bond. Author Damian Stevenson goes one step further and creates a fictional version of Fleming who could have been Bond himself had 007 served during World War II. This book contains two separate World War II adventures featuring Fleming. Although both books are flawed, the strengths in each book serve to cancel out the respective weaknesses, making the combined work much more entertaining than reading the books separately (both books are also available separately on Amazon)."Operation Armada" introduces the Fleming character and is based on the real life Allied efforts to stop the Germans from getting control of the sizable French fleet following the fall of France in 1940. In German hands, these ships might have provided enough naval cover to allow Hitler to invade England. Of course, the Germans never got control of the French ships: some were sunk while others moved to safety overseas."Operation Armada" simplifies the actual events considerably and puts Ian Fleming right in the middle of them. As in real life, Stevenson's Fleming is an agent for British intelligence, code named 17F, whose cover is pretending to be a simple bureaucrat. However, while the real Fleming remained behind the scenes during some crucial intelligence operations in which he was involved, Stevenson's version is right in the middle of things, parachuting behind enemy lines to prevent the Germans from getting control of the fleet. Fleming's first assignment is to team up with French resistance agents in the early summer of 1940 to buy the support of Admiral Francois Darlan, commander of the French navy (in real life as well as "Operation Armada"). Later, he heads a second mission to stop Darlan from providing the Germans with a secret weapon, a super-battleship capable of destroying pretty much any craft afloat."Operation Parsifal" is also loosely based on real life events. It's now January 1944, and the handwriting is on the wall for the Third Reich. A group of German industrialists want to assassinate Hitler and seize power. They're just as evil as Hitler, but more dangerous because they are far more rational and capable of planning an intelligent strategy against the Allies (and they've got General Rommel in their corner). Fleming's mission is to stop them, ironically, by keeping Hitler alive.The major premise in both novels is that Fleming's exploits battling the Nazis formed the basis for the character of James Bond. The connection isn't all that clear in "Operation Armada." Author Stevenson does a good job of fleshing out the character of Fleming, incorporating the real Fleming family and background into the character's backstory and winding up with a hero who could conceivably become James Bond in a few years. However, other than Fleming's real life code name (17F) and, in a nod to Q Branch, his being outfitted with some futuristic (for the time) gadgets, the missions in the book are fairly standard World War II action fare.By the time "Parsifal" takes place, Stevenson has a better handle on incorporating the Bond persona and background into the book. We chuckle as Fleming has an adoring secretary like Miss Moneypenny. We grin when he introduces himself as "Fleming, Ian Fleming" and gives a bartender instructions on how to make his martini shaken (but, presumably, not stirred). And fans of the books will smile when they recognize a fight on a train reminiscent of "From Russia with Love," and Bond, er Fleming, electrocuting a villain in a bathtub in a scene straight out of "Goldfinger."Unfortunately, the secondary characters in the two books, both the women and the villains, are nowhere near as memorable as Bond's love interests and foes. The villains in particular seem as if they were plucked straight off the set of an Indiana Jones film. They do have their share of fancy gadgets and loads of despicable, disposable henchmen, but the mano-a-mano tension between Fleming and chief villains that makes the Bond books so memorable is absent here."Operation Armada" is a shorter, more focused book than "Parsifal" with better action sequences. "Parsifal" has too little action, considering the dangerous nature of Fleming's mission. The ending of "Parsifal" goes completely off the rails as Fleming and some British commandos track the chief villain down to a remote African hideout, in a subplot out of "Heart of Darkness." The final showdown seems to consist of scenes thrown together at random.Stevenson also has some other disconcerting stylistic conventions in the books. He has an annoying habit of spelling out sound effects. resulting in lines like: "Pop! A bullet grazed by the wall... Pop! Pop! Two guards were blasting at them ...." I often felt as if I were watching the old "Batman" television series with its cartoonish "biffs" and "whams." Stevenson also includes considerable, meticulously researched factual detail in the books, but he lacks the skill to seamlessly incorporate those details in the narrative. As a result, sentences often contain lengthy clunky phrases informing readers of irrelevant minutiae such as the types of gun each character is carrying or the history of the Channel Islands.Despite the flaws in Stevenson's storytelling, if a reader imagines this collection as a single novel, it actually reads rather well. There's enough action, especially in "Armada," to keep fans happy. However, the collection's main asset is the half century of goodwill readers have built up for James Bond. Stevenson allows us to develop a good feel for the emerging persona of Bond, especially in "Parsifal." The presence of Bond is a major factor throughout the work, and spotting the references and tributes to 007 are a lot of fun. As a result, although I gave each book three stars separately, I'm rating this collection higher, as I feel that the collection, read as a whole, is a substantially more entertaining work.