James Bond films (only later did I discover the books) were a mainstay of my childhood fantasy world. When I was younger the cars, gadgets, exotic locations, and action scenes drove my interest. Together with my friends I would roam the neighborhood fighting SPECTRE, Goldfinger, and Oddjob. The only thing we enjoyed more than playing James Bond was watching the movies. Unlike many childhood past-times my enjoyment of James Bond continued past my youth through my teen years and even into adulthood. In addition to the aforementioned reasons for liking the films as I aged I discovered the music and particularly in my teen years the “bond girls.”
Starting with 1962’s Dr No through 2015’s SPECTER there have been twenty-six James Bond films. That number includes 1983’s Never Say Never Again, which is really a remake of earlier Thunderball as well as 1967’s parody Casino Royale (not to be confused with 2006’s more serious Casino Royale). If you include the parody film, which featured, David Niven in the title role, seven actors have portrayed the iconic Bond.
James Bond Books
While the movies may feature the most popular adaptation of James Bond, the character first appeared in Ian Flemming’s books. Flemming wrote twelve novels and two collections of short stories. The Man with the Golden Gun and Octopussy and The Living Daylights were published after his death in 1964. In addition to the Bond novels Flemming also wrote the children’s story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. After Flemming’s death sixteen additional books including novelizations of the movies License to Kill and GoldenEye were published.
With the exotic locales for many of the stories I thought it would be interesting to feature them as part of Map Monday. The map comes courtesy of Paul Cemmick a freelance cartoonist. As a friendly warning for those of you who might be viewing this at work the link to Paul’s page features mostly nudes. That warning issued here’s a map of James Bond film locations with artwork by Paul.
There’s also a Bond connection to my own stories. My latest book (due out in a few weeks), The Dragon’s Den , is the third book in The Warders series. The Warders was born as an attempt to answer the question; What happens if you mix a James Bond-like story with a high fantasy setting?
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As always thanks for reading.
Armen