Jun 8, 2008

Devil May Care Hits #8 On NY Times Best Seller List

Say what you will about the book (and believe me, I will--in the next few days), but Ian Fleming Publications did a great job marketing it! The whole Centenary hype worked wonders, and Sebastian Faulks' James Bond pastiche Devil May Care debuted at a tie for Number 8 on the New York Times Best Seller List, a first for 007 since the middle John Gardner era. Meanwhile, it's breaking publishing records on Bond's own "pitiful little island" (to quote Blofeld), where according to The Guardian, it's "Penguin's fastest selling hardback fiction title ever." In other words, Fleming's heirs have successfully restarted the literary Bond franchise in much the same way Eon Productions successfully restarted the film one with Daniel Craig, which is great news! Now they need to make sure they don't let this wave die down, and commission someone else to start work on the next Bond novel right away. (Faulks has made it clear that this assignment was a one-off for him, although the project has certainly upped his name recognition.) My own top choice would be Charlie Higson, who's shown a certain talent for the character in his Young Bond series, or failing him, one of his ilk from British TV, like Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie or Mark Gatiss. Gatiss would knock a Bond book out of the park!

5 comments:

  1. There's one place they've fallen through - the Unabridged version of the audiobook isn't available in the US as best I can tell. Amazon doesn't list one. Booksontape.com has one - but it's $90.

    Even the esteemed Audible has dropped the ball on this title; if you go to their site, you'll see it listed... but try and buy it and you'll run into this error message: "This title has been removed from your cart due to your geographic area."

    As 007 himself said, "Shocking."

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  2. Anonymous7:22 AM

    The unabridged audiobook is on Amazon right here:
    http://www.amazon.com/Devil-May-Care-Sebastian-Faulks/dp/0739366211/

    Looking forward to your review Tanner.

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  3. Anonymous7:24 AM

    Whoops. URL got cut off. Just put in item number 0739366211.

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  4. Anonymous2:02 PM

    A whole bunch of whose who* in the literary world were approached before Faulks took it.


    *Lee Child was confirmed one

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  5. I suggest Christopher Hitchens for the next Bond novel. He probably drinks more than Bond and Fleming put together.

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