Silverfin

As I said in the sidebar on planet pooks:

Silverfin: Book #1, A James Bond Adventure (Young Bond) — set in the 1930s when young James is 14 and attends Eton. Sounds fun!

And it was fun. Quite fun.

Young James Bond is in his early teens in his first year at Eton. This isn’t a book that is evocative of time and place — it seems to portray the living arrangements and the codes and rules of Eton well, though, and it kept my interest from the beginning.

The point of view wasn’t particularly strong — I didn’t feel as if I were living the James Bond life, for example — but again, the story was paced well and I found myself going back to it, wanting to know what was going to happen next. This has been a prob for me — starting books and finding them “interesting” but later realizing weeks have passed and I never finished the damn thing.

But not Silverfin. Not only did I keep returning to it, but by the time it hit its stride I spent most of a day reading to the end.

This book deals in some scary stuff, even scarier than Harry Potter if you consider that this is REAL. Meaning, the motivations of the bad guys are very real in the world of the 1930s and still real today. Higson did an excellent job of using situations that resonate with our current world every bit as much as the world young James lived in. I’m afraid that if his writing were as rich and evocative as JK Rowling, the Bond book would be too intense for a lot of kids.

Rowling is intense, of course, and frightening and poignant and heart-rending in a way that Higson doesn’t even attempt to be.

I guess what I’m saying is, when you turn off the light at night, Lord Voldemort is make believe.

I wish I could say the same about men like Lord Hellebore.

I can’t compare this to the original Bonds. Maybe I should pick them up at last. But for now, I can tell you that Silverfin is definitely worth reading, and I’m glad I got the hardcover.

Any questions?

DAMN!

I just found the wikipedia entry for Silverfin and read:

SilverFin is the first novel in the Young Bond series that depicts Ian Fleming’s superspy James Bond as a teenager in the 1930s. It was written by Charlie Higson and released in the UK on March 3, 2005 by Puffin Books in conjunction with a large marketing campaign; a Canadian release of the same edition occurred in late March. The U.S. edition was released on April 27, 2005 by Miramax Books, however this edition was edited.

I repeat, however this edition was edited.

Damn those bastards.

I hate when that happens, when American publishers decide to muck around with the British usages and now damn it I’m going to have to order the book from England and see how badly they botched it.

This is why I buy my Harry Potter books from England, people. Because I want my Harry, Ron and Hermione to eat tea and biscuits, not tea and cookies, and for God’s sake I want them looking for the Philosopher’s Stone, not the figment of somebody’s lame imagination Sorceror’s Stone!

So.

Well.

Whatthehellever.

I have a very strong suspicion that the lack of mood, place and richness I mentioned up top may be more evident in the REAL book.

Wait!!! Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait!!!!!

Just a dog-damned minute!

IT IS EVEN WORSE.

Miramax Books hasn’t just EDITED the original (and I will say right now that not having read the original I can’t be SURE they fucked it up — I can only guess they did because American publishers have a history of that) –

Miramax Books even edited the COVER. The COVER. (Okay, I know I’m repeating myself, but if you were in the room with me you’d see me pacing in circles and throwing my hands in the air and yelling at the ceiling, and I am repeating myself, okay???)

THEY EDITED THE COVER.

And I stand by my opinion at this moment, without hesitation announcing –

THEY FUCKED IT UP.

See for yourself.

The original UK cover.

NOW are there any questions?

And if you truly don’t get it — go back and look at the first one. Look closely.

Do you get it now?

What the hell made them make THAT insane decision?

So, in conclusion, the American edition is a decent enough book and I enjoyed it and was glad I bought the hardcover until I found out that I now need to buy the original, so ….

Anybody want a hardcover US edition Silverfin that has only been kicked around the room a few times and thrown against the wall twice?

Ooops.

Three times?

So far?