The Young Bond Dossier interviewed Justin Renard, the former Marketing Officer for Penguin/Puffin Books and talked about how Young Bond is marketed with emphasis on 2006-2007’s Double or Die “Which Title? You Decide” campaign.

Check it out here.

In a new update on his official site, Raymond Benson announced that his “Union Trilogy” (High Time to Kill, Doubleshot, Never Dream of Dying) will be re-published in an omnibus from Pegasus Books in October 2008. As an added bonus, the omnibus will include Benson’s short story “Blast From the Past”, which was first published by Playboy in January 1997. For whatever reason, the version published in Playboy was cut by one third, however, the version to be released in the omnibus will be the full deal – the first time in English (has been done in both French and Italian). The omnibus will also include a new foreword by the author and will possibly be followed by a second volume including Raymond’s remaining Bond novels if the first does well. Lets hope so.

TheBookseller has a new article up today about teen and children’s novels having a good year. Within the article it is mentioned that Hurricane Gold has sold over 55,000 in the UK, though unfortunately it was outsold by a factor of two by the latest Alex Rider novel, Snakehead. Still good, but methinks it could be doing better.

I would bet Hurricane Gold is the weakest selling Young Bond novel to date. Perhaps it could be explained by more competition towards its release date than previous releases and that competition coming from both Harry Potter and Alex Rider, but clearly as evidenced from the charts it didn’t do as hot as the two previous releases. Both Blood Fever and Double or Die hit #1 in their second week of release. Hurricane Gold never hit #1, getting beat out by the final Harry Potter adventure and Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett.

In other news, The New Zealand Herald ran a semi-review of Hurricane Gold today and it was quite positive.

From ancient Mayan temples to devastating floods, Higson chucks everything into the mix, creating a rip-roaring tale that will appeal to readers of all ages. A true Bond aficionado, Higson deftly lays the seeds for the not particularly pleasant adult that the young James will later become, depicting a quick-witted, athletic boy not academically gifted but surely bound for greater things. – The New Zealand Herald

Hurricane Gold will be released in paperback form on May 28, 2008, and will be followed by the as-yet untitled fifth Young Bond novel on September 4th.

Thanks to the Young Bond Dossier.

Seems like these things are coming faster and faster. CommanderBond.net got an exclusive look at the cover art for the third book in The Moneypenny Diaries series, Final Fling. Not too shabby, but I have to admit that I greatly dislike how reminiscent it is of the 60s Bond posters, specifically Moneypenny’s stance on the cover which was iconic of Sean Connery’s and George Lazenby’s Bonds, possibly Roger Moore as well though I don’t remember off the top of my head. The literary world and the film world should stay apart if you ask me. Some people were upset with Devil May Care’s cover art because of how reminiscent it was of some of the film posters like The World Is Not Enough. I get that, but at the same time something like that isn’t new for the literary series. Off the top of my head there was an Octopussy & The Living Daylights cover with the girl’s hair being octopus tentacles (actually quite cool). But Final Fling’s is just too obvious to me.

Other than that, I like the style and the art. Presumably this is for the UK hardcover, though Amazon.co.uk lists both the hardcover and the paperback as being released on the same day (May 1, 2008). This illustrated art style actually began with the UK paperback edition of Secret Servant. S, who knows?

.S. literary Bond fans still have to wait for May 13, 2008 to get their hands on the first installment of the series, Guardian Angel.

For a while now, I’ve been hearing a thing or two about Activision Bond game #2. The first thing was that the title may be in development by newly-acquired Activision developer Bizarre Creations best known for the critically acclaimed Project Gotham Racing series for Xbox and Xbox 360. I held off on writing something up about this because I didn’t really have any solid evidence and I was waiting for confirmation from some people I know. Well, that never came, but EGM seems to think that Bizarre is on the job too. In their January 2008 issue they say:

“My spy tells me the Project Gotham Racing 4 creators are working on the next James Bond game. “But they make racing games,” you say? Well, duh— that’s why it’s going to focus a lot on driving.” – EGM

Of course I didn’t hear it was a straight up racing game. Maybe it will, but I doubt it. Bond is known for awesome cars, but not really racing. Back in 2000 Electronic Arts went this route too with 007 Racing, which was a terrible game, but it wasn’t really about racing either. It was more like SpyHunter than it was an actual racing game. Bizarre doesn’t just make racing games though. Their next release due early next year is a third-person shooter called The Club and they’re also known for Geometry Wars. My guess is that while the focus of the game may be on the cars, Bond may get out and do some walking. Or maybe another SpyHunter-like game is in the works. Who knows, it could be more like Grand Theft Auto. You know.. without the whole Grand Theft aspect. It’s too early to say. Regardless, I’d bet on a release in 2009.

Thanks to Fro and Kotaku for the EGM alert.

The Young Bond Dossier briefly talked to Charlie Higson about what he thought of the new U.S. Double or Die cover art that was recently unveiled.

“When I started working on the Young Bond series I always pictured slightly retro covers with the feel of 30s adventure stories (something like the Indiana Jones posters) with great illustrations. The British publishers (Puffin) were worried though, that the books would look old-fashioned and scare kids off. I was very pleased with the Puffin covers, and still am, but it’s fantastic to see the new American cover of DOD which has all the romance and atmosphere I imagined when writing the books. DOD is a new start for Young Bond in the states and I’m very excited about its release. I never cease to be amazed at just how good Kev Walker’s illustrations are.” – Charlie Higson

And speaking of, the first poster for the new Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released today. Very cool if you ask me. The guys who design the Indy posters know what they’re doing. I’ve been very off and on on the more recent Bond films. I love the Casino Royale teaser poster with Bond at the table, but I didn’t really care for the one with him standing outside the casino. In my opinion, the best of Bond are the old 60s/70s illustrations, some of the best done by Robert McGinnis (Thunderball being my favorite). They really should get back to that sort of style. GoldenEye was probably the last poster that I actually liked, teaser posters notwithstanding.

If you recall, back in October I made a post talking about cover art for the Young Bond books and my disappointment in the latest paperback cover of Hurricane Gold. It’s not that it’s bad, it just has no atmosphere. As I mentioned (and apparently Higson and I share a similar opinion here) there was an advertisement that struck me as sort of like Indiana Jones that I still believe should have been used instead. It is far more fitting for Hurricane Gold, and for younger males it’s far more attractive in my opinion – the book’s target audience. The colors are great: the sandy browns, the murky greens, and the croc is much better looking. The paperback cover art released for Hurricane Gold (and the UK Double or Die) is just plain and rather boring. It lacks what a James Bond novel is really all about. Adventure. The designers for Indy get it. Kev Walker gets it. Mary GrandPré of Harry Potter fame gets it. I think even Richie Fahey got it. Puffin: they don’t get it. Not in my opinion. A skull? Come on….

What was that line… something about not judging a book by its cover? That part is true, but the cover sure as hell sells the book.

Amazon.com has finally posted the cover art for the upcoming U.S. release of Double or Die. Not due to be released till April 22, the cover art clearly features the work of Kev Walker who also did the cover of the U.S. edition of Blood Fever and is working on the Young Bond graphic novel series.

I’ll tell you this much, I like it far more than the UK edition with the generic skull on the red background. I can’t wait to see the graphic novel really. SilverFin’s graphic novel is due on May 1 in the UK by Puffin. I don’t think a U.S. edition of that has been announced yet, though I’m sure it’ll come at some point.

Thanks to the Danger Society.

Penguin007 and Ian Fleming Publications are showing off the cover of Devil May Care for all to see. It features the model Tuuli Shipster as the stem of a blood red flower. Earlier it was said that the cover would feature a single iconic image and I must say that although the image is questionably iconic (only time can really tell), I do indeed like it, but in many ways it reminds me of the teaser poster for The World Is Not Enough. That’s not a bad thing. I love that piece as well. Good work all-around by the Partners who designed the jacket.

My one issue with the cover is the wording “Sebastian Faulks Writing As Ian Fleming”. I saw this earlier in a Penguin007 press release and I took issue with it then. I think this may be the result of long discussions of how to work in “Ian Fleming” on the cover or maybe someone just wrote it up and everyone thought it was a good idea. I, personally, don’t, but I understand why they would want to do this.

Devil May Care will be released worldwide on May 28th to celebrate the 100th birthday of James Bond creator and author Ian Fleming. Most editions worldwide will use this cover, but perhaps (Penguin007/IFP implies) not all.

(Read more…)

In an estimated 18.9 billion dollar deal, Activision will merge with Vivendi Games which owns Blizzard Entertainment to form Activision Blizzard. It will trump Electronic Arts as the largest and most profitable publisher of video games.

Once the merger is complete Vivendi Games will continue to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary. Additionally, Vivendi (the parent company of Vivendi Games), will take a 52% stake in Activision Blizzard as well as occupy a majority of the new company’s board of directors. Vivendi is a huge French media conglomerate that owns a 20% stake in NBC Universal and owns the Canal+ Group as well as Universal Media Group.

Blizzard Entertainment is best known for StarCraft, Warcraft, Diablo and obviously the mega MMORPG hit World of Warcraft. Vivendi Games also owns Sierra Entertainment probably best known today for big games such as F.E.A.R., Empire Earth, and the newly released TimeShift. Some of the franchises Activision owns include Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk and obviously to readers here, James Bond. (Read more…)

Today, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the complete series, was released on DVD in a nifty looking attaché case that contains all 105 U.N.C.L.E. episodes that aired during the show’s original run from 1964 to 1968. The four seasons come in boxsets of their own with included 4 8-page booklets, and tons of extras. The briefcase is not sold in stores and is exclusive to Time Life for $249.95 (or “five easy payments of $49.99”). I have no idea when the individual season box sets will be released in stores.

Some of the early development of the show was done by Ian Fleming who famously came up with the main character’s name, Napoleon Solo which derives from Goldfinger. Some of Fleming’s handwritten notes on the show which includes plots and characters are included in the DVD’s bonus features.

Here’s a review from MonstersandCritics.com and another from the LA Times.

Order here.