The James Bond Book List

Disclaimer: This list is specifically of the adult fiction novel authorized by Glidrose/Ian Fleming Publications. There are tons more books, such as reference, non-fiction, and a series of Young Bond books that will be covered separately. In fact, every one of the books listed below will eventually be covered in more detail.

If you are interested in purchasing any of the books, simply click on the title to be whisked away to a magic world where you can exchange your hard earned money for goods and services. If you are thrifty, you can pick up a used copy of pretty much any of these books for a few dollars at the most. 

The Ian Fleming Novels

Ian Fleming (1908-1964), a retired British Naval Intelligence officer created James Bond, Agent 007 for his first novel, Casino Royale in 1952. He went on to write the original 14 books all from his Jamaican estate, Goldeneye, where he vacationed every year. Initially, Ian Fleming's novels did not sell well in the United States until it was revealed in 1961 by Life Magazine that From Russia With Love was one of John F. Kennedy's favorite novels. Sales of all Bond novels quickly took off and production of Dr. No began less than a year later. A lifelong heavy smoker and heavy drinker, Ian Fleming died of a heart attack on August 12, 1964 at the age of 56, after years of declining health. His last two works were published posthumously. Aside from the James Bond novels, Ian Fleming wrote a children's novel for his son, Casper, about a magical car. The book, Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang was adapted into a film starring Dick Van Dyke in 1968.

Ian Fleming's novels with date of publication:
Casino Royale, April 13, 1953
Live and Let Die, April 5, 1954
Moonraker, April 5, 1955
Diamonds Are Forever, March 26, 1956
From Russia With Love, April 8, 1957
Doctor No, March 31, 1958
Goldfinger, March 23, 1959
For Your Eyes Only, April 11, 1960
Thunderball, March 27, 1961
The Spy Who Loved Me, April 16, 1962
On Her Majesty's Secret Service, April 1, 1963
You Only Live Twice, March 16, 1964
The Man with the Golden Gun, April 1, 1965
Octopussy and the Living Daylights, June 23, 1966

The One Hit Wonder

After Ian Fleming's death, Glidrose Publications, who owned the rights to  all the characters and copyrights to all the novels (It's called Ian Fleming Publications today) authorized other writers to continue in Mr. Fleming's footsteps. The first of these was Robert Markham, which was actually a pen name for Kingsley Amis. A personal friend of Fleming's as well as a fan of the James Bond Novels, Mr. Amis had previously written the non-fiction James Bond Dossier, a critique of the character and novels. Kingsley Amis (as Robert Markham) wrote only one James Bond book, which is arguably the best of the post-Fleming novels. Colonel Sun was released in March of 1968 and marked the end of James Bond novels for nearly ten years. It was rumored that Kingsley Amis had been working on a short story where a 70 year old Bond comes out of retirement for one more adventure, but when he approached Glidrose Publications about turning it into a novel, he was rebuffed. Kingsley Amis was Knighted as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990. On October 22, 1995 Kingsley Amis died of what doctors suspect was a stroke.

The "Biography" 

Imagine, if you will, that it is 1973. Richard Nixon is in the White House (but not for long), Edward Heath is at Number 10 Downing Street (but not for long) and a man named John Pearson has just discovered that James Bond is REAL. As the story goes, Ian Fleming was commissioned by MI6 to write of the exploits of 007 while more than 10 years later, John Pearson is recruited to meet the REAL 007 and write his biography, which he names James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007. Bond is retired, in his 50's and living with Honeychild Ryder (Bond Girl from Dr. No)... the book is very good at filling in the missing spaces and minutia of Bond's life. For instance, you get to find out about his parents and upbringing, and a lot of other little tidbits that I cannot tell you about because... I HAVEN'T READ IT! That's right, It is one of the things on the "To Do List" I mentioned in my last post. BUT I did order it the other day so rest assured that it is packed in an 18 wheeled truck speeding its way toward me at 72 miles per hour as we speak. I have been told it is quite a good read so... we'll see. 

The Two Rewrites

Okay, pay attention to this one because it gets a little confusing. Ian Fleming wrote The Spy Who Loved Me in 1962. Christopher Wood wrote James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977. Ian Fleming wrote Moonraker in 1955. Christopher Wood wrote James Bond and Moonraker in 1979. Got it? Okay good. 

OK FINE! I'll tell you why. You see, when it came time to turn the two books into movies, they were drastically redone, to the point where their storyline had little to nothing to do with the original Fleming books that Eon Productions authorized the screenwriter for both movies, Christopher Wood, to novelize the screenplays. With Moonraker, can you really blame them? Fleming wrote the original in 1955. It was set in space. How much did we know about space travel in 1955 compared to 1979?

The Gardner Era

With the 1970's rewrites over, the task of bringing Bond into the 1980's fell upon the shoulders of spy and thriller novelist John Gardner. While initially hesitant to write the Bond books, Mr. Gardner eventually accepted and went on to right fourteen original novels, as well as the novelizations for the films License to Kill and GoldenEye between 1981 and 1996. After writing Cold in 1996 (released as Cold Fall in the US) Mr. Gardner retired from writing any further Bond novels, citing failing health. He died of what doctors suspect was heart failure on August 3, 2007. Authoring 16 books, spanning 16 years,  John Gardner has surpassed all other Bond writers, including Ian Fleming in longevity of his tenure and number of books written.

John Gardner's James Bond novels:
License Renewed, May 1981
For Special Services, September 1982
Icebreaker, July 1983
Role of Honour, October 1984
Nobody Lives Forever, June 1986
No Deals, Mr. Bond, May 1987
Scorpius, July 1988
Win, Lose or Die, Early 1989
License to Kill (novelization), Mid 1989
Brokenclaw, July 1990
The Man From Barbarossa, August 1991
Death is Forever, July 1992
Never Send Flowers, July 1993
SeaFire, August 1994
GoldenEye, October 1995
Cold, May 1996 (Originally released as Cold Fall in UK, Only 007 book to be retitled for US)

Raymond Benson

Raymond Benson took over as Bond continuation author in 1997. Benson, the first American to carry on the James Bond legacy, was born in Midland, Texas and received a degree in Drama Production from the University of Texas at Austin. Initially, the fact that this author was American rubbed people the wrong way, as did Benson's ignoring much of the continuity that Gardner had put in place. He gave back James Bond's Walther PPK and had him driving a sporty Jaguar XK8. Benson's books focused much more on action and much less on gadgetry than Gardner's had, and James Bond cusses more with Benson than with any of the previous writers. While this makes Bond seem somewhat crude, Benson's general writing style was said to be much more like Ian Fleming than previous works. In fact, Ian Fleming's agent, Peter Janson-Smith, was quoted saying "It's as close to Fleming as I have seen." in an article of The Australian newspaper. Raymond Benson retired from writing James Bond novels in 2003.

Raymond Benson 007 novels:
Zero Minus Ten, April 1997
Tomorrow Never Dies (novelization), November 1997
The Facts of Death, May 1998
High Time to Kill, May 1999
The World is Not Enough (novelization), November 1999
DoubleShot, May 2000
Never Dream of Dying, November 2001
The Man with the Red Tattoo, May 2002
Die Another Day (novelization), November 2002

The New Ones

Since Raymond Benson retired from writing Bond novels in 2003, there have been four books written by four different authorized authors. First came 2008's Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks. Then Jeffery Deaver got it a shot with Carte Blanche in 2011. Solo by William Boyd was published in September 2013 followed by Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz in September 2015. These books can't even agree what time they are in. Devil May Care was set in the 1960's and went back to the roots of Fleming's bond, while Carte Blanche was set in the post-9/11 era.
Solo was set in the 1960's and makes heavy use of era-appropriate cultural references, while Trigger Mortis is set in the 1950's and includes material written by Ian Fleming but never published. All good books, but all four are rather different and unique.

And.... thats it... Thats all of the novels. Of course there are still the movies, the short stories, the Young Bond series of books, the non-fiction books written about the movies and books, the collectables, the list is endless. But for those of you who are interested, This gives you a good starting point.

You can find most of the James Bond books on Amazon or at your local book store. If you are frugal and don't mind used books, I recommend used bookstores, Amazon Marketplace, eBay and the like. I picked a lot of my Raymond Benson paperbacks up on the Amazon marketplace in great condition for just a few dollars each. My local used bookstore, Half Price Books, even has many of the vintage 1960's Ian Fleming paperbacks on it's shelves most of the time. I actually prefer them over new because I like the smell and feel and the old cover art. I hope I inspired you to sit down and read a good book! Til next time!