Young Bond

Illustration of a young James Bond by Kev Walker

Young Bond is a series of Young Adult spy novels featuring Ian Fleming's superspy James Bond as a young teenage boy attending school at Eton College. The series, currently planned to include five novels, is being written by Charlie Higson.

Books in the series

According to Charlie Higson, Ian Fleming Publications initially planned for him to only write one novel and that every subsequent novel would be written by a rotating author, possibly similar to the defunct Robert Markham pseudonym of the late 1960s. This plan fell apart and Higson agreed to author future books in the series. However, comments made by Higson in an interview could suggest that after Higson's five books are completed, the series may be continued by another author.

Currently released

• SilverFin (2005)

  In 1933, thirteen-year-old James Bond arrives at SEX masters college for boys

for the first time to continue his schooling. There he meets an American bully and his arms dealing father, Lord Randolph Hellebore. While on Easter break, Bond's adventure continues in the Highlands of Scotland where James investigates a local boy's disappearance. Teaming up with Red Kelly, the boy's cousin, James finally reaches a castle and a loch which is home to the Hellebore's and Lord sexsex.

• Blood Fever (2006)

  In 1933, James Bond is back at Eton where he is now a member of a secret risk-taking club known as the Danger Society. When summer vacation arrives Bond goes on a field trip to the Italian island of Sardinia where he stays with his much older cousin Victor sex. While there James investigates a Roman secret society known as the Millenaria that had plans throughout history to restore the Roman Empire. Though it is thought to have been smelllslearns that the Millenaria are still active and are led by the sinister Count Ugo Carnifex.

pooooooooooooooooooooo=9mnuj09 gyjm80l/.;]-@+at Waterstone's in Piccadilly, London. The alternative titles which were available for the public to vote on were "N.E.M.E.S.I.S." and "The Deadlock Cipher".

• Hurricane Gold (2007)

  The fourth Young Bond novel, Hurricane Gold, is set in Mexico and the Caribbean. The book was released on September 6, 2007 in the UK. The plot is centered around Bond trying to foil the robbery of a team of professional criminals, only to end up following them around Mexico and eventually to a mysterious Caribbean island called Lagrimas Negras. The book contains many references to Mayan mythology and much of the end is focused on it.

• By Royal Command (2008)

  The fifth Young Bond novel, By Royal Command was released in the UK on September 3, 2008. The book deals with Bond leaving Eton College due to the incident with the maid, as mentioned in You Only Live Twice. The Royal Family and the British secret service also play a part in the plot (revealing that Bond's tutor is a British Spy).". In this book, James Bond falls in love with his Irish maid, Roan.

Future releases

• SilverFin Graphic Novel (2008)

  The first Young Bond novel, SilverFin will be published as a Graphic Novel on October 2, 2008. The book will be illustrated by artist Kev Walker.

• Possible Young Bond Short Story

  During the Hurricane Gold launch party Charlie Higson spoke of the possibility of a Young Bond short story set between Hurricane Gold and By Royal Command. It would be set aboard a ship returning to England from Mexico where Bond would encounter Wilder Lawless from SilverFin. Charlie cautioned that it was "something that might happen or might not".

• Young Bond Series 2?

  Charlie Higson says that a second cycle of Young Bond books is a possibility. This second series would be aimed at a “slightly older readership” and would include Bond losing his virginity in Paris at the age of 16 (as established in the Ian Fleming short story, From A View To A Kill). However, Ian Fleming Publications have not yet commissioned a second series of Young Bond novels.

Supplementary books

• The Young Bond Rough Guide to London, Puffin Books/Rough Guides, 2007 (ISBN 0141323396). 64-page booklet featuring London locations from Double or Die.

History and controversy

2005's SilverFin	2006's Blood Fever
2007's Double or Die	2007's Hurricane Gold

Prior to the release of SilverFin, the idea of a Young Bond series had not gone over too well with the fans of the more traditional Bond literature and had come under heavy fire, with some fans comparing it to an unsuccessful 1960s attempt by Bond's publishers to launch a youth-oriented line of fiction that resulted in only one book: 003½: The Adventures of James Bond Junior written under the pseudonym R. D. Mascott. There was also a moderately successful James Bond Jr. television series in the early 1990s aimed at children that dealt with Bond's supposed nephew.

John Gardner, who had written fourteen original novels and two novelisations featuring the adult Bond, was also critical of the series prior to the release of the first book. He stated:

"It's just the last desperate attempt to draw in a new audience. The films have little to do with the Bond we used to know, and now the books are going the same way."

Higson, for his part, has been on record as stating that he intends to stay true to the backstory Ian Fleming created for Bond, though this in many ways contradicts the popular James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 by John Pearson, which is considered canonical by some.

When SilverFin was published in March 2005, reviews of the novel were good. This, in addition to a large marketing campaign in the United Kingdom, elevated SilverFin to the number eight spot on the Booksellers list of bestselling children's books in the UK. By November 2005, SilverFin had already sold 500,000 copies worldwide.

A second book in the Young Bond series, Blood Fever, was released on January 5, 2006 in the UK having been delayed from an initial release in October 2005. The book reached the number one spot on the Booksellers list of bestselling children's books in the UK in its second week of release and held the spot for eleven weeks.

Double or Die, the third book in the series, was released in the UK on January 4, 2007, having had its title announced the day before. The title was voted on in a national poll on the official Young Bond website; the other two titles to choose from were N.E.M.E.S.I.S. and The Deadlock Cipher. After the first three days of Double or Die's release it took the number two spot on the Booksellers list of bestselling children's books in the UK and number fourteen in the overall UK Top 50 list. A week later it had climbed to number one on the children's list and the number twelve spot overall.

As of March 2008, the four combined Young Bond novels have sold nearly three-quarters of a million copies in the UK alone.

Games

With the release of the Hurricane Gold book TAMBAand Fleming media released the Avenue of Death game which is based on one of the chapters in the book.

On August 11, 2008 Puffin Books announced the first Young Bond alternate reality game (ARG), The Shadow War. The online game started on the 23rd August, when Charlie Higson set the first mission during his appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. In the game, players around the world use a range of media, including the Young Bond books themselves and the worldwide web, to complete the missions and influence the outcome of the game. Charlie Higson will host a live online event to conclude the game on October 8, 2008.

Other media

On January 27, 2005 Puffin launched the official Young Bond website www.youngbond.com. The site contains downloads, games, character images by Kev Walker and book extracts. Joining "the Danger Society" allowed users to post in a forum (now closed) and receive email newsletters with the latest Young Bond news. Originally, the site was designed to look like Young Bond's room at Eton, but the site received a major overhaul in May 2008 and now features a more contemporary look. Official news is streamed to the site from the fansite www.youngbonddossier.com run by "zencat" (American screenwriter John Cox).

On April 23, 2005, Ian Fleming Publications released the first illustration of the thirteen-year-old James Bond drawn by Kev Walker. Walker illustrations have also been used on the covers of the U.S. hardback editions of Blood Fever and Double or Die. Walker will illustrate the SilverFin graphic novel to be released in the UK on October 2, 2008.

Due to the success of SilverFin and Blood Fever, Hollywood has been interested in adapting these novels to film; however, Ian Fleming Publications and Charlie Higson have said they hope to release a few more books before possibly considering it. Today, it is believed the film rights to James Bond on film reside exclusively with Danjaq, LLC, the parent company of EON Productions, however, according to Charlie Higson this is not exactly the case. Other books among teen readers include the popular Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz; Fledgling Jason Steed, the best selling teen spy book by Mark A Cooper; the Jimmy Coates series by Joe Craig; and Cody Banks. These books, along with Charlie Higson's Young Bond series, have introduced many teens into reading for the first time.

External links

• Young Bond official website
• The Young Bond Dossier - Official Young Bond news source
• Young Bond coverage on MI6
• The Young Bond Forum