Review: Young Bond: Shoot to Kill by Steve Cole

Young James Bond is back in his most action-packed, explosive adventure yet.

Expelled from Eton and determined never to trust again, James Bond’s plans for a solitary summer are dashed by the discovery of a gruesome film reel – a reel someone is willing to kill for.

Travelling from the English countryside to Los Angeles, James finds himself caught up in a sinister plot of blackmail, murder and revenge that goes way beyond any Hollywood gangster movie.

His friends in danger, his life on the line, James must find a way out.

Or die trying.

The announcement that Steve Cole was to be the writer to continue the Young Bond series from where Charlie Higson left off with By Royal Command back in 2008 probably came as a surprise to many. After all, Steve is best known for the likes of Astrosaurs, Cows in Action and Slime Squad, his humorous chapter books for 7+ readers. However, Middle Grade and YA enthusiasts will also know that he is a dab hand at writing action thrillers (the Jonah Wish trilogy, The Hunting trilogy, Tripwire), and we mustn't forget the ten or so Doctor Who novels that he has also penned. 

We may have had to wait six years for the Young Bond series to be continued, but there is certainly no six year gap in the storyline. Cole's Shoot to Kill picks up the story very soon after the events of By Royal Command, with James Bond expelled from Eton. Bond obsessives will know that following his exclusion from Eton, Bond was sent to Fettes College, Edinburgh however, Steve Cole has decided to add another chapter to Bon'd life by making him a temporary student at Dartington Hall, a progressive school situated in the Devon countryside. However, due to an arrangement between his Aunt Charmian and Dartington's Headteacher, Gillian de Vries, James spends less than a fortnight at the school (which, of course, is long enough for him to make a few enemies and witness a nasty murder) before he finds himself heading across the Atlantic in a giant passenger airship. The journey is not uneventful, but it is in Los Angeles that the action really begins to kick in, as Bond finds himself up against the mob.

In Shoot to Kill Steve Cole has achieved what some might have thought to be a very difficult task. He has taken the young character developed by Charlie Higson through five traumatic adventures, treated that character and thus Higson with respect and also managed to flesh him out further and move the Bond story forward. In some ways it is also an improvement on the Higson books (of which I am a huge fan, despite their occasional flaws), some of which at times suffered from unbelievable plotlines and were not always as fast-paced as I would have preferred. The action in Shoot to Kill is fairly relentless, although not at the expense of plot. Some of the violence is a little more grisly than you might find in other books for this age group, but not to the point where it is unnecessarily gratuitous. It certainly isn't a level of violence that will cause nightmares, and I know many readers of this age who will find it tame in comparison to the computer games they play (despite being many years below the PEGI age rating).

I have seen a minority of reviewers criticise the story and action in Shoot to Kill by comparing the book and its main character to the CHERUB books by Robert Muchamore and Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series. In my opinion this is an unfair criticism as the character of Alex Rider and the various protagonists of the CHERUB series were not written as younger versions of an fully established and iconic adult character. Cole had to be true to the man that Bond will become, and this means that his young Bond has to show some of the character traits of the adult version, many of which have been developed in the previous Higson books. the young James Bond we see now prefers to be a solitary person, and he finds it difficult to put his full trust in others. At times he is almost a not particularly likeable character, but remember that he will turn into the James Bond of Flemings books (a ruthless killer who is also at times rather unlikeable), and not the smooth, one-liner-delivering character from the movie franchise.

Based on this book, I am confident in saying that the future of Young Bond is in good hands. Full marks to Steve Cole for adding another exciting and believable chapter to the life of the iconic spy. I should add that you do not need to have read the Higson Young Bond books in order to enjoy Shoot to Kill, but I would certainly recommend them to young readers who enjoy action/adventure stories.

Young Bond: Shoot To Kill - Title and Cover Reveal

I received a press release earlier today that had me wishing that November were here already. I grew up loving the James Bond films, and then Ian Fleming's books. I am also a big fan of Charlie Higson's Young Bond books and then back in October 2013 I was really excited to hear that the Young Bond franchise was going to be continued, with Steve Cole at the helm this time. Today, at the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts 2014, the title of the new book and its cover were finally announced. For the full press release please see below the image of what I think is a cracking cover. If I can find the time from somewhere I am determined to re-read Higson's books before Shoot to Kill is published in November.

Press release:

Today, on what would have been Ian Fleming’s 106th birthday, Penguin Random House Children’s announced Shoot to Kill as the title of the new Young Bond novel by Steve Cole.

In front of a Hay Festival audience of Bond fans young and old, Steve Cole and the first Young Bond author Charlie Higson came together to mark the official handover of the authorship. Together they unveiled a giant replica book revealing the cover of Shoot to Kill, a striking black and metallic design which gives a few hints as to what will unfold in Bond’s next adventure. 

Steve Cole says: 'As a boy I played James Bond in the playground; what a rush to be writing Bond now in the playgrounds of his youth for new generations. I am both honoured and hugely excited to be taking on Young Bond from Charlie. I am having a fantastic time shaping a new era in the life of this truly iconic character – readers can expect many firsts, surprises and dangers to come as James´s exploits continue.’

Charlie Higson says: ‘As a lifelong Bond fan, having the opportunity to write five Young Bond books and bring the most famous secret agent in the world to life for a younger generation was a total blast. Being a part of the James Bond legacy, and being allowed to play in his world, was a real honour and I know only too well what excitement is in store for Steve as he begins a new chapter for Young Bond.’  

Shoot to Kill, publishing on 6 November 2014, follows teenage James in the aftermath of his expulsion from Eton and features a cross-Atlantic adventure taking James to Hollywood, where it doesn’t take long for him to realise that something terrible is happening in Tinseltown… 


www.ianfleming.com

*** News: Steve Cole to take on Young Bond.

This morning it has been announced that Steve Cole has been selected by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. to write four books in the Young Bond series. These books will pick up the story of the young James Bond where Charlie Higson's By Royal Command left off, and I am more than a lot excited about this news. Steve Cole is one of this country's hardest working and most prolific writers for children and I think the future of Young Bond is in a very safe pair of hands.

The full press release is pasted below for your delectation:

‘A thrilling privilege and an exciting challenge.’ Steve Cole to take on Young Bond.

Random House Children’s Publishers will publish a new wave of authorized

Young Bond titles.

Random House Children’s Publishers (RHCP) are delighted to announce that Steve Cole has been selected by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd., the Fleming family-owned company, as the author of a new Young Bond series.

RHCP have acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in four titles from Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown on behalf of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. and Curtis Brown will represent all foreign rights.

The author to accept this exciting mission is DOCTOR WHO and ASTROSAURS author, Steve Cole, has sold over three million copies of his RHCP books in the UK.

These new titles will pick up where Charlie Higson – the writer of the previous wave of Young Bond titles – left off and will follow teenage James in the aftermath of his expulsion from Eton. This time in Bond’s life has never been explored before and readers can expect all the thrills, action, glamour and tension that are the essential ingredients of a classic Bond adventure.

Cole’s first Young Bond novel will launch with a dynamic marketing and publicity campaign in Autumn 2014. It will be published in hardback on RHCP’s highly respected Jonathan Cape children’s imprint.  

Steve Cole says: ‘I first encountered Bond in print as a teenager, when I read From a View to a Kill. Fleming´s writing was so vivid and authentic, Bond and the world he inhabited seemed suddenly real to me – and the danger and glamour led me through book after book. It´s both a thrilling privilege and an exciting challenge now to be shaping a new era in the life of such an iconic character – with many firsts and surprises to come as James´s life in the dangerous 1930s develops.’

Philippa Dickinson, Managing Director of RHCP says, ‘I’m absolutely delighted to be working with Ian Fleming Publications to publish a new quartet of Young Bond adventures. The period when James Bond would have been a teenager was an extraordinary time – a perfect setting for thrilling storytelling for young adults.  Steve Cole is an exceptional storyteller with a wonderful ability to connect with his readers.  A winning combination.’

Corinne Turner, Managing Director of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd., says, ‘Steve Cole is an imaginative and engaging author whose plots are addictive and gripping, so we were thrilled when he agreed to steer Young Bond through his mid-teen years. As publishers of Ian Fleming’s original Bond books and William Boyd’s new Bond continuation novel, SOLO, Random House are the perfect partner to work with us in bringing the next generation of Young Bond books to life. On behalf of Ian Fleming Publications and the Fleming family, I’d like to welcome Steve Cole to the exciting world of 007 – we can’t wait to see what scrapes James gets into next.’

www.ianfleming.com

News: Astrosaurs Competition From Random House

I had an email yesterday that I thought some of my young readers might be interested in:

To celebrate the publication of the 20th Astrosaurs book, writer Steve Cole wants 20 Astrosaurs superfans to WIN amazing prizes!

You could get…

YOUR character in the next Astrosaurs book – complete with its own collector card!

£500 worth of books for your school library!

A fun-packed school visit from Steve Cole!

Six years ago, Steve Cole had an incredible idea. He crossed the word Astronaut with Dinosaurs to create ‘Astrosaurs’ - the finest crew of dinosaurs living in space. Yes, you did read that correctly, dinosaurs in SPACE! Packed with humour and fun, kids adore the amazing stories of Captain Teggs and the DSS Sauropod crew as they fight evil across the galaxy, and they keep coming back for more.

Random House Children’s Books will be publishing the 20th Astrosaurs book in October 2011, and to mark this momentous occasion we want to find the UK’s biggest, bestest and boldest Astrosaurs fans. To become a superfan, children need to create their very own Astrosaurs character.

They need to think about what their Astrosaurs character will look like… give it a name… tell us what it likes and hates, what it eats and what planet it hatched from. And once that’s decided, it’s time to show us what it looks like – anything from a drawing to a clay model, a paper puppet to an old cereal box daubed with paint! Entrants will also have to tell us in 25 words what makes them an Astrosaurs superfan.

The 20 winning superfans will have Steve Cole visit their school this autumn to perform a madcap event. The winners will also receive a complete signed set of Astrosaurs, Slime Squad and Cows in Action. There will also be an overall winner who will have their winning Astrosaurs character featured in the next Astrosaurs book complete with its very own collector card. The overall winner will also get £500 worth of children’s books for their school library.

The competition is now open and closes on Thursday 30th June 2011. Visit www.stevecolebooks.co.uk/Astrosaurscompetition to find out more, and also watch a video of Steve launching the search for the ultimate Astrosaurs superfan.

Review: Slime Squad by Steve Cole

Mad scientist Godfrey Gunk had a dream - a dream of creating a whole safari park of monsters on an old rubbish dump. It didn't work. Little did Godfrey know that after he left the rubbish dump, his dream came true ...Meet the inhabitants of Trashland, a whole world full of different types of slimy monsters who all live peacefully alongside each other - at least until now ...Plog keeps himself to himself on account of his very slimy, very stinky feet, so he is surprised one day when Trashland's superhero Slime Squad with their different slimy special powers turn up at his sewer door and bundle him back to their secret operations base. Things are changing in the rubbish dump, mean and nasty slime monsters have grown and are starting to shatter the peace with their evil crimes. The Slime Squad need some help, and they think Plog is the monster to offer it! It's time to fight crime with slime!

Random House describe Steve Cole as a one-man publishing team, and I would suggest that this is a pretty accurate description. This man (or is he a machine?) is possibly this country's most prolific children's author of the moment - this year alone he is scheduled to have more than 25 titles published by Random House. On hearing something like this I would imagine that the cynical grumpy-types out there might start to question the quality of these books (usually without having read a single word), but they would be so very long. This is the man who has so far brought us the Astrosaur series, the Cows In Action series, and now the Slime Squad series - every one of them a fun and hilarious read for the 7+ age group. I know boys younger than this who have these read to them at bedtime, usually in fits of giggles. Steve Cole really knows what makes kids laugh!

Whereas the Astrosaur series utilised the classic boy favourites of science fiction and dinosaurs to appeal to its readers, the Slime Squad series relies on a subject that also has great boy-appeal, namely all things dirty and slimy. The story is set in Trashland, an old rubbish dump that was established by a mad scientist who was so concerned about the increasing amounts of pollution building up in the world that he became determined to create "marvellous mutant mini-monsters out of chemical goo - monsters who would clean up the planet by eating, drinking and generally devouring all types of rubbish". Unfortunately all of his experiments failed, and once his funds and dwindled he gave up, smashing his computer and spreading some of it components across the site in his frustration.

Little did Godfrey Gunk realise that years before he bought his landfill site a consignment of radioactive waste had been buried there, and once he departed it wasn't long before the radiation from this waste began to react with the remains of his experiments and life began to form - hundreds of mini-monsters. This life evolved and soon Trashland became a thriving metropolis, including banks, shops, museums and so on, all situated in areas such as the Tin Can Mountains, Broken Furniture Valley and Spare Part Canyon.

At the same time as all this was happening the remains of the crazy prof's computer was also at work - it had been programmed to repair itself and its artificial intelligence evolved over time to become PIE, short for Perfect Intelligence Electronics. PIE is now the Trashland equivalent of Charlie, with the Slime Squad taking the place of Charlie's Angels - a team of super-powered mini-monsters who, thanks to PIE's all-seeing components, always seem to be in the right place at the right time to lend a hand to the needy inhabitants of Trashland. Unfortunately for the Slime Squad, and Trashland in general, some of the really nasty waste has now begun to leak out and evolve itself - in this case into particularly nasty monsters. These monsters are turning to crime, under the guidance of the mysterious and evil Lord Klukk, and so now the Slime Squad must become crime-fighters, a task they seem woefully unprepared for.

Young boys will love these stories. Steve Cole has a wonderful imagination and loves to play around with words - the inhabitants of Trashland watch Smellyvision, their currency is printed on used toilet paper (the smellier the note, the more valuable it is), and Plog, a reclusive mini-monster who unknowingly has a huge part to play in the Slime Squad, has meals such as rat hairs and flies' legs in seagull-poo sauce. Show me a 5-8 year old boy who doesn't find this sort of thing hilarious! The stories stick to his tried and tested (and so far very successful) formula - create funny, memorable characters...... have them working together as a team...... put them into dangerous situations that require them to use their various abilities...... the team overcomes the enemy/danger despite sometimes enormous odds...... and all this is done with a plot that is saturated with sparkling young boy humour throughout.

These really are the sort of books that will get boys of this age interested in books, and as many parents and professionals know, if you hook them at this age quite often they are hooked for life and I have seen this for myself with both of my godsons and their brothers. There aren't a huge number of good books being produced for this age group (aside from Steve Cole's output there are the Horrid Henry books, the Captain Underpants series and Tommy Donbavand's Scream Street series are the only ones that spring immediately to mind), so I can only hope that Mr Cole doesn't burn out from his massive efforts. I certainly feel that he has a big part to play in creating the older boy readers of the future.

So far two Slime Squad books have been published and are available to buy right now - The Slime Squad vs The Fearsome Fists and The Slime Squad vs The Toxic Teeth, and there are two more scheduled for August 2010.

Book Zone Visits The Hay Festival

On Saturday I made a flying one day visit to the Guardian Hay Festival. For those of you who don't know, this is an annual literature festival held in the small town of Hay-On-Wye, and is a wonderful place to visit if you are a book lover of any age. This was my first ever visit to the Festival, and I certainly hope to go again in the future, and hopefully for more than just the one day.

The Festival site is a short walk out of town, and consists of a small village of marquee style tents, including book shops, cafes, and of course the 'theatres' in which the author sessions take place. I was very excited as I had tickets to hear Andrew Lane (Young Sherlock Holmes), Garen Ewing (The Rainbow Orchid), Charlie Higson (Young Bond and The Enemy) and Steve Cole and Chris Hunter (Tripwire collaboratively, although Steve Cole has written many more books).

First up was Andrew Lane. I was fortunate to receive an early copy of Death Cloud, the first in his new Young Sherlock Holmes series, and then Andrew took part in an incredibly detailed interview for me which I posted last week. The problem with by-email interviews is that you can't delve deeper, so for me this session couldn't have been better timed. Andrew's answers covered a lot of what he had already revealed in his interview for The Book Zone, but in even more depth and so many of the questions I had were soon answered in the interview and the Question and Answer session that followed. It was wonderful to see such excitement for the series amongst the many young readers who were present at this session, and their questions proved to be rather probing at times. The other great treat of the session was Mr Lane reading a couple of passages from Death Cloud (coincidentally one of my favourite scenes from the book), the first time he has done this in public, and the young audience hung on his every word.

As this was my first time at Hay I was not ready for the speed with which authors are rushed away to sign books at the end of the sessions, so I only had a few seconds to thank Mr Lane for the interview he did for The Book Zone, and I couldn't wait in line to get my book signed as I has to rush off to my next one - this time a talk by Garen Ewing, the genius creator of The Rainbow Orchid, a fantastic graphic novel that I reviewed some time ago. The second book in the series is due to be released in July, and I was very much looking forward to this session. Whereas Andrew Lane had been interviewed, this was Garen very much on his own, delivering a well-prepared talk about his work and the creative process he goes through when creating his comic strip, with slides projected to illustrate the stages. As a total non-expert in the world of graphic novels I found this totally fascinating, and again it added to the information that Garen had divulged when he did an interview for me earlier in the year. Garen's passion for his work and for the ligne claire style in general shone through his whole presentation, and if you have not yet got your hands on a copy of The Rainbow Orchid then you really should go out and buy it straight away.

Again, only a brief moment to say hello to Garen before he was whisked off to sign books, and I raced over to queue up for the event I had been most excited about - the great Charlie Higson. I am sure the man needs no introduction, but just in case you have been living a hermit-like existence in a small Himalayan hut for the last decade, Mr Higson is the author of the five books in the Young Bond series, and last year delivered the superb zombie thriller The Dead. Mr Higson was interviewed in a packed-out theatre by film critic legend Mark Kermode, himself a horror fanatic, and Mr Kermode had obviously read The Dead from cover to cover as his interview questions were both relevant and probing.

Charlie started off my explaining about how he has always loved horror, and especially when he was a teenager, but when starting to write The Enemy he didn't really know how far he could push the horror and gore factors. He experimented by writing passages and then trying them out on his youngest son, who each time seemed totally unphased by the content. Until that is one night when there was a knock on the bedroom door, and there was his distressed son having woken from a terrible nightmare - "Yes! I've finally got him" was Mr Higson's ecstatic response!

If you have not yet read The Enemy, the basic premise is that a disaster has struck whereby everyone over the age of fourteen contracted a horrendous illness that either killed them or turned them into flesh-craving zombies. Mr Higson went on to explain that he feels that teenagers get a very bad press in this country these days and he wanted to write a story that highlights the fact that actually the majority of teenagers are nice, normal kids and "in the end teenagers and kids are probably more at danger from us adults than we are from them, so the enemy of the book is adults". He also had an answer to commentators who have said his book is similar in ways to William Goulding's Lord of the Flies, in that rather than degenerate into "wild beats and savages" they will actually become stronger, help each other and try to rebuild society whilst the "pesky zombie adults try to eat them".

In The Enemy one group of surviving kids has set themselves up at Buckingham Palace and appear to be trying to re-establish a monarchy, with a few remaining zombie-fied members of roylaty as figureheads. Charlie went on to say that in future books we will see other kids setting up a more militaristic society in The Tower of London, and another group trying to set up a new democracy in the Houses of Parliament. All whilst trying to battle against loads of zombies of course!

A key element of The Enemy that I found made it particularly suspenseful and scary was that you just never know who is going to get killed next. Mr Higson said this was a great departure from his Young Bond books, in that however dangerous the situation Bond finds himself in the reader always knows that he is going to survive as he obviously grows up to be this iconic fictional hero, and therefore many readers never found these scenes scary. He therefore set out right from the start of the book to create and develop a set of characters whereby he could "constantly surprise the reader in how it was going to develop in terms of 'I never expected them to get killed' or 'I didn't think they were going to be an important character by now they've come into their own'". He was also very conscious of trying to build a "believable gang of kids with a  range of personalities" in order to ensure there was something there for everyone.

As with the two previous sessions I had sat through, once the Question and Answer session started the young audience responded brilliantly, asking questions about Young Bond as well as The Enemy. Mr Higson finished off his interview by announcing that he would shortly be signing books in the book store, and before he had even finished his sentence a handful of young fans were already sprinting out of the theatre to queue up for his signature.

My final session of the day was with Steve Cole and Chris Hunter. Mr Cole is the author of a huge number of books for kids and young adults, and he has recently teamed up with Major Chris Hunter, a bomb disposal expert, to write Tripwire, the first book in a new series about a teenage bomb disposal/anti-terrorism operative. This session was again different from those that I had already been to in that each author took it in turns to talk about their respective backgrounds and the part they played in the collaboration. Mr Hunter wowed the young audience with brief anecdotes about his time in the armed forces, and it is this that makes Tripwire stand apart from the many other books in this genre that have been published in recent years, as everything that happens to the main character Felix Smith is based on Chris Hunter's extensive knowledge of this incredibly dangerous profession. The authors even gave an example of a car chase scene where Steve Cole had Felix shooting at the escaping enemy and missing. In steps Chris Hunter with his first-hand experiences to explain that if Felix was making the shot then he would not miss, resulting in a rewrite of that small scene.

We were then treated to a couple of short demonstrations using a few willing volunteers from the audience, who then assisted him in defusing a mock-up explosive vest (as worn by a very nervous looking Steve Cole). These two made a great double-act and I am confident that their series of books featuring Felix Smith will be a huge success.

So, a pretty busy day for me and thoroughly enjoyable it was too. I hope to make the pilgrimage to Hay an annual event from now on, and maybe get to stay for more than the one day. I recommend this event to all book lovers - there is so much going on and it was wonderful to see so many families there, with the kids so enthusiastic about the authors they were going to see.