I came, I saw, I loved it:)

Picking up a few hours after the end of the last Bond film, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace (named for an Ian Fleming short story that has nothing to do with the film) starts with the obligatory bond stunt sequence and doesn't slow down that much for the next 106 minutes.

In this movie, we see Bond (Daniel Craig) going after Dominic Green (Mathieu Amalric ) frontman for the ultra-secret organisation Quantum, who are determined to buy up as much of the world’s water supply as possible, before global warming and climate change drives the price through the roof. To facilitiate this, they are willing (and able) to overthrow governments on a moment’s notice, until they have a government they like, and who is prepared to do business with them.

Aiding Bond in his quest is Bolivian intelligence agent, Camille (Olga Kurylenko) who is hunting Greene for her own reasons which are not always helpful to our hero. To add to Bond’s woes, M (Judi Dench), isn’t sure if she can trust him, or any other member of her staff, after a Quantum double agent tries to kill her. When Quantum kills the bright and bubbly MI6 agent, Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arterton) as a warning to Bond, he is left with no choice but to hunt down Dominic Greene in the depths of the Bolivian desert.

This film marks a turn back in the direction of the more traditional Bond mould than Casino Royale, which rebooted the franchise and breathed new life into a tired old storyline. Bond is dashing, brutal, driving an Aston Martin, and drinking vodka martinis, even if he doesn't know it. And he suffers, both physically and mentally, although he kills with such casual disregard for human life, he borders on being a sociopath. His relationship with M is much more interesting in this film, their ambivalence toward each other offering a nice contrast to the rest of Bond’s relationships which invariably end in death and disaster.

Directed by Marc Foster, who with only quirky indy films like The Kite Runner under his belt , seems an odd choice for a $200m blockbuster, Quantum of Solace delivers. It is heading toward the Bond formula we know so well, while retaining the grittiness and realism (of the Bond variety) brought to the franchise in Casino Royale.

The stunts in this film are gobsmacking and plausible, if highly improbable. The villain, Greene, lacks the caricature-ish features of previous Bond villains, but that almost makes him more menacing. The Bonds girls do their job, and are no more memorable than a score of other Bond girls that have come and gone over the years.  It is Craig who is the stand out, however, delivering a Bond who is visceral, hard and utterly believably as a man so good at killing, he has a licence to do the job.

I got the press release for The Chaos Crystal today, which was intereting because it coincided with a fascinating article on the Phenix and Phenix Literary Publicists site about promoting your own work, written by an author who'd just appeared on Dr Phil. (Because like... you know... we're all signed up for 15 minutes with Dr Phil to promote our next work... hehehe)

Anyway, national TV exposure to an audience of millions not withstanding, there was some interesting advice in the article that holds true even for authors not doing TV interviews with Dr Phil.

The bit that cracked me up, however, was in the final hint:

5. Fifth and finally, put the onus for your success on yourself…not your publicist. As someone once said, when it comes to breakfast, the chicken was involved, but the pig was committed.

LOL... I love this expresion... I now want to find any excuse I can to use this phrase. Does anybody know where it comes from?

Be prepared for this to crop up every other chapter in my next book!

Hahahahahaha

The Voyager On Line site ran a comp a couple of weeks ago for an advance copy of The Chaos Crystal.

I think entrants had to explain who would be left standing at the end of the series in 25 words or less.

The winner, Sarah, blew everyone else out of the water.

Behold the winning entry...

For the record, however, the groovy crystal on the cover is neither the Chaos Crystal nor a part of the ice palace. I don't actually know what it's meant to be.

See... this is what happens when artists assume things from titles and a couple of key paragrahs, rather than read the whole text to get a feel for the world. With cover artists, this is the rule, rather than the exception, believe it or not and I actually get why this happens (I mean, if you're designing a box for cat food, you don't actually have to eat it to represent the contents correctly...hehehe). I only get irked when people email me, telling me off (and yes, they do) for the cover misrepresenting the story.

So, of course, I point them to the unicorn, the leather bikini and the pole dancer...  LOL

Even back when nobody else agreed with me, I have always maintained the best Star Wars movie was The Empire Strikes Back, followed closely by the original movie. Once we started getting Ewoks, and phantom menaces, the franchise started to go downhill, I fear, although I thought in Revenge of the Sith the moment between when the mask goes on and Darth Vader takes his first breath was pretty cool.

We will not , however, even speak about the nonsense that is the latest incarnation of Stars Wars - The Quest for More Money The Clone Wars.

And it seems I'm not the only one who holds this opinion. There is a poll running on the SFX site, asking exactly that question.

The results thus far might interest you.

Given this poll is being taken on the site of the UK's most popular SF mag, I just love the fact that the highest vote is from readers who don't even like Star Wars. :)