Shoot to Kill

Young Bond #6

by Steve Cole

BEFORE THE MAN BECAME THE LEGEND.
BEFORE THE BOY BECAME THE MAN.
MEET BOND. JAMES BOND.

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 first five books and companion novel in the series are written by Charlie Higson, with the rest being written by Steve Cole.

The series consists of the following titles;
1. SilverFin
2. Blood Fever
3. Double or Die
4. Hurricane Gold
5. By Royal Command
6. Shoot to Kill
7. Heads You Die
8. Strike Lightning
9. Red Nemesis

Genres: Thriller, Young Adult, Fiction, Espionage, Adventure, Action, Childrens

299 pages, Hardcover

First published November 6, 2014

About the author

Also publishes as Stephen Cole.

Steve Cole is the slightly crazy, highly frantic, millions-selling, non-stop author of Astrosaurs, Cows In Action, Astrosaurs Academy, The Slime Squad, Z. Rex and many other books (including several original Doctor Who stories).

He used to edit magazines and books but prefers the job of a writer where you can wear pyjamas and eat chocolate all day.

Steve just can't stop writing - if he does, strange robots appear and jostle him vigorously until he starts again.

In his spare time he loves making music, reading old comics, thinking up ideas for new books and slumping in front of a warm TV.

Reviews

[Chris Horsefield · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a little disapointed. I was expecting better, after reading great teen spy series like Alex Rider and Jason Steed, this lacked speed, action and excitement. It was little old-fashioned, stiff upper lip. The author tried to be Ian Fleming, :FAIL. We have possibly 4 great teen spy writers alive today and for some reason Steve Cole who writes Kids books was given Bond.Okay,
Anthony Horowitz
Robert Muchamore
Mark A. Cooper
Eoin Colfer

Okay okay Anthony Horowitz is now writing the next adult Bond book, but he and the others listed are fantastic at writing Teen Spy Novels. Steve Cole tried but it failed.

The story lacked teen antics, jokes, fun and wit. That is what makes The Alex Rider series, Jason Steed Series, CHERUB series and Artemis Series so good and popular.

[Stephen Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very fun read, picks up where the last one left off and, despite the change in author, is just as good.

[Martyn Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, a full six years after Charlie Higson last wrote a Young Bond novel, and the story finally gets to continue at the hands of Steve Cole.

Cole is an author I've never read before - and nor should I have to be honest, thanks to his previous specialty being pre-teen fiction. But considering his limited experience writing in this genre and for this Young-Adult age range, I was really surprised at how eloquently written parts of this book were. Sure it's simple with a nice fast pace and elementary Bond story, but there's plenty of nice phrasing, descriptions and dialogue in here to offer much more than just tributes to Fleming and Higson as you'd expect. LA gets a lavish description, from the burning neon of the lights to the smoky, dimly lit backstreets. It's nice to read about Bond being somewhere different to the usual European locales that monopolise his adventures.

The book does have the Fleming references however, the Hoagy Carmichael inclusion was a good touch and the general style was very Fleming-esque at times (Dammit Bond thought, etc. etc.)

If you're a fan of Bond, there's much to enjoy here, and if you liked the previous Higson entries, this is definitely on a par with those books. Whilst it's not the best Young Bond book on offer, it certainly is a great return for the character and nice to continue his adventures towards adulthood.

Fast paced, engaging and simple. A great quick read.

[David Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can honestly say that it is not very often that I win any competitions, so thank you goodreads for my early release copy.

It was with some trepidation that I started this book, as having read every Bond book prior to this one, including all of the Charlie Higson Young Bonds, which got better with every book, I was wondering whether Steve Cole could move the character on.

I shouldn't have worried, as Steve Cole has continued where Charlie Higson left off, and has written a very good novel, which moves the character forwards from his Eton days, and has also delivered a more mature story to boot. The villains are very earthy and are never too over the top, and some of the scenes of violence are very grown up.

Everybody knows when they pick these novels up that James will persevere, but it's the journey that he goes on, and how he endures the threats thrown at him that makes the books enjoyable.

Along with James Bond, the series is growing up as well, and we are now entering the stage where we are starting to see him moving towards his 00 status and the adventures that we all know and love. And for me that makes the series more intriguing.

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this very disappointing. I really enjoyed the Charlie Higson Young Bond novels and for me, this was nowhere near on par. Yes this was a different author, but had a completely different feel to the earlier books in the series. It was a chore to read.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good easy read, lacked something, but not sure what and perhaps slightly off its target readership.

This book was received for free through Goodreads first reads. Thanks

[Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shoot to Kill by Steve Cole is the sixth Young Bond novel, but Mr. Cole's first entry in the series. For the uninitiated, Young Bond is the childhood adventures of James Bond 007. The first five books were written by Charlie Higson and for new readers that's where you should begin. Shoot to Kill begins shortly after the events of By Royal Command and his expulsion from Eton. Bond's aunt Charmaine sends her young charge to Darrington Hall while she is on an archeological dig. James along with a group of students get selected to go to a school in America to compare curriculum. Before that happens though, he's invited by a girl to come to there film group and in doing so see a film that could get them killed. That is the basic premise that Cole uses as his catalyst for a fast paced action packed roller coaster adventure. Cole sprinkles many 007 Easter eggs for Bond fanatics to find and manages to push Bond to a reasonable breaking point within the confines of the Young Bond universe. The supporting characters both allies and enemies pop off the page with true depth. Cole's action scenes are quite visceral and very cinematic in there design. I like it when authors don't waste a word. Steve Cole follows this mold. As Young Bond takes shape into the world saving super spy Shoot to Kill let's Bond fans start to see corner stones of the character we all know begin edging there way through. I've sat and tried to think of things wrong with Shoot to Kill and the only one I found is that it ended! My bias towards 007 makes me try to find flaws so that I'm not just "fan boying" out but I truly can't. Shoot to Kill is a 005 star book that North American readers either have to read in ebook form or import. You should you won't be disappointed!

[Carson · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I had started the Young Bond series without much in the way of expectations, the Charlie Higson series was fantastic.

Steve Cole's "Shoot to Kill" is lackluster throughout. I never really find myself caring much for the other characters in the story, which feels unnecessary in Bond's journey. His stories at Eton felt like they really filled in gaps in his past and they had strong references to his preferences in vehicles and his parents, Hannes Oberhauser and the reason he fled Eton. "Shoot to Kill" takes James to the United States for the first time and thrusts him into a story about a movie director who kills people and films it for kicks and power. I just couldn't get into it like I wanted to.

There were a few satisfying moments and twists, yet many missed opportunities in the way of opportunities for Bond one-liners or better character development.

3 stars.

[Rick Mcarthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really big WOW for Steve Cole who brought back in terrific style and a truly page turning pace what I thought was an abandoned franchise that still has years of potential waiting to be fulfilled! I have been into Bond Films and the theme tunes they come up with, ever since I saw at the cinema The Man With The Golden Gun with my family in London's West End in 1973. I especially appreciated the fact that reading Steve's version of a Bond story moved me like watching that film again for the first ever time. Which weirdly enough didn't happen with Charlie Higson's 5 stories. Probably because Shoot To Kill has elements of bond films in the sequences he wrote which I won;t spoil the enjoyment of by revealing them here. I'll leave it up to new readers to figure out!

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book. none stopping action!

[Jeffrey Westhoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many readers, including myself, were nervous about the handover of the Young Bond books from Charlie Higson to Steve Cole. Higson’s five books were superb, much more entertaining and faithful to the spirit of Ian Fleming than the so-called “adult” Bond novels being published at the same time. Devil May Care? Ugh. Could a new author maintain the magic that Higson created?

Cole certainly knew what he was up against, so on the very first page of Shoot to Kill he sends a signal to old-school Bond fans that he knows his 007. The title of the prologue is “You Asked for It.” When Casino Royale was first published as a paperback in the United States, an editor who didn’t think Americans knew how to pronounce “royale” changed the title to You Asked for It. As someone who sprinkled his own teenage spy novel ( The Boy Who Knew Too Much coming in June from Intrigue Publishing. Shameless plug accomplished) with obscure James Bond references, I have to say that’s a pretty obscure reference. Right from the get-go, Cole proves he’s a Bond nerd. Young Bond seems to be in capable hands.

But not merciful hands. Poor James is in trouble the moment he appears, clashing with an unusual bully at his new school. He doesn’t get many chances to relax. Cole concentrates more on plot and action than Higson, and the pace is often torrid.

Cole picks up soon after Bond’s expulsion from Eton, as detailed in Higson’s farewell novel, By Royal Command. We know from 007’s premature obituary in You Only Live Twice that he will wind up at Fettes College in Scotland, but Cole gives James a brief layover at Dartington Hall, a progressive school in Devon. James’ formidable Aunt Charmian arranges the short enrollment, correctly calculating that her nephew will be invited on a lavish trip to Los Angeles along with the school’s director of education and a handful of other students.

The Dartington contingent will be the guest of Hollywood studio mogul Anton Kostler, who flies them to America aboard his private zeppelin. Nothing screams 1930s cool quite like a zeppelin, and with an airship and the Hollywood setting, Shoot to Kill does have something of a Rocketeer vibe. If it were made into a movie, would Timothy Dalton play the villain, Kostler?

During the long zeppelin voyage from England to Los Angeles, James cottons to some skulduggery that may be linked to Kostler’s studio, Allworld. He wonders if it is connected to something one of his new friends found just prior to the trip, a reel of film from his father’s cinema that apparently shows genuine torture and perhaps murder.

James would like to have a fun, relaxing trip for a change, but things heat up once his group arrives in Hollywood, and Bond becomes resigned to the reality that danger seems to follow him, or vice versa.

Cole’s take on the character is a transition from Higson’s Bond to Fleming’s Bond, from the personable schoolboy to the man who will lead a hard and solitary life. In Shoot to Kill, Bond laments the loss of his carefree past, but no longer sees a point in fighting it. If danger keeps coming his way, he might as well take it on and survive. Fatalism is creeping in to his worldview.

Not that Cole spends too much time on characterization. Shoot to Kill is leaner than the Higson books, moving rapidly from one action sequence to the next. The action is crisply written: a car chase in Los Angeles, an ingenious death trap on Kostler’s back lot, and — well, the villain owns not one, but two hydrogen-filled zeppelins. You can guess how it ends.

Cole also drops a few more references to make Fleming adherents smile. Bond gets into a nightclub by claiming to be Hoagy Carmichael’s son (in Casino Royale, Vesper Lynd remarks that Bond looks like the singer). He also is introduced to judo, planting the seed that Bond will start a judo club at Fettes, another biographical tidbit from the You Only Live Twice obituary.

The Bond girl is Boudicca Pryce, Boody for short. She is named for a legendary Welsh warrior queen and is a bit tougher than most of the young women Bond has teamed up with. He meets an even tougher woman, too, a Chinese-American newspaper reporter named Tori Woo, who is investigating rumors that Kostler is employing Chicago gangsters. Tori speaks in the cliches of a 1930s Hollywood newspaper melodrama, which is perhaps forgivable given the book’s setting. I can’t help but wonder if Cole is — consciously or not — foreshadowing Fleming’s own lamentable ear for American slang.

The villain, Kostler, doesn’t appear till the final third of the book, so he isn’t that memorable. His plot for world domination is a convoluted one built on blackmail and film tariffs. The problem is, we know from history that Kostler’s scheme would have fizzled after World War II began and Hollywood lost the European market.

The most enjoyable supporting character is one of Bond’s new schoolmates, Hugo Grande, a dwarf with a feisty attitude and a sarcastic tongue. Fortunately, it appears Hugo will be returning in Cole’s next book.

Cole has fun describing 1930s Hollywood, but he didn’t do all his research. A character drives a Corvette, a car that wouldn’t roll off the assembly line until 1953. And he drops the occasional word or phrase, like “paramedic” and “ski mask,” that wouldn’t enter American usage for another few decades. These anachronisms spoil the mood, especially the premature Corvette.

Shoot to Kill may not be as rich an experience as Higson’s books, but it is still an exciting tale and a worthy portrait of the spy as a young man. It reads more like an Alex Rider book, but that was perhaps inevitable. Cole was faced with the daunting task of following Higson, and he has proved he can take Young Bond forward. There is a development on the last page that made me groan, but I am still looking forward to his next book, which apparently will be one more American adventure before James enrolls in Fettes.

[16gardnert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it was a good book, it had lots of action, i would recommend this book if you like the James Bond films, it is the 1st book in an amazing trilogy, However the series was first written by a different author, under a different name, so it is actually around the 4-6th book in the series. It was an exiting book full of romance action funny parts and exiting and sad parts. It was a good ending (don’t want to spoil it). Over all it was a good book, i would recommend it to all ages above 8 or 9.

[17thompsonh112 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was kind of expecting steve cole’s book to be less exciting or a different style but he kept up the pace very well and the storyline was also very complex and interesting. Could not put it down once I got to the ending.

[J.J. Lair · Rating 4 out of 5]

This begins with the filming of a snuff film.
This is YA?
Young James Bond is spending time at a new school at the request of his aunt. He is bullied his first day. He walks into a big fight with the bullies then he outsmarts them.
It starts exciting, the bullies, the ambulance, Bond seeing the sniff film, and the trip to America. It suffers from mid-book slog and then picks up in the third part. Chicago gangsters. A ex-machina save. No breakfast foods or steaks. The ending has a lot of gunfights.
This is YA?
The final pages open up something new. James’s father and the British government. What happened there?

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was fun! A bit gorier than I expected from a book otherwise suited to the younger spectrum of YA readers, but the plot was strong and suspenseful.
I have a preference for books where chicks kick butt a little more,but this is a James Bond, so my expectations weren't high for this being part of the plot. Yet we still had a couple of capable female characters at least.
There were a few moments where I just couldn't see where the plot was going, or how it was going to get to a conclusion, but it all worked out in the end, and added some nice twists that I should've seen coming, but didn't! I'm obviously out of practice reading adventure.
I enjoyed this enough to actually want to read an Ian Fleming...and the rest of the young James Bond series.
Or at least have a Bond movie marathon.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fifteen year old James Bond, recently expelled from Eton, is on a temporary stop until his aunt gets back into the country. It's been arranged that he stay with a friend of his aunt at a school in England.

He's to accompany a group going to Hollywood to survey a brother school started by a film mogul, just recently moving from silent pictures to the new sound format. The film company's zeppelin would be used for the ocean crossing, then across America.

There was trouble already as a film accidentally falls into the young people's hands showing torture and beatings, real stuff, that someone wants back bad enough that several murders have already happened.

It all follows Bond and friends across the waters in an adventure filled with blackmail and violence and a villain bent on control of the film industry in a brainwashing plan to run the world.

Liked this one.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is book fine continuation of the 'young Bond' franchise ably started with Silverfin by Charlie Higson and kept going under his tenure until this book.
This is really more of the same..the idea that an extraordinary adult learned his skills as a extraordinary young man..this time the plot involves film makers and gangsters and we have the usual ticking of Bond boxes....car chases(tick)..love interest(tick)...final dramatic scene in a large area(tick)...exotic locations(tick).....villain(less of a super one this one surrounded by hench men willing at times to extol the wisdom of his plans..yep all here...
Anyhow absolutely fine..harmless and though a younger read I enjoyed it for what it was.

[Rich · Rating 3 out of 5]

I confess I didn't know at the time that this was aimed as Teen Fiction, it was brought for me as a Christmas present. Basis of the story? Fairly good. Characters? Mixture of dull and exciting. Language? That's what let it down for me, certain parts I felt were aimed at younger children rather than teens - which is a shame because I think the author will have lost a few fans due to this. As a massive James Bond fan, I thought this would satisfy my knowledge of his world. However, aspects are clearly not thought out and sometimes the character is made to feel strained. Worth a read if your new to the Young Bond series. Wouldn't bother if your an adult fan like myself.

[Dylan T · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was really wasn't that bad in my opinion, it had a really good mix of mystery, suspense, unexpected twist's and fast paced action, the book at some parts was to predictable, but at times i found it hard to put it down. It told the life of a young James Bond based in the 1950's who goes on an experimental school trip to Hollywood where he gets tangled up in a producer's(Anton Kostler) evil plot of murdering competitors whilst filing their gruesome deaths and then watching it for his own pleasure.

[Thomas Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Young Bond series is all about showing how Bond earned the skills which will later turn him into a b.a. spy in his adulthood, and cleverly tying together disparate bits of his history. Here in this sixth outing, the series has settled into its role, and Bond is placed in a position to foil yet another plot to control the world. Along the way he meets a good cast of characters, both allies and villains. Overall, a very fun read.

[Corrine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gore increased, class decreased

I wish this had stayed true to the Higson style of writing, but it focused more on gory descriptions than plot and character development. I’m sad—I really enjoyed the Higson books and would have loved to have seen Bond further developed along those lines, but maybe that is idealistic. I can fully recommend the first 5 books, however.

[Shaeley Santiago]

Bond comes to Hollywood.

[Bryce b]

Very good throughout the whole book. Fast paced and we'll thought.

[dinah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, but a bit rushed at the end

[16BenaissaK · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would be better if it wasn't a James Bond book. I preferred it when Charlie higson wrote them.

[Abdullah Waleed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing Includes everything
Action
Violence
Mystery
Girls/Relationships
Reality

[Jack Lugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 2013 Ian Fleming Publications decided to continue its Young Bond series, which had been dormant since Charlie Higson’s By Royal Command published in 2008. Higson had moved on with his own new YA series called The Enemy and a new author was needed to continue the series, which had yielded 5 novels under Charlie Higson. Steve Cole, who had established a children’s series named Astrosaurs, was selected to take the helm, and in 2014 Random House released his first Young Bond book, Shoot to Kill.

Taking place shortly after the events of Higson’s By Royal Command, Shoot to Kill finds a 14 year old James Bond ensnared in a treacherous blackmail plot after he and his friends discover a film reel they weren’t supposed to see. This latest adventure weaves a tale of Hollywood moguls, Chicago gangsters, and the Los Angeles underworld of the 1930s.

After being removed from Eton, it’s decided that James would go to Fettes College in the fall, but since Aunt Charmian had business in Mexico, however, James would stay at Dartington Hall for the summer, a progressive co-ed school where students do not wear uniforms and none of the rigid rules and tradition James had detested at Eton are observed. James soon gets wind of an extraordinary trip to Los Angeles arranged for him as well as a few select students. Film Mogul Anton Koestler apparently wishes to establish several educational academies throughout the world and had arranged for several students from Dartington Hall to visit his Los Angeles Allworld Academy for testing, research, and comparative educational purposes. In this once in a lifetime experience, the students would travel by zeppelin to Los Angeles and have exclusive access to Koestler’s Allworld Studios in exchange for participating in the educational research. Gillian de Vries, the Director of Education at Dartington Hall, informs James that he was selected for the trip to see how his Eton education would measure up against a more progressive schooling method. The trip seems to be the opportunity of a lifetime, but danger is insidiously lurking and James soon learns that nothing about this trip is what it appears to be.

James befriends his fellow student-passengers before the trip. Hugo is a brash 16 year old student afflicted with dwarfism; Dan is the nephew of Koestler’s new screenwriter whose father owns a chain of cinemas, and Boudicca Pryce is a bright outgoing 16 year old girl who has an interest in mechanics and prefers to be called “Boody.” The tight knit group belongs to a film club at the school where Dan is able to borrow or in this case steal film reels from his father’s theaters obtaining access to the projectionist booth. Oftentimes Dan gets hold of uncensored discarded film reels and screens them for his club. On the night before they were scheduled to leave, a very disturbing film reel depicting real life violence gets screened and the group looks to James for guidance. James then finds himself precariously chased and threatened over this film reel and hopes that the trip to Los Angeles would provide some sort of respite from the chaos, but needless to say that’s just the beginning.

I very much enjoyed Shoot to Kill, and while Steve Cole’s writing style is very different from Charlie Higson’s, it does actually suit this story given its setting. I think some of the negative criticism of this book is based on comparisons to the Higson books. Higson’s writing style is a lot closer to Fleming’s than Steve Cole’s and that becomes apparent from the very beginning. Cole’s writing in this book is more reminiscent of the noir or hard-boiled crime writers. At times his sentences are rather lean and stark yet crisp and direct whereas Higson’s writing paid more homage to Fleming’s use of language and sensuous detail.

I happen to enjoy noir fiction a great deal so Steve Cole’s stylistic approach is one that I have always thought would be interesting for someone writing a Bond story. Fleming was an admirer of Raymond Chandler and other writers who were his contemporaries within the noir / hard-boiled / pulp genre. He regarded these stories as literary art in a time when many of the writers in that genre were not well-respected in literary circles. The Bond novels themselves were not very well-liked by the high-brow literary elite so I imagine Fleming felt a sense of comradery with these authors. For an author to take this kind of approach to Young Bond instead of trying to emulate Charlie Higson’s approach was quite a bold and inspired move although the last third of the book appears to be written in a more traditional style.

There were a couple of moments when I’m not sure if Steve Cole went too far with his stylistic approach. For instance, I can’t imagine young James Bond using the term “coppers” to refer to the police. I think it’s certainly a term you would hear for that time period especially spoken by period gangsters and their ilk, but it might be stretch to have Bond himself say it as a normal pattern of his speech.

There’s plenty of action and suspense throughout the book. Bond goes from one dangerous chase to another quite often, but my favorite moments are somethings that happen in between chases. There’s an instance where Bond crashes a lavish A-List Hollywood party that I think was superbly written and I actually wish had lasted a bit longer. Cole does a good job depicting the chases and the conflicts James encounters all while leaving just enough intrigue so that you don’t get the full scope of the plot until you’re close to the end. There are a number of sequences in this book that could very well be cinematic given its setting. The sequences on the zeppelin were a lot of fun to read, and I think that overall Steve Cole did a fantastic job even if there were times when I missed Charlie Higson.

One of the reasons I miss Charlie Higson is because Higson does a better job at incorporating intriguing historical facts into each of his books regarding the setting and the time period. In Silver Fin you learn a lot of the little things about what life must have been like for Eton students in the 1930s. In Blood Fever, you learn about Sardinia and the Nuraghe de San Antine. Double or Die provides a substantial introduction to ciphers and decryption of codes. Hurricane Gold is set against the backdrop of Mexico and contains references to ancient Mayan culture. By Royal Command places James in a spy thriller prior to the breakout of World War II and does a good job showing the status of the countries involved.

In Shoot to Kill, Cole puts James in Hollywood in the 1930s but other than the party he crashes, I felt like there could have been more historical references to the actual time and setting. I was waiting for a reference to the Hayes Code and the restrictions that censorship started to impose on the studios at the time. It would have been interesting for James to explore the differences in the films that were made pre-Code as opposed to the films that came out after and how some filmmakers found ways to subvert the Hayes code. While the chase scenes were well written and very exciting, I would have liked some of those educational moments that Higson provided so well in his books and it could have perhaps provided a little balance to some of the more fantastical elements that emerge from the blackmail plot.

As far as I can tell, the plan is for Cole to remain on board with Young Bond for a new series of books likely covering the time Bond spends at Fettes College, which would be interesting to see if Cole adjusts his stylistic approach once Bond is back in Scotland. I look forward to what Steve Cole has in store for Young Bond and I definitely would recommend Shoot to Kill to anyone interested in the series provided that they’ve read the Higson books first. I enjoyed Cole’s take on Young Bond. It may be different from Higson, but it was still very thrilling and engaging to read.

[Saachi Singh]

I've read this book recently because of (or despite) being a notoriously Bond-obsessed cinephile. Having read several teenage spy chains including the unparallel Alex Rider, I will admit to Shoot to Kill, and Steve Cole's writing in this series as whole to be rather rigid and pretentious.

While we do understand the protagonist is the eminent James Bond, his mind is still supposed to be that of a teenage boy- one who has seen some, but is far from seeing all. With this is mind, his thoughts are, in my honest opinion, are sometimes conceited and self-assuring at several instances throughout the novel. Not so much that one will overtly notice- this is, of course, the epic hero Bond, and he is allowed to have his moments of splendor.


Regardless, a classic, a novel telling of the making of Bond, and spiked with instances that give one deja vu of the adult Bond- there is no doubting that they are the same person, even if separated by scars and centuries.
One feature of Cole's Bond that I related closely to Ian Fleming's was his ability to form connections, enough to call them friends, and yet never enough to regret leaving them. Bond in the films is infamous for his almost apathetic demeanor towards anyone that is not included in his small circle of nearest and dearest. And in this way, Cole marked teenage Bond as a good study with the potential to grow into the biggest spy of all time.

[Mella · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I've read the first books in the Young Bond series a few times but this is the first time I've gotten around to reading Steve Cole's additions. Shoot to Kill was not quite what I was expecting. This time Bond travels to the United States and takes on Hollywood.

It's clear the events of the last book have damaged Bond - he struggles to connect with the people around him and it made for awkward reading. And it made me sad. More than that though, it made it hard for me to care about the characters around him - he didn't get to know them - so neither does the reader.

It felt a bit like watching a gangster movie with no sound. There was lots happening but I'm not sure I really cared. It was relatively enjoyable though and edged in at 3 stars on the lower side of the 3. But Cole has clearly laid the groundwork for a more emotionally open Bond now that he's worked through some of the trauma and I'll be interested to see where Steve Cole takes the series.

[Theo Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

- Shoot to Kill is the sixth in the Young Bond Series, and is written by a different author to the first five, Steve Cole not Charlie Higson. It had a similar feeling, of a schoolboy being suddenly being involved in some big spy dramatic event.
- This was quite good, but it wasn’t as gripping as some of the previous books. All the books share the odd sense that somehow a schoolboy is involved in a grand international spy plot every year, in a fantasy-like way, and this book has the same. The concept of this different private school which are somehow going on a school trip to America for like a month in an airship. A bit odd, and the plot was at times pretty hard to follow, but I did enjoy listening to it regardless.
- I would recommend this book to people who enjoyed the first books in the series.