Blood Fever - A James Bond Adventure

by Charlie Higson

Book Overview

Young Bond: Blood Fever is the second book in Charlie Higson's high-impact, explosive Young Bond series. James Bond has discovered danger. Now it's come looking for him. An Eton boy's family... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786836628
• ISBN13: 9780786836628
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

Blood Fever

Blood Fever By: Charlie Higson The main character in the story is James Bond and he is a boy who is very adventurous and likes to be sneaky at school. He also likes to be in secret clubs and also likes to get out at night. When James Bond goes on a field trip he is on a exploration with a friend from school and on the trip with enemies. He encounters a group of men and gets knocked out. He also meets a big criminal who wants to kill him and watch him suffer. In the end James finds a way out of the criminals grasp and saves a girl that was trapped in the criminals mansion. The setting of the story is in a school, in a carnival, in a mansion and they were all in the middle east. The theme was about bravery, greed, and death. The story was about bravery because James had to be brave to save the girl that was trapped. It was about greed because two big criminals were fighting for a big treasure. The story was about death because one of James's friends died and that was very big for James. I liked the story because I like action/ adventure type books and this book is very good and once I started reading I couldn't stop. Another reason I liked the book is because it had some parts that were very sad witch quickly changed into anger.

Higgins hits another home-run

Charlie Higgins has produced another winner in this second installment of his "Young James Bond" series. His grasp of the character and traditional style make these novels, arguably, the best Bond stories since Ian Fleming's death. Don't let the "young readers" tag fool you; these adventure yarns rank on a par with Harry Potter in terms of rollicking enjoyment for readers of all ages.

Ian Fleming is alive and well in Charlie Higson

I consider myself a well read Bond person, even used the early Bond films in the classroom, and have had the opportunity to meet many of those connected with the films at various conventions and gatherings. Author Charlie Higson has done the impossible. He has restored the flavor that the better Ian Fleming books had, the special touch that made one read a Fleming novel more than once to recapture the joy. Not to take anything away from John Gardner who frankly is a great writer, however his many books beyond the Bond ones were better done as he was not restricted. Raymond Benson means well and I can enjoy his stories, but it is not James Bond. It is just that Ian Fleming had a special way of handling his super spy that has up til now not been equalled. In Blood Fever, as in the first book in the series, Silverfin, the author has gone to the young Bond. At the appropriate age as Fleming had Bond in his mid thirties in the early 1950's. The young James Bond series is placed in the proper time in history for realism and the author has done a beautiful job in describing places and settings. He has taken the few facts given by Fleming about Bond's beginnings and has weaved them into a beautful tapestry of stories true to the character. As in the first book, Blood Fever gives you an insight into things that later would mark Bond as a man and it is fascinating to watch his development. The plotting is excellent and you feel as though the real father of Bond, Fleming, is alive and well and at his best. You have super villains, young ladies appropriate to the age, (James is not into girls yet), and very tight and careful plotting. If anything the flow is better than some of Fleming's last books. Now comes the long wait for the next one. It would be hoped that Charlie Higson would not end the series with Bond becoming a man. Certainly there are great stories that could be told about Bond during the World War Two years, Fleming gave some hints about what Bond was doing then. Yes, I will be reading both these books on the young Bond a second time. It is good to see the flavor of the original James Bond returned, something that has not really been accomplished by the film actors. I love Sean Connery, and consider him the best, but he was still so different from the Bond in the books.

A real bona fide page-turner, the best 007 continuation novel for over 20 years

With one of the most ardent critics of the Young Bond idea recently stating on a fan-run Web site that author Charlie Higson's second foray into the world of a teenage James Bond was so good that he read it twice. Higson certainly seems to have come a long way since the initial announcement of his assignment was received with an equal mixture of curiosity and horror by the fan community. Certainly the author seems more settled and sure-footed in his sophomore effort, perhaps due to the plaudits his first Young Bond novel SILVERFIN received from critics and Bond fans alike and the impressive sales that it managed in the United Kingdom. Or the fact that it was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Young Adult Novel of 2005. The second novel BLOOD FEVER also benefits from what I feel is a more compelling plot. To be honest the first novel with its tale of an American millionaire injecting eel serum into humans seemed a little too much like Fu Manchu for a Bond thriller and was saved in large part by Higson's wonderful prose. Here, he combines that writing style with a plot surrounding an effort by a Sardininan count to resurrect the Holy Roman Empire in a vibrant concoction that includes pirates, art theft, secret societies, seaplanes, intrigue and a mermaid. Well, okay so the lead female character is referred to as a mermaid, but more on her later. It can be argued that Higson mimics certain trademark components of the movie series. Each novel has what is essentially a pretitles sequence and here we have a very exciting account of pirates overrunning a private yacht off the coast of Greece and the kidnapping of the two female passengers. We then join James at Eton who has become part of a society addicted to danger. Soon the young Bond comes into contact with some shadowy figures and stumbles upon a plot by a group to bring back the former glory of Italy. One of Higson's many strengths is painting unusual and interesting villains. During his book tour in 2005 to promote his first book he spoke of the difficulty of coming up with such characters and remaining politically correct at the same time. Gone are the days when a physical handicap can be used to describe a villain. Whereas the main villain in SILVERFIN was drawn as a near perfect human specimen, here the main villain has an abject fear of dirt and is constantly witnessed screaming at people (including young Bond) as he attempts to keep himself and the area around him pristine. There is also an eclectic group of supporting characters, from the stammering friend of James', Perry to the Sardinian teenage rogues of Mauro and Stefano and from James' cousin Victor to the pirate Zoltan. It's certainly a colorful cast of characters and they help elevate this work into one of the more enjoyable teen thrillers of the past decade. Another particular strength for Higson appears to be his ability to create strong modern female characters despite the stories b

A More Mature Young Bond

For this old 007 fan, Charlie Higson's first Young Bond novel, SilverFin, was a mixed bag. Clearly a book written for a preteen target audience, it too often seemed to mimic a Harry Potter adventure. I'm happy to report this is NOT the case with Young Bond Book 2: Blood Fever, which takes a confident quantum leap into maturity and gives Bond fans of all ages one of the very best James Bond novels yet written. The key difference seems to be that SilverFin was written as a children's book (which could still be enjoyed by adults), while Blood Fever appears to have been written with a more mature (even adult) readership in mind. This is a tougher, darker, much more violent book than SilverFin. It even includes a classic Bondian torture scene (but don't panic, parents, the torture is more about endurance than person-to-person sadism). But because Blood Fever chronicles the adventures of a 14 year old, it's still very much a novel young readers will find thrilling--even dangerous. This one may need to be smuggled beneath the sheets and read by flashlight--which is precisely where a James Bond book SHOULD be read. Ian Fleming would be proud. The villain in Blood Fever, Count Ugo Carnifex, is a true Bond baddie in the most classic sense, with a lair and scheme reflecting every inch of his megalomania. This is the best drawn Bond villain, book or film, we've encountered in some time. Secondary characters are also marvelously conceived, but it's the character of young Bond who stands head and shoulders above all others. The timid, apologetic youngster of SilverFin is long gone. Here, we have a teenage James with all the skills and swagger of Ian Fleming's secret agent. He coolly defies the villain, finds kinship with bandits, and gets visceral excitement by diving off high cliffs and driving fast cars. This Bond is no Harry Potter clone. This is the boy who will become 007 and who could kick the pixy dust out of any character in the Potter universe. One thing that is still not a part of the Young Bond universe, even in this more mature version, is sex. However, there is some simmering eroticism in how Ugo's decrepit sister leers at handsome young James, and clearly, the animalistic Vendetta has some carnal curiosity. Bond even delivers his first "hard kiss on the mouth" in Blood Fever. But that's as far as Higson takes it. Bond's resistance to his female admirers seems more rooted in chivalry than nervous preadolescence (as in SilverFin), and besides, danger is always too close for such "distractions." Some Bond fans have resisted the Young Bond series based on concept alone. Even I admitted that SilverFin wouldn't change the minds of the most entrenched fans. However, with Blood Fever, that resistance is now foolish. Bond fans are denying themselves a better Bond adventure than most of the recent James Bond films. There has been much talk lately about bringing Bond back to basics. Well, those basics are being practiced right here i