This time around Bond's nemesis is Dr. Julius Gorner, a pharmaceutical executive whose interests include both legal and illegal drugs. Gorner is another in the long line of amoral individuals that Bond must defeat before they destroy the British way of life. To cover a gross deformity, known as "monkey hand," Gorner always wears a glove on one hand. Determined to turn the British population into heroin addicts, Gorner cornered the market in opium in southeast Asia, and created a secret plant in Iran, from which he intends to smuggle the heroin. Apparently not satisfied with the pace of his heroin addiction plan, Gorner seeks to create a nuclear incident between Britain and the Soviet Union which will hasten the downfall of the British way of life.

Bond joins forces with Scarlett Papava, a woman of great beauty (of course), many secrets, and hidden talents. She convinces Bond to assist her in freeing her heroin-addicted twin sister from Gorner's captivity. Bond cannot resist the opportunity to aid a beautiful woman and Mother England at the same time.

The original Bond novels were written against the backdrop of the Cold War, and so carried a sense of contemporary urgency. Faulk obviously had a dilemma. In keeping the Bond chronology, Faulk correctly places the character in his times, but the result is a story that appears dated. Yet it is obvious that James Bond fighting al Qaida would be as incongruous as Sherlock Holmes fighting the Nazis (which he unfortunately did in some dreadful World War II movies).

The result is an action-packed, but uneven, thriller. Faulk spends almost as much time describing a Bond-Gorner tennis match as he does Bond and Scarlett's escape across Russia. The KGB, SMERSH and SPECTRE are missing from this plot, although Felix Leiter does make an appearance. There are no exploding briefcases or machine gun-equipped Aston Martins. A key CIA operative in the novel risks nuclear war to hide his homosexuality. While such an action would be believable in 1967, it seems remarkably quaint in the 21st century. Still, the reader can well imagine the action unfolding across the big screen, which undoubtedly will happen in the near future.

Those who read the original Bond novels did so as teenagers or young adults. At the time, 007's escapades were quite daring, the mechanical devices (which he pretended to disdain but which usually saved his life) were novel (if not outlandish), his women were breathtakingly beautiful, but always quickly succumbed to his charms. In the late 50's and early 60's, this Bond was daring and on the edge. The Devil May Care Bond is slower, staler, more resistant to feminine charms, and (possibly worst of all) middle-aged.

Devil May Care is a good story. The writing is crisp, and the story moves at a rapid pace. Lovers of intrigue and adventure will enjoy this work; however, I expect it will be more intriguing to first time Bond readers than to those familiar with Fleming's works.

- Buddy

Sebastian Faulks is a British novelist whose first book, A Trick of the Light, was published in 1984. He also published a 'French Trilogy,' the last of which was turned into a 2002 film starring Cate Blanchett. He has written several other books, including a work of non-fiction, 2006's The Fatal Englishman: Three Short Lives.

Faulks recently sat down to give a special interview to discuss his new novel and what it was like to be handed the torch of the iconic Bond series from the estate of famed author Ian Fleming. Faulks explains how he tailored his writing process to mirror Mr. Fleming's in order to achieve the kind of authentic, sexy, action-packed adventure that we all know and expect from a 007 novel. You can view the entire interview here.

On re-reading, I was surprised by how well the books stood up. I put this down to three things: the sense of jeopardy Fleming creates about his solitary hero; a certain playfulness in the narrative details; and a crisp, journalistic style that hasn't dated.

I developed a prose that is about 80 percent Fleming, I didn't go the final distance for fear of straying into pastiche, but I strictly observed his rules of chapter and sentence construction. My novel is meant to stand in the line of Fleming's own books, where the story is everything."

Cars and James Bond have always had a strong association and, contrary to popular belief, Bond's preference has historically been firmly with Bentley Motors. He owned three Bentleys in the course of the fourteen original novels written by Ian Fleming. It is fitting therefore that in DEVIL MAY CARE Bond is found once again in the driving seat of his favorite car.

To mark the reunion, the publishers of DEVIL MAY CARE approached Bentley to produce a luxury, limited edition of the centenary book. The result is a beautiful and striking edition which takes its inspiration from hardcovers of the original 1950s and 1960s Bond books combined with the stylish Bentley owner's manuals and handbooks of the era. Inside the book is a specially designed model pewter Bentley, described in detail by Fleming in Thunderball.

Only 100 copies of the limited edition will be available in the U.S., retailing for $1500 each and for sale exclusively at www.doubleday.com/jamesbond.