Product Description

How does an ordinary boy become the world's most famous secret agent? Discover how the legend began in Silverfin, the first in a series for younger readers about the young James Bond, a 13-year-old growing up in Britain in the 1930's.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2860 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
James Bond is, without doubt, the daddy of all literary spies. His name is synonymous with intrigue and adventure, action and old-fashioned derring-do. So Silverfin, the first in a series of Charlie Higson’s fully authorised prequels to the most famous of all British Secret Service agents, has mightily big boots to fill. Fortunately, Higson is a genuine Bond aficionado who has remained true to the style of Ian Fleming’s creation, and his legend, to create an authentic story featuring a teenage Bond that should not disappoint other equally appreciative fans.

After a supremely scary opening sequence featuring some terrifying mutated eels and a gruesome death, Bond’s early days at Eton in the 30’s as a thirteen-year-old are the focus for the first third of the book. Since the death of his parents in a climbing accident, James had previously been educated at home by his aunt. The alien world of this infamous public school is a new world for him and he makes enemies immediately. But young James is not without a backbone of his own, and he soon begins to win small victories against those who choose to bully him.

It is, however, when James is in Scotland for the rest of book, at the remote home of his Aunt Charmian and Uncle Max, that his first great adventure, and mystery to solve, truly takes shape. A local Laird, in his ominous castle nearby, is conducting horrific scientific experiments that prove he is very mad indeed and a threat to society who must be defeated. Before this excitement is over, James has a date with some killer eels.

The author, well known for his comedic exploits on television in The Fast Show and for adult thrillers such as King of the Ants and Full Whack is without doubt a skilled writer. Bond purists might wince a little, that such an extension of Fleming’s legacy was needed at all, but despite being shackled by the constraints of its period setting, Silverfin is an intriguing read.

(Age 10 and over) --John McLay

Guardian, March 5, 2005
A well-crafted page-turner with substance… a most enjoyable, well-written book.

Sunday Express, February, 2005
A page-turning adventure that will get the hairs standing up on the back of your neck.

Customer Reviews

A great read
A great read, a little Harry Potter'ish. But the next book get away from that. The story is fast, and simple.
The other young James bond books are more adult than young adult, but nevertheless a great book worthy of 4 stars.
This new hype of young adult / adult books are gaining a new source of reader. The Young Jasmes bond, Jason Steed, Alex Rider, Jimmy Coates, and cody banks are great adventures for all ages.

SIlverfin - Harry Potter for Spies
Charlie Higson, like me, is a Bond aficionado and would know only too well the weight of expectation concerning this,his first 'Young Bond' novel. I must confess that I was sceptical as to whether he'd be able to come up with, what is ostensibly, an origin story for 007. I'm thrilled to report that he manages it with pace and wit aplenty.
The story follows Bond from the playing fields of Eton to the Highlands of Scotland, where he follows up the disappearance of a young local boy in the area around a loch called Silverfin. Without going into too much detail, the story does feature a mad, outsize villain, a dastardly plot and a heavily fortified headquarters. This is clearly all the stuff of Bond and, predictability being part of the Bond formula, works just fine. It's exciting whilst bordering on silly and plays out just the way you would want it to.
However, Silverfin really scores when the author gets down and personal with our young, not yet legendary hero. Using what little information Fleming revealed about Bond's background, Higson begins to weave a compelling tapestry of the characters and places that will come to shape his life. To do this, Higson takes the well-established idea that Bond was (and is) a fantasy projection of Ian Fleming himself and than proceeds to cosolidate this perception even further by making HIS Bond echo some of Fleming's life. Hence, Bond is now a keen cross-country runner at Eton just as Fleming was himself. The major change, I suspect however, between young Bond and young Fleming was that Fleming was a somewhat vain and pompous young upstart, whereas Higson's Bond is rather sweet and unassuming.

Silverfin is a terrific ripping yarn that, I believe, Ian Fleming and the Fleming estate would thoroughly approve of. Five Stars!
Not only that but that other all-important Bond family may well be impressed too:
If the Broccoli's are sharp, they seriously could have the next Harry Potter on their hands as well as a fabulous way of opening up Bond's cinematic heritage; Alan Rickman as the villainous Lord Hellebore, Celia Imrie as Aunt Charmian, Patrick Macnee as Uncle Max,Sir Anthony Hopkins as Mr. Merriot e.t.c.
If Cody Banks and Spy Kids can cheerfully rip-off what the Broccolis have successfully been doing for decades, surely they, in return, can outspy young Cody with the real deal - Young Bond!

Couldn't wait for it to SilverFin-ish
Actually I didn't think Harry Potter when I read this and it's predecessor; I thought Alex Rider but not as well written. Charlie Higson's ideas are good and he's come up with some inventive and grotesque deaths and experimentations - much as the adult James Bond films do - but this book just seemed to have no soul. The prose is detailed but not in an interesting way; several paragraphs describing a car is okay but not when it's a novel aimed at teenage boys! Apparently Higson is selling faster than Horowitz at the moment so someone must like his style! Recommend Horowitz over this any day.