(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) The latest official installment in the James Bond literary canon is so woke it seems like it could have been dictated by far-left, globalist oligarch George Soros or one of his underlings.
The storyline of the new novel, On His Majesty’s Secret Service, ties in with last May’s coronation of King Charles III, but critics say it comes across more as an instruction manual for the New World Order.
New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat summarized the politicized, progressive plot which could also perhaps have been crafted in the offices of the BBC or MSNBC:
“In the newest Bond novel … 007 is charged with protecting King Charles III from a dastardly plot hatched by a supervillain whose nom de guerre is Athelstan of Wessex—in other words, a Little Englander, a Brexiteer, a right-wing populist, apparently the true and natural heir to Goldfinger and Blofeld.”
In a rebuke to globalists, Brexit was the U.K. referendum that took the country out of the dictatorial European Union.
On the personal side, the novel depicts the fictional MI6 agent and legendary Lothario in a situationship with an immigration lawyer who is dating other men too. The lawyer is female, though.
The book, written by Charlie Higson, also takes metaphorical shots at Hungarian President Viktor Orban (the yarn takes place, at least in part, in Hungary), former U.S. President Donald Trump and French conservative leader Marine Le Pen—and the bad guy, perhaps, may been inspired by Brexit architect Nigel Farage.
“People who are skeptical about mass immigration or transgenderism or the erosion of free speech are simply itching to engage in mass terror attacks in the heart of London, apparently,” Niall Gooch of the Spectator quipped.
One of the cartoonish Bond villain’s sins, moreover, is that he has surrounded himself with co-conspirators who are insufficiently diverse.
The baddie in the new woke James Bond novel sounds like a top bloke. pic.twitter.com/gUjYEcokBa
— David Kurten (@davidkurten) September 5, 2023
Most people, let alone Bond movie fans, are probably unaware that rights-holder Ian Fleming Publications has contracted out to various authors to write new Bond books, including prequels and spinoffs.
Some say the Higson book has turned 007’s “license to kill” into a license to shill for the elitist agenda. Leftists, meanwhile, are likely to lap it up as the greatest piece of fictitious propaganda tied to an MI6 agent since the Steele dossier.
That this novel — which is meant to be taken seriously rather than regarded as satire—could be turned into a Bond movie, however, is an issue and doesn’t bode well either for consumers who just want action-fueled escapism.
The Bond on-screen series is already undergoing change. The most recent film in the long-running franchise, No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s finale in starring as the British secret agent, was mostly boring, overly long, and seemed more of a soap opera than a spy thriller.
With Craig’s successor yet to be announced, producer Barbara Broccoli has even floated the idea that character going forward could be nonbinary.
Earlier this year, the publisher began the process of editing offensive material from James Bond creator Ian Fleming’s original novels—which provided the basis for many of the original Bond cinematic installments—after so-called sensitivity readers reviewed the content.
