The Thinking Man's 007

COLONEL SUN: A JAMES BOND ADVENTURE by Robert Markham. 244 pages. Harper & Row. $5.95.

His most devoted fans, including his publishers, simply could not bear to live without him. Although Ian Fleming died almost four years ago, his creature, James Bond, is back, resuscitated by British Author Kingsley Amis.* A specialist on 007, as he proved three years ago in the James Bond Dossier, Amis provides a reasonably healthy, if slightly pale, replica. It remains to be seen whether the trans planted heart will function smoothly (and profitably), or whether it will provoke rejection symptoms. The new Bond lacks much of the comic-book charm that connected so well when the camp craze was at its height a few years ago. He makes a halfhearted attempt to evolve Bond from a set of gangliac reactions to a more speculative character. Unfortunately, the technical gimmickry, which was essential, has been discarded--although not the fancy man-of-distinction brand names.

As in the standard 007 diversion, weapons and women are fondled with equal ardor, though sex is not nearly as important as the inflicting and suffering of physical pain. Indeed, Amis hits an almost pornographic intensity as his Bond gets his eardrums probed with a meat skewer, his septum stimulated by a broom straw, and his frontal lobe pummeled with an incessant and derivative yak about the spiritual union between the tormented and the tormentor. The pedantic sadist is Colonel Sun of the People's Liberation Army of China, who wants to blow up some Russians and then blame the incident on the West. Bond's problem is to stop him. The reader has no problem except to try to enjoy himself while awaiting the obvious.

* With permission from Glidrose Productions, owners of Fleming's copyrights, who are obviously hoping to reopen the Bond gold mine, Amis is writing as "Robert Markham," although the reason is obscure. His real name is given right under the pen name, making one long for the good old days when pseudonyms were really pseudo.

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