Ranking James Bond Authors
5. John Gardner
Tenure – 1981-1996, Novels
– 14, Short Stories – 0
The period between 1968 and 1981, when John Gardner (who’d built his career on an ‘anti-Bond’ spy character that was an incompetent coward) was brought onto the series, is the longest to date without the release of an original Bond novel. Though Christopher Wood had written a pair of tie-in film novelisations, Gardner’s License Renewed was the first original story in a generation and released to a mixed reception, with many contemporary reviewers believing that the series should’ve been left alone.
The Fleming estate was nevertheless happy enough with the results to give him the keys to the kingdom for the next fifteen years, making him the longest-tenured author in series history (surpassing even Fleming himself). Establishing a floating timeline that kept 007 and his supporting players the same age as they had been at the end of Octopussy And The Living Daylights, Gardner released a book in every single year bar 1985.
Despite being around 50-50 in the hit to miss ratio, the sheer volume of Gardner’s work enables him to stand out above a number of his counterparts by virtue of having a handful of good stories to his name, with Nobody Lives Forever and For Special Services amongst the main highlights.