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Mister Sun
Men tremble at the sight of Modesty Blaise, out of lust and fear. One of the deadliest females since Mata Hari, she can break a man's heart - or his neck. First in the series.
80 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1985
About the author
Peter O'Donnell
378 books119 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Peter O'Donnell also wrote as Madeleine Brent.
http://www.cs.umu.se/~kenth/modesty.html
is an excellent resource on this author.
To help keep the novels and the adventure strip collections separate, here's some info about the Modesty Blaise works.
In 1963, O'Donnell began his 38-year run as writer of the Modesty Blaise adventure story strip, which appeared six days a week in English and Scottish newspapers. He retired the strip in 2001.
Each strip story took 18-20 weeks to complete. Several publishers over the years have attempted to collect these stories in large softcovers. Titan Publishing is currently in the process of bringing them all out in large-format softcover, with 2-3 stories in each books. These are called "graphic novels" in the Goodreads title.
Meanwhile, during those 38 years, O'Donnell also wrote 13 books about Modesty Blaise: 11 novels and 2 short story/novella collections. These stories are not related to the strip stories; they are not novelizations of strip stories. They are entirely new, though the characters and "lives" are the same. These have been labeled "series #0".
There is a large article on Peter O'Donnell on Wikipedia, with a complete bibliography.
Peter O'Donnell also wrote as Madeleine Brent.
http://www.cs.umu.se/~kenth/modesty.html
is an excellent resource on this author.
To help keep the novels and the adventure strip collections separate, here's some info about the Modesty Blaise works.
In 1963, O'Donnell began his 38-year run as writer of the Modesty Blaise adventure story strip, which appeared six days a week in English and Scottish newspapers. He retired the strip in 2001.
Each strip story took 18-20 weeks to complete. Several publishers over the years have attempted to collect these stories in large softcovers. Titan Publishing is currently in the process of bringing them all out in large-format softcover, with 2-3 stories in each books. These are called "graphic novels" in the Goodreads title.
Meanwhile, during those 38 years, O'Donnell also wrote 13 books about Modesty Blaise: 11 novels and 2 short story/novella collections. These stories are not related to the strip stories; they are not novelizations of strip stories. They are entirely new, though the characters and "lives" are the same. These have been labeled "series #0".
There is a large article on Peter O'Donnell on Wikipedia, with a complete bibliography.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 12, 2020
And so we come to Book Two of Titan’s Modesty Blaise reprints. It consists of two full length stories, plus one that's much … briefer. Peter O’Donnell explains the shorter length in his introduction. “The Killing Ground” came about due to a strike--a “blockmakers” strike is the term used, which I assume is the group that would produce the printing plates for the newspapers’ comics page?--in the middle of another storyline. Because there was a group of Scottish papers not subject to the strike, they wanted to keep running the strip, but this would have resulted in their being out of synch in terms of continuity when the British papers resumed publishing comics, so O’Donnell and Holdaway did a shorter story to cover the interval. Considering its hurried origins, it holds up pretty well: a variation on the venerable “Most Dangerous Game” plot.
Of the two longer stories, my favorite is probably “The Mind of Mrs. Drake.” Yes, it brings in psychic powers, but uses them sparingly and to good effect.
Peter O’Donnell frets a bit in his introduction about the title story for this volume, “Mister Sun.” Yes, it's got a stronger sense of time and place than most Blaise tales. O’Donnell talks about striving NOT to rely on current slang or fashions and the like as a way of giving the stories a more timeless feel. Obviously, if your characters don't really age, you don't want to strongly tie them to any particular era. But I don't see that any great harm is done in occasionally throwing in a nod to current events--in this story’s case, the war in Vietnam.
Modesty Blaise is one of those classic characters that should be more widely known. Highly recommended!
Of the two longer stories, my favorite is probably “The Mind of Mrs. Drake.” Yes, it brings in psychic powers, but uses them sparingly and to good effect.
Peter O’Donnell frets a bit in his introduction about the title story for this volume, “Mister Sun.” Yes, it's got a stronger sense of time and place than most Blaise tales. O’Donnell talks about striving NOT to rely on current slang or fashions and the like as a way of giving the stories a more timeless feel. Obviously, if your characters don't really age, you don't want to strongly tie them to any particular era. But I don't see that any great harm is done in occasionally throwing in a nod to current events--in this story’s case, the war in Vietnam.
Modesty Blaise is one of those classic characters that should be more widely known. Highly recommended!
Displaying 1 of 1 review