Blood Fever
Encyclopedia
Blood Fever is the second novel in the Young Bond
series depicting Ian Fleming
's superspy James Bond
as a teenager in the 1930s. The novel, written by Charlie Higson
, was released in the UK
on January 5, 2006 by Puffin Books
and in the U.S.
by Miramax Books
/Hyperion
on June 1, 2006.
Unlike the previous Young Bond novel, SilverFin
, which had its U.S. edition edited to remove descriptions that were considered too racy for younger readers, Blood Fevers U.S. edition was unedited. The cover of the U.S. edition also features entirely different artwork by Kev Walker
who is currently working on a graphic novel
adaptation of SilverFin.
when she becomes witness to a band of pirates under the command of Zoltan the Magyar who board the yacht. Zoltan's men ransack the vessel and in the process murder Amy's father who was unwilling to part with his priceless possessions. When Amy fails to get revenge by throwing a knife at Zoltan and hitting him in the shoulder, she is taken prisoner, but swears she will one day succeed in achieving vengeance.
Following the adventure SilverFin, James Bond is back at Eton
where he is now a member of a secret risk-taking club known as the Danger Society. As summer vacation looms, James is given the opportunity to go to Sardinia
on a field trip with one of his professors, Peter Haight and a colleague, Cooper-ffrench. While there Bond would also be able to visit his cousin, Victor Delacroix (a relation of Monique Delacroix, James deceased mother).
Prior to leaving, Bond learns of the tragedy that took place on the Goodenough's yacht from his friend, Mark Goodenough, Amy's brother who attends Eton. Bond is also witness to a mysterious group whose followers are marked on both of their hands with an 'M' (double M), which James eventually learns is the mark of the Millenaria, a defunct secret Italian society that has had plans throughout history to restore the Roman Empire.
Once arriving in Sardinia, James and his classmates begin a tour of the country to learn its history, during which Bond is poisoned (though the reader is not aware of it at the time) and almost killed. To get away and relax, Bond departs from his classmates to spend time with his Cousin Victor, his artist friend Poliponi, and his teenage servant Mauro. While there Victor is host to the Count Ugo Carnifex, a man who is later identified as the leader of the reorganized Millenaria that plans once again to restore the glory of the Roman Empire. Carnifex achieves the funding for such a task, as well as for his palace located high in the mountains of Sardinia, and his lavish lifestyle, by hiring pirates such as Zoltan the Magyar to plunder valuable items; however, Carnifex is a fraud who cannot actually afford to compensate his "employees". Additionally, when Zoltan arrives at Carnifex's palace, Carnifex declares ownership over Amy Goodenough, much to the great annoyance of Zoltan, whom during his travels to Sardinia had formed a unique and strange bond with Amy.
Later Bond is once again reunited with his classmates who are now in a town near Carnifex's palace. During one night, Bond sneaks into the palace and finds Amy's cell, but is unable to rescue her and instead informs Peter Haight. Things go bad, however, when Haight reveals himself to be a loyal servant of Carnifex and had earlier attempted to poison and kill James for asking too many questions about the Millenaria. Carnifex subsequently tortures James by allowing the mosquitoes to have a field day (Carnifex betting that at some point one of them will be a carrier of malaria
) while James is stripped of his shirt and strapped down, thus preventing him from escaping, killing any mosquitoes feeding and scratching itches, bringing the pain to a maximum. Bond is later rescued by Mauro's sister, Vendetta, who kisses him consistently.
Having put up with Carnifex for as long as he could bear, Zoltan turns against Carnifex by flooding his palace leaving it in ruins. Carnifex's sea plane is swept away by the water and flies straight into the count, killing him. Just prior, Bond sneaks into the palace with the help of Vendetta, much to her dismay, to rescue Amy. Vendetta is reluctant to let Bond go and attacks him. Bond convinces her not to follow and, for good measure, he gives her a tongue kiss of his own. After the destruction of the palace, Bond and Amy return to Victor Delacroix's villa, but are ambushed on the way by Peter Haight. Bond and Amy are saved, however, by Zoltan the Magyar who gives his life for their protection in the process. The grief-stricken Amy hugs Bond for comfort.
Amy and Bond arrive at Victor's villa. After skinny dipping and lying on the beach, they go up together. However, Jana Carnifex, Ugo's sister, is waiting for them. Bond tricks her, however, by jumping off the rock, while Victor distracts her. She slips and falls into a bed of sea urchins, where she finally dies from the pain and poison. As Bond and Amy wade to the surface, Amy suddenly steps on a sea urchin. Bond knows exactly how to remove it (and the text implies they share a kiss due to what happened earlier in the book and how Mauro removed the broken spines from James).
Young Bond
Young Bond is a series of five young adult spy novels by Charlie Higson featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent James Bond as a young teenage boy attending school at Eton College in the 1930s...
series depicting Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
's superspy James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
as a teenager in the 1930s. The novel, written by Charlie Higson
Charlie Higson
Charles Murray Higson , more commonly known as Charlie Higson - also Switch - is an English actor, comedian, author and former singer...
, was released in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on January 5, 2006 by Puffin Books
Puffin Books
Puffin Books is the children's imprint of British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s it has been the largest publisher of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world.-Early history:...
and in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by Miramax Books
Miramax Books
Miramax Books was a publishing imprint started by Bob and Harvey Weinstein of Miramax Films and was known for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. It published the memoirs of many major celebrities, including David Boies, Madeline Albright, Rudolph Giuliani, Tim Russert, and others...
/Hyperion
Hyperion (publisher)
Hyperion Books is a general-interest book publishing part of the Disney-ABC Television Group, a division of The Walt Disney Company, established in 1991. Hyperion publishes general-interest fiction and non-fiction books for adults under the following imprints: ABC Daytime Press, ESPN Books,...
on June 1, 2006.
Unlike the previous Young Bond novel, SilverFin
SilverFin
SilverFin is the first novel in the Young Bond series that depicts Ian Fleming's superspy James Bond as a teenager in the 1930s. It was written by Charlie Higson and released in the UK on March 3, 2005 by Puffin Books in conjunction with a large marketing campaign; a Canadian release of the same...
, which had its U.S. edition edited to remove descriptions that were considered too racy for younger readers, Blood Fevers U.S. edition was unedited. The cover of the U.S. edition also features entirely different artwork by Kev Walker
Kev Walker
Kevin "Kev" Walker is a British comics artist and illustrator, based in Leeds, who worked mainly on 2000 AD and Warhammer comics and the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering...
who is currently working on a graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
adaptation of SilverFin.
Plot summary
Blood Fever begins with a prologue during which a young girl named Amy Goodenough is aboard her father's yacht in the middle of the MediterraneanMediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
when she becomes witness to a band of pirates under the command of Zoltan the Magyar who board the yacht. Zoltan's men ransack the vessel and in the process murder Amy's father who was unwilling to part with his priceless possessions. When Amy fails to get revenge by throwing a knife at Zoltan and hitting him in the shoulder, she is taken prisoner, but swears she will one day succeed in achieving vengeance.
Following the adventure SilverFin, James Bond is back at Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
where he is now a member of a secret risk-taking club known as the Danger Society. As summer vacation looms, James is given the opportunity to go to Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
on a field trip with one of his professors, Peter Haight and a colleague, Cooper-ffrench. While there Bond would also be able to visit his cousin, Victor Delacroix (a relation of Monique Delacroix, James deceased mother).
Prior to leaving, Bond learns of the tragedy that took place on the Goodenough's yacht from his friend, Mark Goodenough, Amy's brother who attends Eton. Bond is also witness to a mysterious group whose followers are marked on both of their hands with an 'M' (double M), which James eventually learns is the mark of the Millenaria, a defunct secret Italian society that has had plans throughout history to restore the Roman Empire.
Once arriving in Sardinia, James and his classmates begin a tour of the country to learn its history, during which Bond is poisoned (though the reader is not aware of it at the time) and almost killed. To get away and relax, Bond departs from his classmates to spend time with his Cousin Victor, his artist friend Poliponi, and his teenage servant Mauro. While there Victor is host to the Count Ugo Carnifex, a man who is later identified as the leader of the reorganized Millenaria that plans once again to restore the glory of the Roman Empire. Carnifex achieves the funding for such a task, as well as for his palace located high in the mountains of Sardinia, and his lavish lifestyle, by hiring pirates such as Zoltan the Magyar to plunder valuable items; however, Carnifex is a fraud who cannot actually afford to compensate his "employees". Additionally, when Zoltan arrives at Carnifex's palace, Carnifex declares ownership over Amy Goodenough, much to the great annoyance of Zoltan, whom during his travels to Sardinia had formed a unique and strange bond with Amy.
Later Bond is once again reunited with his classmates who are now in a town near Carnifex's palace. During one night, Bond sneaks into the palace and finds Amy's cell, but is unable to rescue her and instead informs Peter Haight. Things go bad, however, when Haight reveals himself to be a loyal servant of Carnifex and had earlier attempted to poison and kill James for asking too many questions about the Millenaria. Carnifex subsequently tortures James by allowing the mosquitoes to have a field day (Carnifex betting that at some point one of them will be a carrier of malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
) while James is stripped of his shirt and strapped down, thus preventing him from escaping, killing any mosquitoes feeding and scratching itches, bringing the pain to a maximum. Bond is later rescued by Mauro's sister, Vendetta, who kisses him consistently.
Having put up with Carnifex for as long as he could bear, Zoltan turns against Carnifex by flooding his palace leaving it in ruins. Carnifex's sea plane is swept away by the water and flies straight into the count, killing him. Just prior, Bond sneaks into the palace with the help of Vendetta, much to her dismay, to rescue Amy. Vendetta is reluctant to let Bond go and attacks him. Bond convinces her not to follow and, for good measure, he gives her a tongue kiss of his own. After the destruction of the palace, Bond and Amy return to Victor Delacroix's villa, but are ambushed on the way by Peter Haight. Bond and Amy are saved, however, by Zoltan the Magyar who gives his life for their protection in the process. The grief-stricken Amy hugs Bond for comfort.
Amy and Bond arrive at Victor's villa. After skinny dipping and lying on the beach, they go up together. However, Jana Carnifex, Ugo's sister, is waiting for them. Bond tricks her, however, by jumping off the rock, while Victor distracts her. She slips and falls into a bed of sea urchins, where she finally dies from the pain and poison. As Bond and Amy wade to the surface, Amy suddenly steps on a sea urchin. Bond knows exactly how to remove it (and the text implies they share a kiss due to what happened earlier in the book and how Mauro removed the broken spines from James).
Trivia
- Blood Fevers working title according to Charlie Higson was Double M. Other rejected titles were Blood Sport, Blood Sisters, Death Sting, The Zodiac Web, Dance Before You Die, and Vendetta.
- In Chapter 17 the villain hosts a dinner party where among the attendees is "Armando Lippe from LisbonLisbonLisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
." This is the father of Count Lippe from the Ian Fleming novel Thunderball. Oddly, the last name "Lippe" only appears in the UK edition. In the U.S. edition the line has been changed to "Count Armando from Lisbon." - The German edition is titled "Zurück kommt nur der Tod" (Only Death Returns).
- Amy Goodenough's name is word play on Am I Good Enough?
- Amy would later make a brief re-appearance in By Royal Command. During this appearance, it is revealed that, due to their experiences in Sardinia, she and James have developed a genuine affection for each other.
Awards and nominations
- Blood Fever won a Blue Peter Book AwardBlue Peter Book AwardsThe Blue Peter Book Awards are a series of literary prizes for children's literature awarded annually by the BBC television programme Blue Peter, and inaugurated in 2000....
in 2006.