It is a brand new James Bond series, but not as readers know it. While Vaseem Khan's first Bond novel, Quantum of Menace, does feature the famous tuxedoed secret agent, his sole mission this time is as a side character through the amused, analytical eyes of another man - Q, MI6's eccentric quartermaster who usually arms 007 with gadgets and engages him in witty asides.
Commissioned by the powerful Ian Fleming Estate, the second in the series is already at draft stage and if sales are strong, more will follow. At first glance, the invitation from the trustees and descendents of the James Bond creator, via its publishing arm, could have been the ultimate dream gig. But Vaseem, 51, knew there were traps embedded within the opportunity.
The character of Q carries fan loyalties that are split sharply between actor Desmond Llewellyn's avuncular traditionalist and more recently, actor Ben Whishaw's younger, tech-savvy successor in the Bond movie franchise. To tamper recklessly with such an iconic character could end in disaster.
Vaseem's solution was bold - and conditional. He said he would accept the challenge only if he could reimagine Q. After all, in Ian Fleming's own novels, the much-loved character barely appears, with most of his mythology coming from the big screen interpretations.
"The character of Q is iconic, and people are wedded to Llewellyn or Wishaw. I didn't want to make a mess of that, so I agreed on the condition that I was allowed to invent Q practically from scratch," he explains. The estate agreed, giving Vaseem extraordinary creative latitude.
"They said, 'Crack on'. And so, my Q is somewhere in between the two screen depictions, because I didn't want to be lynched by fans of either, basically. And the Estate has been wonderful, and has left me alone. The plot is my own; even the title is my own. I produced a few plot ideas and this was the one they liked."
In it, gadget master becomes hero -- we first meet him later in life, aged 50, having been abruptly cast out of a futuristic version of MI6, his brilliance out of step with the bureaucrats now running the show. It's an audacious twist worthy of Ian Fleming's legacy. "He's got bits of Llewellyn, but he's also in tune with the new cyber security world. He believes in technology the way that fish believe in water," he explains.
"However, he's also a man at sea because he's essentially been booted out of MI6 under bad grace. He's got no family to fall back on and so he finds himself, after nearly three decades, locked away in his lab, helping the double O's fight supervillains and trying to secure democracy. And that's what leads him to the events that happen in the book," adds Vaseem who was first and foremost a management consultant before he started writing prize-winning novels in the "cosy crime" genre.