James Bond 007 #6: "VARGR," Part 6

[laughing_tree]

"When Fleming was writing, the locales were difficult for ordinary people to reach, which added to their exoticism. These days, most of them can be reached by Easyjet or Ryanair from a regional airport. In VARGR, I can get the same exoticism from the atemporal strangeness of East Berlin, which still looks like a Communist district, and from places like remote Norwegian islands that are comparably difficult to reach. And Helsinki’s in there because I just wanted somewhere Brutalist and miserable, which chunks of Helsinki certainly are. I couldn’t bring myself to take Bond to Helsinki’s black metal karaoke bar." -- Warren Ellis