As a fan, I love to discover rejected Bond book titles. Not only does it give insight into the process, but it also affords a glimpse into an alternate reality. Can you image if Raymond Benson’s The Man With The Red Tattoo had been titled BITE (yes, that was a publisher suggestion)? Or what if High Time To Kill stayed A Better Way to Die? Even Ian Fleming didn’t always get his first choice. If he had, Moonraker might have been called Wide of the Mark, and instead of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service we would have had The Belles of Hell.

So what about the Young Bond books? What potential titles have come and gone? For those who follow our news and interviews, there won’t be any great revelations here. But for those who don’t, here is a glimpse into an alternate Young Bond universe.

SilverFin: With Silverfin (the loch and serum) being so key to the story, you would have never guessed it wasn’t always the title. But it wasn’t. Charlie Higson’s working title for his debut Young Bond novel was Out of Breath. But according to Charlie, the publishers felt this sounded too much like an Elmore Leonard novel. All involved liked the idea of using “silver” in the title and many different permutations were tried: SilverBack, SilverFist, SilverSkin, SilverHead… Eventually, SilverFin won out, at which point Charlie had to go back and work it into the book.

Blood Fever: Charlie’s working title for his second Young Bond novel was Double M. A good title, and one fans embraced. But ultimately it was considered not “exciting enough” for a children’s book. Wikipedia lists several other working titles such as Blood Sport, Blood Sisters, Death Sting, The Zodiac Web, Dance Before You Die (wasn’t that a James Bond Jr. title?), and Vendetta, but I can’t confirm these. Ultimately, Double M became Blood Fever. Oh, and that’s two words. To this day I still read it as BloodFever.

Double or Die: Oh, boy. We all shared in the struggles to name Young Bond 3. But Charlie did have a preferred working title; Shoot The Moon. When that was considered “too soft,” he suggested Six Days in December and The Big Smoke. The Infernal Machine (an unused title for Moonraker) was also considered. Ultimately, an online poll was created where fans could vote from three choices; The Deadlock Cipher, N.E.M.E.S.I.S., and Double or Die. The winning title was kept secret from the public and from Charlie until the day of publication. Click here to view the moment of revelation.

Hurricane Gold: Unlike the public struggles to name Young Bond 3, the title Hurricane Gold appeared relatively quickly. But behind the scenes it was not so straight forward. Charlie’s working title was Lagrimas Negras. But, says Charlie, “This was very quickly rejected by the publishers as being incomprehensible to English readers.” Because the publisher had the idea to create the all-gold book, they asked if Charlie could come up with a title that used the word “gold.” Charlie suggested Hurricane Gold. Then, as with SilverFin, he had to go back and figure out how to make it work with the book.

By Royal Command: Charlie Higson’s working title for his fifth Young Bond novel was The Shadow War, a title that found favor with many fans. Less appealing were other candidates like Dynamite Kiss and Diamond Rain. Despite The Shadow War’s popularity, the announcement of By Royal Command was greeted with universal approval by fans. As for it’s similarity to Fleming’s On Her Majety’s Secret Service, Charlie Higson says, “There is a definite echo. Unfortunately we couldn’t think of a nice twist to it (like adding ‘Secret’ to OHMS.) There is a lot of stuff in the book about the secret service, and it sows the seeds for a lot of what happens in James’s later life. There was always a plan to have this book involve the royal family and as it’s a slightly more grown up book, it has a slightly more grown up title. When you read the book you will realize that the title is slightly ironic.”