The release of Licence Renewed successfully relaunched the Bond literary franchise, being the first of 14 original novels by Gardner until his retirement in 1996. In that time frame Gardner also wrote two novelisations.
When hired to begin a new series of James Bond novels, author John Gardner was tasked with updating James Bond and his allies and transporting them into the 1980s.
"I described to the Glidrose Board how I wanted to put Bond to sleep where Fleming had left him in the sixties, waking him up now in the 80s having made sure he had not aged, but had accumulated modern thinking on the question of Intelligence and Security matters. Most of all I wanted him to have operational know-how: the reality of correct tradecraft and modern gee-whiz technology." — John Gardner[#endnote_update]
Updating the time frame to the 1980s, Gardner's series picks up the career of James Bond some years after the Fleming novels ended. Due to the time frame change Gardner's series suggests that Fleming's stories, took place in the 1960s and 70s, rather than the 1950s and 60s.
Likewise with James Bond, his companions and allies, specifically those working for the British Secret Service such as M, Bill Tanner, Miss Moneypenny, and Q are also all transported to the 1980s, although Q is rarely mentioned and is mostly substituted by Ann Reilly, a genius of gadgetry who is promptly nicknamed "Q'ute" by fellow workers as well as Bond, not long before being added to Bond's long list of romantic conquests.
When Licence Renewed begins, M reminds Bond that the 00 section has in fact been abolished; however, M retains Bond as a troubleshooter (pun intended), telling him "You'll always be 007 to me." Bond is assigned to investigate one Dr. Anton Murik, a brilliant nuclear physicist who is thought to have been having meetings with a terrorist named Franco. Franco is identified and tracked by MI5 to a village in Scotland called Murcaldy. Since Murcaldy is outside of MI5's jurisdiction, the Director-General of MI5, Richard Duggan requests that M send Bond to survey Murik. Relying on information that MI5 didn't have, M changes Bond's assignment to instead infiltrate Murik's Scottish castle, and gain Murik's confidence.
Bond makes contact with Murik at Ascot Racecourse where he feigns a coincidental meeting, mentioning to Murik that he is a mercenary looking for work. Later, Bond joins Murik in Scotland at Murik's behest and is hired to kill Franco, for reasoning at the time unknown. Franco in turn has been tasked by Murik to kill his young ward, Lavender Peacock because she was the true heir to the Murik fortune, which could only be proved by secret documents Anton kept in a hidden safe within his castle.
Murik's plan is to hijack six nuclear power plants around the world simultaneously with the aid of bands of terrorists supplied by Franco. To ensure that Murik can never be associated to this deal, he attempts to use Bond to assassinate Franco. Ultimately terrorists do take over six nuclear power plants, but are prevented from starting a meltdown when they are given an abort code by Bond, believing him to be Murik. Murik is eventually defeated by Bond and Lavender before his demands were met.
;Dr. Anton Murik: Dr. Anton Murik is the current Laird of Murcaldy, owning the village of Murcaldy as well as most of the land surrounding it. Murik is a brilliant nuclear physicist who had been kicked out of the Atomic Energy Commission for his radical beliefs on the safety of nuclear power. Murik had claimed to have designed a nuclear reactor that was as powerful as a standard nuclear power plant, but safely disposed of the nuclear waste - a view debunked by many other nuclear physicists. To make a point to the world that the current nuclear power plants in use around the world were unsafe, Murik planned to have terrorists infiltrate six plants simultaneously and start a global meltdown.
;Mary Jane Mashkin: Mashkin is Murik's mistress who attempts to become "more than friends" with James Bond to see if Bond was lying to Murik about being a mercenary looking for work.
;Lavender Peacock: Lavender, also known as "Dilly" and later "Lady Murik", is Dr. Anton Murik's ward. Unbeknownst to her, she is the true heir to the Murik family fortune.
;Caber: Caber is Anton Murk's personal bodyguard and the "Champion of Murcaldy". He especially dislikes Bond for beating him in a wrestling match in which Bond cheated to ensure victory.
;Franco: Franco Oliveiro Quesocriado is an international terrorist leader wanted in most European countries as well as some in the Middle East. He aids Murik by supplying willing terrorists for his meltdown operation and additionally accepts the task of assassinating Murik's ward, Lavender.
The Silver Beast
Saab 900 Turbo promotional artwork released in conjunction with Licence Renewed.
In Licence Renewed Bond drives a Saab 900Turbo. For some editions of the book, the car is shown as black or red on the book cover; however, in the book the car is silvercoloured. The vehicle took on the nickname the "Silver Beast" in the follow-up Gardner novel, For Special Services.
The car is Bond's personal vehicle, updated on his own expense by Communication Control Systems Ltd (CCS), a real life company that advised author John Gardner with ideas about feasible gadgets to be used. Consequently, Gardner gave them the credit in the book and not Q Branch.
With the release of Licence RenewedSaab took the opportunity to launch a Bond themed promotional campaign complete with an actual car outfitted like the one in the book (but using smoke instead of tear gas) [#endnote_SilverBeast]. The car includes:
Water-cooled turbo engine modification per Saab Law Enforcement specs, producing a top speed in excess of 170 MPH.
A filter to neutralise deadly gas entering the car’s passenger cabin.
Oxygen masks under the seats in CO2-operated compartment.
Several hidden compartments in dashboard containing TH70 Nitefinder goggles (for driving without headlights), grenades, one unauthorized Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnumrevolver and one Browning automatic handgun.
Aircraft headlight hidden behind front license plate.
Trivia
An early segment of the book that takes place at the Ascot Racecourse, where Murik is shown cheating. The segment is similar to a scene in the 1985 Bond film, A View to a Kill, but it's not known if this was a deliberate nod to Gardner's book or a coincidence.
John Gardner had initially asked Glidrose to title the book "Meltdown". In the end; however, Glidrose settled on Licence Renewed, a title that in actuality has little, if anything, to do with plot of the novel.
