We celebrate the centenary of James Bond creator Ian Fleming with a new book in the adventure series, this time from author Sebastian Faulks, “writing as Ian Fleming.”

While the novel is titled “Devil May Care,” it turns out fans of the franchise do care about the new material. They care enough to have made possible a very warm welcome: Amazon.co.uk has the book as its leading fiction pre-order of 2008. “Even with books that are currently available, it’s topping our charts,” Amazon.co.uk spokesman Damian Peachey told the BBC.

English novelist Sebastian Faulks is best known for his 1993 bestseller “Birdsong.” He was chosen by the Fleming estate to create a celebratory book. Faulks confessed in a statement he was “surprised” by the invitation.

The books had been appealing to him as a 13-year-old and upon re-reading them, he found he still enjoyed them and could “do something in the same vein.” He singled out three ingredients Fleming put in his books, which made them time enduring: “the sense of jeopardy Fleming creates about his hero; a certain playfulness in his narrative details; and a crisp, journalistic style that hasn’t dated.”

So Faulks set out to pay tribute to James Bond’s creator by “writing as Ian Fleming,” at least 80 percent of the time. He went no further than that for fear of transgressing into “pastiche.”

“Devil May Care” is published by Penguin Books in the UK. Penguin have also published a new imprint, Penguin 007, to mark the centenary. All fourteen of Fleming’s Bond titles as well as “Devil May Care” are featured.

Fleming was born May 28, 1906, in Mayfair, London. He passed away in 1964, at the age of 56, of a heart attack. He had given the world its smoothest secret agent ever, Commander James Bond, agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service. “The Man with the Golden Gun” and “Octopussy and The Living Daylights” were published posthumously.

More than 20 Bond novels have appeared in the years since his death, authorized by the writer’s estate. Among authors continuing the 007 tradition are John Gardner, Raymond Benson and Kingsley Amis.

Reviews for Faulks’ literary effort have been mixed, yet one opinion seems nearly unanimous: the book is bound to be adapted for the big screen.

Plot details were rigorously guarded pending the book’s release. Reviews pouring in describe it as an action-packed adventure, with Bond as seductive, deadly capable and wryly humorous as ever, The Girl beautiful and mysterious, The Villain mad and treacherous, the plot intricate.