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Title: Zero Minus Ten by Raymond Benson ISBN: 0-515-12336-6 Publisher: Jove Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.71 (76 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: At last a return to Ian Fleming's original James Bond!
Comment: This book is Raymond Benson's gift to James Bond fans. Long time expert and James Bond scholar, Raymond Benson produces and exciting novel that has at it's heart a richly drawn character study of the real James Bond, as created and developed by Ian Fleming. James Bond lives and breathes again. The plot is first rate too, set mostly in Hong Kong just days before the British handover of the colony to the Chinese. Mr. Benson takes us from the elite of Hong Kong society to HK's steamy underbelly and fascinatingly depicts the triad and tong societies. Though Mr. Benson puts his own stamp on the series, this is a novel I feel Ian Fleming would have been proud of.
Rating: 4
Summary: A bloody good read!
Comment: There's nothing quite like the thrill of a new James Bond adventure.. be it film, or book. Bond is Back in print.. and he's in good hands. Benson has Fleming's master spy right where his fans want him. Some of Gardner's novels unfortunately just had 007 as a passenger in the plots, but Benson has put Bond back in the driving seat.. with a cruel twist or two. This is the Bond we know from Fleming. I hope Benson's next effort is as good! Only one little nagging problem... while it's great to see Bond in Australia.. his encounter with a pack of Dingos was not entirely accurate. "They growled and bared their teeth, then barked fiercely." Sorry, Mister Benson.. Dingos make no sound!
Rating: 1
Summary: Benson's first atrocity
Comment: Raymond Benson was a video games designer who was president of the James Bond fan club and author of The James Bond Bedside companion. Then one day, when John Gardner finally had enough of Bond, Glidrose hired Mr. Benson to carry on the franchise.
And so it goes. Each Raymond Benson effort, beginning with this one, has been a cheap, painful excuse for a James Bond novel, even by the worst Gardner standards. They are linear in the way a computer game is linear, going from part to part mechanically, guiding you along, past everything you expect.
Benson writes a cross between the cinematic James Bond and a fan-boy's imitation of Ian Fleming. The writing is so bad, so amateurish, that it begins to feel like fill-in-the-blanks. Trip to Q Branch? Check. Ridiculous, super-equipped car? Check. Gorgeous women falling for Bond? Check. Exotic assasins? Check.
Benson is writing a slightly more detailed version of the James Bond films, and trying to inject Fleming by simply citing the details about Bond and his personality, but nothing flows well, he doesn't get what Fleming was doing. It's like he has all the details, the plotting, a linear thread, but he can't write it. I'm confident Ian Fleming is spinning in his coffin as Bond is carried on by a super fan-boy, and an American, no less.
At this point, I would recommend reading Ian Fleming. John Gardner did a couple of decent books. Raymond Benson, however, is an embarassment. The Bond literary franchise has been cheapened, and is perhaps best left alone at this point.
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Title: High Time to Kill (James Bond) by Raymond Benson ISBN: 0515128333 Publisher: Jove Books Pub. Date: 05 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Facts of Death (James Bond Spy Series) by Raymond Benson ISBN: 0515125504 Publisher: Jove Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Cold Fall by John E. Gardner, John Gardner ISBN: 0425159027 Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group Pub. Date: 01 July, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Doubleshot by Raymond Benson ISBN: 0515130613 Publisher: Jove Books Pub. Date: 05 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Never Dream of Dying by Raymond Benson ISBN: 0515133078 Publisher: Jove Books Pub. Date: 30 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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