Raymond Benson?

Polar Bear 0007

I've spent the summer rereading various Bond novels. While Fleming is clearly in a class of his own, I've also enjoyed a number of the Gardner's.

Which brings me to Benson, on the whole, I find his Bond novels utter garbage. Frankly, his entire association with Bond has many lows, from his role playing game to the Brosnan film era.

Am I being too critical? I really think the franchise would have been better off without any association with Benson. It's pretty obvious they run from him today- I don't think we'll see his novels in print anytime soon........

Golrush007

I think you'll find that most literary Bond fans on these forums share your opinions on Mr Benson's writing. Funny enough, Benson was my introduction to Bond novels... I read Zero Minus Ten and his Tomorrow Never Dies novelisation long before I ever started reading Fleming. But I've never revisited Benson and read any of his other novels since, despite the fact that I own a few of them. All the negativity has rather put me off reading them. I do enjoy John Gardner, and as long as there are still Gardner books that I haven't read I will continue reading those (and re-reading Fleming of course ) before I get onto Benson.

Thunderpussy

Agreed, Benson did some Crap novels. I enjoyed Zero minus ten, Sadly most of the rest
where well below par.

Golrush007

I've heard that Doubleshot is pretty decent.

My memory of Zero Minus Ten is that I enjoyed it. I especially remember enjoying the mahjong game.