The Gardener and Benson Novels

mrbondmrbond Posts: 296MI6 Agent
in James Bond Literature
I've heard that the Gardener novels aren't that great, a pale imitation of Fleming's creation. Is that really true? Has somebody done a review of each of his novels, either on here or elsewhere that somebody could provide me with? I'd be very interested. I've also heard that Benson books are far closer to the character Fleming created but most read more like screenplays in prose form. Any truth in any of this? As a big fan of Fleming's work, I've always avoided these continuation novels but perhaps I'm missing out. :)

Comments

  • Asp9mmAsp9mm Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,541MI6 Agent
    Gardners work is OK, Bensons doesn't come close. Neither of them are Flemings Bond though, but Gardner does have a couple of gems.
    ..................Asp9mmSIG-1-2.jpg...............
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    See the following excellent reviews of the Gardner and Benson Bonds by AJB forum member chrisno1 here:

    http://ajb007.co.uk/topic/34464/bond-continuation-novel-reviews/

    http://ajb007.co.uk/topic/36035/bond-continuation-novel-reviews-vol-2/
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • MustonMuston Huncote, Leicestershire Posts: 228MI6 Agent
    The only Gardner I've read so far has been The Man from Barbarossa, which was less a Bond novel and more like a stand-alone Nazi trial story. I'm getting ready to start his first Bond story, Licence Renewed, and I think this will be a better novel to judge him on. I'm more curious than anything else about Benson's Bond. Reviews of Benson haven't been great but as with everything with Bond, it's down to individual taste.
    "Thank you very much. I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way... "
  • davidelliott101davidelliott101 Posts: 165MI6 Agent
    I look at them as what they are.. a continuation series. Kind of like the Roger Moore films are a continuation of the Connery films... same character, different portrayal. The Gardner and Benson books are the same character as the Fleming novels... just a different portrayal. Take the for what they are... I like them.
  • Asp9mmAsp9mm Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,541MI6 Agent
    davidelliott101 wrote:
    I look at them as what they are.. a continuation series. Kind of like the Roger Moore films are a continuation of the Connery films... same character, different portrayal. The Gardner and Benson books are the same character as the Fleming novels... just a different portrayal. Take the for what they are... I like them.

    Quite!
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  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    davidelliott101 wrote:
    I look at them as what they are.. a continuation series. Kind of like the Roger Moore films are a continuation of the Connery films... same character, different portrayal. The Gardner and Benson books are the same character as the Fleming novels... just a different portrayal. Take the for what they are... I like them.

    Yes, well put, davidelliott101!
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I know at the time I was deserate to Read anything new
    with Bond in it. :))
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    Thunderpussy wrote:
    I know at the time I was deserate to Read anything new
    with Bond in it. :))

    Yes, well the Gardner and Benson books filled that gap, most definitely. :)
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • MustonMuston Huncote, Leicestershire Posts: 228MI6 Agent
    I've just downloaded Benson's first two Bond novels on Kindle, though I've told myself I won't read them until I've gotten through all of Gardner's :#
    "Thank you very much. I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way... "
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    Muston wrote:
    I've just downloaded Benson's first two Bond novels on Kindle, though I've told myself I won't read them until I've gotten through all of Gardner's :#

    Probably best to read them all in order as they were published anyway, Muston, although most of the novels are standalones anyway. :)
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • IA-SteveBIA-SteveB IowaPosts: 62MI6 Agent
    I have read a few of the Benson novels and I wasn't all that impressed. I get the feeling that he spends way too much time describing situations or having characters tell stories to explain situations. I forget the name of the novel, but he was explaining how a unique casino game was played and it literally took almost the whole chapter. It gets a little exhausting. If I am trying to picture in my mind which movie Bond is being represented, I'd have to say Brosnan fits the best. Benson is the only author I have experienced but I think I may try someone else just to see how things compare.
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    IA-SteveB wrote:
    I have read a few of the Benson novels and I wasn't all that impressed. I get the feeling that he spends way too much time describing situations or having characters tell stories to explain situations. I forget the name of the novel, but he was explaining how a unique casino game was played and it literally took almost the whole chapter. It gets a little exhausting. If I am trying to picture in my mind which movie Bond is being represented, I'd have to say Brosnan fits the best. Benson is the only author I have experienced but I think I may try someone else just to see how things compare.

    I think that that's Zero Minus Ten by Raymond Benson there - it has a long chapter explaining stuff about a card game in a casino. By the way, welcome to AJB.
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Asp9mmAsp9mm Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,541MI6 Agent
    It was Mahjong. It was a poor explanation on how the game was played, and it went on for pages and pages. I still didn't understand the game after re-reading it about ten times. Like the golf game in High Time to Kill, it tried to capture the spirit of Fleming, but certainly didn't succeed. Bored the pants off me.
    ..................Asp9mmSIG-1-2.jpg...............
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,865MI6 Agent
    Asp9mm wrote:
    It was Mahjong. It was a poor explanation on how the game was played, and it went on for pages and pages. I still didn't understand the game after re-reading it about ten times. Like the golf game in High Time to Kill, it tried to capture the spirit of Fleming, but certainly didn't succeed. Bored the pants off me.

    Yes, I thought that's what it was but I've not read the novel since 1999!
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • IA-SteveBIA-SteveB IowaPosts: 62MI6 Agent
    Silhouette Man wrote:
    I think that that's Zero Minus Ten by Raymond Benson there - it has a long chapter explaining stuff about a card game in a casino. By the way, welcome to AJB.

    Thanks for the welcome. I just finished Facts of Death and I found it to be a similar writing style that will force me to read someone else for a change of pace. It was a combination of "too long explaining some things" and then not long enough on others. One thing that irritated me was moving too fast from one thing to another, i.e. "We had better get to Turkey" and then in the very next paragraph, Bond is there without much explanation of how, why, etc.

    I won't spoil it for other readers, but I had issues with the climax as well. :)
  • BleuvilleBleuville Posts: 384MI6 Agent
    Thunderpussy wrote:
    I know at the time I was deserate to Read anything new
    with Bond in it. :))

    Yes I've read them all. Not counting Young Bond there are about 37 Bond novels including 14 Gardners and 6 Bensons
    and 14 Flemings.

    I've recently re-read Never Send Flowers, Seafire and Cold.
    At the end of Seafire his agent girlfriend Flicka Von Grusse is badly beaten up, but it doesn't make clear whether she dies.
    Now that I'm in the 2nd part of the COLD novel, they have an explanation that sadly she goes into a terminal coma
    and Bond reluctantly has to face life without her.
    It is story continuation, but i don't know why Gardner didn't wrap it up in Seafire.

    With Gardner's Bond I would recommend Icebreaker and Seafire as good enjoyable stories.

    I shall carry on re-reading the rest of them !

    Bleuville.
  • David SchofieldDavid Schofield EnglandPosts: 1,528MI6 Agent
    Quite a difference between the two.

    Gardner was a professional writer (his Boysie Oakes books are quite brilliant) who wrote fiction for a living. Consequently, he wrote at least two of the best continuations (LICENCE RENEWED and FOR SPECIAL SERVICES) and fleshed out LICENCE TO KILL brilliantly, but quickly grew tired of pastiching someone else's creation. However, he was well aware of the comfort of the remmuneration of the Glidrose contract and so ploughed on despite professional conflicts and produced as a result some very ordinary, forgettable books.

    Benson was a "professional" Bond fan who Glidrose turned to when they had little money and little enthusiam for the books as evidenced by the very choice of Benson who had no literary ability whatsoever. His books are like tie-in versions of Brosnan's unfilmed movies written by a very, very bad writer. But, hey, as a Bond fan, he was certainly an enthusiast, though that didn't help much.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    At the moment I'm re-reading The Facts of Death not as Good as I
    remember it, I think the Benson novels aren't holding up well. :))
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
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