Zero Minus Ten by Raymond Benson (Warning Spoilers!)
Muston
Huncote, Leicestershire Posts: 228MI6 Agent
Finished Benson's first book during the wee hours this morning. My feeling is that this is an author who knows his movie screen Bond very well. However, the James Bond of the books, (which includes Fleming, Amis & Gardner's works) does not come through in ZMT. This novel even has a pre-titles sequence with Bond jumping from a moving plane into the midnight waters of his Jamaican home (how much does a British spy get paid?) where he encounters a young couple who lay in wait for him and attack our double 0 before finding out it was all a training exercise (in true FRWL and NSNA style.)
The plot starts off well enough with the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong from the British to the People's Republic of China idea a very decent one to put a 90's Bond into. And for a while Benson pulls this off without many problems, however then Benson bogs us down with the rules and play-code of a very dull card game of Mahjong that tries to replicate Casino Royle's tension but only succeeded in making me read over the pages very quickly just to get to the ending where you know Bond is going to beat the bad guy at his own game. Benson is later guilty of this same crime as he has one of the characters re-tell a story that as the character says, "Began back in 1800 or something." Benson then gives us a long history lesson that is mixed up with a bit of plot to drive the story to a conclusion and give characters a reason for doing what they are doing. This I felt was Benson trying to fill pages to make the book a bit longer.
However Benson then comes up with one or two gems. Bond's humiliating torture at the hands of the nasty General Wong (quick nod to Colonel Sun and the scene from Casino Royle again) is a good bit of reading and had me wanting to know what happened next. Also Bond's swift revenge and self styled brand of justice on Wong is also a bit of Bond at his haphazard best. Things go a little silly from there (Bond goes walkabout in the Australian outback and sucks on a young Aborigine woman's finger) and at one point while in an Australian 'pub' Bond eats chips and thinks how it all reminds him (and us) of the pub in 'Crocodile Dundee.' Bond also makes the most of his special Q branch shoes (Benson makes sure that Bond has reason to open up the hidden compartments in the shoes heels at every available opportunity, and at one point while on walkabout Bond even finds a tube of sun cream in the heel 8-) )
All in all it is not a bad Bond story, even though it reads at times like Die Another Day. The silliness even adds to it on occasion and I can't help but picture Brosnan in every scene. For me Gardner delivered a more rounded Bond however I tip my hat off to Benson for giving it a go and throwing everything including the kitchen sink into this debut book. I look forward to reading his follow-up with both fear and a sense of excitement. :007)
The plot starts off well enough with the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong from the British to the People's Republic of China idea a very decent one to put a 90's Bond into. And for a while Benson pulls this off without many problems, however then Benson bogs us down with the rules and play-code of a very dull card game of Mahjong that tries to replicate Casino Royle's tension but only succeeded in making me read over the pages very quickly just to get to the ending where you know Bond is going to beat the bad guy at his own game. Benson is later guilty of this same crime as he has one of the characters re-tell a story that as the character says, "Began back in 1800 or something." Benson then gives us a long history lesson that is mixed up with a bit of plot to drive the story to a conclusion and give characters a reason for doing what they are doing. This I felt was Benson trying to fill pages to make the book a bit longer.
However Benson then comes up with one or two gems. Bond's humiliating torture at the hands of the nasty General Wong (quick nod to Colonel Sun and the scene from Casino Royle again) is a good bit of reading and had me wanting to know what happened next. Also Bond's swift revenge and self styled brand of justice on Wong is also a bit of Bond at his haphazard best. Things go a little silly from there (Bond goes walkabout in the Australian outback and sucks on a young Aborigine woman's finger) and at one point while in an Australian 'pub' Bond eats chips and thinks how it all reminds him (and us) of the pub in 'Crocodile Dundee.' Bond also makes the most of his special Q branch shoes (Benson makes sure that Bond has reason to open up the hidden compartments in the shoes heels at every available opportunity, and at one point while on walkabout Bond even finds a tube of sun cream in the heel 8-) )
All in all it is not a bad Bond story, even though it reads at times like Die Another Day. The silliness even adds to it on occasion and I can't help but picture Brosnan in every scene. For me Gardner delivered a more rounded Bond however I tip my hat off to Benson for giving it a go and throwing everything including the kitchen sink into this debut book. I look forward to reading his follow-up with both fear and a sense of excitement. :007)
"Thank you very much. I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way... "
Comments
Benson's novels ( In my Opinion ) do drop off in quality very quickly.