Raymond Benson
DavidJones
BermondseyPosts: 266MI6 Agent
Hi - I'm new here. I'm 20 and an absolute Bond nerd.
I've read Devil May Care, Goldfinger and have just finished The Union Trilogy by Raymond Benson, and have now started Diamonds Are Forever. I've got all the Benson and Gardner books and all the Bond films on DVDs.
So what does everyone think of Raymond Benson? I know there was some outrage when he was first appointed because he's an American. I understand the Bond books was the first fiction he wrote. High Time to kill, Doubleshot and Never Dream of Dying are great books. Are the John Gardner books just as good?
Anyway, a lot of info there. I guess what I'm asking is - what does everyone else think of the Benson novels?
I've read Devil May Care, Goldfinger and have just finished The Union Trilogy by Raymond Benson, and have now started Diamonds Are Forever. I've got all the Benson and Gardner books and all the Bond films on DVDs.
So what does everyone think of Raymond Benson? I know there was some outrage when he was first appointed because he's an American. I understand the Bond books was the first fiction he wrote. High Time to kill, Doubleshot and Never Dream of Dying are great books. Are the John Gardner books just as good?
Anyway, a lot of info there. I guess what I'm asking is - what does everyone else think of the Benson novels?
Comments
Zero Minus Ten-plot could have been smoother but 007 in China proves irresistible-this should have been made into a film instead of TND-7/10.
The Facts of Death-this is possibly the best continuation novel I have read. It has everything-absolutely everything. Plus the Greek landscape helps along with the XK8.-10/10.
High Time to Kill-Interesting this Union is, and the idea of Bond having a childhood rival is fun.-8.5/10.
Doubleshot-fantastic concept but falls flat somewhere in the middle-7.5/10.
Never Dream of Dying-while the McGuffin may seem a bit underwhelming, this is Benson's best writing and best characterizations-9.5/10.
The Man With the Red Tattoo-007 reunited with Japan and former demons. What follows is less than Bondian, but is still serviceable. Benson's farewell to 007.-6.5/10.
Am still wanting to read his short stories-especially "Blast From the Past". I've been interested in the return of Irma Bunt since the end of Pearson's fictionalized biography. Benson should be more recognized than he is. And I really do wish he had written some more.
"Blast from the Past" is a good Bond story. Gardner couldn't write about Bond's son - despite preasure from fans - because of rights to any Bond offspring being given to the produers of the US cartoon series James Bond Jr (which dealt with Bond's nephew). Benson got round this by killing off Bond's son, so he never actually appears alive. It's set in New York. There's a long car chase near the end, and a fight in a warehouse. The "Bond girl" is the investigating detection. All told, it's a good story; with a duration of 30 pages. It can be found at the back of "The Union Trilogy" anthology.
Another three-books-in-one collection, entitled "Change of Weapons", will collect "Zero Minus Ten", "The Facts of Death" and "The Man WIth the Red Tattoo" - plus, two short stories, including, "Live at Five" (which was originally written for America's TV Guide in 1999) and a short which sees Bond meet Hugh Hefner, which was originally written for Playboy magazine). The new anthology will be released in June 2010 by Pegasus Books.
As for as continuation authors go, Kingsley Amis did a great job with COLONEL SUN. The early Gardner novels were fun, but lacked the emotional depth of Fleming's books. You could tell, however, that Gardner had tired of it all towards the end. BROKENCLAW is where things started going downhill.
I got the impression he knew he was onto a good thing but didn't really know where to go with it.
The main problem continuity authors have i that they are movie influenced not Fleming influenced
In that respect Amis' COLONEL SUN is the best. Faulke's tried hard with DEVIL MAY CARE but hashed it up; he didn't take it seriously enough. Gardner's first 3 novels are pretty tight, but he goes off the rails from there.
Many of his ideas got pinched for the movies! - so why did they not adapt them?? Gardner's main problem is an awful way with names (most of which are stupid puns)
Feel free to comment on my novel reviews as I post them David!
You're right about Gardner and the awful names he gave his female characters. Lavender Peacock is one that comes to mind. Also, "No Deals, Mr. Bond" featured "the beautiful agents of Operation Cream Cake." Ye gods . . .
John Gardner's novels made a steep decline in quality somewhere around Brokenclaw; I would say that Death is Forever was the last entertaining one he wrote, while Never Send Flowers (007 saves Princess Diana's life in EuroDisney) and SeaFire (Bond vs the Nazis) are terrible lows. The difference was, Gardner still knew how to write, how to conjure up a character, and how to throw a plot together. Benson couldn't write at all.
Benson also went down the route of "fanw*nk" far too often. Fleming sometimes referred to previous adventures, but more often didn't; Gardner referred to Tracy a lot, but that's about it; but Benson clambered through hoops to try and accommodate references to the Fleming novels. The minute The Governor from Quantum of Solace turned up as a character (and a character who Bond had befriended and kept in touch with for decades, at that), I knew that his novels weren't for me. That was my bridge too far.
@merseytart
http://apbateman.com
The fact that both "contemporize" Bond, effectively removing him from his proper vintage cold war setting, makes for some preposterous situations, not the least of which is we must believe Bond is a senior citizen now yet being able to pull off all kinds of physical stunts while still getting all the women he wants (including doing the likes of both Felix Leiter's and Ernst S. Blofeld's daughters in one of Gardner's books)! Awful.
The general impression I had from the Gardner and Benson series was that they were mainly trying to please the cinematic-Bond fans, while tossing the Fleming fans a bone here or there by making occasional references to something from a Fleming novel. My first reaction to Gardner was to cringe at his makeover of Bond, with silly characters like "Q'ute" which you would expect to see only in one of the ridiculous Bond flicks. I'll never accept the idea of a new female M, let alone Benson's M being an obnoxious character with all kinds of emotional baggage who generates more contempt than the kind of respect Fleming's M commanded. I know there was only one Fleming, but some of the garbage these two "heirs" put into their novels comes off as hideous slaps in the face to the Fleming legacy....it's as if Gardner and Benson at times were thinking, "We can't possibly satisfy the Fleming purists, so let's just get on their nerves instead!"
Anyway, I have never had the least desire to read any of their books more than once, and in fact gave up on Gardner after his first three or four and Benson after his first two. Fleming's I have read many times over.
I just won a bid for Amis' Colonel Sun on Ebay. I've been wanting to read that for a long time. I'm hoping that he did better than Gardner or Benson.
I remember my first time in Jamaica and recalled Flemings prose from "Doctor No." "The sticky fingers of the tropics brushed Bond's face as he left the aircraft..." Every time I read his books I'm right there with Bond.