22 replies to this topic

[RossMan]

For me number one is a tie between High Time To Kill and Doubleshot. Thesse are, for me, very original (classic?) Bond stories without an over abundance of action like some of Benson's others. Great, simple Bond stories taking place on a smaller scale, without some megalomaniac getting a nuke.
Then comes Zero Minus Ten, very well done for a first book and is a nice way to restart the series after Gardner's Cold Fall.
Third place, for me, is The Facts of Death. This one was just way too much like a movie and had more action than usual I like for a Bond book, a lot like current PB movies. Liked the Jaguar, but it's gadgets went over the top.
Finally, Never Dream of Dying. This one just didn't do it for me. I did not even really get into the story until well into the book, usually I'm hooked from page one. I won't say that it's "bad" but is a weaker one from Benson. I thought it was a bit of a disapointing way to end the Union storyline.

What do you guys think?

[Mourning Becomes Electra]

The Facts of Death -except for the Texas scenes, that Leiter in the zoomed up wheel chair bit and his girlfriend was a little too much, even worse, too cutesy. But I think it's his best paced and written book with an interesting & viable premise and his best written lead female (by far)

High Time to Kill- It actually has some of my favorite moments from his books, from the golf to the hiking, and it has a great new sidekick, and a killerdenoument. It would rate as #1 if his prose was better, he's still feeling his way through though and it shows.

Doubleshot- I really don't like flashback begun books, but I did like the first half quite abit. I liked a disorientated & vulnerable Bond but the second half with the twins fell off considerably and the pay off was evident a mile away.

Zero Minus Ten- Good plot, and I liked the Australia outback scenes and the decriptions and feel of Hong Kong, but his prose really lets the story down, it makes for a very plodding narrative.

Never Dream of Dying- I had high expectations after reading the first two in the triology but this let me down. I still don't fully understand why Bond did what he did at the start in that film studio/fire. And he seems to bumble through the rest of the book without much direction or self awareness, and it gets worse when he becomes some lovesick puppy. I did think the dungeon escape with the "help" of the rat though was inspired.

I hope I didn't break any spoiler rule. If so let me know and I will edit.

MBE

[General Koskov]

Not finished NDOD, but it's okay, film screening climax is--well it's anti-climatic, actually.

HTTK is somehow really good, something Flemingesque about it, but now that I think of it, mountain climbing fo two-thirds of the book isn't really Bond's thing.

Doubleshot is pretty good, but the story never really came together before the very climax. It was as if Benson had so weak an ending, he didn't want to have the villains discussing it for fear of giving everything away.

TFOD and ZMT are really ****. Of course ZMT is the better only because of Guy Thakeray's (why do I remember his name?) faked death. Reminds me of the tram in front of Kara in TLD.

[sainttemplar]

1) HTTK
2)ZMT
3&4)( can't really tell) TFOD,NDOD
5) DS

[Smitty]

1. High Time to Kill
2. Doubleshot
3. Zero Minus Ten
4. The Facts of Death
5. Never Dream of Dying

[zencat]

Jacques Nexus (24 Dec, 2001 12:02 p.m.):
I like it too, but it's tough ordering Benson's novels. Could it be you love NDOD because you are in the movie business ?.

That might have something to do with it, but I really thought NDOD was a very well constructed and very well written Bond NOVEL. Don't ask me the difference, but I feel there are Bond "books" (Dr. No) and then there are Bond "novels" (From Russia With Love). NDOD was Benson's first real Bond novel. Maybe that's why I have trouble choosing my favorite between HTTK and NDOD. HTTK is Benson's best Bond "book", but NDOD is his best/first Bond "novel."

[Jacques Nexus]

zencat (23 Dec, 2001 07:28 p.m.):
I'm dissapointed to see how far down the list NDOD is falling for some of you. I just LOVE that book!

I like it too, but it's tough ordering Benson's novels. Could it be you love NDOD because you are in the movie business ?.

[JAWS]

1. Zero Minus Ten: I loved this book! The Q scene...the intense game of chance...the "teaser"

2. High Time To Kill: I liked this one because it moved real fast. Also, isn't this the one in which Bond tries to remember all of the injuries he has had? I love that part. I also loved the part in which the leader of the Decada (that's the correct name, isn't it?) is telling Bond why he has left him a chance to escape by solving a puzzle "It amuses the Hell out of me!" That having been said, it was vastly inferior to Zero Minus Ten.

3. High Time To Kill: I just found it very boring.

4. Double shot: I coudn't get into it at all and quit about a third of the way through.

N/A: I havn't read Never Dream of Dying, but didn't like what I have read about it, Here and elsewhere.

So tell me: Is The Man With The Red Tattoo worth reading?

[rafterman]

High Time to Kill
Zero Minus Ten
Doubleshot
Never Dream of Dying
The Facts of Death

[RossMan]

JAWS (05 Feb, 2002 08:29 a.m.):
So tell me:  Is The Man With The Red Tattoo worth reading?

Seeing as how the book hasn't been released yet, you'll have to ask Raymond Benson or his publishers.

[JAWS]

RossMan (16 Feb, 2002 09:05 p.m.):

Seeing as how the book hasn't been released yet, you'll have to ask Raymond Benson or his publishers.

Sorry, I thought it had been released already. I don't keep up on Benson's books as much as I used to. Atleast now I know why no one has critiqed it yet!

[RossMan]

One thing I didn't care very much for in NDOD was the villain's physicish powers. It was fine in HTTK and DS where he can "sense" things, even that was a little bizarre, but that stuff with the dreams started to be a bit much for me.

I loved how for the first half, he switched off every other chapter between Bond and Mathis.

[zencat]

I'm dissapointed to see how far down the list NDOD is falling for some of you. I just LOVE that book!

[Jacques Nexus]

001 HTTK
002 ZMT/ TFOD/ DOUBLESHOT
003 NDOD

It's pretty tough to order them since I like them all.

[Blofeld's Cat]

RossMan (19 Dec, 2001 11:25 p.m.):

Blofeld's Cat (19 Dec, 2001 03:12 a.m.):
It becoming blatantly obvious to me, from this and other threads, that High Time To Kill is THE Benson novel to read.

Looks like this is going to be my first Bond novel (released after Colonel Sun) that I'm going to have to read.

Do yourself a favor and read it, I'm sure that you won't be disapointed.

Thanks, Rossman. I'm going to do that, and I know where to pick up a 1st edition real cheap.



Just kidding.

[RossMan]

Blofeld's Cat (19 Dec, 2001 03:12 a.m.):
It becoming blatantly obvious to me, from this and other threads, that High Time To Kill is THE Benson novel to read.

Looks like this is going to be my first Bond novel (released after Colonel Sun) that I'm going to have to read.

Do yourself a favor and read it, I'm sure that you won't be disapointed.

[scaramanga]

1. High Time to Kill
2. Doubleshot
3. Zero Minus Ten
4. Never Dream of Dying
5. The Facts of Death

[zencat]

HIGH TIME TO KILL / NEVER DREAM OF DYING (Can't decide which one I like better)
DOUBLESHOT
THE FACTS OF DEATH
ZERO MINUS TEN
TOMORROW NEVER DIES
THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

[Jim]

1. The James Bond Bedside Companion
2. The other ones

Haven't warmed to him, I'm afraid. After Never Dream of Dying, things can only get better.

[mccartney007]

I love them all but if I had to choose a favorite it would be a tie between "DoubleShot" and "The Facts of Death." I really don't know why I like "DoubleShot" so much. I think it's because it's just so different from what has been done before.

I really like "The Facts of Death" because it takes place in one of my favorite locations, Greece.

[Blofeld's Cat]

It becoming blatantly obvious to me, from this and other threads, that High Time To Kill is THE Benson novel to read.

Looks like this is going to be my first Bond novel (released after Colonel Sun) that I'm going to have to read.

[Mister Asterix]

1. High Time To Kill
2. Zero Minus Ten
3. Doubleshot
4. Never Dream Of Dying
5. The Facts Of Death

Loved them all. High Time To Kill had a great story and was a very original. I could see Fleming putting Bond in HTTK's scenario and Chandra ranks up with Felix and Kerim on my list of favourite characters of the Bond series. TFOD seemed the least original and the least Bond, still a good book. The plot was more Gardner and less Fleming.

[RossMan]

Smitty (24 Dec, 2001 07:42 p.m.):
1. High Time to Kill
2. Doubleshot
3. Zero Minus Ten
4. The Facts of Death
5. Never Dream of Dying

Yet another vote for HTTK as #1, and NDOD coming in last. It seems that everyone has the same basic opinion of Benson's books. I'm surprised at NDOD's rating as well. Looking at different reviews of it on amazon and other places it seems like a lot of people like it and consider it Benson's best. I thought I was the only one who would give it a low rating.