7 replies to this topic

[Jriv71]

Read this last week and it was a satisfying conclusion to the "Union" trilogy. Sort of. It was sailing along beautifully; Bond tracks down Le Gerant, the light goes out in the dark cave, Le Gerant has Bond right where he wants him, in his world, on his turf.......and Draco shows up!!! Huh??? Wha----???? Hey Ray, let them fight it out, and have Draco meet Bond outside or something! Actually, I can't believe I just said that. Draco??? Look I didn't mind his appearance what with the whole Corsican Mafia and all, Draco can help Bond and they can both get revenge, but making him an accomplice of Le Gerant was, um, not great.

Speaking of desperate ideas using characters he didn't create, I'm not a big fan of Mathis being blinded. Captured, tortured, saved by Bond, fine. But not blinded. Or at least, not Mathis. Here's a novel idea Ray...create a character! Between Gardner and Benson, we've had Leiter's daughter, Blofeld's daughter, Kerim Bey's son, the return of now-must-be two-hundred-and-six year-old Draco, and a blinded Mathis. Where's the book where Drax' son and Goldfinger's nephew kidnap Q's father? Or did I just ruin the plot of TMWTRT?

But I digress. I really did like the pacing and the story in NDOD, just not as much as Doubleshot, but it beats The Facts of Death. Now (since I'm reading sequentially, and have been since April,) only one more to go...

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Jriv71

Draco???  Look I didn't mind his appearance what with the whole Corsican Mafia and all, Draco can help Bond and they can both get revenge, but making him an accomplice of Le Gerant was, um, not great.

Speaking of desperate ideas using characters he didn't create, I'm not a big fan of Mathis being blinded.  Captured, tortured, saved by Bond, fine.  But not blinded.  Or at least, not Mathis.  Here's a novel idea Ray...create a character!  Between Gardner and Benson, we've had Leiter's daughter, Blofeld's daughter, Kerim Bey's son, the return of now-must-be two-hundred-and-six year-old Draco, and a blinded Mathis.  Where's the book where Drax' son and Goldfinger's nephew kidnap Q's father?  

Benson did, IMO, go overboard with Fleming characters. From time to time it was appropriate (and fun) - Tiger Tanaka in "The Man With the Red Tattoo", for instance. But if I'm not mistaken, Benson brought back every single character who'd survived the Fleming novels - even the Governor from "Quantum of Solace"! I really can't think of a notable or recurring character from Fleming whom he could have resurrected but didn't. And, yes, I hate what he did with Draco and Mathis. Why didn't he make Bill Tanner a traitor while he was about it?

All of which said, I enjoyed "Never Dream of Dying".

[Jriv71]

Forgot about the Governor. Didn't mind it as much, it lent some credibility as to why he trusted Bond...because he's known him since they were in their 40's together in 1960. Let's see, that would make them.....

[Jim]

Originally posted by Jriv71
Here's a novel idea Ray...create a character!  

Bingo - the major problem I had with Mr Benson's output. His own characters seemed to get in the way of showing us "Bond knowledge" (one has to take a view on whether that's admirable)

There he was, his most interesting "new" character, Le Gerant, and it's all built up and then...and then...another bloody in-reference.

I just thought it was shockingly lazy - after all, he rarely added anything terribly new to them and they were already written for him. Artisitically, it gave the casual reader little to latch on to - who the hell out there really remembers Draco (as initially written)? Commercial shortsightedness, at best - lazy shorthand at worst.

[zencat]

I think Benson created his best female character in NDOD. I really loved Tylyn Mignonne, and I think this book contains the best romance of all the continuation novels.

When it comes down to it, I think NDOD is Benson's best novel.

[ChandlerBing]

Hear, hear, Zencat. I adore this book. It is the Bond movie I have been dying to see. Give Bond a romance, but don't muck it up.

[Cesari]

For me NDOD is one the best Raymond Benson James Bond books and one of the best of the postfleming serie too.
I don't mind seing characters coming from other books, even appearing for the first time 50 or 40 years ago. James Bond novels and caracters are forever. They come from a mythological universe and time won't have capture of them...
I love to see back again Felix Leiter, Tanaka or Kerim's son in Raymond's books.
I don't mind discovering Mathis blinded or Draco as a bad guy. Mathis was in no book since FRWL and IMO Draco has never been a "good" guy. He was a burglar, a dealer and a killer. And the "cappu" of one of the biggest maffia in the world.
Its "badness" brings more dramatics elements to the novel.
And Zencat you are right. The love story is great

[Qwerty]

Excellent novel, but with a problem, I just think that as the conclusion to his very well plotted Union Trilogy, the book was a bit of a letdown. Although, Tylyn is one of his best leading ladies. Finally A girl who is mature, and not so silly, as before.