61 replies to this topic

[Mister Asterix]

Zero Minus Ten
Tomorrow Never Dies
The Facts Of Death
High Time To Kill
The World is not Enough
Doubleshot
Never Dream Of Dying
The Man With The Red Tattoo
Die Another Day

[Blofeld's Cat]

I cannot see the poll results until I vote and I have not read them all to vote yet.

That's so no one can rig the voting.

[Qwerty]

Zero Minus Ten
Tomorrow Never Dies
The Facts Of Death
High Time To Kill
The World is not Enough
Doubleshot
Never Dream Of Dying
The Man With The Red Tattoo
Die Another Day

Purely wondering what you didn't like about the DAD novelization Evan?

[Blofeld's Cat]

While I'm waiting for the CBn BOOK CLUB to catch up to me (), I've decided to read the Die Another Day novelisation.

Being a novelisation by nature it's really paint-by-numbers, but it's how much color the author adds that makes it interesting or not, and DAD is rather plain, but not dull or lacklustre.

However, I'm still enjoying it for the reason why I enjoy reading ALL novelisation and that's the "extra features" (to use DVD parlance) it offers. You don't have to wait long for the first one, which happens on page 1!

I'm about halfway through it now and I'm a little confused as to why there are still the extras included from the submitted early script (ie: the stuff not yet cut out of the shooting script) and yet Verity is in it (wasn't she created at a very late stage of production just for Madonna?) and Jinx seems to the expanded version as seen in the movie (wasn't the Jinx role expanded by virtue of Halle's Oscar™ after shooting had already started?).

I'm not particularly enthused with Bond's added Korea escapade as I'm quite happy with the way it unfolded in the movie. I find it quite reasonable to think that Bond was transported quickly out of South Korea to a close by Royal Navy ship in HK harbour for closer observation.

The book isn't THE ABYSS by Orson Scott Card (a very excellent novelisation IMHO), but it's still keeping me entertained.

So far, anyway.

[Qwerty]

I think it's the most straightforward of the three novelizations. It stays closer to the movie than the other two IMO. All three are good reads.

[DLibrasnow]

I just wanted to make sure people understood that the "incompetence" I refer to in my Amazon review of HTTK at

http://www.amazon.co...g=UTF8&v=glance

refers to the book editor - and not to Benson.

[Qwerty]

Just got my UK hardcover of The Man With The Red Tattoo. One sweet cover.

[DLibrasnow]

I didn't know you were a collector Devin.

[Qwerty]

http://debrief.comma...showtopic=19264

'course!

[DLibrasnow]

Excellent looking collection Devin. Its interesting to see some of the VHS covers. I never collected VHS because I went straight from LaserDisc to DVD.

[Qwerty]

Yep, good 'ole VHS. Still have them down there, and I think the only thing any of them have on the DVD's is that the The World Is Not Enough VHS has the 'Q' Tribute, where the DVD does not.

[DLibrasnow]

I think I remember hearing that the Q-Tribute was basically a collection of clips though....am I correct or was it something more substantial.

[Qwerty]

Yeah that's it with Simon's 'Nobody Does It Better, it's still nice.

[DLibrasnow]

I'll have to try and see it sometime.

[Qwerty]

Definitely.

[DLibrasnow]

Of course I would have to see it on a friends VCR since I don't own one.

[SportzStooge007]

I just recently read Zero Minus Ten, The Facts of Death, and A High Time To Kill, and I have to say these books are very good. I think they are very easy to make into movies. Especially AHTTK, its different from all the previous Bond movies.

Do you guys think they were good novels? Do you think they should be made into movies?

[Qwerty]

Merged your post into here.

[pieffra]

mine is High time to kill

[Bond_Bishop]

I've only read two:

High Time to Kill *****
Die Another Day ****

[tdalton]

Never Dream of Dying and Doubleshot are tied as my two favorite Raymond Benson James Bond novels.

[ACE]

My preferences in descending order below. (I have not included the novelizations but they would be at the bottom in descending order TND, TWINE and DAD)

1.) Never Dream Of Dying 2001
2.) Doubleshot 2000
3.) Zero Minus Ten 1997
4.) High Time To Kill 1999
5.) The Man With The Red Tattoo 2002
6.) The Facts of Death 1998

ACE

Edited by ACE, 16 July 2005 - 12:25 AM.

[Qwerty]

Whoa! 15 votes for High Time To Kill. Never would have thought that much of a lead for it.

[hcmv007]

I chose Doubleshot b/c it was the first Bond novel I ever read, and I could not put it down, I have been quite on the Bond book buying spree since then. By the way EON-this book would make a great plot for a movie, even without the Union in it, just substitute a China, Iran, or North Korea and there you go. But there is nothing that can top the ending of this book at all. And people wonder why I would love to be Like Bond.

[k13oharts]

People who wonder "why" you want to be like Bond are people with extremely ordinary/boring lives. They really don't know how to live life to the full.

[TortillaFactory]

Now's my time to admit that I've only read one of Benson's, Never Dream of Dying, and it rather disappointed me. I'm glad to hear that people don't generally rate it as his best.

Yes, it's unfair to compare him with Fleming, I realize that. But I felt like a great deal of Bond's flavor was lost in NDOD...there were only a few times when I was 100% sure that Benson remembered what character he was writing about. (The bit about "a certain Commander who'd like a ride" being one of them, as this struck me as something Bond would most definitely think, if not say.) And while I respect his decision to throw in a more explicit love scene, I actually found the end result to be a bit off-putting. You go through the entire Bond series with sweet little innuendos and double entendres, always hinting, nudge nudge wink wink, and then BAM! Gynecology! I think Benson may have misinterpreted some of the criticism of this scene as the work of prudes, when in reality there are some very real objections.

Yes, Bond needs to be updated for a modern era. This doesn't mean he needs to be stripped of his idiosynracies, and it certainly doesn't mean we should be peering through the keyhole of his bedroom. Put him in a modern world, by all means, but don't make the same mistake that the people who redid Alfie made. Don't take away too much of him - you'll end up taking away his charm.

Thanks to the recommendations of you good people, I'll certainly be checking out some of Benson's other, and hopefully better, works.

[Qwerty]

Indeed. Kind of a bad one to start off with, only because it's the third and final one in the Union series. If wanting to go for an original (and non-trilogy) Benson book, go for Zero Minus Ten or The Facts Of Death.

[TortillaFactory]

I wish I could trust that my misgivings about NDOD could be explained away by it being part of a trilogy, but I'm just not sure. I will definitely check out the others as soon as I finish with a few of Gardner's that I've got knocking around on my shelf at the moment.

[bryonalston]

I actually found NDOD rather satisfying, and along with TFOD (the only one that I could see as a realistic Bond movie) DS and TMWTRT, are the best. I loved the Union Trilogy BTW, but I didn't find HTTK to be very captivating (despite small pockets of interesting sequences.) It took me a while to get through the first half of 'Red Tattoo,' but I finished the rest of the book overnight nonstop. I found it to have that "can't put it down' effect.

[Qwerty]

I wish I could trust that my misgivings about NDOD could be explained away by it being part of a trilogy, but I'm just not sure.    I will definitely check out the others as soon as I finish with a few of Gardner's that I've got knocking around on my shelf at the moment.