21 replies to this topic

[dajman_007]

Does anyone know where I can get info on the Splinter cell series?

I'm reading Splinter Cell right now and I'm excited about the sequels to come

[zencat]

I think all we know is Benson is working on Book 2 right now. For what it's worth, here's the story we ran when Splinter Cell was released. It contains some some quotes from Raymond.

http://www.commander...es/2602-1.shtml

[Qwerty]

I cannot wait for book two in this series, it should be great. Once you finish the first dajman, I think you'll be even more eager to have a second.

[spynovelfan]

I've only read one of Benson's novels - High Time To Kill - and I thought it was dire. But from this excerpt of Splinter Cell, I have to admit it looks pretty good. The first person seems to have freed him up a lot - the guy has a nice deadpan sense of humour, and I like the references to James Coburn, the unusual setting of Macau and the way the research has been woven in in this chapter. I'm impressed, and I never thought I'd say that about Benson. There's even a touch of Quiller in there. Not bad at all.

[Loomis]

I've only read one of Benson's novels - High Time To Kill - and I thought it was dire.

"High Time to Kill" is an appalling piece of work, an unmitigated disaster on every level. I'd advise you, though, to check out "Zero Minus Ten" or "The Man With the Red Tattoo" - while nowhere near Fleming or "Colonel Sun", they're good, entertaining continuation novels, with locations handled very well. I prefer them to anything I've read by Gardner, who, while a superior writer to Benson, isn't much of a Bond author, IMO.

Don't give up on Benson, spynovelfan, he's done some decent stuff.

[spynovelfan]

Well, I'm not giving up on him, Loomis - I've just posted that I thought the opening to Splinter Cell was pretty impressive, haven't I?

I will, at some stage, try to check out his other Bond novels. Part of my problem with High Time To Kill was the whole bit set in Brussels, where I live. It was terribly clich

[Loomis]

But from this excerpt of Splinter Cell....

"It

[spynovelfan]

Yeah, I made that connection - I was considering making the original post to that thread, in fact. But I don't think he's read Cockpit - I think he's seen Our Man Flint. As I say, there's a lot of stuff in there that's reminiscent of the Quiller series (not least the decision to be in the first person). Quiller can't will himself to sleep, but he's always talking about his body in that kind of way, and the details of martial arts, and so on. Benson may also have read Trevanian's Shibumi - the hero of that can force himself to sleep, and is also a martial arts expert.

Hell, a lot of this stuff is standard. A little later on, he says that if he's caught, the government will deny any knowledge of his actions. That's familiar, of course, from Mission: Impossible.

I found the jokey tone a little odd at first, but I'm pleasantly surprised he did it in first person and even bothered to give the guy a personality (especially one that makes jokes about spy thrillers). It's a well-researched and exciting opening, I think.

Edited by spynovelfan, 10 January 2005 - 04:22 PM.

[Loomis]

Benson may also have read Trevanian's Shibumi

Good book, that.

[spynovelfan]

Yeah, though perhaps not as good as Trevanian thinks it is. I think my favourite of his is The Loo Sanction - there's some very sly stuff in it, and he gets all the British details spot on. There's a tremendous scene in which Hemlock fights someone with a rolled-up copy of Punch magazine.

Hmmm... Wonder if Mr Greengrass has read any Trevanian.

[HawkEye007]

Any wonder on if any plots or themes from the actual Splinter Cell games will pop up in the Benson books? I enjoyed the first one immensely, and from what I have read about the games, the plots for Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory would be really good if they were used for the books.

[dajman_007]

The next Splinter Cell novel will be release in december of '05

[Qwerty]

Where did you hear that dajman?

[dajman_007]

I e-mailed Raymond benson from his website raymondbenson.com and he (or at least someone) replied:
> I was wondering if any information could be released on the
> upcoming sequel to Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell,

Jeff--

Many thanks for your interest. As the book is still in the early stages, there's nothing that can be revealed at this point. Like the Bonds, the Clancy organization likes to keep things under wraps until the book is actually out. And that will be next December.

All the best,
RB

I didn't know it was that easy to get information

Edited by dajman_007, 11 January 2005 - 03:55 AM.

[Qwerty]

Cool. It should be excellent.

[Sam Fisher]

I would defenately like to see not only Raymond continue on as the writer but maybe even try to outthink the ubi soft company plotwise. Don't get me wrong I love what ubi soft does with the series. I'm playing Pandora Tomorrow right now and I look forward to Chaos Theory. But I would like to see Raymond, er David Michaels Try to think up a plot that Ubi SOft whished they dreamed up first.

I could be off too, who knows?

[marktmurphy]

[quote name='Loomis' date='10 January 2005 - 15:50']
The OPSAT attached to my wrist continues to wake me. There

[Loomis]

Or you could just buy a standard vibrating watch

Good point.

Maybe Benson was contractually obliged to include plenty of Clancyesque techno nerdy terms like "OPSAT", in order for the book to seem, y'know, full of "cool stuff" and detail. If this novel were a Bond film, I expect it'd be packed with shots of satellites in space, and Robinson-type characters talking into headsets and tapping away at laptops, looking as though they're doing really important things.

It's what the readers of "Splinter Cell" are after, I suppose. Doesn't really matter, because this book seems to be the literary equivalent of a Big Mac, to be "munched at McDonalds", as Benson himself would doubtless put it. "Would you like a side order of technobabble, sir?"

[spynovelfan]

I'd bet good money he was told by someone in the NSA or similar that this was what someone like Fisher would use. Reads too much like 'cool research stuff I must put in' to be a straight invention. I think Benson, like many thriller writers, takes great pride in 'getting things right'. Gardner did, too - check his website where he goes into detail about how all the guns and gadgets he had Bond use were real and checked out with experts. Then read the interview with Benson on this site by John Cox, in which he does the same, talking about how he had long meetings with car designers and all the technology he mentions had existed. I'm not saying that this isn't a mistake and that Fisher couldn't just use a vibrating watch - just that, if that's the case, it's because Benson doesn't know enough about what he was told and has missed something. That's very easily done with this kind of thing - it's one of the classic perils of the genre - but it is annoying. Sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. High Time To Kill has numerous inaccuracies about Brussels and Belgium in it, but I can see where he went wrong. Unless you *are* a spy or have lived in a city, it's too easy to do.

Final point: everyone always goes on about what a brilliant researcher Fleming was, but he got technical stuff wrong, too, and in the same way I think Benson did/does. For example, he has Bond use a Beretta. When Geoffrey Boothroyd wrote to him to sayit was unsuitable and suggesting a Walther PPK or a Smith and Wesson Centennial Airweight revolver, Fleming corrected it, giving Bond the Walther. But in doing so, he got Bond to use the Berns-Martin Triple Draw holster. All the detail sounds marvellously authentic, but he had actually compounded the error, because Boothroyd had suggested that holster for the Smith and Wesson - it only works with revolvers.

I've probably made a few mistakes myself in this (regrettably long-winded) post.

Edited by spynovelfan, 16 January 2005 - 05:12 PM.

[jwheels]

Finished it last night after two days. I thought It was pretty good. I like how it took place in the Middle East, and I also liked that it was in first person. It was a good spy book to tie over my need for a good Bond book. I hope that Raymond Benson continues to write the series after two books. The only complaint that I had was that I didn't really like it how Sam Fisher did his

/spoiler.gif

pinball moves off the wall and other things

/gen_line.gif

I haven't played the game, but if that's part of it then I think it's good that he kept the aspects of the game in the book, but I still think it was kind of silly to have him do that.

Also, on a side note, If they start making books based on video games, I would love to see them make a book of Metal Gear Solid. I would especailly like it if they made books of the first two games, the one that was on the first Nintendo, and the one that was only released in Japan.

[spynovelfan]

[quote name='marktmurphy' date='16 January 2005 - 12:43'][quote name='Loomis' date='10 January 2005 - 15:50']
The OPSAT attached to my wrist continues to wake me. There

[spynovelfan]

Also, on a side note, If they start making books based on video games, I would love to see them make a book of Metal Gear Solid. I would especailly like it if they made books of the first two games, the one that was on the first Nintendo, and the one that was only released in Japan.

Well, I don't know which game it's based on, but Raymond Benson has now written a METAL GEAR SOLID novel - check his website for details.