Benson Fleming's superior? No. I wrote "my favourite continuation novel". 
Although, yes, I do prefer "Zero Minus Ten" to some of the Flemings. Note "favourite" and "prefer", though, rather than "better than Fleming" or "the best". I don't consider Benson a better writer than Fleming, although if pushed I'd say that, yes, ZMT is indeed a better novel than some of the Flemings.
Indeed, however I just took from your previous post that if ZERO MINUS TEN is as good as COLONEL SUN, and you regard COLONEL SUN to be superior to most of Fleming's Bond novels with one exception (which I seem to remember you saying, could be wrong though), then it follows that you'd consider ZERO MINUS TEN to be a better book than the Flemings bar YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. Perhaps I am thinking too much...
No, no, fair enough, Laz. I do see what you mean.
"Zero Minus Ten" as good as "Colonel Sun"? Well.... I'm probably conflating "favourite" with "best". I mean, I much prefer THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN to ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, although I'd concede that OHMSS is the "better" film. See what I mean? Obviously, Benson isn't as good a writer as Fleming or Amis.
Why do I like ZMT so much? Well, from an old post of mine:
Given the subject matter (Hong Kong and its Handover) and the skill with which Benson treats it, I consider "Zero Minus Ten" one of the most thought-provoking and poignant Bond novels (the Flemings included). Certainly, there's more of interest plot- and character-wise than is to be found in Gardner's debut, "Licence Renewed", which coincidentally enough also deals with a scheme to create nuclear carnage. More of the spirit of Fleming, too (and, no, I'm not just referring to the "fanboyish" in-jokes for which Benson is often slated).
Benson's research into and descriptions of Hong Kong and southern China are genuinely impressive. I've read the book twice, and the only false note I could find was the misspelling of a street name, or something like that; otherwise, the history, the culture, the ambiance, the political mood(s) around the time of the Handover.... well, it's all there. A bit of a cliche, this, but Benson succeeds spectacularly in making Hong Kong into a character, and a character to care about.... to the point where the novel's closing lines pack a tremendous emotional wallop.
Bond's journey into the People's Republic on the Kowloon-Guangzhou Express ("Day Trip to China") is a wonderful piece of Flemingian travelogue, conjuring not only the excitement of "the exotic", but displaying a terrific eye for authentic detail. The subsequent chapter, "Agony and Anger", contains a horrifying torture sequence worthy of Fleming (or Amis.... or Lindsay Anderson's IF....):
Bond turned his head to the left and spat, 'Please ... sir. May ... I have ... another, you ... bloody ... bastard ...?'
Apart from which verisimilitude and unpleasantness, ZMT is a rollicking good yarn (and extremely filmic). The Bond girl, Sunni, is a far more developed and interesting character than may be apparent on first reading, while there's a surprising amount of humour (that works pretty well).
Is it a perfect book? No, not at all. There's a lot of what can only be described as "very sloppy writing" (I'm talking about a lack of elegant prose, and the occasional true howler in the use of the English language; Benson's research, as stated above, is spot-on, while characterisation is, generally speaking, good, and the story is more than sufficiently interesting and well-told to keep one turning the pages). If there weren't so many good things about ZMT, I wouldn't care - but there are, and those good things make me wish that Benson had had a better editor, more time to hone and polish his manuscript, etc. It's something I feel all the time when reading his novels. He has imagination and talent, but, bluntly, needed more help while writing the Bonds than he evidently received.
All in all, though, perhaps the second best continuation novel I've read (after "Colonel Sun").
I wonder, was 1997 the only year in which we had a Bond novel and a Bond film with so many similarities (Chinese Bond girl, European tycoon with a background in Asia as the villain, locations in the Far East, etc.)? I think I give ZMT extra points for being considerably less inane than TOMORROW NEVER DIES and telling a much more interesting story. Given that Benson wrote the TND novelization, I reckon he must at times have had the feeling of writing the same book twice!
), and the travelogue segments are spot-on, especially the Australia segment. The first chapter is a riot though, as it is revealed Bond had bought a Jamaican house that formerly belonged to a certain journalist/author? Hmm! 
