I finished HTTK recently. In fact I read Doubleshot, HTTK and Scorpius consecutively, in a couple of weeks. My final assessment is (also having read Brokenclaw and Icebreaker) that Raymond Benson should be writing the plotlines and John Gardner the books. Benson's is nothing more than fanfiction, some good ideas stemming from deep knowledge and involvement in the Bond science, with no real inspirations, but good enough to read. Gardner is an author, his command of language is much better, but his storylines are too ambitious; they start promising, but always fail to deliver (that was exactly the case with Scorpius: the sect idea was fine, the descriptions in the beginnig were trully interesting... and that's it. A complete let down after half of the book).
Back to HTTK. Bond's relationship to Marquis was trully interesting, but it needed more development. The point it fails is the rivalry between the two men about the doctor. She just leaves Marquis and ends up with Bond. Surely, he could have found a better way to demonstrate and unfold the rivalry.
The idea to have Bond against the elements of nature is good (although an obvious one; probably a lot of fan fiction is about Bond battling Nature, I know I have written a couple of stories...). The way it is presented in the book is not bad, but not very interesting. As I 've said, Benson is no literature.
The relationship between Bond and his Nepalese friend (don't remember the name, sorry) is fine. Still it is another example of fan fiction: the fans always long to see another Ali Kerim Bei.
The main problem is that you can tell that the plot is just the vehicle to create a mountain adventure. I can imagine the process Benson followed in order to write the book:
Hmm, wouldn't it be nice to have a Bond adventure in the Himalayas? Something like Tintin in Tibet? But what would he do there? Let's take the obvious case, to find a plane wreck (just like Tintin). But why? Maybe he wants to collect something from it. Something stollen. Some scientific formula or something. With military significance. OK, it doesn't matter, let's make it simple: a British scientist develops something. Some insider kills him and takes it (hey, wouldn't it be nice if this insider is an old rival of Bond's?).OK. We need another location before going to the Himalayas. No problem, I can include some early stages of research for Bond to do some detecting. Oh, and a car chase: readers expect a car chase, it is a common device in the films. Surely, I could think of some clever gadget. So, let's find a place for girls. One could be a connection of Bond in the first place where he looks for evidence. And we need another for the mountains. How about the expedition doctor? That's it then. Now, who would want to steal the formula and why? I don't know. I wish SPECTRE was still around...
Edited by pgram, 29 March 2006 - 11:06 AM.
