18 replies to this topic

[Jacques Nexus]

1. Did you know Fleming's Kissy Suzuki character was a shortlived Hollywood actress before she returned to the life of a diving girl ?. Wonderful coincidence how it ties in with NDOD.

2. Blofeld's/Shatterhand's Castle Of Death contained at least one deadly plant containing a rudimentary form of RICIN...a chemical weapon. Japanese terrorists love using chemical weapons.

3. What's Yoshida's target ?. Well...what about the huge US base on Okinawa ?. The Japanese have become quite restless about it in recent years.

4. Remember 007's first guide and friend in Japan (YOLT)...the Aussie "Dikko" Henderson ?. Will he also return ?. He's a rough as guts, hard drinking Aussie (and racist towards Aborigines) with the full name of Richard Lovelace Henderson !. He loves calling 007 a "pommy poofter" (offensive Oz slang meaning an English homosexual). He worked for Australian Intelligence out of the Aust Embassy, the organisation that is now days called ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation).

5. Benson will have to change Fleming's characterisation of Tiger Tanaka...why ?...because Fleming wrote him as a ex-kamikaze pilot, which means the chronology would make that stuff implausible. Whereas Draco was easy to make return, Tiger is a different kettle of fish altogether.

6. The Japanese Yakuza are some of the most exotic villains in the world. It's members cover themselves in a myriad of elaborate tattoos !. If they have any female members...then be prepared for the most exotic women in the literary world of Bond !!!!!! (I have a female Yakuza in my GENERAL DRAGON scenario).

7. Japan is perhaps the most erotic nation on Earth...how appropriate that sex should show it's pretty head at #7.

[Jacques Nexus]

zencat (01 Aug, 2001 07:49 p.m.):
VERY nice work Nexus!

What ever happend to Kissy? Did Benson tells us in "Blast from the Past"? I'll have to check.

I'm not sure. I think he mentioned she died. Perhap's Benson was a little hasty killing her and the Son off, because it would have been fantastic to have them at 007's side when he takes on Yoshida !. Also, why can't Benson return other Fleming heroines in future ? (including his own creations: his best were probably Sunni Pei, Heidi & Hedy Taunt, and Tylyn Mignonne). The fans would have a field day !!!!.

[Blue Eyes]

Jacques Nexus (08 Aug, 2001 04:13 p.m.):
5. NDOD:  Is it just me ?, but does any one else NOT have much empathy with this target of the Union's plot ?.

Now I'm sitting here needing my meory jogged. Damn I hate mental blanks!

[zencat]

Jacques Nexus (08 Aug, 2001 04:13 p.m.):
5. NDOD:  Is it just me ?, but does any one else NOT have much empathy with this target of the Union's plot ?.

This is a crack up, Nexus. You know, I had exactly the same thought.

[zencat]

Jacques Nexus (08 Aug, 2001 04:13 p.m.):
I'm a big fan of Benson, however there is one big critisism I can make of his work. His capers (not the plots...just the villain's project) generally lack imagination compared to EON's capers.

This is a good point. Benson's capers are much smaller in scale than Eon's. But I think this is a good illustration of how the book Bond and the movie Bond are different. I don't mind the scale of Benson's capers because I think they're just right -- for the books. My three favorite Fleming books, CASINO ROYALE, MOONRAKER, & YOLT all have capers that are not global. Frankly, when I READ Eon scale capers in the novelizations I find them a bit dull. I would rather spend a chapter inside Bond's head during a card or golf game than read descriptions of huge action set pieces.

[Jacques Nexus]

Jim (06 Aug, 2001 01:46 p.m.):
Black Rain, anyone?
A plot where Okinawa is attacked / Japanese nationalism rises would be interesting. Unless it's glossed over, it might add a shade of political grey into Benson's Bond which has been lacking to date.

Japanese nationalism rising ?...could this be a..."TSUNAMI RISING" ?.

[Jacques Nexus]

I'm a big fan of Benson, however there is one big critisism I can make of his work. His capers (not the plots...just the villain's project) generally lack imagination compared to EON's capers.

1. ZMT: a small nuclear weapon floating in Victoria Harbour, HK...probably not grand enough for Bond.

2. TFOD: a cruise missile pointing at Istanbul...perhaps a grander version of ZMT ?. Anyway we all saw this type of thing in TND...remember ?. However, Hera Volopolos's sub-caper to spread a new disease around the globe, of which she plans to profit off the antidote is inspired.

3. HTTK: a race to retrieve a stolen formula, on top of the 3rd tallest mountain in the world...well the first bit has been done to death, though the second part is very interesting.

4. DOUBLESHOT: Benson's best caper, of such complexity which EON couldn't emulate in a thousand lifetimes. The doppelganger bit isn't original but is essential to the story. The character of 007's double was underdeveloped and not used enough. Just imagine if the double survived the story and came back some day to menace 007 again...as a kind of anti-Bond ?.

5. NDOD: A motion picture production serving as a cover for a plot to destroy the....(censored)....The 1st bit is great, though underdeveloped in my view because I still can't decide whether the target is worth saving in the first place. Is it just me ?, but does any one else NOT have much empathy with this target of the Union's plot ?.

As usual I can't wait for Benson's next. Let's hope with his next one Benson makes Yoshida into more than a clone of Thackeray, Romanos & Espada; those guys are ultimately the same characters. If not then we may have to nickname the novel:

"ATTACK OF THE CLONES".

[Blue Eyes]

Yes very well said. I think Benson should move out from the movie style novels for the next novel. I'm not saying that I don't like the current ones or anything, because I do. I did quite like the back to front idea in Doubleshot, the next novel should have something different as that did.

[zencat]

Well said, Jim.

[Jacques Nexus]

Jacques Nexus (01 Aug, 2001 05:12 p.m.):
1. Did you know Fleming's Kissy Suzuki character was a shortlived Hollywood actress before she returned to the life of a diving girl ?. Wonderful coincidence how it ties in with NDOD.

Recently I checked up on Kissy's character in the YOLT novel...and guess what ?...Kissy's one and only role in the movies was as a DIVING GIRL !...which means it was an AQUATIC FILM. When you consider the Benson fictional movies, "PIRATE ISLAND" & "TSUNAMI RISING" (Tsunamis begin underwater), the coincidence mentioned above gets more & more extraordinary.

[Jim]

Black Rain, anyone?
A plot where Okinawa is attacked / Japanese nationalism rises would be interesting. Unless it's glossed over, it might add a shade of political grey into Benson's Bond which has been lacking to date.
Have to go some way to be comparable to YOLT though. That's Fleming's boldest book, fatalistic to an exaggerated degree and completely bizarre. Has Benson got the courage to do something "interesting" with the structure of his books? High Time to Kill was almost there, but the last two have been pretty conventional in structure. Look at Casino Royale - finish the adventure two thirds of the way through; From Russia with Love - don't introduce Bond until half way; The Spy who Loved Me - demented and not particularly brilliantly written and wildly mysoginistic but an attempt at something different; YOLT - have Bond go utterly bananas.
Gardner tried something of the like with The Man from Barabarossa, but as ever with JG, he filled it with his pet plot twists and false identities and completely inexplicable plot and too many characters. If you're going to have a less than conventional narrative, keep the rest of it simple.
Benson has stuck fairly rigidly to a film-like structure i.e. introduce Bond early with some action sequence, plot exposition, chase, bit of the old lovey-dovey, chase and then cataclysmic denouement. He's now well-established as the Bond author (whether one likes it or not), so he should have the courage of the convictions he almost showed in HTTK and mess about with the narrative structure a bit more. Otherwise, the books will become dull very rapidly.

[Blue Eyes]

I can't recall which book it was but one of Benson's refers to Tomorrow Never Dies. So the cross overs are already there. Or hangon, is it that Tomorrow Never Dies refers to one of Benson's other novels? I'm confused now!

[Jacques Nexus]

Blue Eyes (05 Aug, 2001 01:07 a.m.):
We wouldn't have to just see characters from Fleming's novels, but perhaps the movies as well? It would make a very interesting tie over. Not all of the film names come from Fleming's novels.

Yes I wouldn't mind, but isn't Benson limited to the literary Bond world and can't overtly cross over and use EON's characters ?. If he did then it may make 007's literary world rather confusing if the defined borders disappeared. What do you think ?.

[zencat]

VERY nice work Nexus!

What ever happend to Kissy? Did Benson tells us in "Blast from the Past"? I'll have to check.

[Blue Eyes]

We wouldn't have to just see characters from Fleming's novels, but perhaps the movies as well? It would make a very interesting tie over. Not all of the film names come from Fleming's novels.

[The Admiral]

Great points there Nexus. Expecially the one about Tanaka!

[Jacques Nexus]

Blue Eyes (06 Aug, 2001 12:17 a.m.):
I can't recall which book it was but one of Benson's refers to Tomorrow Never Dies. So the cross overs are already there. Or hangon, is it that Tomorrow Never Dies refers to one of Benson's other novels? I'm confused now!

In TND 007 asks M: "...will I be going to Hong Kong again ?". Benson is ofcourse referring to his ZMT novel. Character or plotwise I don't think he has crossed over into EON territory yet. And he certainly wouldn't do it if it contradicted any of Fleming's novels.

[Jacques Nexus]

Blue Eyes (09 Aug, 2001 12:31 a.m.):

Jacques Nexus (08 Aug, 2001 04:13 p.m.):
5. NDOD:  Is it just me ?, but does any one else NOT have much empathy with this target of the Union's plot ?.

Now I'm sitting here needing my meory jogged. Damn I hate mental blanks!

Memorable was it ?. No...but seriously...I've read many good novels in my time and it never ceases to annoy me when I can't remember their plots after a while. There's not enough time in the world to reread them...YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE.

[Jacques Nexus]

zencat (08 Aug, 2001 06:17 p.m.):

Jacques Nexus (08 Aug, 2001 04:13 p.m.):
I'm a big fan of Benson, however there is one big critisism I can make of his work. His capers (not the plots...just the villain's project) generally lack imagination compared to EON's capers.

This is a good point. Benson's capers are much smaller in scale than Eon's. But I think this is a good illustration of how the book Bond and the movie Bond are different.

I agree with you zencat about the difference between the two worlds. At the end of the day it doesn't really bother me that Benson's capers are smaller scale compared to EON's; they are fantastic to read anyhow. EON is always expected to come up with BIG capers. I guess EON have a small unseen army of writers pitching ideas, a luxury which Benson doesn't have but he does a remarkable job nonetheless.