Given I read Benson after Gardener, I had no difficulty shifting myself in viewpoint from Flemming. Ian Flemmings Bond would never have saved the world on a common basis. But Gardener's Bond is a deliberate continuation of Flemmings and thus has added stopping nuclear explosions, a hostile takeover of the United States, and beating down Spectre a half dozen times to his list. The problem most readers on these forums seem to have is they keep thinking Benson went directly from Flemming. Even disregarding the movies as an influence, there'd be a hell of a lot of novels to influence the subtle shift in Bond from Noir Secret Agent to Thriller Action Hero.
Zero Minus Ten
This book I tended to think was the most Gardener-esque of the canon sadly as it unfortunately chronicled relatively shallow villains and characterization. Guy Thackery's biggest problem is that he lacks panache. Benson's biggest addition over Gardener is the fact that his later villains are all able to hold the page in Bond. Gardener's villains never once seemed to fly off the page with the possible exception of Blofeld's daughter. Guy does a good rant and plays an excellent card game with evil intent but his motivations are well past Blofeld in terms of deranged.
Sunny Pei is another problem as she's certainly well developed but there's the slight problem she's a raging twit. In addition to being a tart that the literary Bond would have no problem sexing then leaving but the books have since raised his standards a TAD higher....the girl is also about as dense as a black hole. It's hard to really care about whether Bond saves the whiny girl as well. Worse, Sunny Pei makes a return for all intents and purposes in The Man with the Red Tatoo.
The conflict about Bond's alliance with the Triad was also a bit of a bad twist in my mind because I can't think of a single reason why he wouldn't just plug a hole in the head of the man and take care of business himself. It was obviously meant to evoke the alliance of Draco but Flemmings Bond had a sick and peverse fondness for the head of the Coriscan Mafia (OHMSS is one of the sad occasions where Flemming's writing makes Bond out to be deranged in a couple of scenes).
Plus, a nuclear blast in Australia is like the North Korean invasion of South Korea in DAD. It breaks my suspension of disbelief. This would be something that would shake the foundations of society.
These complaints aside, I'm actually very fond of the book. The visitation to Hong Kong may be a bit dated now with hopefully most of the worries about the communist crackdown seeming a bit premature now (the communists wanted Hong Kong's money primarily rather than its political purity) but it nevertheless is a political conflict that makes sense. The Triad ceremony actually was one of the most Flemmingesque scenes to me as it was a taste of the forbidden and exotic that Bond was immersed in.
It's also good to see Bond run away from gangsters rather than just generic thugs. The middle part of the book has Bond essentially barking up the wrong tree and getting himself caught up in a plot with Sunny Pei that has nothing to do with his current mission. That helps establish the world doesn't neatly fall into Bond's lap.
Plus, say what you will, Bond is in rare form as he asks all the right questions and does some genuine spy work to eventually get to the bottom of the mystery. Unlike other posters, I recognize everyone KNEW Guy was the villain from scene one. I mean, seriously, Benson knew you knew. It was as obvious as asking "who profits from killing all the stockholders?"
The Facts of Death
Sadly, the only Benson book I haven't read.
High Time to Kill
A fairly typical adventure tale and oddly removes all of what made the Zero Minus Ten Books unpleasant while also losing some of their charm. Nevertheless, I consider it superior to the first novel.
One thing about HTTK that's beneficial is that all of its villains are well realized. Roland Marquis is an obnoxious bint. The man is so smugly satisfied with himself that its amusing to compare Bond to him. The irony is that Benson NAILS what Bond is thinking of his relationship to Marquis.....that they have no rivalry at all. Bond has saved the world dozens of times and is superior in every way to the smug Marquis so he has nothing to prove. The fact Roland keeps baiting him is ignored and that's one of the best aspects of their relationship. The fact that Bond knew that Roland would become a traitor from the moment he met the scandalously overfocused on winning fellow and expresses no shock that he did is another point in Benson's bond's favor. He knows the signs of an insecure mind.
Union is SPECTRE and everyone including Benson knows it (Benson knows you know it too). It's an original and re-imagined Spectre for the 90s. Ironically, it's Flemmings Spectre rather than the movie's Spectre. Yes, yes, I can hear all of your gasps of horror. The main point of Ernst Stavros Blofeld's organization is that it is a BUSINESS. All the Thunderball references here and there are not unwelcome because its like returning to an Old Friend for awhile. Benson gets that you don't need to be more direct about your motivations than money. It actually makes more sense than idealogy. It's a surprising bit of foreshadowing that Union is (SPOILER) Union Corsica of Draco by the way they slash the throats of their enemies and the fact that they're outright named the Union. Our blind Blofeld's focus on his physical deformity is also an excellent bit of characterization. It's grandiose in its focus on flaws.
The Bond women in this work are pretty much disposable vessels for 007's manhood and I can't really say anything in particular about them. The bit of sexual addiction was a nice little addition to one but not really much that overly affects her relationship with 007. One might think he'd be a bit more cautious with enjoying her pleasures but otherwise they are pure ciphers on the page.
The "cliffhangar" section of the book I didn't honestly care that much for but I nevertheless felt it was an interesting change of pace from other books. Oddly, I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed the Ice trek of 007 in the Gardener book in Icebreaker. Mostly because the threat of treason seemed stronger (ironic given Icebreaker's subject matter)
Doubleshot
This is the book that establishes the "Raymond Benson" style for me as it manages to successfully combine putting 007 in odd situations, overthetop villainy, and removing the support structure of 007. It was started in High Time To Kill but becomes a pattern here that works well.
Bond bears note here as he's quite clearly out of his element. The man is afraid he's going mad or schizophrenic. The fact that Bond has no one to turn to outside of the service is terrifying to him. This is one of the few occasions that a villain actually GETS to Bond and in a serious manner that he's doubting his own sanity. While not quite up there with killing Vesper Lynd or Tracy, the screwing with Bond's head is something that permanently cements his hatred for Union. The method they choose to do it is also significant and actually has his agency doubting his loyalties (then again, taking a shot at "M" in TMWTGG can't have looked good on his record)
The "Bond has an evil double" plot is as old as Get Smart but it works in this context and is a fairly effective plot for Union's revenge against Bond. It's much like Smersh in FRWL, they want Bond to die in infamy. It's also completely different enough to only invoke that feeling in retrospect. The double doesn't have much of a personality but he doesn't have to. He exists to make Bond question whether he might actually kill the Prime Minister.
Dominga Espada is actually a hilarious villain in some respects as the Union people point out by contrast that he's not playing with a full deck of cards. In fact, he's only got the Joker. He's so stereotypically Bondvillainesque that he's just shy of Doctor Evil. It actually makes it an excellent contrast to the Union individuals whom become better by comparison to the nutter. In this role, he's doubly effective as he also maintains a bit of menace despite his obvious insanity.
The twin agents Hedi and Heidi Taunt are a bit ridiculous. Basically, just the opportunity for Bond to be able to say he's done a Doublemint commercial but the menage a troi allure along with the silliness of the pair actually make the two more memorable than another disposable set of attractive but capable femme fatales. They're also a nice contrast in how ridiculously cheerful they are in the 3rd worst day of Bond's life. I actually liked Bond's Doctor as well as their relationship actually felt rather real.
Never Dream of Dying
Ah yes, Benson's best novel. A work that's pretty controversial though since it makes the choice to destroy some of Flemmings characters....I think Ian would approve honestly. He would have been much nastier about it though.
I approve of the opening raid honestly as it shows Bond giving as much thought as he normally would to a large amount of collateral damage. Tragic but that sort of stuff happens all the time. A bunch of French actors died, whoop de ****ing do. While technically impossible for this Bond to have been a WW2 veteran (I suppose this Bond is a Falklands veteran), he nevertheless acts like a soldier whose seen **** happen. He made a call and it got people killed but that was the result of freak accident as well as the incompetence of his fellows. Light and cigarette and move on people.
The origins for Union displayed in the book are at its best really as we see them as a purely Flemming creation now. Already established as early as On Her majesty's Secret Service only now updated to being an aggressive and technological power in the world. It's also good to note that Union is dying by this point due to the aggressive attacks by Bond and ironically the vilain's focus on such ridiculous things as marking all of its members.
Draco's corruption I frankly wonder why its never been handled before. Ian should have done a novel where Draco's thugs come after Bond. His daughter was killed by Blofeld but that was directly because of getting Bond involved in Tracy's life. I frankly didn't think Benson needed to add any more motivation to Draco wanting to off his son-in-law. The man was portrayed as a psychotic vengeance crazed gangster even in the original book....just a likeable one.
In the face of Draco, I actually tend to think that the Union's "head" is actually reduced to being Largo. While Draco is not supposed to be the Union's head, his presence in the book overwhelms Benson's creation and makes him the real master of Union in my mind. It's a great scene where Bond must kill really the only family he has outside of the service (despite their dubious connection) and leaves Benson with a permanent place in the Bond canon.
Leon Essinger is actually a creation of the book I also want to stop and talk about. Leon is so utterly....NORMAL in his motivations. He's upset about losing his sexy wife, his money, and his reputation. The grounding of the Union plot in such a real character (admittedly, as real as Columbo might defeat in one of his TV movies) is frightfully effective. The fact he's not executed by Bond in the end also fits his human crimes.
Tylyn is a Bond woman that Benson developes the best. She's technically his best Bond woman and you could see the attraction that James has to her but in the end she's really a vapid little bink isn't she? I swear, the man saves you from death and you dump his
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about dishonesty? I hope Bond got himself two or three of her co-stars that evening. As for their controversial sex scene, I was more concerned about how exactly it must feel for Bond to make love on the ice cold French countryside in the middle of the night than the writing.But an excellent cap to the Union trilogy with the finale leading into...
The Man with the Red tattoo
The Man with the Red Tatoo is another favorite Bond novel but feels a little too much like Zero Minus Ten for me. One oddity about the series is the fact that it loses some of the momentum with the Union books. One might think it might have benefitted from alittle more tie with the recent murder of Draco and the destruction of the organization but Benson went to fairly elaborate lengths to assure us that Union was annihilated.
The plot of the book is a little James Clavall for my tastes despite the welcome return of Tiger Tanaka (another of Flemming's "vaguely creepy" friends for James Bond). I was somewhat annoyed that Tiger hadnt benefitted from the same immunity to aging that James had. He should have still been the head of the Japanese secret service and every bit as fit as before. The anti-Western plot of the story's villain seems a bit dated for modern Japan and even in the context of the book is treated as a bit out there.
I've made my comments on Benson's fascination with Gangster Prostitute girlfriends (he's had two in his six novels, that may not be a trend but it looks like the start of one). It doesn't change here as you have to wonder what Bond sees in the young woman. The fact she's also a bit on the dense side also causes no end of consteration for our hero. Mayumi is inferior to Reiko in my opinion. What we REALLY needed was Kissy Susuki to show up damnit.
The use of biological warfare in Japan did make an interesting point impression due to the real life Nerve gas attacks that they seemed to invoke. Goro Yoshida also made an impression unlike Guy Thackery (whom I couldn't remember the name of until I looked back at my previous review just written). The guy is like Dominga in that he's one of Benson's villains that is clearly insane. In Goro's case, it's senility and the fact he lives in his own personal never never land that has made him crazy rather than genetics and that's a welcome change. The fellow is living in the past and mourning the fact he failed to be part of a very culturally significant event in Japanese history (which as an anime fan oddly became the recent focus for Ghost in the Shell).
Overall, I very much enjoyed this book as it's a "one shot" adventure in Bond's life but an enjoyable one. I even stole the plotline for one of my Bond RPG sessions.