This week’s edition is ranking the Raymond Benson novels. As always, novelizations are eligible to be included.
So how do you rank the Benson continuation novels? My list goes like this:
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HIGH TIME TO KILL – One of the very best continuation novels, heck one of the best Bond novels period, takes James Bond to places he (and, consequently, the reader) has never been–most specifically, climbing to almost the very top of Mount Kangchenjunga the third highest mountain in the world located in the Himalayas of Nepal. Bond must face not only the rugged elements of one of the most dangerous mountains in the world, but he must deal with sabotage within his own team, all while trying to safely outrace both the Russians and the Chinese to reach their objective of retrieving a microdot located somewhere aboard a crashed airplane near the summit. The entire climb, Roland Marquis, and Le Gérant of the Union are highlights. Thrilling stuff.
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ZERO MINUS TEN – Bond is sent to investigate when a rash of assassinations in Hong Kong has taken place in the days leading up to the handover of Hong Kong to China. Clues eventually lead Bond to another new 007 location–Australia–and he has a walkabout after crash landing his plane. In the end, Bond must stop the villain from setting off a nuclear bomb at the height of the handover festivities back in Hong Kong. Highlights are Bond’s airborne fight with ‘Harry’ Chang, Bond’s dealings with Gen. Tsu Kam Wong, Xu Nan Li, Sunni Pei, and I really like the three albino Asian henchmen.
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DOUBLESHOT – And another unique adventure, this time with Bond dealing with the after-effects of a head injury suffered on his previous mission in HTTK. As a result, Bond is suffering headaches and occasional blackouts as he is far from being in tiptop shape. Then, when he has another blackout, he wakes up to find his girlfriend dead in the room with him, and he soon becomes the police’s #1 suspect. All this leads to a fantastic plot by the Union as they seek their ultimate revenge on 007 by not only framing him for his girlfriend’s murder, but also as the chief instigator in a political assassination thereby allowing Spain to reclaim Gibraltar. Highlights are Bond encountering a bull in the ring and his foiling the plot in Gibraltar. Once again, Le Gérant is entertaining and so is the other villain Domingo Espada, but the best is Margareta Piel–one of the best femme fatales of the series. Doubleshot is doubly good.
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TOMORROW NEVER DIES – As a fan of the film, I am also a fan of the novelization. This is Benson’s best effort of the three novelizations he did. I like his background detail for Elliot Carver and the additional details for how Wai Lin gets involved in the story. Other than that, the novelization pretty much follows the film. And Wai and Carver are both great.
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NEVER DREAM OF DYING – Bond must stop the Union from blowing up the Cannes Film Festival. On the surface, that sounds a little small stakes for 007, however, the story leading up to it more than makes up for that. You not only have Bond in the most serious relationship of the Benson novels, not only do you have 007 having a bit of a reunion with his father-in-law Marc-Ange Draco, not only do you have one of Bond’s best friends suffering a debilitating injury, you also get his final showdown with Olivier Cesari aka Le Gérant and the Union. There’s lots to like here especially, Tylyn Mignonne and Cesari.
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THE MAN WITH THE RED TATTOO – Bond gets another reunion here, this time in the form of Tiger Tanaka who, after this adventure, I’d have to say is clearly 007’s best Asian friend. (René Mathis is his best European friend, Felix Leiter is his best American friend, and Bill Tanner is his best overall friend.) This time Bond must stop a Japanese terrorist from assassinating the leaders of the G-8 summit via mosquitoes infected with a deadly virus. It’s an intriguing and scary premise. Highlights are Bond tangling with The Kappa in a train tunnel, anything involving the mosquitoes, Bond resuming his good rapport with Tanaka, as well as Reiko Tamura, and the diminutive assassin, Junji Kon aka The Kappa.
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THE FACTS OF DEATH – Bond must stop a deadly terrorist organization from wreaking havoc around the globe by unleashing a deadly virus in various cities. This is probably the most film-like of all Benson’s original novels. But even though it’s the most cinematic, it’s still good. Highlights are Bond’s cable car fight with Markos and Ari, his underwater escape from Hera Volopoulos’ boat, and pretty much all the women. Hera is another great femme fatale; Ashley Anderson is fun; Felix’s girlfriend, Manuela Montemayor, is a entertaining; and Niki Mirakos more than holds her own. This is my least favorite of all Benson’s original novels, but it’s still a very solid read. He never had a bad story. I would readily welcome him back to the 007 authorship keyboard.
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THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH – I like the film Die Another Day just little bit more than TWINE, but when it comes to the novelizations, I find TWINE just edges out DAD. I like the added backstory to Viktor Zokas aka Renard, which makes him seem a little more evil and fleshes him out a little bit more than the film did. The highlights are Bond’s boat chase along the Thames after Giulietta da Vinci aka The Cigar Girl, the entertaining Valentin Zukovsky, and, of course, Elektra King.
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DIE ANOTHER DAY – This is not a bad novelization, but I just don’t like it as much as the other stories above. The DAD novelization is over the top just like the film is, but I don’t hold that against either one. Bond can be over the top, just not all the time. One of the best parts of this story is how Benson shows how Bond gets to Hong Kong after escaping from the British warship. Other highlights include the Bond vs. Gustav Graves sword fight, Bond’s car chase on the ice with Tan Ling Zao, as well as Miranda Frost and Zao himself.
So how do you rank the Benson novels?