Having finished The Man With The Red Tattoo, I rank Benson like this:
HIGH TIME TO KILL
DOUBLESHOT
NEVER DREAM OF DYING
THE MAN WITH THE RED TATTOO
THE FACTS OF DEATH
ZERO MINUS TEN
As for the short stories:
BLAST FROM THE PAST
LIVE AT FIVE
MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DOOM
The Union Trilogy was my favourite consecutive run of books during my Gardner/Benson read through. But all in all, there are lots of good adventures to be had with the continuation Bond. If anyone hasn’t got around to reading them yet, don’t be dissuaded by the negativity you may hear.
EON should take note, especially if Michael G. Wilson isn’t going to be in charge anymore. The continuation novels deserve more publicity, they often have good ideas, at least.
Congratulations sharpshooter. Sounds like you’re really enjoying yourself. And I agree, there are lots of good adventures to read in the continuation novels–a LOT more than not. I’m glad you like them.
As for my Raymond Benson rankings they’re almost identical to yours except for one big difference. They go as follows:
High Time To Kill
Zero Minus Ten
Doubleshot
Tomorrow Never Dies
Never Dream Of Dying
The Man With The Red Tattoo
The Facts Of Death
The World Is Not Enough
Die Another Day
Short stories:
Blast From The Past
Midsummer Night’s Doom
Live At Five
And sharpshooter, you also might want to take a gander at Benson’s short story The Heart Of Erzulie which can be found in the Kindle short story collection 12 + 1: Twelve Short Thrillers And A Play. It was originally written as a James Bond story after he finished the Union trilogy but ultimately decided it wasn’t “good” enough. He then tweaked it as a non-Bond story and put it in the 12 + 1 collection. It’s not ground breaking, but it’s enjoyable enough. I wish he would have kept it as a Bond story and released it as such. Anyway, I think you should give it a try as well.
I think it worked out pretty well when you view Draco as a man who lost the will to live. Bond being responsible for his new wife and child dying in the explosion gives fresh reason for him to avenge their loss and join them in death, rather than purely being hung up on Tracy after all these years.
It’s strike two (or technically three) against Bond, a man who entered his life briefly and left almost immediately following the wedding day tragedy with barely any communication. What loyalty does Draco really have to someone like that?
Draco had been a criminal longer than an ally of Bond. In that time he’s simply remaining true to his real family who were always with him, which is the Union and its mobsters - who Bond was opposed to.
I agree with Benson when he says the trilogy “represents, I think, some of my best work with James Bond. There are certainly high points in the other three original novels I wrote, but the trilogy pushes boundaries and contains much more of a personal voice. There’s more of me in these three books. I took some chances and most fans believe I was successful.”
Doubleshot and Never Dream of Dying (tied because, while I enjoyed both, I don’t remember which I preferred – maybe a sign I should revisit them soon).
The Facts of Death
Zero Minus Ten
The short stories are more of a blur to me, although I remember thinking they were alright.
The Choice of Weapons and Union Trilogy omnibuses look intimidating in their sheer volume, but I flew through the stories in record time. I appreciate how Benson made Bond a heroic but vulnerable figure who encountered formidable villains and scenarios. For example, he’s beaten at golf (Tanner didn’t help, sure) and quickly beaten at cards by the seemingly mythical Le Gerant.
I also like the way he balanced new and old characters such as Felix, Mathis, Draco, Bunt and Tiger. In his six original books he covered a lot of ground, a lot of it consequential, and had a good time doing it.
If you’re reading for pleasure they’re possibly the best in the continuation library. Benson at his best is also Bond at his best, meaning a package full to brim with sex, violence and full blown adventure.
Napoleon Dynamite: Impeach Pedro. A funny follow up, the closest thing we’ll ever get to a proper Napoleon Dynamite 2. Recommended for laughs and little drama.
With a Mind to Kill. Arrived the other day, excited to read the conclusion of Horowitz’s run. I loved both Trigger Mortis and Forever and a Day. They are nearly on par with the best of Fleming (Moonraker, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Dr. No).
At first I thought: a novelization would be boring. I loved the movie - but reading the story again felt unnecessary.
Wrong. Tarantino really goes deeper into the characters and the atmosphere of the setting, and the result is a captivating pageturner with new scenes and another ending, recalibrating the whole story.
That he does, greatly. Great read, really different than the movie. Controversial opinion: If QT wants to call OUATIH his last movie, I’d be okay with him writing books instead of making movies.
Devil May Care. This novel is strange. On the one hand, the action is great and the second half of the story is mostly good (from Bond’s capture, onward). However, at best the novel is a greatest hits of Bond: villian with a deformity, Mathis, Felix, Darius is a stand in for Kerim Bey, Bond defeating a cheating villain (those are just a few examples). However, there are also some really bizarre things that hamper the story: insinuations that Gorner was gay and that is why he’s a villain (Fleming did this too), “Carmen” being a disparaging name for a gay character, Bond somehow being that good at tennis, Felix, a former CIA agent, not knowing where Tehran is. Then there is the whole “Poppy” thing and the fact that Bond couldn’t figure out, this painfully obvious twist harkens back to some of the worst parts of the Gardner novels (when every book would feature about 60 double-crosses). I really want to like DMC, but I just don’t know. It’s certainly not the worst Bond novel ahem For Special Services ahem. But it can’t hold a candle to the likes of Fleming, Amis, Horowitz, or even Christopher Wood.
It is indeed a strange one, though I have a fondness for the book I can’t quite explain. Perhaps because it was the first continuation novel I read, I was hoping it would stick to the Fleming formula and therefore wasn’t disappointed.
I don’t remember the homophobia but it’s been a couple of years at this point since I last read it, so that’s disappointing to hear.
The part I remember most pulling me out of the book was the first night Bond spends in Russia, he remarks that it is his first time in the USSR. I’m shocked that such a flagrant continuity error wasn’t caught before publication.
One of my biggest issues with Devil May Care is that we learn all about Julius Gorner’s backstory during the book and then towards the end, Scarlett Papava says she just made it up. What the hell? Talk about pulling the rug out from under your readers. There’s no real reason for her to make up Gorner’s backstory or, more importantly, for the author to reveal it as such. And we never learn about the villain’s real background either, which leaves you hanging and unsatisfied.
Sebastian Faulks should have either left Scarlett’s description of Gorner as gospel or later given us the real background on the villain by Gorner himself. This is why I say it seems that Faulks tries to telegraph to his literary brethren that the Bond gig was beneath him and he just took it for a good payday. If so, it’s a shame he felt that way, because there is some really good stuff in DMC that would have made for a really solid continuation novel, but his too cool for school attitude severely undermines the quality of the book.