James Bond: Choice of Weapons: Three 007 Novels: The Facts of Death; Zero Minus Ten; The Man with the Red Tattoo

Having read all of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, I did not find the other previous bond writers very compelling and I stopped reading James Bond novels. This all changed when I met the author of this giant volume and decided to invest some money, time and effort to read this text. This volume has three full length James Bond novels, Zero Minus Ten, The Facts of Death and The Man with the Red Tattoo. It also contains two short stories, Live at Five and Midsummer Night's Doom.All of these novels and short stories were excellent. It is clear this author understands the Bond personality and 007's various interests and quirks. The first story, Zero Minus Ten has Bond in Hong Kong to investigate the takeover by China of that city. The second novel, Facts of Death pits Bond against a fanatical cult. The third book, The Man with the Red Tattoo has Bond dealing with a biological attack involving a variation of the West Nile virus. This is also the most action packed story.The two short stories were also good reads, but I personally enjoyed the Midsummer Night's Doom the best. In this short story 007 solves a crime while at the famous Playboy mansion.In conclusion, I personally loved reading these Bond novels so much that I intend to read more of Raymond Benson's books in the future. His writing is clear, concise and flows beautifully. In my opinion, other than Ian Fleming, who is the creator of the James Bond series, of all the other writers who also wrote James Bond novels, Benson is the best.Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Predator Hunter: A Warrior's Memoir)

Glidrose Productions ought to quit horsing around commissioning Bond continuation novels from the likes of Faulks, Deaver and new kid on the block William Boyd. Get Ray Benson back on the case, after all he published "The James Bond Bedside Companion" in the early 80s and knows his stuff. Does Benson write like Fleming? Not really. Does it matter? Not really. Benson's stuck a Walther PPK back in Bond's hand and a cigarette in his rather cruel mouth again. And exotic locales, sleazy villains and sleazier girls? Forgetaboutit!I used to be the worst Fleming purist snob on earth---until reading "Zero Minus Ten" in CHOICE OF WEAPONS shattered that silly set-in-stone notion of mine. "Zero Minus Ten," "The Facts of Death" and "The Man With The Red Tattoo," the three novels contained in CHOICE OF WEAPONS, are as thrilling/entertaining as anything Fleming ever wrote. In "The Facts of Death" Benson has Bond eating enchiladas at Chuy's Tex-Mex restaurant in Austin, Texas one night and the next evening breaking into, of all things, a sperm bank searching for bio-terror weapons. And guess what? The action is suspenseful and never flags. To add more bang to your reading buck, the addition of two hard-to-find Benson short stories starring Bond make CHOICE OF WEAPONS a choice purchase.Benson's take on 007 is so much fun I had to get his three movie tie-in books too. I've only read his novelization of "The World Is Not Enough" so far. It blows the film away and I'm not surprised.

I originally bought the 3 novels individually, some years ago. This 3-in-1 version is far more economical: about a quarter of the original sum.Writing Bond novels without getting harsh criticism is difficult to do. You have to please the readers of the original Ian Fleming novels, and/or those who have loved the films. The three novels are each independent stories, and so you can read them in any order.I have always found it a treat to read this author's books. It's a pity he is not writing more Bond titles, but don't forget his "Union Trilogy", which is another economical version of his other 3 Bond novels. This time there is a theme, so you should read them in sequence. Amazingly, Benson wrote each novel in a different style, and this demonstrated his writing versatility.Of all 6 Bond novels by Benson, there has never been a weak link. All are excellent. You may also be interested in the John Gardner Bond novels, which were written prior to Benson's Bond novels. But I found them weak compared to Benson. If you doubt my opinion, you can check out the reviews of both author's Bond novels.Benson is the best novelist, in my opinion. I guess he gets some undue credit here because he didn't invent Bond himself. He was lucky to have had the original novels and films to extend. But what a great job he's done.I would recommend this book to any reader who is a Bond fan. No trouble turning the pages.

Good reading if you have read all the others, read them in order.The first one I found sat on my shelf for years, then I picked it up and read it. Good novel stories.The other one is The Union Trilogy by Raymond Benson, this may be the 1st one, figure it out, get them both, like 6 or 7 full novels in 2 big fat hardback or paperback.These are pretty engaging.Funny thing, was curious about how much an author researches to write a story, like if Ray just makes up locations and they don't really exist, I looked up the Island in France, Le Gerants' hideout/HQ 2k from cucuruzzu on Google maps and it's really there just as described down to the place East a mile or so where Bond parks to walk back West to get to Le Gerants place. Le Gerant the evil mind bender who will try to kill you inside your dreams, kinda evil voo-doo type villain sim to DreamScape from the 80s sci fi flick.

This is a large, 840+ page anthology of three of Raymond Benson's 'James Bond' novels, written at the turn of the century, plus two short stories that have never been published in book form before. (There is a companion volume containing the author's other original Bonds plus one short story.)On the whole I liked Benson's additions to the Bond saga, though his tendency to go along with the original 'women as sex objects' strand seems astonishingly unpleasant. (Nowhere is it more distasteful than in the second short story, in which 007 attends a party given by the founder of 'Playboy' magazine.)Benson's approach to writing new 'Bond' was, by & large, to take it seriously. His predecessor, John Gardner, tended to be rather flippant & silly at times. In his hands, 007 barely aged, loved Jazz, had a rather obvious alias, Mr Boldman, & was promoted from Commander to Captain. The only real letdown with Benson was his occasional lapses into Americanisms, but his six Bond novels (plus two or three film novelisations.....if he actually wrote them) are worth acquiring, whereas after the first six or seven, Gardner's are not.I'm an obsessive collector of different editions of Bond, so am glad to have these, but the short stories are so slight they're not worth acquiring it you already have copies of Benson. The book is heavy, thick as an old phone book & so difficult to read comfortably. If you care about keeping your books in good nick, you have to shelve it flat!

This collection definitely equals value for money.Included are 3 full novels; "Zero Minus Ten", "The Facts Of Death", and "The Man With The Dragon Tattoo", plus two James Bond short stories "Live At Five" and "Midsummer's Night's Doom".Over 800 pages of James Bond stories this a weighty doorstop of a book which will keep any Bond fan busy for quite some time.Recommended.

Very good Collections of James Bond, the Condition of the Book was great. Enjoyed the book totally and the Delivery of the product was awesome.

excellent read

As said it this is a 3 novels in one of almost 900 pages.Written in very simple english and not very detailed as we might expect for a Bond book.Even for a Frensch person to simple to be hooked.