James Bond: Choice of Weapons: Three 007 Novels

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.

Along with  James Bond: The Union Trilogy: Three 007 Novels , this volume sees the republication of all Benson's original Bond fiction (ie. everything except the 3 film novelisations). In case you were wondering at the (seemingly random) punning title, it's drawn from Chapter 2 of Fleming's Dr. No where 007 is first armed with a certain Walther PPK.By 1997, previous Bond author John Gardner had written more 007 novels than Fleming and some were great ones (eg.  For Special Services , Nobody Lives For Ever (James Bond) ). However, illness and a growing tiredness with Bond had led to some weaker entries in the series and a distinctly underpowered 007. Long time Bond fan (and author of the  The James Bond Bedside Companion ) Benson was given the job and set out to change that. Despite having never written a novel before (his 1st fiction was the 007 short story Blast From The Past (1997), included in the Union Trilogy), he went on to write some of the strongest Bond novels in years.Zero Minus Ten(1997)-Score:8/10. Having been prejudged by critics as being a novice writer and American (not sure which they thought was worse!) Benson proved them wrong instantly with this cracking tale and so clearly 'getting it'. Overseeing the UK's handover of Hong Kong, 007 of old is back: dark yet sensitive; dryly humorous rather than smug; sexually profligate but chivalrous; tough, resourceful and ruthless, but also a thinker who survives by his wits. The Fleming-y touches are back: Jamaica, 00 Section, Q Branch, gambling, violence. Less satirical than Gardner, the flattering depiction of SIS is the Brosnan films' take on Fleming's wartime model: well-resourced, governed by old school manners not in-fighting, and policing super villainy in the colonies. The only major flaw is the story telling. Reading like a novelisation, descriptive passages come straight out of notebooks, while the plot prevents any one villain dominating. However it's a very good start, a quick read and a welcome entry in the Bond canon.The Facts of Death(1998)-Score:7/10. Benson's 2nd novel sees 007 in Greece and Cyprus, tackling the chemical and biological terrorism of the Decada- a terrorist group and SPECTRE clone inspired by Pythagoras! Fitting in a visit to Benson's home state of Texas and a cameo by Felix Leiter, it's excitingly written but suffers from a too ambitious plot and weak prose. Although I don't doubt the gadgetary is possible, it steals the show at times and the Pythagoras theme occasionally veers into a Maths lesson. However the set pieces are great, the locations are well drawn and the UK scenes are well characterised and surprisingly dark .The Man With The Red Tattoo(2002)-Score:7/10. We skip ahead to Benson's final Bond here. With Benson's 3rd, 4th & 5th books forming the Union Trilogy (mentioned above), this 6th book forms a follow up to rather than a continuation of those events. The opposite of The Facts of Death, it's serious both in tone and approach. Here, Bond faces a Japanese crime ring intent on mass murder. However, the events of the Union Trilogy and Fleming's own darkest novel You Only Live Twice hang oppresively over the action. Indeed, like the latter book, while the writing's up to scratch the author strays too far into travelogue. Benson's clearly incapable of writing a bad Bond novel, but it's a shame his last outing should be solid rather than earth shattering.The 2 short stories from 1999 (published here for the 1st time in the UK) will be a draw for completists and fit neatly in between The Facts of Death and The Union Trilogy. The 20 page Midsummer Night's Doom (Score:5/10) sees Bond on the hunt for leaked MoD secrets at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion. A shamelessly obvious advert for Playboy's 45th anniversary, it's likeable nonsense and Fleming might have been amused. The 7 page Live at Five (Score:4/10) is a neat little retrospective tale of Bond aiding a Russian ice skater to defect. 007 appears on TV in the process, finally making it to Benson's adopted city of Chicago. A good collection and excellent value. Treat yourself!

I don't see the point of spending over 20 plus pound's on 2 omnibus's of Raymond Benson's James Bond serie's,just to read the previously unpublished short storie's,when I already have all the novel's in the serie's.It would have made more sense to publish all the short storie's as a collection,like Ian Fleming did with his.