Raymond Benson

Received ARC (Advanced Reviewer Copy) in exchange for an honest review.
A novel that fully displays the stresses, eccentricities, and fear of COVID. The story is set at the beginning of the pandemic when people wore masks, stayed away from each other, and found themselves suspicious of things that they never even considered before.
Scott's life and marriage are already a struggle when his wife and his neighbor suddenly disappear. Secrets on Marigold Way begin to seep out and then the empty house next door burns up. Found inside are Scott's wife and neighbor, along with stockpiles of stolen protection equipment, leaving even more questions in its wake.
There is a twist (though not a shocker), reveals, romance, and intrigue. Overall, I found this an enjoyable read and recommend as a pandemic centered murder mystery that displays our dark underbellies.
Three and a half stars.… (more)

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Zero Minus Ten by Raymond Benson is the first novel by the author featuring Ian Fleming’s James Bond. Mr. Benson is a published author and the first American to write a James Bond book.

Agent 007 is given ten days to investigate a series of terrorist attacks in Hong Kong before it is going to be transferred to China. At the same time, a nuclear bomb has gone off in the Australian outback.

Bond investigates Guy Thackeray, a British shipping magnate, and Li Xu Nan, a head of a Chinese Triad. With the help of T.Y. Woo, a contact in Hong Kong, Bond manages to put Li Xu Nan in his debt and go to Australia to investigate Thackeray’s company, EurAsia.

I have enjoyed most of Ian Fleming’s Bond books, as well as the James Bond graphic novels. I’ve read this book a while ago though and these are my thoughts from that time.

Zero Minus Ten by Raymond Benson an O.K. Bond screenplay, but a bit disappointing book. It seems to me the author was writing the book with a movie in mind, what happened to the aging secret agent going through a mid-life crisis? What happened to the kinky, chauvinistic, alcoholic, cold-blooded killer we all know and love?

I do enjoy the Bond movies, like many I’ve seen them before reading the books. However, the literary Bond is quite different from the movie Bond. This book is taking place in the movie universe, ignoring the changes made by other authors to the literary character.

The narrative is missing the amalgam of details and storytelling, instead focusing a lot of it on action scenes for the big screen – which doesn’t usually translate well to books. Some of the writing becomes sloppy and superficial at times. In other books, we got into Bond’s head, this time we’re witnessing everything from the outside – like in a movie.

On the other hand, the heavy details in the book take the reader completely out of the story. I tried to understand how to play mahjong, but the description was convoluted. I did, however, appreciate the history lesson and context of Eastern politics.

I liked the story, it’s solid even if it is predictable, and I enjoyed reading the book, I guess it’s not the Bond I’m used to. If you are looking for a nice, light, Sunday afternoon read, this is it.… (more)

Metal Gear Solid is my favorite video game of all-time. It's an intense and intelligent sci-fi espionage thriller with a gritty, dark atmosphere, a complex story that weaves through deep conspiracy theories and philosophies, unique and memorable characters, and it has just enough silly camp and self-awareness to make it absolutely fun alongside being totally compelling. Hideo Kojima's masterpiece is a work that truly transcends the video game medium into interactive cinematic art.

Unfortunately, the Metal Gear Solid novelization is garbage. Raymond Benson doesn't understand the characters at all and most of the action and whatnot just reads like a transcription of someone playing the video game, which isn't very interesting when I'm trying to read a book. Reading about how Snake keeps sneaking around grabbing stray hand grenades in boxes and a billion different guns just doesn't work when the prose is bad and boring.

There's also the aggravating fact that Snake keeps spouting off cringy, totally out-of-character one-liners that most of the time don't even make sense, such as:

"Merry Christmas," Snake said as he delivered two power-house punches, left and then right, into the guards' faces. The soldiers plopped to the floor. "I forgot to tell you — Christmas is early this year."

Or he just has really dumb thoughts all the damn time, like when he finds the Kevlar vest and thinks: You don't find too many of these in Cracker Jack boxes! There's one particularly mind-blowingly awful moment in the sequence where he's running from the Hind-D helicopter between two towers that are being increasingly engulfed in flames and basically thinks "these towers are on fire, but at least it's not as bad as 9/11!" I just...what the actual fuck.

The only time it's actually any good is when he's just copying the cutscenes and dialogue verbatim, but none of that is even actually his own creation so he doesn't even get any points there, especially when in most of these moments he's throwing in his own shitty dialogue and prose, completely ruining any tension or drama in the scenes.

This book is an embarrassment to the legacy of Kojima's creation, and the fact that he was brought back to write the Sons of Liberty novelization is absolutely amazing (and I hate myself for feeling the need to read it at some point as well).… (more)