High Time to Kill: Library Edition

Rating:
Summary: Something different for a Bond book, but a welcome change.
Review: Benson's third Bond book takes a slightly different twist on the standard Bond adventure. Gone is the old formula and what remains is an author finding a comfortable writing style that reminds one of Fleming, while still being new and enjoyable.

Just like all the earlier Bond books, HTTK is a quick read, never really slowing pace too much. The first half of the book is a typically good Bondian adventure, but once the locale changes to Nepal, the book changes to a slower pace. Benson takes you inside Bond in a way that Gardner was never able to do. Bond's general dislike for parts of his job are felt, and his cold ruthlessnes shows why he survives.

In my opinion the only flaw to Benson's newest book is the uncomfortable discriptions from many of Bond's companions. Some seem to be little more than a recorded playing of a tourist book. Fleming could always get inside what makes a location tick, while Benson is just not there yet. Yet along side this criticism, I must say that I enjoyed the Doctor's talk about the hazzards of mountain climbing.

Although many will criticize Benson as being an amateur, his Bond books are well plotted and believeable. I look forward to the rest of the trilogy and wish Benson luck with his growth as a writer. While HTTK is an experiment in the 'Bond' style, it is much more succesful than anything Gardner tried, or Fleming's The Spy Who Loved Me.

CHris

Rating:
Summary: ¿High Time to Kill¿ seems to suffer from altitude sickness
Review: For me this was a very disappointing book. I thought it started well with lots of action and detail but soon petered out to a wordy tome with action in fits a starts and a poor finale. Marquis as the villain was cardboard and Bond made some big mistakes. He would never compromise SIS rules by forming a relationship with his PA, no matter how desirable, and they have all been that. Raymond Benson has produced vintage James Bond prior to this, almost to Ian Fleming standard - no one get be quite as good as the master - this lets him down. I don't suppose my lack of interest in mountain climbing helped but I found the passages on the climb, a big chunk of the book, very slow and what action that did take place lacked the usual Bond detail. "The Facts of Death" had pace, action, detail and Bondness as did Benson's other Bond books. "High Time to Kill" seems to have suffered from altitude sickness. I look forward to "The World Is Not Enough" and hope both Messrs. Bond and Benson are back on track.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect fusion makes this one of the BEST Bond novels.
Review: HIGH TIME TO KILL is a unique James Bond adventure. It's very experimental in its use of a single setting in the second half of the book, while still deftly adhering to the classic James Bond formula. No "continuation novel" demonstrates a better understanding of what makes a classic Bond story (and HIGH TIME TO KILL surpasses even some of Fleming books in this regard). Most of my feelings come from the second half of the book when Bond is on the mountain. This is unlike anything we've ever seen Bond participate in before - yet all the Bondian ingredients are in firmly in place: Villain, sidekick, Bond girl, contest, breathtaking (literally this time) locales, exotic culture, set-piece showdown and coda. But every one of these "classic" elements (which in the movies have drifted toward clichés) feels 100% fresh because it's all set within the context of a reality-based high concept idea: Mountain climbing. The overlaying believaility of the concept elevates the characters and makes the book truly suspenseful in a FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE sort of way. Even the almost always fumbled "this time it's personal" element works perfectly here. We understand that the villain is driven by his competitive masculine/sexual ego (a subtext of almost all Bond villains), but the possibility of altitude sickness motivates his classic Bond Villain megalomania in a completely believable way. The ice axe throwing competition between Bond and the villain is as gripping as any casino face off. Bond catching a glimpse of Bond Girl Hope Kendell undressing in her small tent is much sexier, IMO, than a Halle Berry bursting from the sea like a Bond Girl Jack in the Box. Bond's sidekick, a Sherpa, is indispensable in a way most of the Bondman sidekicks are not. The "gadgets" this time are all real, but still exotic (cutting-edge climbing equipment, the oxygen tent), and what better test of 007's stamina than a savage mountain climbing expedition? There is a return to the idea of 007 as a master of the extreme sport in this book that is very much a part to the world of Ian Fleming's James Bond. In fact, I think Fleming would have eventually written a book just like HIGH TIME TO KILL.

There's more, but suffice to say HIGH TIME TO KILL is the perfect fusion of the high-concept Bond formula and the completely believable and fascinating world of high-altitude mountain climbing. If you're looking to sample a non-Fleming James Bond novel, THIS is the one to get.

Rating:
Summary: A great Bond novel. Benson has written a classic Bond book.
Review: High Time to Kill represents Raymond Bensons' 3rd original Bond novel. Whereas his last book reads like a movie, here Benson shows why the novel Bond is still the best. With minimal reliance on gadgetry, HTTK sees Bond from the civiled streets of Nassau to the brutal, unciviled reaches of the Himalayas. We are swept along with 007 as he searches for a stolen formula, aware that their his a tratior in his midst. HTTK adds to Bonds background without contradicting anything written by Ian Fleming. Benson also introduces "The Union" already destined to be right up there among Bond villians SPECTRE and SMERSH. Here, it remains in the shadows, and we are left wondering where it will rise again to plague 007. Having assumed the mantle of Bond authorship, here Benson gets the whole fireplace as well. His Bond gets better and better. Looking forward to his next Bond book.

Rating:
Summary: High Time to Waste
Review: I've been a Bond fan since my teens and have bought everyone as it came out in hardcover since Col. Sun. I loved Zero minus Ten and the Tomorrow Never Dies novelization. Facts of Death was great if you take away Felix's killer wheelchair, but this one? Taking pieces of Fleming's classics does not a Bond novel make. A golf match with the villain (see Goldfinger), a criminal organization with a secret mastermind (see anything with SPECTRE), and a major plot point out of Casino Royale. The spy on a mountain climb was done better by Trevanian and Desmond Cory back in the glory days of Bond. I realize this is the first of a projected trilogy(I understand if Benson wants to save Le Gerant for the climax of the trilogy), but it is no excuse for a lackluster villain whose main characteristic is obnoxious. We know he's the bad guy because he says "Chinaman", considered a racial slur, instead of "Chinese man" as Bond does. He also makes sexist remarks about betting a night with the female member of the expedition. As far as PC goes, Bond fails too--An affair with his secretary? Even Fleming's Bond kept it to playful flirtation with Ponsonby, Goodnight, and Moneypenny. But, of course, we need it to hang plot on. Like I said before, I've bought every Bond as it came out in harcover until now-this I rented from the library and will now wait for the paperback and buy it used. The rest of the trilogy will determine if I ever buy Bond again.

Rating:
Summary: Benson at the "peak" of his game...
Review: In High Time To Kill, Bond is back and more saturnine and human than ever, thanks to author Raymond Benson. For those of us who first caught the Bond bug through contact with the original Fleming canon, this third outing by Benson provides all the gratification of the Ian Fleming sweep, sadism, and sex. Benson's Bonds incorporate the action and gadgetry from the films with the flair of the early literary 007. Benson also continues to pay homage to the Bond creator by craftily weaving elements from Bond's Fleming yarns.

High Time to Kill presents 007 with the task of tracking down the stolen "Skin 17" - a classified military innovation. From an assassination in Bahamas (ahem... not Fleming's home, as mentioned in the Kirkus review) to a beating in Brussels, and on to a suicidal expedition atop the Himalayas, Bond shows his toughness while discovering just what might be his limit of courage and endurance. It's all there - the women, the escapes, the allies and the introduction of Bond's newest enemy -- the arch-criminal organization, the Union.

With his first two Bond novels, Benson established his capabilities as 007's new progenitor. Now that the honeymoon's over for Mr. Benson, he's proven that his talents as a storyteller are no fluke. We can now leave the Fleming comparisons behind and continue to look forward to more Benson Bond. Keep them coming, Raymond.