Rating: 
Summary: a comp vacation and tourist tripe
Review: This book is more Nihon merchanise description and expensive vacation video than a story. I can see this author comp milking his way around Tokyo and collecting free gifts/meals/limos. I`m shocked that the author didn`t walk though the middle of the narrative and do a cameo like the last Clive Cussler book I read.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible
Review: This book was a major disappointment! I have read other R. Benson books that were good but this is plain garbage.
It is such a rip off to "You Only Live Twice" for the romance. If you recall in the movie perhaps the book too but it's been sooooooo long since I read it:-), James falls for a girl, she gets killed and beds the next girl he works with in Japan (again). Plus she is only 20 years old. Give me a break! Bond is old enough to be her father. The storyline is hard to follow and you never have an understanding for the villian and why he acts the way he does. It is violent and bloody to read. Best advice, reread one of Ian Fleming's books like I plan to reread "You Only Live Twice".
Rating:
Summary: Benson-sans' worst ever
Review: This is Benson's worst effort and I don't recommend it to anyone but the most ardent James Bond fans (which I am one.) It took me three weeks to plow through this slow, meandering thrillless thriller.Gore Yoshida, the man with the red tattoo, is planning to unleash a biological attack of the West Nile virus against the western world and leaders at the G8 summitt. Bond is sent to Japan where he investigates the death of a British citizen and his Japanese family. I'll now run through the problems I've had with this book. Benson is not a good enough author to include details of fact with the story. Instead he separates the two. Benson will devote several paragraphs describing scenery or Japanese culture or the biology of mosquitoes. Then he will get back to the action. Good authors incorporate the description with the story so the reader isn't bored by mundane details. Second, the Japanese culture is a big problem. Benson is obviously proud of all the things he learned about Japan, and he lets us know everything he knows. Probably one hundred times, Benson describes something using the Japanase term, then uses a sentence to say what it means in English. This gets to be boring. Other authors can write about foreign cultures without making them as exciting as a textbook. The plot itself wasn't that exciting. Bond made many stupid comments instead of the usual wit. Also, Benson makes a big point of telling us about Mauimi (sp) Mcmahon, a twenty year old prostitute. Bond comments on how young she is and refers to her as a little girl many times. Then by the end, Bond is sleeping with her. Fifty year old Bond sleeping with a twenty year old. Not that big a deal except Benson made the point that Bond looked at her as a little girl, not a potential lover. Another thing that bugged me is the British spelling (I guess its British) of all these words. Can't their be two versions of one novel? I don't know why this book grated on me so much. I've enjoyed most of all of Benson's novels. This one just lacked in so many areas.
Rating: 
Summary: A disppointment...
Review: This is not one of Benson's best, neither is it among his worst. I find all of his Bond's far superior to John Gardner's and so inferior to Ian Fleming's that no comparison is just. Mistakes like having someone major in business at Oxford bother me alot. I do not enjoy reading tour guide excerpts much either. It moved quickly enough not to be boring, but the ending was truncated and very disappointing. Some of the scenes were interesting. I do not blame Benson per se, Bond is not a plausible figure out of his necessary historical period. I confess to being a purist. I suggest reading, or rereading, the Fleming books if one wants the authentic Bond. The first four films are good too.
Rating:
Summary: Another Benson Book Full Of Bugs !!!
Review: Unfortunately Raymond Benson continues to prove it was a mistake for him to be appointed the official "James Bond" author as he delivers yet another novel that starts well but turns out to be a lacklustre adventure. The old problems come home to roost - too many weak characters, too many plot flaws, and not nearly enough exciting action to keep the story moving. Also this time Benson, who is usually as faithful to the cinematic version of Bond as he is to the literary one, makes some odd errors. Bond is once more armed with his Walther PPK, which from professional experience I personally think is a good thing, but of course 007 was rearmed with a Walther P99 in "Tomorrow Never Dies" and has carried one ever since - so why the sudden change back now ?!! And the character of "Q" (aka "Major Boothroyd") was clearly written out in the last movie, "The World Is Not Enough" 1999, yet he is still in charge of his department here. Surely it makes sense for Benson to get in step and retire this character as well ?!! Another curious flaw is that Benson, who prides himself on knowing Fleming's Bond inside out, has 007 ending up in bed with a prostitute. Now according to the back story of Bond he had an affair with a prostitute in his teenage years which ended badly. Ever since he has had a loathing for those in the profession, so the idea of him romancing one seems highly unlikely. As with his previous novel Benson also brings back another character from Fleming's day - "Tiger Tanaka" from "You Only Live Twice" - but typically ages the man while Bond of course remains ageless. Again I have to say that for me this weakens the credibility of the plot, but at least he didn't ruin or arbitrarily kill off the character as he did with "Draco" in "Never Dream Of Dying". As for the overall story it is surprisingly lightweight and unoriginal. Genetically engineered viruses have almost become the 21st century equivalent of the nuclear bomb threats of the 20th century - oh how times have changed !!! - but even in the old days Fleming dealt with this topic in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", and Alistair Maclean also did a great job with this theme in his novel "Satan Bug". Somehow pitting James Bond, the world's greatest secret agent, against a killer dwarf (*shades of the film "The Man With The Golden Gun" 1974) and deadly mosquitoes, seems to be pushing things just a bit. So another somewhat disappointing effort from Mr. Benson, reasonably well written but clearly full of bugs !!!
Rating: 
Summary: A less than steller entry into the Bond series
Review: When one thinks of the character of James Bond, immediately the image carefully constructed over almost forty years in the motion picture industry comes to mind. However, this is not the James Bond of the many novels most recently written by Raymond Benson. He is more of a reserved gentleman albeit a ladies man, however, nowhere near the extent he is on the big screen. He also takes a heck of a pounding by the bad guys who are not quite so over the top. He is a bit less of a superman.
In this installment Bond is ordered to travel to Japan to help provide security for the many world leaders at the G8 summit conference. However, he is also asked to look into the deaths of a prominent family all of whom died quite suddenly of a mysterious ailment. As Bond investigates with his friend, Tiger Tanaka, they discover a plot with a unique but potent weapon that could place many lives at risk at the G8 summit.
One-dimensional characters and a plot that for much of the book plods along, make this a less than stellar entry into the Bond series. Any sense of originality that the books possessed has worn thin for many years. Yet, Bond remains a very popular hero and, with the continued success of the motion pictures, we can expect the books to keep on coming no matter who writes them.
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