Doubleshot

Rating:
Summary: Double your 007 fun
Review: Raymond Benson continues to excel at keeping Bond not only alive but in fine form. I loved the air-tight plotting of "High Time to Kill," but in the first few chapters of "Doubleshot," Benson executes an elegant set-up that's both familiar and fresh at the same time. There's more than a bullfighting metaphor to Benson's construction here. He gets his details right and his twists come hard and fast. There's a gravity to Benson's Bond that honors Fleming's original hero and also makes him feel like he'll survive even when the world and the stakes are constantly changing. I look forward to the next installment with the expectation that Benson will continue to deliver the goods and a great read.

Rating:
Summary: Yeesh!
Review: Reading one of Benson's James Bond novels is like watching the very worst of the James Bond movies (think Roger Moore in the horrific film version of "Octopussy"). The only thing this Bond has in common with Ian Fleming's classic character is the name. Fleming's Bond certainly made his share of miscalculations and mistakes, but he was never a goof and never staked his life on some goofy gadget. The movie Bond is a goof who overrelies on goofy gadgets, and now so is Benson's Bond.

What makes this Bond even worse, though, is the fact that he cannot deduce even the most obvious clues. For example, every time Bond pops a couple of "Dr. Feare's pills" he starts experiencing nausea, halucinations, and blackouts. Benson's Bond cannot seem to put 2 + 2 together and never makes this most simple of deductions. He keeps popping the pills like an idiot and even washes them down with alcohol! Fleming's Bond at his groggiest (see The Man With the Golden Gun) would have suspected the doctored pills instantly.

We're still waiting for an intelligent, non-movie (ie, non-moronic) Bond to appear from Benson's pen. Will it happen before Benson gets to the magical 13th book and his run ends? I'm not holding my breath on this one. What a pity that such a great literary franchise fell into such untalented hands.

Rating:
Summary: A Masterful Tale
Review: This is one of those books that hook and draw you in, it is written so well. The words flow right off the pages to you. In this novel Bond continues his battle with the insidious Union, a highly organized crime organization. The plot and character development are superb. Raymond Benson is great at descriptions of different geographical settings, and this book is no exception. To me, this novel was a joy to read, Benson seems to be getting better and better.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but nothing special.
Review: This book serves the purpose of providing a typical bond adventure to bond fans. There is nothing that is extra special about this book nor is there nothing really wrong with this book. Bond does appear to be sick in this book, but it is no big deal. This book definitely carries on the bond tradition. I recommend you get this book from the library. It is a good read, but not worth the hardcover price.

Rating:
Summary: Weakest Benson Bond So Far
Review: `Doubleshot'is the weakest Benson Bond novel so far. The plot is tiresome, the sex is repetitious and obvious, the action is boring, and Bond is too vulnerable. If you're going to read any non-Fleming Bond novels, go with the just about any John Gardner novel except `Coldfall' before moving to Benson. `Zero Minus Ten'and `High Time To Kill' are two better Benson Bonds. Hopefully, Benson will be more inspired in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Another horrible Bond Story
Review: Okay, this time Benson rehashes the revenge plot from "From Russia with Love", apes the Spectre meeting from Thunderball and throws in those hoary old chestnuts-the evil double and the amnesia blackouts that lead to murder. Add 2 bimbos (twins, no less)who are supposed to substitute for the Bond girl (memo to Mr. Benson-girls as comic relief usually signal a bad Bond film, Fleming never had brainless bimbos for heroines) and you have a candidate for worst Bond story ever, whether book or movie. Hopefully, Mr Benson will soon run out of cliches and write a Bond to match his first effort.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing filler
Review: After "High Time To Kill", I thought that Benson had finally clicked on what would make a Bond novel for the 21st Century. High technology, exotic locations, formidable villains, deceit and conspiracy at every turn. That it was the first of a trilogy involving a modern-day SPECTRE, the Union, just made me anticipate "Doubleshot" more. However, the book just left me cold, with none of the energy or the jeopardy of the previous book.

Benson has to virtually cripple Bond by the use of convenient "injuries suffered in the previous adventure" because otherwise we'd never believe for a second that our hero couldn't deal with the pathetic revenge plan of the Union with a wave of his little pinky. The conceit here is that the Union plans to destroy Bond by using a doppelganger of him. Anybody who's seen this cliched plot from the Prisoner's "The Schizoid Man" (which actually, handled this incredibly well) to Star Trek's "The Enemy Within", among others, will cry out, "But that trick NEVER works!"

And indeed, it doesn't. You *know* it can't work. What's worse, the psuedo-Bond is so lightly drawn as to never even present a credible threat to our hero. Bond could beat him sleepwalking - and actually *does*. Heaped on top of that is a villainess who kills those she sleeps with. Hardly original. I won't even mention the twin bimbo CIA agents (well, only one is a bimbo, really, but the dialogue Benson gave her is enough to make me cringe - she's supposed to be a *professional*). The other plot to assassinate the British and Spanish PMs was almost inconsequential. Cliche upon cliche - the foreign contact who gets killed, the taking the place of the double... what was Benson doing, rolling dice and looking elements up on a table?

In short, this registered as hardly a blip in the excitement or originality indicators. I'm giving it an extra star because of all his faults, Benson still describes exotic locales with style and panache. Hopefully the next and final book in the Union confrontation will be better. Benson has proven he can write a good Bond in HTTK. Let's see another one, just like the other one.

Rating:
Summary: 007 Needs A New Chronicler
Review: There is no need for me to re-hash all the negatives about this book that have already been mentioned in the other reviews. I think the Bond franchise in both film and book form is in dire need of an overhaul. Namely in the way of writers. Surely whoever is in charge of the Fleming literary estate can find someone to carry on the Bond stories other than Benson. How 'bout someone who actually has experience at writing fiction for a living? My God, they don't have to be another Ernest Hemingway or anything. Just someone who can tell a good story and write decent prose and dialog. Is that really asking too much? I think Bond fans deserve, and should expect, better quality material than this. Until we get it, I'm sticking with Fleming.

Rating:
Summary: the worst
Review: Luckily, I didn't buy this book. It was sitting in a pile of rejects in an office. Unluckily, I couldn't give it less than the one star; the system won't let me. It is probably the worst piece of trash I have ever read. Absurd coincidences, plastic (Gumbi-like) characters, impossible plot, an annoying drone of nothingness, everything that gives decent thrillers a bad name and then some. Its only redeeming characteristic is as a barometer of the publishing world's cynical odiousness; of the dreck that gets slobbed between two hard covers these days. Just awful.

Rating:
Summary: Where's the Ian Fleming wit?
Review: Doubleshot was a descent Bond book. But where's Bond's humour and charm? And the title? Fleming's books all had great titles. Doubleshot? That sounds like just any old action book.