The graphic violence in Raymond Benson's James Bond Novels?

It's been a while since I read them, but can anyone here provide me with some quotes of the more violent passages of the Raymond Benson James Bond novels. I've got a few in mind, but I wouldn't mind a few more, especially from the later James Bond novels of Raymond Benson. I think that the Benson Bond novels did become more graphically violent when compared to some of what came before.

Any interest in this one? I find that poor old Raymond Benson now seems to be almost universally despised on the Bond online community, sadly. I hope there may be a few fans of his work here on BaB,.

I haven't read Raymond Benson's novels yet, except for the novelizations.
I'll let you know when I'll have read them. :)

Walecs wrote:

I haven't read Raymond Benson's novels yet, except for the novelizations.
I'll let you know when I'll have read them. :)

Thanks. I look forward to your contribution in time.

Dragonpol wrote:

Any interest in this one? I find that poor old Raymond Benson now seems to be almost universally despised on the Bond online community, sadly. I hope there may be a few fans of his work here on BaB,.

Having just finished Doubleshot, imho his worst book of the five continuation novels, and looking at your question I do find that Benson is somewhat graphic in an unnecessary way. While Bond in Marocco in cold blood does take out one baddie whom he holds responsible for the death of one of his allies it feels somewhat over the top while referring to his 00 status.
The bullfighting was actually one the better bits of writing done in the novel but He did go somewhat into the gore. ANd the killing of the Bullfighter and his girldfriend were rather graphic but added nothing extra. He made that female psychopath rather pathetic than fearsome by going into many details. I fear that it is a form of Flemingitis were the people try to copy Flemings talent of describing situations and objects and make it look interesting and a fresh look at said subjects. ( I love Flemings vision on golf but the game itself never did so much for me in reality, but the GF chapters do make want to play golf). Mr Benson does take the violence and tries to add to it in a somewhat Flemigesque style of prose but goes over the top with details chosing for gore instead of fascination. And he did get it right with the killing of the doctor & the Welshman leaving the mystery of what had happened somewhat intact.

just my humble opinion.

saint mark wrote:

Dragonpol wrote:

Any interest in this one? I find that poor old Raymond Benson now seems to be almost universally despised on the Bond online community, sadly. I hope there may be a few fans of his work here on BaB,.

Having just finished Doubleshot, imho his worst book of the five continuation novels, and looking at your question I do find that Benson is somewhat graphic in an unnecessary way. While Bond in Marocco in cold blood does take out one baddie whom he holds responsible for the death of one of his allies it feels somewhat over the top while referring to his 00 status.
The bullfighting was actually one the better bits of writing done in the novel but He did go somewhat into the gore. ANd the killing of the Bullfighter and his girldfriend were rather graphic but added nothing extra. He made that female psychopath rather pathetic than fearsome by going into many details. I fear that it is a form of Flemingitis were the people try to copy Flemings talent of describing situations and objects and make it look interesting and a fresh look at said subjects. ( I love Flemings vision on golf but the game itself never did so much for me in reality, but the GF chapters do make want to play golf). Mr Benson does take the violence and tries to add to it in a somewhat Flemigesque style of prose but goes over the top with details chosing for gore instead of fascination. And he did get it right with the killing of the doctor & the Welshman leaving the mystery of what had happened somewhat intact.

just my humble opinion.

Thank you so very much for your perfect reply, saint mark.

Thank you too for examples - I forget the scenes from the later novels. Thank you so much for agreeing with my theseis on the graphic violence in the Benson novels - I supopose though that it rather presaged in itas own way the equally more graphicallt violent Daniel Craig era of James Bond films.

I am open to any more offers on graphically violent scenes from the later or indeed any of the Raymond Benson novels.

I haven't read Benson in a while, even with owning 3 of his books in paperback (ZERO MINUS TEN, DOUBLESHOT, and NEVER DREAM OF DYING). So all of this will be coming from memory. From what I remember, Bensons books read like a screenplay, almost as if his works are unfilmed adventures from the Brosnan era. I'm sure that's exactly what he was going for, but the result stands out like a sore thumb in the literary Bond universe. There isn't much of an internal monologue from Bond that I can remember, something Fleming uses liberally and even Gardner dabbles with. As a result, the kind of subtext and analysis the other Bond authors indulge in are absent in Bensons works and it ends up being a less fulfilling read, in my opinion.

As far as the violence, that doesn't stand out in my mind nearly as much as the graphic sexuality that litters Benson's novels. It's been commented on many times before, but his sex scenes verge on pornographic. The male fantasy aspect of Bond is on overdrive, turning the Benson books into erotic thrillers as opposed to spy novels. Sex is a part of the written world of Bond, but the literary version doesn't try to fuck someone at every location in every book. Moreover, there is no tease that Fleming novels use, they just go right down to fucking.

There are other issues I have with Benson's books (the resurrection and desecration of classic characters, for one), but that's for another time.

Tubes wrote:

I haven't read Benson in a while, even with owning 3 of his books in paperback (ZERO MINUS TEN, DOUBLESHOT, and NEVER DREAM OF DYING). So all of this will be coming from memory. From what I remember, Bensons books read like a screenplay, almost as if his works are unfilmed adventures from the Brosnan era. I'm sure that's exactly what he was going for, but the result stands out like a sore thumb in the literary Bond universe. There isn't much of an internal monologue from Bond that I can remember, something Fleming uses liberally and even Gardner dabbles with. As a result, the kind of subtext and analysis the other Bond authors indulge in are absent in Bensons works and it ends up being a less fulfilling read, in my opinion.

As far as the violence, that doesn't stand out in my mind nearly as much as the graphic sexuality that litters Benson's novels. It's been commented on many times before, but his sex scenes verge on pornographic. The male fantasy aspect of Bond is on overdrive, turning the Benson books into erotic thrillers as opposed to spy novels. Sex is a part of the written world of Bond, but the literary version doesn't try to fuck someone at every location in every book. Moreover, there is no tease that Fleming novels use, they just go right down to fucking.

There are other issues I have with Benson's books (the resurrection and desecration of classic characters, for one), but that's for another time.

Thank you, Tubes. You are spot on and yes I have heard criticisms of the sex and the slaying of the old characters criticisms too! Thank you again, kind sir.

The sex aspect is the key detraction for most I've talked to. I never noticed a greater amount of violence in Benson, but the different approach to writing the sex scenes was an eye opener for a huge Bond reader.

That said, I kind of like the way Benson wrote these as it adds another touch of difference to his 007. I liked how he wrote Bond with definite Fleming roots, yet plunged our Commander into the modern world with some of the early Gardner old dog learning new tricks feel.

Benson was not a novelist when he started 007, and some of his writing comes across as more of a fan dream when it comes to things like the recurring classic characters. When you scrutinize things like this the stories start to fall apart a bit.

But despite their weaknesses, the better parts of Benson are to me immeasurably preferable to some of the drivel Gardner put out in his second half of Bond writing.

Word for word, I think High Time to Kill may now be may favorite continuation novel.

hegottheboot wrote:

The sex aspect is the key detraction for most I've talked to. I never noticed a greater amount of violence in Benson, but the different approach to writing the sex scenes was an eye opener for a huge Bond reader.

That said, I kind of like the way Benson wrote these as it adds another touch of difference to his 007. I liked how he wrote Bond with definite Fleming roots, yet plunged our Commander into the modern world with some of the early Gardner old dog learning new tricks feel.

Benson was not a novelist when he started 007, and some of his writing comes across as more of a fan dream when it comes to things like the recurring classic characters. When you scrutinize things like this the stories start to fall apart a bit.

But despite their weaknesses, the better parts of Benson are to me immeasurably preferable to some of the drivel Gardner put out in his second half of Bond writing.

Word for word, I think High Time to Kill may now be may favorite continuation novel.

Thank you for your reply - I think the violence was a bit more graphic in the Benson Bonds, but then perhaps so was everything, including of course the sex. Fleming was pretty tame sex and I preferred it that way; it did not detract from the story.

You are right on the good and interesting qualities that Benson brought to the task of Bond author.

It's also pretty nice to see some general love for Raymond Benson as Bond continuation author - it's all too rare these days!

Indeed, it wasn't until I joined some forums that I realized how little standing Benson's tenure has with fans. I thought at the very least all his books played well and moved with enough speed to always be readable.