'The Man With The Red Tattoo' 20% Price Discount

Raymond Benson’s next original James Bond novel, The Man With The Red Tattoo, has now received a 20% discount at amazon.co.uk.

With an original listing price of £18.99, the novel is now listed at £15.19 which is a £3.80 savings.

Amazon describes the novel’s plot, saying:

With an emergency G7 summit meeting just days away, it’s a race against time as James Bond confronts both man and nature in a desperate bid to stop the release of a deadly virus that could destroy the Western world.

Order now and you won’t be charged until the book is released in May this year. Visit amazon.co.uk to purchase it now to ensure you get a first edition!

'The Man With The Red Tattoo' Plot Description

Internet retail giant amazon.co.uk have published a plot description of Raymond Benson’s next James Bond novel, The Man With The Red Tattoo. At this stage, however, it should be emphasised that details could quite easily be wrong:

With an emergency G7 summit meeting just days away, it’s a race against time as James Bond confronts both man and nature in a desperate bid to stop the release of a deadly virus that could destroy the Western world.

The novel is slated for a release date of 2 May 2002 and can be pre-ordered from amazon.co.uk for £18.99. Thanks to Zencat for the tip off!

'The Man With The Red Tattoo' Available For Pre-Order

Raymond Benson’s next James Bond novel, The Man With The Red Tattoo, has just gone on pre-order sale on amazon.co.uk.

While no cover art is available, the addition to the amazon catalogue indicates that we can expect it soon enough. Amazon currently have the book listed for the price of £18.99 with a release date of 2 May 2002.

The Man With The Red Tattoo is the first item to ever become a CommanderBond.net “Must Buy Item”, an idea especially conceived for the promotion of the novel. You can see the “Must Buy Listing” in the right hand column of all the news pages. Don’t forget to pre-order this item to ensure you get a great piece of James Bond literature.

And also, don’t forget that CommanderBond.net will keep you up to date with the best prices available for this title. Thanks to Zencat for alerting us to the pre-order availability in the Raymond Benson Forums.

'The Man With The Red Tattoo'

At last, Raymond Benson has come up with the title for what was known as “The Japan Book”–The Man With The Red Tattoo.

CBn held a Q&A with Mr Benson a few months ago which you can see that here. It’s got some details as what to expect in the book.

The Man With The Red Tattoo will be released in the UK in May 2002 (published by Hodder and Stoughton) and in June 2002 in the US (published by Putnam).

Now we need to see what the cover art is going to be like for the book. Will they go back to the popular UK cover or will it be completely different like Never Dream of Dying?

First Look At Raymond Benson's Next Novel

Written by Daniel Dykes and John Cox

You’ve more than likely read John Cox’s fantastic report on the recent Bond Collectors Weekend held in Chicago, and from that you’d have gathered that author Raymond Benson was a guest of the weekend. During question time Benson did reveal some details on his next James Bond adventure. And again thanks to John (‘Zencat’ around the CommanderBond.net Forums) we can bring you those details!

The next novel directly follows Bond’s last outing Never Dream Of Dying in which the villain and a major location was established. Japan shall focus as the major part of Bond’s next literary adventure and Goro Yoshida, who hired the aide of ‘The Union’ in Never Dream Of Dying, shall feature as the villain. While we do know that Japan will be the focus of the novel whether or not Bond shall travel to any further locales still remains unknown.

Currently this book has no title, nor even a working title. Benson kept referring to it as “the Japan book” which seems to indicate that he hasn’t even begun tinkering with title ideas. Then again, he could be taking a leaf out of George Lucas’ book!

Research for the book has already taken place with Benson visiting Japan, and one locale he mentioned was the Seikan Tunnel. The Seikan Tunnel is a 121,00m long and provides an underground railway system linking the main Japanese island of Honshu with the northern island of Hokkaido. As John points out, this could be an indication that we’ll see some “action” in the tunnel. Perhaps a terrorist threat from Goro Yoshida or some direct action involving Bond? I guess we can only wait and see.

And on the book Benson revealed it will be a more “traditional” Bond adventure in the vein of Never Dream of Dying. Furthermore, of all of Benson’s books this one has already veered the most from its original outline as Benson describes he found “better ways of doing things.”

Now comes a spoiler, it’s not a plot spoiler but a character spoiler; so feel free to stop reading now. But as I said I expected in the forums, Bond fans will see the return of the Japanese Tiger Tanaka. Those who have only seen the films will know Tanaka from Sean Connery’s You Only Live Twice and those who have read Fleming’s novel You Only Live Twice will need no introduction to the character!

So there you have it. Some very interesting facts on the next Bond novel due for publication in 2002! You can find out more from the Literary 007 Forums.

Earnest Flemingway – Raymond Benson's DoubleShot

A big thanks to Bond Scholar Ajay Chowdhury for sending in this review of Raymond Benson’s DoubleShot. Should you wish to discuss this review or anything to do with James Bond literature please visit the Literary 007 Forums. DoubleShot is the second novel in the ‘Union Trilogy’ of Ramond Benson novels.

EARNEST FLEMINGWAY – RAYMOND BENSON’S DOUBLESHOT
REVIEW by Ajay Chowdhury

Geo-political tension. A summit meeting in one of the most strategic points on earth. The situation is critical. The crisis must be resolved. Characters assemble – lethal pieces on a deadly chess board. A security officer, vigilant for terrorist attack, freezes as he sees peril. James Bond 007, “one of the most dangerous men on the planet” must be stopped. And stopped before he plunges the world into turmoil?

Raymond Benson’s fourth James Bond continuation novel, DoubleShot (Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0 340 75168 1) starts with a stylish experiment in structure giving us the end at the beginning – a cliffhanger – to be picked up only in the last chapter. This device frames an ingenious story involving an all too human James Bond, physically and emotionally weakened by his last adventure, High Time To Kill, at odds with the Service, his colleagues and his very sanity. Convinced he is losing his grip on reality and believing he has seen his doppelganger, his exact double, James Bond must discover what is happening to him in order to regain his reputation and clear his name. However, Bond is a mere pawn in a greater scheme plotted by the blind Berber, Le Gerant, and his terrorist organization, The Union. The Union has colluded with Domingo Espada (a fervent Spanish nationalist, political populist and his nation’s favourite toreador), who is planning to destabilize the world by staging an audacious coup.

Bond follows a trail that leads him through: a shoot-out in Soho, dinner at the Ivy in London, a secret base in Casablanca, a train journey from Tangier with a buxom pair of twins, a raid on a camp near the Rif Mountains in Morocco, a fortress-like toreador training estate in Marbella, Spain, a beautiful but deadly equestrian, a fight in an abattoir and a meeting with the Governor of the Rock of Gibraltar.

Benson keeps continuity with Fleming and Gardner’s Bond as well as the developments in his own series. Bond is motivated by the revelations at the end of the last novel and there is a pleasing development of character. However, Benson’s masterstroke is his depiction of bull fighting, symbolic of the dance of death between James Bond and Espada. Fleming would surely have cast an eye on the sport. Benson’s writing style could be described as “earnest Flemingway” and the story echoes From Russia With Love and Nobody Lives Forever. His British scenes and dialogue are sometimes a bit clumsy while Bond’s world of espionage and politics is presented in broad, naïve brushstrokes. However, the novel is an entertaining, fun read, written with attention to detail and passion.

In the new Millennium, fans of James Bond as created by Ian Fleming have a choice. Ian Fleming was an incomparable storyteller and writer and purists should limit their Bond reading to his 12 novels and 9 short stories. However, those who still pine for the heady world of the literary James Bond will always look forward to the continuation James Bond novels with an open mind and interest – pre-requisites if one is to enjoy them. Raymond Benson has stepped comfortably into the role vacated by Kingsly Amis, John Pearson, Christopher Wood and John Gardner. That role? To re-breathe life into the Ian Fleming’s stunning creation. James Bond is dead, long live James Bond.

© Ajay Chowdhury, 2000

Sleep When It's Read – 'Never Dream Of Dying'

I must thank Ajay Chowdhury, a good friend of mine and a Bond scholar, for sending in this review of Raymond Benson’s Never Dream Of Dying. Should you wish to discuss this review or anything to do with James Bond literature please visit the Literary 007 Forums.

SLEEP WHEN IT’S READ

RAYMOND BENSON’S NEVER DREAM OF DYING

REVIEW by Ajay Chowdhury

Raymond Benson’s fifth James Bond continuation novel, NEVER DREAM OF DYING (Hodder & Stoughton, £17.99, ISBN 0 340 79259 0) is the finale of what can loosely be called “The Union Trilogy” in which Bond finally confronts his arch-enemy from the previous two novels, Olivier Cesari aka Le Gerant.

A “New War” has broken out between SPECTRE nouveau, The Union and the world’s security forces. 007 and his old French ami, Rene Mathis botch a raid on the old Bisset film studios in Nice (suspected of being a front for arms dealings) in which innocent people are killed. Bond is transferred to another assignment but has to plead to stay on the trail of the Union. Mathis is suspended but continues to make his own personal efforts to track down Le Gerant. Their work meets to reveal that the Union is using notoriously successful film producer, Leon Essinger’s next blockbuster, “Pirate Island” (Waterworld meets Cutthroat Island) to launder funds and smuggle stolen explosives. After a clue garnered from Belmarsh Prison, Bond follows the trail to Paris and then the South of France where he eventually gets involved with Essinger’s estranged spouse, the beautiful actress-model, Tylyn (rhymes with “smilin'”) Mignonne, has a “formal” meeting with his ex-father-in-law, Marc Ange-Draco which in turn leads him to a duel of chemin de fer in the royal casino of Monte Carlo with a certain Pierre Rodiac. Soon Bond is performing his own stunts on the ocean-bound set of Pirate Island off the coast of Corsica and tracking down his prey in the haunting paisan terrain of rustic Corsica before the full threat is revealed. With isolated episodes in the US (Sunset Boulevard, Buffalo Grove – the author’s home town near Chicago) and the Japanese Kuril Islands near Russia, the novel’s journey finally ends at the Cannes Film Festival and subsequently the new HQ of the Union.

It is hard to be original in a James Bond story but Benson has managed to come up with some new ideas: an anti-terrorist assault on disused film studios, retinal tatoos, 007’s capable male secretary, a chase through a TV set being used for a dog show, a deadly waterbound chase intercut with a fake film sequence, an undersea ride on a gadget-laden sled, an ingenious jail-break, a fight in a grand cinema, a full-scale commando raid and the most painful torture sequence since 007 met that carpet-beater!

Of course, Benson is having fun too. The novel features a Dr David Worrall, a French agent named Collette, a French Commander Perriot, Schenkman, “the killer from the Bronx”, a boat chase in which Bond performs a barrel-roll and submerges his vessel and a film festival name-checking Sophie Marceau and Carole Bouquet!

Benson continues to earn his martinis! Bond’s unlikely affair with Tylyn is a wonderful love story which is refreshing for its rarity. Draco’s entrance is well handled. The evocation of dream imagery and Corsican myth and vendetta gives the story thematic appeal. The globetrotting makes logical sense and Benson does conjour up a sense of place and local colour. As usual with Benson, the writing sits awkwardly on the page in places. The central idea of a major film production being used as a criminal front is smart in these days of $100 million plus budgets but underdeveloped. Mathis’ characterization is weak and his investigation strand is a non sequitur. However, the novel is well crafted and plotted: after the extremely exciting, prolonged ending, the resolution is cleverly neat, genuinely surprising and bittersweet. Benson has fashioned an inventive and richly complex tale of international intrigue, fate and revenge in which a range of matters in the life of James Bond 007 are satisfyingly resolved.

© Ajay Chowdhury, 2001

Discuss this ‘Never Dream Of Dying’ review in this thread on the CBn Forums, the largest James Bond forum in the world.

James Bond Heads For Tokyo

Commander James Bond of Her Royal Majesty’s Navy will travel to Tokyo for his next mission in 2002. Thanks to Sly for sending this report into us, which has appeared on 007Forever.

The book, by Raymond Benson, will follow the soon to be released Never Dream of Dying. It will be Bond’s first mission in Tokyo since his mission there in Ian Fleming’s You Only Live Twice.

Raymond Benson, the writer of five Bond stories, has researched the city’s attractions and 007 should be in his element among the love hotels of Kabukicho. The safest place to relax, however, could be the district’s “no-pantie” coffee shops: mirrored floors will ensure Ian Fleming’s creation is alerted to any weapons concealed beneath the hostesses’ skirts.

This is sounding raunchy. Apparently Never Dream Of Dying will have quite a few raunchy scenes as well, but we’ll have to wait and see.

'Doubleshot' By Raymond Benson

A review by Daniel Dykes

Following of from High Time To Kill, Doubleshot is the second novel in Raymond Benson’s trilogy about The Union. I was pleasantly surprised with Doubleshot which like High Time To Kill had a great feeling to it but Doubleshot has a far more complex plot with really draws you in, in truth you’re left guessing for a large part of the novel.

Before we get right into this review I must warn you that I will present certain spoilers, so if you haven’t read the novel before I have warned you. To begin with, so that I don’t go too much into depth about the plot, here is the publishers description of the novel as it appears in the book:

A gripping new James Bond adventure–one of the strangest and most terrifying the agent has ever endured.

Is this bizarre warning inside a fortune cookie the catalyst for a series of unsettling events that could push an impaired James Bond close to the edge of madness?

The intricately organized criminal conspiracy called the Union has vowed its revenge on the man who thwarted its last coup. Now, the Union’s mysterious leader sets out to destroy James Bond’s reputation and sanity by luring the agent into a dangerous alliance of deceit and treason with a Spanish militant intent on reclaiming Gibraltar.

Officially on medical leave, 007 pursues clues that he believes might lead him to the Union’s inner circle. His search takes him from the seedy underbelly of London’s Soho to the souks of Tangier; from a terrorist training camp in Morocco to a bullring in Spain; and from the clutches of a murderous Spanish beauty to a volatile summit conference on the Rock of Gibraltar. Each step brings him closer to the truth about the Union’s elaborate, audacious plot to destroy both SIS and its best agent: James Bond.

It sounds quite interesting, doesn’t it? Well yes the novel is interesting. And it is one of the better Bond novels, however, certain plot elements become confusing at times as this novel starts in what you would consider the present and then skips to the past and explains it all. While this sort of introduction works well to draw in the reader is does confuse you somewhat during the novel. However, by the end of the novel you’ll understand it completely as there are certain twists throughout the story and you’ll be glad that you were confused.

Doubleshot gives one of the more interesting insights into James Bond as a man. Like Ian Fleming’s The Man With The Golden Gun we’re dealing with a Bond who has a deeper psyche and shows signs of a mental illness. In fact for a lot of the novel Benson presents a Bond who is vengeance-obsessed, injury-stricken and possibly suffering from depression. Also Bond forced to confront his existence as a “blunt instrument of death” for Her Majesty’s Secret Service. This novel gives a great insight to Bond and with the “blunt instrument” theme we see very few gadgets and just an agent who has only his wits.

Again The Union presents a fantastic array of agents. Some of whom die and some who obviously die. There’s also a fantastic insight in to Le Gerant that really shows how much of a twisted genius the man is. Aside from Le Gerant are some fantastic other Union agents who will both puzzle and intrigue you.

Bond girls tend to lapse in Benson’s novels, they seem to have a lack of character development. However, I did enjoy Hedy and Heidi Taunt in this novel compared to some of Benson’s earlier Bond girls. They have a clever disguise which leads to a good plot, however, at times they do seem a bit like two blonde bimbos. However, don’t underestimate the power of sexual appeal (and Benson’s vivid descriptions will entertain most men) as will Bond’s first written a ménage a trios (one that a lot of men would like to experience I’m sure!). Aside from sexual appeal Benson entwines the girls very well into the plot and uses them frequently for twists and turns. They do become completely intriguing though a little too Mary Goodnight-ish.

The other Bond girl Dr. Kimberley Feare comes across as a very interesting character. Aside from her professional career the good Doctor has a life outside Bond which makes Bond seem a little more ‘destructible’.

The action in Doubleshot is better than that in The Facts of Death as Bond is left with only his wits and skills for the majority of the novel. While at times some of the actions leaves Bond looking like a bumbling person Benson’s ploys do add to the development of a Bond in serious retrograde.

Overall, this is an excellent novel and one could easily forget the fact that Bond is not only pitted up against The Union (who really screw with his head) but he’s also attempting to stop the recapturing of Gibraltar by Spanish Militants. I really think all Bond fans should read this, but not before High Time To Kill as you’ll be left a little confused about some comments in the novel. The plot is fantastic, as are the Benson’s typical vivid descriptions. Like all things it lacks in some areas, but this is definitely one of the better Bond novels.

© Daniel Dykes, 2001

More On 'Never Dream of Dying'

IanFleming.org has taken a nice little look at Raymond Benson’s upcoming James Bond novel, Never Dream Of Dying. There’s little surprise that some of this material is exclusive to them, after all Benson is a member of their staff.

Well here’s what they had to say:

Raymond Benson, the author of the James Bond novels, confirms to 007 NEWS that James Bond will return this summer in Never Dream of Dying.

Following on the heels of Bond’s exploits in Doubleshot, Benson pens Bond a journey in Paris after a police raid on a movie studio goes awry. And in typical Bond style, 007 meets up with Tylyn Migonne, a movie star.

A French agent and friend of Bond goes missing and Bond takes up the case…

Back From The Dead: Marc-Ange Draco, a friend of Bond who was reported to have died in John Gardner’s Nobody Lives Forever, is back again. Benson said Draco’s alleged death can be explained away because it was handled in a vague, unimportant way. “If you’re going to kill a major character like Draco, you had better make it memorable,” Benson said. “Draco is very much alive. As far as I’m concerned, it’s simple to say that the intelligence that MI6 received regarding Draco’s death was false.”

Text From The Inside Cover: In Raymond Benson’s chilling new James Bond novel, Bond comes face to face at last with the most cunning criminal mastermind he has ever fought–the blind genius behind the brutal organization called the Union.

It begins at a movie studio in Nice where a police raid goes horribly wrong, killing innocent men, women and even children. It continues in an English prison, where a dead man discloses an intriguing secret about the Union. The trail leads James Bond to Paris, where he meets the tantalizing movie star Tylyn Mignonne and embarks on a voyage of sensual discovery.

But Tylyn is in mortal danger. Her husband, a volatile French film producer, has not forgiven his glamorous wife for ending their troubled marriage–and he is connected to the Union’s thugs.

Meanwhile, Bond’s friend, French agent Mathis, has disappeared while tracking down the Union’s mysterious leader, Le Gerant. Bond’s journey takes him to a thrilling underwater brush with death, a chase through the Corsican wilderness, a surprise encounter with an old friend–and a final confrontation with a twisted criminal genius.

Bond Goes To Cannes: The famous Cannes Film Festival, which Benson visited earlier this year, plays a key role. And Benson tells 007 NEWS that the sex scenes in this novel may even shock some fans. “The reasoning is that in Fleming’s day, his sex scenes were considered shocking. We had to do something that would push people’s buttons in today’s times,” Benson said.

Never Dream of Dying will conclude Benson’s trilogy that had Bond pitted against the Union. However, does this mean the Union is a thing of the past? Perhaps not. We’ll all have to wait for the novel to find out.

The book is due to be released in Great Britain on 3 May 2001. As yet a release date for the United States hasn’t been announced. You can pre-order your copy from amazon.co.uk.