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25 Years since the publication of Raymond Benson's first James Bond novel, Zero Minus Ten (1997)
Dragonpol
https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
As Raymond Benson has pointed out today on his Facebook and Twitter accounts, tomorrow, Monday 4th April 2022 marks the 25th Anniversary of the UK publication of his debut James Bond continuation novel, Zero Minus Ten (1997). In total, Benson wrote six original Bond continuation novels, three Bond short stories and three film novelisations from 1997 to 2002. It would be timely to hear from literary Bond fans here about what they thought of Zero Minus Ten and, by extension, their thoughts or retrospectives on the Benson era of Bond novels and film novelisations?
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Comments
I was a kid at the time, but I recall really enjoying the locations and action sequences in both Zero Minus Ten and The Facts of Death. I know Benson did a good deal of research into real-world settings to make the action sequences read authentically. TND was a great read as well. I revisited that one in the past year or so and thought Benson did a terrific job adapting it.
I'm certainly due to revisit Zero Minus Ten. There may be no more appropriate time!
I still think that adapting The Union Trilogy would be a great way to get 3 movies out quickly.
Yes, I know his books have been criticised a lot over the years just like any other Bond continuation author but he does have his fans too and I'm among them.
Eon actually do retain the rights to potentially adapt the Bond continuation novels though thus far they have very rarely exercised this right. The only overt example of it was the use of the Colonel Sun torture scene with almost verbatim dialogue in the head drilling scene in Spectre. The Kingsley Amis Estate got a credit at the end of the film and were paid for the use of the scene.
Now that is an idea I got get behind. And one I think would be appealing to an actor. 3 films, and only 3 films. No long term locked in contract, just 2-3* years between each of the 3 films.
*I would prefer 2, but if that isn't doable these days, then 3.
I didn't know that. I thought EON didn't own the rights, which put them into a kind of limbo.
I just hope IFP doesn't edit it for the sake of PCness.
Here's hoping that the newer Bond continuation novels such as those by Raymond Benson won't be affected by the censorship the original Fleming Bonds have been subjected to. I see Colonel Sun is being reprinted too along with John Pearson's James Bond, The Authorised Biography of 007. Given the fact they are both now 50 years old and over they may well be at more risk from the so-called "sensitivity readers". Hopefully IFP will leave them all alone.
Though it is nice to see the Benson books a Benson book back in print (for the first since sine their original publication), that is still a concern. But I don't know what they could sensor from Zero Minus Ten, that one at least, I think is safe.
Yes, I think it should be safe enough as it's still relatively recent as far as Bond novels go. Sadly, I'm not so sure about the two novels I mentioned above published in 1968 and 1973 respectively. A lot has changed in the intervening years but I really hope that they leave them "as is". :)
I re-read Colonel Sun recently: it's a very decently written book, although has shades of being way more pro-Russian than I think Fleming would ever have been. The new forewords will be nice to have a look at.
https://www.ianfleming.com/new-editions-cover-reveal
They're okay, I'm not blown away.
The fire is very poorly comped in here. Fire doesn't get darker towards the ends of the flame.
The last one seems a bit odd: the drop shadows are pretty poor and not consistent; but the props chosen seem even odder. That's a Rolex Explorer II GMT; although Bond wore a Rolex I thought it was generally held to be an Explorer like Fleming's, which is quite a different watch. Also that looks a modern model to me, and not correct for period. The gun: I'm not an expert but I'm not sure that's a PPK is it? I think it's a PP..? And Bond most famously carried a Ronson lighter, and that doesn't look like a Ronson to me. And what relevance does a pen hold..?
I might pick up this copy of zero minus ten as my copy has vanished
I think pretty much every item there is slightly wrong in some fashion tbh. Intern has been on their Canva app to save em money on a graphic designer. (The match book is so bad you can see where they painted over the logo)
I have bought the benson, but the cover is really a bit naff.