The Facts of Death

I don't get why some people rate this book so low. Their standards must be pretty darn high. I had great fun with this book. Terrific story, cool locales. The mathematical angle in the plot was very unique. Highly recommended!

I can't believe what I'm reading in these customer comments! This book is VERY good, and it's a great James Bond story-- intricately plotted, interesting characters, full of excitement and suspense. I couldn't put it down. Raymond Benson is no literary genius, but he knows how to tell a story. MILES AHEAD OF JOHN GARDNER. Recommended!

This is the supreme Bond thriller it not only involes the usual detail and exelent plot but streches that to the absolut maximum. I recomend this book to any hardcore Bond fan or just about anyone. This book appeals to everyone including children im only 11 and it's my favorite book. It also involves Austin TX were I live and I know many people who have whated for that! The new terrorist orginization is one of the most advanced and deadly ever. It also involes an old frend of Bond's. This is a definate close call for the best bond book ever!

The *real* James Bond is back in "The Facts Of Death," Raymond Benson's terrifically entertaining follow-up to last year's "Zero Minus Ten." A couple of pages into this book, you'll be cursing all those wasted years with John Gardner.TFOD is a globe-spanning adventure in the classic high style of Ian Fleming, with some really nasty villains, some delicious female companionship, and the welcome return of some old friends. With all the requisite games, meals, cocktails, and gunplay, you *know* you're back in Fleming's world, nicely (but not excessively) updated by Benson. The book's pyrotechnics are tempered somewhat by an underlying sense of melancholy (disease is a subtext underlying the whole novel), giving the major characters a shading of psychological complexity not normally expected in this genre. Benson has created some genuinely interesting characters; while he runs them through their Bondian paces, he also gives them reasons for doing what they do. All this plus the usual slam-bang adventure and action! This book is *big* fun; it's going to please old fans and should win over quite a few new ones. Welcome back, Commander Bond!

James Bond is definitely back in the old familiar style! Raymond Benson's second 007 opus follows up the smashing success of "Zero Minus Ten" as our hero remains true to form. Again, Benson blends Fleming's Bond with the the Eon Films formula as 007 battles a cult-like terrorist organization bent on igniting a Balkan war between Greece and Turkey over the bitter matter of Cyprus. As with last year's effort, the villain's project is connected to real-life conflict as Proffesor Benson's now trademark history lesson enhances our story. Also this time round, we dive deeper in to Bond's character, especially his melancholy thoughts concerning his relationships with women. However, Bond's somber mood does not take away from the usual fun of recreational sex and romps for "Queen and Country." Recall Sean Connery's old line of "the things I do for England." Seriously, Benson's interludes with Bond's thoughts reaffirm the fact that Benson's Bond is "Pure Fleming." As Benson promised when he assumed the Bond literary mantle, we welcome back some friends from the good old days as Felix Leiter and Admiral Sir Miles Messervy, the old "M," help flesh out the action. It is also amusing to allow our taste buds to revel in Flemingesque dinner sequences as our hero throughly immerses his learned palate in dishes as diverse as Tex-Mex and Cypriot cuisine. Keep it up Mr. Benson, you certainly have established the fact that you, as did Commander Fleming, write stories for "warm-blooded heterosexuals." Strike a blow again for the forces of "Sex, Sadism, and Snobbery!!!"