Calvin Dyson reviews HIGH TIME TO KILL

Calvin Dyson is back with a review of Raymond Benson's High Time To Kill. Once again we are in sync. This is also my favorite Benson novel and possibly my favorite continuation novel of them all. Enjoy.

HIGH TIME TO KILL turns 25

Happy to join in the celebration of Raymond Benson's third original James Bond continuation novel, High Time To Kill, which turns 25 today. One of my all-time favorites!

You can read my review of the book that I wrote on the 5th anniversary HERE. Wow, how time flies.

RAYMOND BENSON eBook omnibus released today

James Bond: The Raymond Benson Years is released today from Ian Fleming Publications. This eBook-only omnibus collects all six original Raymond Benson James Bond novels for the first time: Zero Minus Ten, The Facts of Death, High Time to Kill, Doubleshot, Never Dream of Dying, and The Man with the Red Tattoo.

You can purchase James Bond: The Raymond Benson Years on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, or directly from Ian Fleming Publications.

Anniversary BONDS for 2024

HAPPY NEW YEAR and welcome to another year of The Book Bond. Here's a rundown of the Bond novels that will be celebrating notable anniversaries this year. Break out the bookmarks and champagne!

70th Anniversary

Ian Fleming's second Bond novel brings 007 to the United States on the trail of gangsters and pirate treasure. Live and Let Die was published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on April 5, 1954.

60th Anniversary

Ian Fleming sends James Bond to Japan in You Only Live Twice, published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on March 26, 1964. It was released in the U.S. in August by the New American Library.

40th Anniversary

John Gardner planned to take a break after his inital three book contract, but 1984 saw the suprise publication of his fourth Bond, Role of Honor, relased by Putnam in the U.S. in September and Jonathan Cape in the UK on October 4.

30th Anniversary

John Garder nears the end of his run with his 13th orginal Bond adventure, SeaFire, first published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton in August 1994 and by Putnam in the U.S. in September. 

25th Anniversary

My favorite Raymond Benson Bond novel, High Time To Kill, turns 25 this year. The book was published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton on May 6, 1999. The U.S. edition from Putnam (pictured here) was published on June 7, 1999.

10th Anniversary

Steve Cole continues the Young Bond series with his debute novel, Shoot To Kill, which finds young James in action in Hollywood. The book was released in the UK by Random House on November 6, 2014. There was no U.S. release.

Happy reading!

The Benson PROOFS

Here are the U.S. uncorrected proofs for Raymond Benson's six James Bond novels, which have just listed for sale on eBay. (I'm thinning out my Bond collection.) But I realized I never did a post to document them, so here they are!

High time for the BOND 25 title reveal

Today Eon Productions revealed the title of the 25th James Bond film:

Of course, my mind went right here:

No Time To Die will be released in April 2020. (High Time To Kill was released in May 1999.)

Jaguar from THE FACTS OF DEATH and HIGH TIME TO KILL

Bond author Raymond Benson has shared the following on his Twitter. This is great. I love the Bond book cars, and the Jaguar XK8 was a great one.

I found the awesome design/drawings by the brilliant Fergus Pollock of the Jaguar XK8 that James Bond drove in my novels THE FACTS OF DEATH (1998) and HIGH TIME TO KILL (1999). Fergus helped come up with the "extras." @JaguarUK @Jaguar @JaguarUSA pic.twitter.com/xXcBRNm9tq

— Raymond Benson (@RaymondBenson) June 3, 2019

Benson's BOND - UK hardcovers

Over the weekend I shared the Raymond Benson James Bond U.S. hardcover first editions. Here now are the UK hardcover firsts from Hodder & Stoughton.

The Hodder books featured striking cover art with series art established on the 1995 Coronet paperbacks and first used on a hardcover with John Gardner's COLD. However, the publisher changed it up with the last two books, producing covers that were a bit disappointing in comparison (IMO). Hodder also published Benson's three film novelizations in hardcover. Tomorrow Never Dies remains the rarest of all the Benson UK firsts.

Publication dates:

Zero Minus Ten – Hodder & Stoughton, April 3, 1997.
Tomorrow Never Dies – Hodder & Stoughton, November 6, 1997.

The Facts of Death - Hodder & Stoughton, May 7, 1998.

High Time To Kill - Hodder & Stoughton, May 6, 1999.
The World Is Not Enough – Hodder & Stoughton, November 18, 1999.

Doubleshot - Hodder & Stoughton, May 4, 2000.

Never Dream of Dying - Hodder & Stoughton May 3, 2001.

The Man With The Red Tattoo – Hodder & Stoughton, May 2, 2002.
Die Another Day - Hodder & Stoughton, November 7, 2002.

Benson's BOND - U.S. hardcovers

In 1997 Raymond Benson succeeded John Gardner as the official James Bond continuation author. Benson returned many of the classic elements to the series (such as Bond's Walther PPK) and chose not to continue some of the changes of the later Gardner years, such as MircoGlobe One. Per the request of IFP (then still Glidrose), Benson made M a woman as a concession to the film series.

Benson delivered six terrific original James Bond adventures with each book powered by a clear thematic "hook." They were books written by a hardcore James Bond fan and certainly appealed to this hardcore fan. I'll still argue that Benson's third book, High Time To Kill, is one of the very best of all the James Bond continuation novels.

In the U.S., all six Raymond Benson Bond books were published in hardcover by Putnam with nice uniform cover art. This new series art was an improvement (IMO) over Putnam's Gardner series cover art which had also remained uniform during his reign. Benson's three novelizations, Tomorrow Never Die, The World Is Not Enough, and Die Another Day, where not published in hardcover in the U.S.

Publication dates:

Zero Minus Ten – Putnam, May 5, 1997.

The Facts of Death - Putnam, June 15, 1998.

High Time To Kill - Putnam, June 7, 1999.

Doubleshot - Putnam, June 5, 2000.

Never Dream of Dying - June 4, 2001.

The Man With The Red Tattoo – Putnam, June 10, 2002.

The Benson paperbacks were published by Jove in the U.S. You can check out those covers HERE.

RAYMOND BENSON U.S. paperbacks

I've been looking back at the John Gardner Bond books a lot lately, so I thought it was time to throw a little Raymond Benson into the mix. I'll kick off with his U.S. paperbacks because this one of my favorite sets. I love the uniformity of the design and the location specific backgrounds. These paperbacks were released by Jove, who after a one book break with Cold Fall, returned to their "James Bond in" series design (with the lightning bolt underline) with Benson.

Of course, Raymond Benson also produced three novelizations during his run as continuation novelist. Those paperbacks, released by Triangle, can be see below.

And as long on we're on the subject of Benson U.S. paperbacks, here's a bonus. Below are three prototype covers for Tomorrow Never Dies (using the Cold Fall series art), Zero Minus Ten, and Die Another Day. One thing I like about the DAD cover is that it uses a tagline that was never used for the film: "He's never been cooler." (Taglines pretty much vanished from Bond film marketing after GoldenEye.) And while books with these covers were never actually produced, you'll still see this artwork on listings at Amazon.com, etc.

Publication:

Tomorrow Never Dies – Triangle, November 1997.

Zero Minus Ten – Jove, July 1998.

The Facts of Death - Jove, August 1999.

The World Is Not Enough - Triangle, October 6, 1999.

High Time To Kill - Jove, June 5, 2000.

Doubleshot - Jove, June 5, 2001.

Never Dream of Dying - Jove, April 30, 2002.

Die Another Day - Triangle, November 5, 2002.

The Man With The Red Tattoo – Jove, April 28, 2003.

Benson is back in 'The Union Trilogy'

Pegasus Books has released a Raymond Benson James Bond omnibus, The Union Trilogy. The collection includes the novels High Time To Kill, Doubleshot, and Never Dream of Dying.

As a bonus, the book also includes the full version of Raymond's first Bond short story "Blast From The Past." This uncut version has never before been published in English.

Raymond Benson was the James Bond continuation author from 1997 to 2002.

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk

Blast from the past: Benson returns in 2008

Great news today! K1Bond007.com reports that Pegasus Books will re-publish a selection of Raymond Benson's James Bond novels in an omnibus edition in October 2008.

The collection will contain the "Union Trilogy"-- High Time To Kill, Doubleshot, and Never Dream of Dying... plus, as a bonus, the complete uncut short story Blast From The Past.

Blast From The Past originally appeared in the January 1997 issue of Playboy in a truncated version (image right). The full-length version was published in Italian and in French. This will be its first appearance in English.

Raymond will provide a new introduction to the book. A title for the collection has not yet been selected. Pegasus hopes to publish a second volume of Benson's remaining 007 novels and short stories in 2009.

BOOK BOND REVIEW: Raymond Benson's all time high

As we approach the Five Year Anniversary of its publication, I thought it was time to look back at what many fans now consider to be one of Raymond Benson’s best James Bond novels, High Time To Kill.

In his third original Bond adventure, Benson is highly experimental in his use of a single setting for much of the story while, at the same time, still deftly adhering to the classic James Bond formula. No “continuation novel” demonstrates a better understanding of what makes a classic Bond thriller, and High Time To Kill surpasses even some of Fleming’s books in this regard.

The first half of the novel finds OO7 in familiar, glamorous settings: The Bahamas, Belgium, behind the wheel of the DB5. Yet it’s the realistic beating Bond takes at the hands of the obligatory oversized henchman that signals High Time To Kill is going to be veer off into new territory. And does it ever!

The villain’s ingenuous plan to smuggle a Top Secret formula (Skin 17) into China is waylaid by fate — a plane crash. Suddenly, the chess board is scrambled in a twist that is far more satisfying than any of the double or triple crosses that have been so overused. Bond joins a mountaineering team in the Himalayas, and races against the clock to reach the downed plane before the baddies. The remainder of the novel plays out on the rocky slops of Kangchenjunga, the world’s third highest peak.

James Bond meets Cliffhanger? Why not?

What unfolds is an adventure unlike anything we’ve ever seen Bond participate in before — yet all the Bondian ingredients are firmly in place: Villain, sidekick, Bond girl, breathtaking locales (literally this time), gadgets, exotic culture, set-piece showdown and coda. But every one of these “classic” elements (which in the movies have drifted toward clichés) feels 100% fresh because it’s all set within the context of a reality-based high concept idea: Mountain climbing. The overlaying believability of the concept elevates the characters and makes High Time To Kill truly suspenseful in a From Russia With Love sort of way. Benson has never fleshed out a location better — which is ironic seeing as Benson was unable to take a planned research trip to Nepal for this book.

Even the almost always fumbled “this time it’s personal” element works perfectly here. We understand that the villain is driven by his competitive masculine/sexual ego (a subtext of almost all Bond villains), but the possibility of altitude sickness motivates his megalomania in a completely believable way. The ice axe throwing competition is as gripping as any casino face off. Bond catching a glimpse of Hope Kendell undressing in her small pup-tent is much sexier than Halle Berry bursting from the sea like a Bond Girl Jack in the Box. Bond’s sidekick, a Sherpa, is indispensable in a way most Bond sidekicks are not. The “gadgets,” cutting edge climbing equipment, are real, but still exotic. And what better test of OO7′s stamina than a savage mountain climbing expedition? There is a return to the idea of OO7 as a master of the extreme sport in this book that is very much a part to the world of Ian Fleming’s James Bond. In fact, I think Fleming would have eventually written a book just like High Time To Kill.

This is also the book in which Benson begins what no Bond continuation novelist (or, of late, Eon) has ventured to do; develop a SPECTRE-like criminal organization, complete with Blofeld-like mastermind, that would return to menace Bond in subsequent adventures. High Time To Kill was the start of what became known as “The Union Trilogy,” an idea embraced by Bond fans and nicely fleshed out in Benson’s next two books, Doubleshot and Never Dream of Dying.

There’s more, but suffice to say High Time To Kill is the perfect fusion of the high-concept Bond formula and the completely believable and dangerous world of high-altitude mountain climbing. If you’re looking to sample a non-Fleming James Bond novel, THIS is the one to get. It’s truly Raymond Benson’s “all time high.”