Customer Reviews

James Bond: The Union Trilogy: Three 007 Novels: High Time to Kill, Doubleshot, Never Dream of Dying (James Bond 007)

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This year saw the release of new adult Bond novel, Devil May Care, by the celebrated novelist Sebastian Faulks, and the press frequently said it was the first James Bond novel since Ian Fleming. Not true. There have be over a dozen "continuation novels", including six books by Raymond Benson (author of the The James Bond Bedside Companion).

All of Benson's Bond novels are terrific 007 adventures (all set in present day), and he really hit his stride with these three books, which are loosely connected and form a "trilogy" within his series (similar to Fleming's "Blofeld Trilogy"). High Time To Kill is, IMO, one of the very best James Bond novels ever written, taking Bond to Tibet for a high altitude mountaineering adventure. Doubleshot is a bold and experimental Bond novel which finds Bond mentally impaired (due to injuries in the last book) to the point of fearing he may be going insane. Never Dream of Dying is a fantastic book with Raymond's best female character and relationship.

With Benson's Bond novels now all out of print, it's great to have these novels collected. For those who read Devil May Care and are craving more post Fleming 007, this is the book for you.

But what's most exciting about this release for me is that it includes the full and uncut version of "Blast From The Past," Benson's first James Bond short story. This story was only ever published in Playboy, and this full version has never before been published in English.

Here's hoping Benson's remaining Bond novels (and short stories) will be collected as well.

Raymond Benson brings us an updated 007 that offers more depth than the cardboard action figure seen in many of the movies. In The Union Trilogy, we find a James Bond with fears, vulnerabilities, depression and passions that allow us to care about the character himself, and not just about what he does next. Benson also delivers the familiar as well: Our favorite secret agent finds himself scaling new heights of intrigue (the Himalayan Mt. Kangch) and we get a double shot of bond girls.

The first of the three novels in the Trilogy, High Time to Kill, Benson cites as his personal favorite. That is a significant endorsement from Benson, the person most consider the leading Bond expert in the world (author of the The James Bond Bedside Companion). I personally enjoyed Benson's The Man With a Red Tattoo, a continuation of Fleming's You Only Live Twice story. Here again, The Union Trilogy delivers because it includes for the first time in English, the short story, Blast From the Past. Blast ties up ends left dangling in Twice.

The complexity we see portrayed on the screen by Daniel Craig's 007 owes much to the Benson Bond and the novels included with the Trilogy.

Raymond Benson tackled an assignment as tough as any James Bond has ever taken - continuing the literary legacy of 007. Fleming's shoes are hard to fill, and Mr. Benson does it with style in the Union Trilogy. More than the great adventures and twisting plots, Benson immerses the reader in details that set not just a time and place, but an attitude of the characters. What Fleming brought to Bond was a casual flair for identifying the world 007 travelled through. Benson captures this Fleming quality in his own voice, and never better than in these three adventures. These tales do not ape the master, but rather they are worthy successors, good spy adventures in their own right. Best to be read on a ship, plane or in a sleeper car traveling through Europe or Asia...or at least read while wishing one were there!

Acknowledged as one of the world's top 007 experts, Raymond Benson turned his considerable expertise and talents to continuing the literary character of James Bond in print, and "nobody does it better."

Unlike the very unsatisfying Sebastian Faulks novel earlier this year, Mr. Benson's work really does breath new life into Ian Fleming's original James Bond character. It "feels" like Fleming's hero. You recognize him in a way that only a truly sympathetic expert could have accomplished. Readers who picked up Faulk's novel looking for James Bond found him absent. Good news. He's here, and not just in one novel, but three; any one of which is superior to the muddled attempt by Faulks.

James Bond occupies the center of a very intriguing trilogy. Ian Fleming had his own Bond trilogy and like those novels, each of Mr. Benson's can be read as a stand alone adventure. But published here for the first time together, the reader can best appreciate the sweep of continuity that ties these three stories together into one grand adventure.

Highly recommended!

Certain characters are so iconic that they outlive their creators: Sherlock Holmes, Dracula and Tarzan fit in this category. Does James Bond? Probably. There is certainly a market for new post-Ian Fleming Bond books. I was never overly impressed with John Gardner's books (having given up after reading a couple of them) but I still decided to give Raymond Benson's Union Trilogy a shot.

The Union Trilogy bears an intentional similarity to Fleming's own Blofeld trilogy. That original trilogy - Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice - featured the most famous of Bond villains, Ernst Blofeld. In Benson's trilogy, SPECTRE is replaced by the Union, led by the mysterious Le Gerant.

The first novel, High Time to Kill, has Bond facing off against the Union for the first time. The criminal organization has contracted to steal the formula for Skin 17, a material that will allow planes to go to unprecedented speeds. A set of accidents and betrayals lead to the only copy of the formula being stuck near the summit of the third highest Himalayan mountain. Bond must ascend the mountain in a team that includes an old school rival (who, of course, has a sinister agenda).

Injuries sustained in this first novel continue to afflict Bond in the next volume, Doubleshot. The Union is working with a Spanish bullfighter-turned-crime-lord to take Gibraltar back from Britain. Incorporated into the scheme is a plot for revenge against Bond, who handed the Union a significant defeat in the first book. Bond finds himself hallucinating and framed for murder, unaware that a double has been doing the killings.

Never Dream of Dying has Bond finally confronting the leadership of the Union along with having a reunion with his former father-in-law. The Union has stolen some high-grade explosives and plans on using them to assist a Japanese terrorist. The backdrop this time is Cannes and surrounding areas, where Bond gets involved with an actress and her producer husband. After this novel, the omnibus edition also includes a short story, Blast from the Past, which deals with the murder of the son that Bond barely knew.

Benson knows his Bond and is able to make these books seem like a continuation of the Fleming books, albeit with a bit more graphic sex and violence. Unfortunately, he is just a passable writer, sometimes overexplaining things that would be obvious to the reader. In addition, Le Gerant is only a good villain, not a great one like Blofeld. He is too distant and often too perfect to really engage the reader; in addition, with over eight hundred pages of buildup over three novels, his final confrontation with Bond is too brief. These are okay books, but a bit of a disappointment to a Fleming fan like myself.

Three great Bond novels in one publication. What a great way to celebrate the 100th birthday of Flemming! If you already have the three books individually, this works as a great collectors item. I'm hoping the others will be released this way as well. :)

Bravo Mr. Benson for recreating the hero avid Bond fans like myself all love. Excellent story telling, fantastic style and even better action. If it didn't say Raymond Benson on the cover, I would have thought Flemming came back from the grave. Please, write more Mr. Benson. Encore and some more. The Union? Now that was a deep organization. Sinister enough to rival SPECTRE and definitely with enough twists to keep you on teh edge of yor seat when reading. Brilliant, simply brilliant

This is a great set of novels by raymond benson. The first story "High time to Kill" is the best without a doubt, then the books get less and less good. That being said the books all together make one great trilogy. I would love for the movie industry to try to make them.

Having not read the short story Blast from the Past when it appeared in [...] magazine in 1997, I was thrilled to hear that it would be published at last in paperback. As a James Bond, I felt that the story was excellent and closed the final chapter of what began in Ian Fleming's You Only Live Twice,as what happened to Irma Bunt after the destruction of Blofled's castle. Also included are the parts of "The Union Trilogy" which I think are some of Benson's best works. The third story in the trilogy is a bit of a let down with Bond discovering a terrible secret about his past that would have been if left out of the story, and having the Union attack the Cannes film festival rather than a military base or government offices seems to out of place after the tone of the first two stories.

Overall this an excellent purchase for long time Bond fans, or fans of thriller books in general.

The Union Trilogy is a terrific start for anybody interested in reading Bond. Just like the films, there's action, women, guns, baddies and intrigue!

In this stellar paperback collection, not only are we treated to a new forward by the author, the brilliant Raymond Benson, but also a marvellous, action-packed short story. But the main attraction are the three novels, placed sequentially, and chronicle 007's adventures against the freelance terrorist organisation "The Union", led by the enigmatic Le Gerant.

The first book "High Time to Kill" draws comparisons with the Sly Stallone flick Cliffhanger, and sees a secret formula made by the British military stolen by a traitor and wind up on the very top of Mount Kangchenjunga - the third highest mountain in the world. The Russian Mafia, the Chinese, the Belgian, and The Union are after it. And so is James Bond. "High Time to Kill" is a marvellous read, and is a thrill ride from the start and onwards.

The second novel, "Doubleshot", finds James Bond weary and wounded after the events in the previous book, and he wants revenge from The Union; and they want revenge from him too. Framed for the death of lady friend, and a searing head injury inducing frequent black outs, Bond goes rogue and follows the trail to Spain, where he meets the evil and deranged former matador Domingo Espada, who wants to see Gibraltar taken from Britain and returned to Spain. Under the vicious undercurrent of evil and the blistering Spanish sun, The Union are drawing 007 into a trap, and have also surgically crafted a double for Bond; who naturally wreaks havoc around Gibraltar, murdering innocent citizens and forcing M16 to believe that Bond is now working for the enemies.

The third novel in the trilogy, "Never Dream of Dying", begins with 007 and long-time ally Rene Mathis involved in a police raid on a film-making soundstage in Nice. It goes horribly wrong. Soon, Bond is enveloped in the world of show business, and is certain that the producer of a new potential blockbuster filmed on the waves of Corsica is somehow working for The Union. Bond winds up falling in love with the producer's estranged wife, and they begin a tempestuous relationship. It's worth pointing out that there's a page here which includes intimate details of their sexual relationship, which I found rather off-putting as there was nothing left to the imagination. Despite this one flaw, the book makes for a startling finale to the trilogy as Bond is reunited with his former father in law and finally meets the leader of The Union.

The Union Trilogy is a riveting read from start to finish, its 835 pages an incredible bargain, and a perfect reminder of how exciting and involving the James Bond novels really are.