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James Bond - Extended Series #43
Die Another Day
Agent 007 lives-to die another day-in the ultra-cool new motion picture from Metro Goldwyn Meyer. Also stars John Cleese and Judi Dench, and features a new Bond song from Madonna.
256 pages, Paperback
First published November 6, 2002
4 people are currently reading
578 people want to read
About the author
Raymond Benson
158 books306 followersRaymond Benson is the author of approximately 40 titles. Among his works are the critically-acclaimed and New York Times best-selling serial THE BLACK STILETTO, and he was also the third--and first American--continuation author of the official James Bond 007 novels. His latest novels are HOTEL DESTINY--A GHOST NOIR, BLUES IN THE DARK, IN THE HUSH OF THE NIGHT and THE SECRETS ON CHICORY LANE.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
July 2, 2023
This is the last of Pierce Brosnans 007 movies and after his loyalty he got the boot by EON, any argument by Barbara and Co feels empty. At the same time this novelization is written by Raymond Benson who wrote originally the 007 bedside companion everything you always wanted to know about the 007 phenomenon. As continuation writer he was called a fan fiction writer by 007 fans, which in my humble opinion was nothing but sheer envy on their side.
Benson does deliver a very balanced novelization of a very bombastic over the top movie, in which Brosnan gives a very steady 007 performance.
Benson is allowed to step outside the lines Purvis & Wade did draw with their screenplay. He adds to the humanity of James Bond and Gustav Graves and their backstory. James Bond gets caught by Koreans in the opening of the book and spends one and a half year in captivity before he gets exchanged for a Korean agent. Bonds career is over but he himself wants to know who betrayed him.
His journey takes him to Cuba, London, Iceland and Korea. Bond shows himself to be an excellent agent provocateur and before the story is over his 00-status has been returned.
Benson manages to deliver a readable Novelization with some extra scenes added to make the story more fulfilling.
This is one of those novelizations one seeks that actually enhances the movie, so kudos mr. Benson.
Pierce Brosnan never got his “For your eyes only” after the over the top movie unlike Roger Moore. Funnily both Moonraker and DAD both borrowed from the novel Moonraker which was deemed to be outdated, this novel has the character that changed face and found his place in British society in order to take his revenge not with a rocket but a satellite which was weaponized. The name Hugo Drax has been used and so we got Colonel Moon ( there is a 1st continuation novel called James Bond conta Colonel Sun).
With this novel my collection is nearing completion lacking some novelizations. It was a fun read but perhaps best suited for us sad completists and 007 literary fans.
Benson does deliver a very balanced novelization of a very bombastic over the top movie, in which Brosnan gives a very steady 007 performance.
Benson is allowed to step outside the lines Purvis & Wade did draw with their screenplay. He adds to the humanity of James Bond and Gustav Graves and their backstory. James Bond gets caught by Koreans in the opening of the book and spends one and a half year in captivity before he gets exchanged for a Korean agent. Bonds career is over but he himself wants to know who betrayed him.
His journey takes him to Cuba, London, Iceland and Korea. Bond shows himself to be an excellent agent provocateur and before the story is over his 00-status has been returned.
Benson manages to deliver a readable Novelization with some extra scenes added to make the story more fulfilling.
This is one of those novelizations one seeks that actually enhances the movie, so kudos mr. Benson.
Pierce Brosnan never got his “For your eyes only” after the over the top movie unlike Roger Moore. Funnily both Moonraker and DAD both borrowed from the novel Moonraker which was deemed to be outdated, this novel has the character that changed face and found his place in British society in order to take his revenge not with a rocket but a satellite which was weaponized. The name Hugo Drax has been used and so we got Colonel Moon ( there is a 1st continuation novel called James Bond conta Colonel Sun).
With this novel my collection is nearing completion lacking some novelizations. It was a fun read but perhaps best suited for us sad completists and 007 literary fans.
May 21, 2018
I bought this because I 'needed' it to complete my collection of Brosnan-era novelisations, and then felt compelled to read it.
It was actually not too bad; we get a few scenes that didn't make it to the finished film, and a decent stab at explaining some of the less believable moments.
The biggest irritant was, as usual, Benson's crutch word, 'quipped'. Bond is the worst offender but other characters are at it too, and, dude, if you have to explain something was a quip, it probably wasn't a very good one.
It was actually not too bad; we get a few scenes that didn't make it to the finished film, and a decent stab at explaining some of the less believable moments.
The biggest irritant was, as usual, Benson's crutch word, 'quipped'. Bond is the worst offender but other characters are at it too, and, dude, if you have to explain something was a quip, it probably wasn't a very good one.
January 13, 2014
Most of the aspects that make Die Another Day a bad film are either absent or at least toned down by Benson in his novelization (of course, that perception could just be due to the fact that reading about some of the more over-the-top details is less jarring than the less-than-impressive green-screen work that induces so many cringes every time I watch the movie).
As Benson did with Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough, the author comes up with suitably "Bondian" scenes to bridge the gaps between locations, and he also provides some interesting background for some of the main characters (Frost, Moon, and Zao).
I get the impression that Benson found the Moon->Graves transformation and rapid rise (huge satellite launch and knighthood in 14 months?!) just as implausible as a lot of the rest of us Bond fans, but that was the screenplay he was given, and he does his best with it.
I'm disappointed that Raymond Benson didn't get to stick around longer in his role as a Bond continuation author, but after reading some interviews he's done about his tenure, I can certainly understand why he was a little relieved to be done with it and move on (Benson has said that he was about to ask for a year off when Glidrose/Ian Fleming Publications let him know that they were suspending the continuation novels for a while... six years, as it turned out...
http://commanderbond.net/2306/the-raymond-benson-cbn-interview-part-i.html). I think he did an excellent job with his novels, especially given the mandate he was under to blend the literary and film versions of James Bond.
As Benson did with Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough, the author comes up with suitably "Bondian" scenes to bridge the gaps between locations, and he also provides some interesting background for some of the main characters (Frost, Moon, and Zao).
I get the impression that Benson found the Moon->Graves transformation and rapid rise (huge satellite launch and knighthood in 14 months?!) just as implausible as a lot of the rest of us Bond fans, but that was the screenplay he was given, and he does his best with it.
I'm disappointed that Raymond Benson didn't get to stick around longer in his role as a Bond continuation author, but after reading some interviews he's done about his tenure, I can certainly understand why he was a little relieved to be done with it and move on (Benson has said that he was about to ask for a year off when Glidrose/Ian Fleming Publications let him know that they were suspending the continuation novels for a while... six years, as it turned out...
http://commanderbond.net/2306/the-raymond-benson-cbn-interview-part-i.html). I think he did an excellent job with his novels, especially given the mandate he was under to blend the literary and film versions of James Bond.
May 6, 2023
Raymond Benson’s novelisation 📖 of the twentieth James Bond film, Die Another Day (2002) 💎👩🏾👩🚙🛰️✈️ , based on the screenplay 📑 by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade is, by and large, faithful to it.
Benson clearly got a kick out of writing the book ✍️ for the main part, even celebrating 🥳 scenes and circumstances from the previous 19 films that didn’t make it into the finished twentieth movie. 🎬
It’s a nice, easy read, but an interesting and exciting one that expands on the plot of the film slightly, adding interesting sequences that could have enhanced the final film, both in terms of learning more about its hero and in making it that bit more sophisticated. It even lessens the jarring impact of the CGI tsunami 🌊 and the invisible Aston Martin V12 Vanquish 🚙, whilst not losing the scope of a great 007 story. Indeed, unlike the film, Benson retains his tone of storytelling throughout…
I particularly like how Benson captures the flavour of the Cuban sequences 🌴 and also humanises the characters of Jinx, Gustav Graves, Miranda Frost, Zao and Colonel Moon. Benson is great at giving the characters 👥 (particularly the villains) backgrounds and depth that are worthy of Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, even using the gadgets (such as ‘The Dream Machine’ 💭 and the Icarus satellite 🛰️) to that end. I marvel at how Benson manages to harmonise the cinematic Bond 🎬 with Fleming’s 007 ✍️ and his own continuation novels 📚, although this is his last to date.
Whilst I get a kick from this novel (and have done since I first read it at the age of 13), it is noticeable that, towards the end, there is some incorrect spelling and some words are missing here and there 🤔, which might affect the enjoyment of it. Also, some sequences could have been greatly elaborated on; for example, a massive Antonov cargo plane ✈️ being pulled out of a nosedive is handled in three brief sentences, which do not sufficiently exploit the tension of the moment. 😬
Nevertheless, for me this novelisation will die another day; I’ll be returning to it again!
Benson clearly got a kick out of writing the book ✍️ for the main part, even celebrating 🥳 scenes and circumstances from the previous 19 films that didn’t make it into the finished twentieth movie. 🎬
It’s a nice, easy read, but an interesting and exciting one that expands on the plot of the film slightly, adding interesting sequences that could have enhanced the final film, both in terms of learning more about its hero and in making it that bit more sophisticated. It even lessens the jarring impact of the CGI tsunami 🌊 and the invisible Aston Martin V12 Vanquish 🚙, whilst not losing the scope of a great 007 story. Indeed, unlike the film, Benson retains his tone of storytelling throughout…
I particularly like how Benson captures the flavour of the Cuban sequences 🌴 and also humanises the characters of Jinx, Gustav Graves, Miranda Frost, Zao and Colonel Moon. Benson is great at giving the characters 👥 (particularly the villains) backgrounds and depth that are worthy of Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, even using the gadgets (such as ‘The Dream Machine’ 💭 and the Icarus satellite 🛰️) to that end. I marvel at how Benson manages to harmonise the cinematic Bond 🎬 with Fleming’s 007 ✍️ and his own continuation novels 📚, although this is his last to date.
Whilst I get a kick from this novel (and have done since I first read it at the age of 13), it is noticeable that, towards the end, there is some incorrect spelling and some words are missing here and there 🤔, which might affect the enjoyment of it. Also, some sequences could have been greatly elaborated on; for example, a massive Antonov cargo plane ✈️ being pulled out of a nosedive is handled in three brief sentences, which do not sufficiently exploit the tension of the moment. 😬
Nevertheless, for me this novelisation will die another day; I’ll be returning to it again!
March 19, 2025
From nothing to everything in no time at all...
Written in the simplistic fashion of a "my first chapter book" Raymond Benson adapts Purvis and Wade's script with a few new details, we get to see Colonel Moon's dreams in the dream machine, we learn about Miranda Frost as a child killing her dad with bees (lol), and we learn how Moon escaped the deadly plunge off the waterfall (he was trapped under the wreckage of the hovercraft but found a missile launcher and shot it point blank at the wreckage to free himself... ok Raymond).
Written in the simplistic fashion of a "my first chapter book" Raymond Benson adapts Purvis and Wade's script with a few new details, we get to see Colonel Moon's dreams in the dream machine, we learn about Miranda Frost as a child killing her dad with bees (lol), and we learn how Moon escaped the deadly plunge off the waterfall (he was trapped under the wreckage of the hovercraft but found a missile launcher and shot it point blank at the wreckage to free himself... ok Raymond).
February 11, 2021
When I was in school, my teachers used to say the book is always better than the movie. Upon reading The Shining, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Casino Royale, Forrest Gump, I was reminded this opinion was formed by someone who makes like $17,000 a year. Although being a book based on a movie, Die Another Day really was better than the movie if only because one could mentally fix the flaws in the film while reading the novelization.
The movie had no shortage of flaws, which I have documented exhaustively. Reading the novelization, I got a sense of what the original vision for the film might have been. I found myself thinking this might have been an enjoyable story if it hadn't been tainted by some "creative" decisions. Gone is Madonna's atrocious theme song as Raymond Benson fleshes out Bond's ordeal in the North Korean prison. My imagination isn't limited to the technical capabilities of CGI. I could mentally fix Halle Berry's character design so she doesn't look like a little boy. I can read the dialogue more believably.
What ultimately went wrong, in my opinion, was there were too many sci-fi elements for a spy thriller: the invisible car, the space weapon, the genetic makeovers. One of these elements might have worked if it was set up properly, but the story got too untethered from reality.
This was Benson's final go-round writing a Bond novel, and he decided to have a little fun, which I appreciated. While Bond is trekking through the snow back to Graves's ice palace, he wishes for anything he could ride on to ease the journey, even a cello case--a reference to a campy scene in The Living Daylights. He also mentions Jinx's black leather outfit and how she moved like a cat, perhaps a tongue-in-cheek joke about Halle Berry's role in the much-maligned Catwoman.
Ultimately, I find novelizations to be a strange genre. The writer is rarely the same person who had the original vision for the story. The books are written on spec. Apparently they are holdovers from the days before home video, where the only way to relive a story other than having a private screening was to read the novelization. They persisted into the '00s as a marketing gimmick. They exist solely to be on display at supermarkets to remind the public there is a movie coming out, and then to be "remaindered" once they fulfilled their purpose. After finishing Die Another Day, I vowed to myself this would be the last novelization I read. Life is too short to read books based on movies.
Raymond Benson's Bond series, a retrospective
Having finished Benson's Bond series, I am thankful he knew when to call it quits and didn't overstay his welcome. The series really ended with Never Dream of Dying, and The Man With the Red Tattoo was something of a campy, mediocre bookend in which he was clearly running out of steam. In that sense, it is like another Bond story set in Japan, the film You Only Live Twice, a campy movie with a bored performance from Sean Connery. Unlike John Gardner before him though, Benson was clearly a fan who wrote with the fans in mind. He seamlessly wove in callbacks to the Ian Fleming books (and occasionally the Gardner books), without it feeling too fan servicey.
I noticed he relied a lot on Bond doppelgängers as villains. The villain in Zero Minus Ten, the tai-pan Guy Thackeray, appeared to be inspired by Pierce Brosnan's character, Ian Dunross, in the TV miniseries Tai-Pan. The villain in High Time to Kill, Roland Marquis, was Bond's boyhood rival who 007 admits is cut from the same cloth as himself. In Doubleshot, a henchman is something of a James Bond body snatcher. And finally, although it was a novelization, in Die Another Day, the villain, Colonel Moon, tells 007 he modeled his Gustav Graves persona after Bond. In fact, the actor who played Graves in the movie, Toby Stephens, would go on to play James Bond in several radio adaptations of Fleming's novels.
As for Benson's three short stories, "Blast from the Past," "Midsummer Night's Doom," and "Live at Five" (all of which I own in their original published form), they are all trash, and they wouldn't have been published if they didn't have the official James Bond 007 imprimatur.
I've decided this will be the last Bond novel I read. I mostly prefer the movies to the books, especially post-Fleming.
Benson's books ranked
1. High Time to Kill
2. Never Dream of Dying
3. Zero Minus Ten
4. The Man with the Red Tattoo
5. The Facts of Death
6. Tomorrow Never Dies
7. Die Another Day
8. Doubleshot
9. The World is Not Enough
The movie had no shortage of flaws, which I have documented exhaustively. Reading the novelization, I got a sense of what the original vision for the film might have been. I found myself thinking this might have been an enjoyable story if it hadn't been tainted by some "creative" decisions. Gone is Madonna's atrocious theme song as Raymond Benson fleshes out Bond's ordeal in the North Korean prison. My imagination isn't limited to the technical capabilities of CGI. I could mentally fix Halle Berry's character design so she doesn't look like a little boy. I can read the dialogue more believably.
What ultimately went wrong, in my opinion, was there were too many sci-fi elements for a spy thriller: the invisible car, the space weapon, the genetic makeovers. One of these elements might have worked if it was set up properly, but the story got too untethered from reality.
This was Benson's final go-round writing a Bond novel, and he decided to have a little fun, which I appreciated. While Bond is trekking through the snow back to Graves's ice palace, he wishes for anything he could ride on to ease the journey, even a cello case--a reference to a campy scene in The Living Daylights. He also mentions Jinx's black leather outfit and how she moved like a cat, perhaps a tongue-in-cheek joke about Halle Berry's role in the much-maligned Catwoman.
Ultimately, I find novelizations to be a strange genre. The writer is rarely the same person who had the original vision for the story. The books are written on spec. Apparently they are holdovers from the days before home video, where the only way to relive a story other than having a private screening was to read the novelization. They persisted into the '00s as a marketing gimmick. They exist solely to be on display at supermarkets to remind the public there is a movie coming out, and then to be "remaindered" once they fulfilled their purpose. After finishing Die Another Day, I vowed to myself this would be the last novelization I read. Life is too short to read books based on movies.
Raymond Benson's Bond series, a retrospective
Having finished Benson's Bond series, I am thankful he knew when to call it quits and didn't overstay his welcome. The series really ended with Never Dream of Dying, and The Man With the Red Tattoo was something of a campy, mediocre bookend in which he was clearly running out of steam. In that sense, it is like another Bond story set in Japan, the film You Only Live Twice, a campy movie with a bored performance from Sean Connery. Unlike John Gardner before him though, Benson was clearly a fan who wrote with the fans in mind. He seamlessly wove in callbacks to the Ian Fleming books (and occasionally the Gardner books), without it feeling too fan servicey.
I noticed he relied a lot on Bond doppelgängers as villains. The villain in Zero Minus Ten, the tai-pan Guy Thackeray, appeared to be inspired by Pierce Brosnan's character, Ian Dunross, in the TV miniseries Tai-Pan. The villain in High Time to Kill, Roland Marquis, was Bond's boyhood rival who 007 admits is cut from the same cloth as himself. In Doubleshot, a henchman is something of a James Bond body snatcher. And finally, although it was a novelization, in Die Another Day, the villain, Colonel Moon, tells 007 he modeled his Gustav Graves persona after Bond. In fact, the actor who played Graves in the movie, Toby Stephens, would go on to play James Bond in several radio adaptations of Fleming's novels.
As for Benson's three short stories, "Blast from the Past," "Midsummer Night's Doom," and "Live at Five" (all of which I own in their original published form), they are all trash, and they wouldn't have been published if they didn't have the official James Bond 007 imprimatur.
I've decided this will be the last Bond novel I read. I mostly prefer the movies to the books, especially post-Fleming.
Benson's books ranked
1. High Time to Kill
2. Never Dream of Dying
3. Zero Minus Ten
4. The Man with the Red Tattoo
5. The Facts of Death
6. Tomorrow Never Dies
7. Die Another Day
8. Doubleshot
9. The World is Not Enough
January 22, 2025
I have a goal to read all the licensed Bond books. I now have read 6 of the Benson books and own Two of the last three. Read all of the original Bond books by Fleming and 9 of 16 of the Gardner novels ( and own 4 of the remaining seven).
I have read several others as well. I keep an updated Excellent file of all the official Bond books. Thank goodness for used book stores and libraries.
The novelization was a tad different from the movie. A slightly more serious Bond.
I have read several others as well. I keep an updated Excellent file of all the official Bond books. Thank goodness for used book stores and libraries.
The novelization was a tad different from the movie. A slightly more serious Bond.
Read
October 1, 2021In the running for the most implausible 007 caper of all time. The novelization is better than the film, though neither narrative genuinely works. Ranks with the film of You Only Live Twice and the novel The Spy Who Loved Me at the lower end of the Bond spectrum.
Read
March 18, 2010My first and only James Bond book. I like the film better.
March 31, 2025
Solid novelisation of the film with some additional literary expansions.
June 1, 2019
A novel novelization of what had become Pierce Brosnan's last turn as 007. Entertaining to read if you liked the movie without too many changes made.
November 10, 2016
Zamanınız çoksa okuyun. tavsiye edebilecegim bir kitap degil.
August 3, 2024
From the movie. James Bond gets betrayed on a mission inside North Korea and gets captured. He gets tortured for 14 months then released in a prisoner swap. He goes to Cuber chasing a guy he saw in NK and meets Halle Berry. They immediately have sexy time. A hospital gets sploded. Then Bond and Halle Berry go to Iceland to meet billionaire Gustav Graves in his ice palace on a frozen lake. He shows them his space laser. Bond drives on a frozen lake in an invisible car and the ice palace get sploded and sinks. Then its back to NK and more splosions.
Benson does a good job of rendering a silly movie plot into a readable novel. He fleshes out some characters, including giving life histories to some who had none in the movie. He does as best as anyone could trying to describe special effects stunts that look really cool on screen but are just nonsense and defy physics IRL. He adds as much Fleming to the story as he is able to squeeze in, but Bond only really has one good meal to describe and spends much of the movie in black commando gear so his clothing isn't mentioned much. He does tell some awful dad jokes. If Fleming had written this one likely over half the book would have been devoted to Bond's time being tortured in the North Korean prison.
Like most of the later movies I remembered very little about this one. Just three things, one very good, one very bad, and one utterly hilarious. The good: Halle Berry's entrance when she walks on the beach in that orange bikini is the most memorable entrance by a Bond girl since Honey Ryder walked out of the ocean in "Dr. No." Fantastic! The bad: M's treatment of Bond when he is released by the North Koreans. She writes him off and calls him useless. Even is she is faking it is the most irredeemable action by movie M ever in a long list of exceptionally poor decisions, which in this movie includes hiring yet another double agent. For contrast, in "The Man With the Golden Gun" when James Bond was captured by the Soviets and brainwashed, he appeared suddenly back in London. The real M allowed Bond to walk into his office to see if Bond would try to kill him. Which he did. Then M spent half a year and whatever money necessary to unbrainwash Bond, and gave him chance to prove himself by taking out Scaramanga. The real M's actions: proper leadership. Movie M's actions: inexcusable.
The last thing, the hilarious one has nothing to do with the movie or book but is a personal anecdote. When we went to see this movie, upon leaving my friend Rusty declared loudly that he was never going to another James Bond movie again. The reason? When the ice palace exploded it sank into the ocean. ICE DOESN'T SINK! In a James Bond movie, a series well known for nonsense, including in this case an invisible car, the thing that broke Rusty was ice sinking in water. He has a point, but Rusty is an odd duck.
Benson does a good job of rendering a silly movie plot into a readable novel. He fleshes out some characters, including giving life histories to some who had none in the movie. He does as best as anyone could trying to describe special effects stunts that look really cool on screen but are just nonsense and defy physics IRL. He adds as much Fleming to the story as he is able to squeeze in, but Bond only really has one good meal to describe and spends much of the movie in black commando gear so his clothing isn't mentioned much. He does tell some awful dad jokes. If Fleming had written this one likely over half the book would have been devoted to Bond's time being tortured in the North Korean prison.
Like most of the later movies I remembered very little about this one. Just three things, one very good, one very bad, and one utterly hilarious. The good: Halle Berry's entrance when she walks on the beach in that orange bikini is the most memorable entrance by a Bond girl since Honey Ryder walked out of the ocean in "Dr. No." Fantastic! The bad: M's treatment of Bond when he is released by the North Koreans. She writes him off and calls him useless. Even is she is faking it is the most irredeemable action by movie M ever in a long list of exceptionally poor decisions, which in this movie includes hiring yet another double agent. For contrast, in "The Man With the Golden Gun" when James Bond was captured by the Soviets and brainwashed, he appeared suddenly back in London. The real M allowed Bond to walk into his office to see if Bond would try to kill him. Which he did. Then M spent half a year and whatever money necessary to unbrainwash Bond, and gave him chance to prove himself by taking out Scaramanga. The real M's actions: proper leadership. Movie M's actions: inexcusable.
The last thing, the hilarious one has nothing to do with the movie or book but is a personal anecdote. When we went to see this movie, upon leaving my friend Rusty declared loudly that he was never going to another James Bond movie again. The reason? When the ice palace exploded it sank into the ocean. ICE DOESN'T SINK! In a James Bond movie, a series well known for nonsense, including in this case an invisible car, the thing that broke Rusty was ice sinking in water. He has a point, but Rusty is an odd duck.
April 8, 2019
Damn another novelization of a bad film, that just falls flat. A real disappointment from Benson, whose books were actually getting better and better.
Unlike his first novelization that enhanced back stories, characterizations, and description - this is rather painful to read.
Seems that both Gardner and Benson just wanted out of their contracts, thus giving fans bad books at the very end. Such a shame after his original novels were so awesome, some of the best in the entire Canon.
Below is my updated ranking of the Canon with the last book moving up another slot. Hope you’ll enjoy them as well.
Overall rating of book series:
1 - Casino Royale / On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2 - Goldfinger / Never Dream of Dying
3 - From Russia with Love / The Man with the Red Tattoo
4 - Live and Let Die
5 - Diamonds are Forever / Dr. No
6 - Moonraker / For Special Services
7 - Scorpius / High Time to Kill
8 - Doubleshot
9 - Thunderball / License Renewed / The Facts of Death
10- Colonel Sun
11- You Only Live Twice
12- James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me (Wood)
13- Icebreaker / GoldenEye
14- Zero Minus Ten
15- For Your Eyes Only / Octopussy & The Living Daylights
16- The Man with the Golden Gun / Tomorrow Never Dies
17- The Spy Who Loved Me
18- Lives Forever
19- No Deals, Mr. Bond
20- James Bond and Moonraker (Wood)
21- The Man from Barbarossa
22- Win, Lose or Die
23- Role of Honor / Brokenclaw
24- Death is Forever / The World is not Enough
25- Die Another Day
26- Licence to Kill
27- Never Send Flowers
28- SeaFire / COLD
Unlike his first novelization that enhanced back stories, characterizations, and description - this is rather painful to read.
Seems that both Gardner and Benson just wanted out of their contracts, thus giving fans bad books at the very end. Such a shame after his original novels were so awesome, some of the best in the entire Canon.
Below is my updated ranking of the Canon with the last book moving up another slot. Hope you’ll enjoy them as well.
Overall rating of book series:
1 - Casino Royale / On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2 - Goldfinger / Never Dream of Dying
3 - From Russia with Love / The Man with the Red Tattoo
4 - Live and Let Die
5 - Diamonds are Forever / Dr. No
6 - Moonraker / For Special Services
7 - Scorpius / High Time to Kill
8 - Doubleshot
9 - Thunderball / License Renewed / The Facts of Death
10- Colonel Sun
11- You Only Live Twice
12- James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me (Wood)
13- Icebreaker / GoldenEye
14- Zero Minus Ten
15- For Your Eyes Only / Octopussy & The Living Daylights
16- The Man with the Golden Gun / Tomorrow Never Dies
17- The Spy Who Loved Me
18- Lives Forever
19- No Deals, Mr. Bond
20- James Bond and Moonraker (Wood)
21- The Man from Barbarossa
22- Win, Lose or Die
23- Role of Honor / Brokenclaw
24- Death is Forever / The World is not Enough
25- Die Another Day
26- Licence to Kill
27- Never Send Flowers
28- SeaFire / COLD
June 1, 2021
Brought many years ago following the release of the film and to help me nurture my Bond obsession.
Die Another Day.. routinely slated by fans of the films for the storyline, CGI usage and for some, for taking the films to an era of silly. I for one, fall out with that, as the film is nowhere near as bad as it is made out.
However, we aren’t here to talk films. Instead we are presented with Die Another Day in book form!
Yikes! Based on the screenplay, Raymond Benson does an average job of converting this to a novel. And average it is. I can’t really say much more than that.
The dialogue is clumpy and full of ‘quips’ which infuriate me beyond belief and for me, is almost childlike at times. Highly frustrating and does nothing for my enjoyment of the series.
The sad thing is, this has potential to be so much better and whilst I appreciate it’s based on the screenplay, the author does have an opportunity to add a creative flair which just does not seem to come off.
Good film, average book. Three out of five.
Die Another Day.. routinely slated by fans of the films for the storyline, CGI usage and for some, for taking the films to an era of silly. I for one, fall out with that, as the film is nowhere near as bad as it is made out.
However, we aren’t here to talk films. Instead we are presented with Die Another Day in book form!
Yikes! Based on the screenplay, Raymond Benson does an average job of converting this to a novel. And average it is. I can’t really say much more than that.
The dialogue is clumpy and full of ‘quips’ which infuriate me beyond belief and for me, is almost childlike at times. Highly frustrating and does nothing for my enjoyment of the series.
The sad thing is, this has potential to be so much better and whilst I appreciate it’s based on the screenplay, the author does have an opportunity to add a creative flair which just does not seem to come off.
Good film, average book. Three out of five.
December 18, 2019
The best thing about this audiobook is the narration. They got a narrator with a great British accent. However if you've seen the movie version; this isn't too much reason to read or listen to this novel. The novel is based directly off the screenplay of the movie and not much extra content is added. It follows the movie practically frame by frame. However, if it's been a while since you've seen the movie and you're looking for a high action fix then this will certainly do the trick. James Bond kicking ass and taking names; double crosses, North Korea, smoking hot women, an ice palace, and an invisible car. Decent, but not as good as the original Ian Fleming novels.
August 5, 2018
A by-the-numbers re-telling of a below average Bond film. The author did fill in a few back story details of how Colonel Moon set himself up as Peter Graves and made his fortune. The narration felt perfunctory which made the action scenes seem less exciting somehow. Benson has definitely written better Bond novels but his hands were tied with this one. Definitely one of the more ridiculous plots.
May 19, 2018
Fairly basic but still enjoyable novelisation of the much maligned Bond film. Graves' transformation from Moon is fleshed out more later in the book. A rather random mention of Tanner being M early on conflicts with Judi Dench's M appearing throughout.
June 3, 2023
I think it’s a decent novelization of the film, and I like the tone, but I just don’t think it’s overall a good film for a novelization. Something just felt, off.
Also, after reading the Fleming ones, the difference from those to the current movies is quite jarring. Notably the pace.
Also, after reading the Fleming ones, the difference from those to the current movies is quite jarring. Notably the pace.
October 26, 2024
Although this Bond book isn’t written by the legendary Ian Fleming, this is a great Bond story. The book is truly fantastic and the film they made of this book absolutely stinks. Read the book, don’t watch the film. That’s my advice with this particular Bond story.
January 19, 2026
This is the novelization of the 20th (or 21st, depending on if you include the non-Eon “Never Say Never Again���) James Bond movie. In literature, it is the 43rd Bond book. It was the final movie with Pierce Brosnan in the role. It was one of the weakest movies, and it doesn’t improve in novel form.
January 29, 2020
Still not sure how Benson managed to keep his tenure as a Bond scribe. This adaptation, like several of his other novels in the post-Gardner phase is clunky and uneven.
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April 7, 2022Discussed on the pod! Not a good book!
https://anchor.fm/authorizedpod/episo...
https://anchor.fm/authorizedpod/episo...
May 14, 2022
A serviceable novelization. I've found I don't like Benson's Bond books as much this time around as I did the first time I read them, but they're not bad. Just not great.
January 22, 2023
These books are very fascinating specially James Bond movie Die Another Day 2002
May 20, 2013
Novelisation of the film of the same name.
I've tried to be fair to this book. The plot isn't the author's fault, it's been foisted on him by the screenplay, and most of my problems with the events in the book are due to it.
The downside is that the book contains some terrible prose. It's very leaden and over-descriptive, but in the opposite way to purple prose. The writing seems to be determined to remove all lyricism and excitement and to state everything as plainly as possible. Worse, it's boring. The example I am going to use is from the early hovercraft battle.
"As Bond's craft sailed into the Demilitarised Zone, he moved forward and grabbed the pilot by the neck. He pulled the man away from the controls and threw him over the side. The man fell directly onto a mine in the dirt and disappeared in a fireball. Bond was now in command of the hovercraft."
Adjectives and adverbs are at a premium through out, losing any sense of immediacy or tension. Therefore, even accounting for the ways in which the writer was hamstrung before he even started, I cannot give this any more than 2 out of 5.
I've tried to be fair to this book. The plot isn't the author's fault, it's been foisted on him by the screenplay, and most of my problems with the events in the book are due to it.
The downside is that the book contains some terrible prose. It's very leaden and over-descriptive, but in the opposite way to purple prose. The writing seems to be determined to remove all lyricism and excitement and to state everything as plainly as possible. Worse, it's boring. The example I am going to use is from the early hovercraft battle.
"As Bond's craft sailed into the Demilitarised Zone, he moved forward and grabbed the pilot by the neck. He pulled the man away from the controls and threw him over the side. The man fell directly onto a mine in the dirt and disappeared in a fireball. Bond was now in command of the hovercraft."
Adjectives and adverbs are at a premium through out, losing any sense of immediacy or tension. Therefore, even accounting for the ways in which the writer was hamstrung before he even started, I cannot give this any more than 2 out of 5.
July 3, 2013
I would like to say that was a book that I couldn't put down but in the end the best bit about the book was being able to put it down after I had finished reading it.
It's a dreadful story that in the long run I ended up reading whilst I had a spare 5 minutes or so whilst waiting for the bus to arrive. In that 5 minutes or so, I would find that I could slip through 20 pages of the book without realising that I had done so. Much like the film that this book was an adaption from it left me hoping more was going to happen and in the end I was sadly left lacking.
All I can say is if you want to read it just so you can say that you have read all the bond books then get it done soon and get it out of the way as there are better books to be reading afterwards like any of the adaption books to the Star Trek films.
In the end with each page that I turned I could here Ian Fleming turning in his grave at the travesty of the book that this was.
It's a dreadful story that in the long run I ended up reading whilst I had a spare 5 minutes or so whilst waiting for the bus to arrive. In that 5 minutes or so, I would find that I could slip through 20 pages of the book without realising that I had done so. Much like the film that this book was an adaption from it left me hoping more was going to happen and in the end I was sadly left lacking.
All I can say is if you want to read it just so you can say that you have read all the bond books then get it done soon and get it out of the way as there are better books to be reading afterwards like any of the adaption books to the Star Trek films.
In the end with each page that I turned I could here Ian Fleming turning in his grave at the travesty of the book that this was.
June 27, 2008
Quite a good audio book the nice thing about this bond book is there is not a whole lot of detail about 007 and the whole girl love story thing that you always see in the movies it will have a love story in it you can be sure but not all the 007 making out explicit details.
It's James Bond so there are some great action scenes of course.
This bond movie wasn't the best ever they seem to have gone downhill these past few years and didn't meet the high quality standered that 007 fans have come to expect.
It's James Bond so there are some great action scenes of course.
This bond movie wasn't the best ever they seem to have gone downhill these past few years and didn't meet the high quality standered that 007 fans have come to expect.
January 11, 2020
Typický prepis scenára do knihy. Nenadchne, ale ani neurazí. Kniha sa od filmu odchyľuje len v detailoch.
Ide o pohodové čítanie na jeden-dva večery.
Mínusom je veľké množstvo gramatických a štylistických chýb. Na jednej strane sa hovorí o vesmírnej družici Icarus, neskôr je to Ikarus a nakoniec ikarus. Takýchto chýb je v knihe viac.
Ak patríte medzi die-hard fanúšikov (ako ja) knihu by ste si mali prečitať.
Hodnotenie: 007/10
Ide o pohodové čítanie na jeden-dva večery.
Mínusom je veľké množstvo gramatických a štylistických chýb. Na jednej strane sa hovorí o vesmírnej družici Icarus, neskôr je to Ikarus a nakoniec ikarus. Takýchto chýb je v knihe viac.
Ak patríte medzi die-hard fanúšikov (ako ja) knihu by ste si mali prečitať.
Hodnotenie: 007/10
July 30, 2023
I have a love/hate relationship with Die Another Day. In hindsight there's a lot bad about the movie but it was the first Bond movie I technically saw in theaters (only caught the last 20 minutes) and it did some things right (sword fight in London, John Cleese as Q and Rosamund Pike whose career thankfully went onto better things).
This is essentially the movie's story but with a few extra scenes and backstory for the characters. If you've seen the movie there's no real surprises.
This is essentially the movie's story but with a few extra scenes and backstory for the characters. If you've seen the movie there's no real surprises.
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