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James Bond - Extended Series #39

THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

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film edition paperback, vg++

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

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5 stars
80 (18%)
4 stars
116 (27%)
3 stars
166 (38%)
2 stars
55 (12%)
1 star
12 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
Profile Image for Alice.
Author 39 books50 followers
November 7, 2017
I knew it was a long shot, but I really wanted this to be good. Benson, old boy, I thought, use the powers vested in you as a writer. Take this flawed, messy but potentially decent film script and make it make some kind of sense. Please.

NOPE.

I've read the last page-and-a-bit about fifty times at this point. I can't seem to leave it alone and I keep hoping it will somehow turn into a better version of itself. Help.
Profile Image for Ron Wroblewski.
670 reviews163 followers
June 16, 2020
Once again a book written from the movie screenplay and not only matching it perfectly, but adding some background material on Renard, and Elektra that wasn't in the movie. Bond again (of course) saves the world from nuclear catastrophe. A lot of action. What a superhero. Of the 40 Bond books, I have read 39. Last one to go.
Profile Image for Sam.
36 reviews1 follower
February 10, 2025
Thoroughly enjoyed reading the novelisation of Pierce Brosnan’s third James Bond outing. I suppose my bias towards the film, which I consider to be the series’ most underrated entry, helped, but I found this to be on par with Benson’s novelisation of Tomorrow Never Dies. I appreciated the inclusion of deleted scenes, and how Benson’s retelling fleshed out Elektra and Renard’s characters further. My only disappointment was that I found the climax (“I never miss”, if you know you know) to be somewhat underwhelming… Still, another quick and easy read that I’d recommend to Bond fans.
Profile Image for Benjamin Stahl.
2,257 reviews70 followers
July 13, 2024
The World is Not Enough rarely ranks high on people's lists concerning James Bond movies. Personally, although I easily recognise it is flawed, I have always had a soft spot for it because it was the first Bond movie I saw in the cinema (not the first Bond film ever, of course - just the first on the big screen). Being both under ten, my brother and I thought it was the coolest movie ever for a while. And there are some fine moments, without a doubt ...

I always thought Elektra King was an interesting villain; I loved not only that they brought Valentine Zukovsky back, but that they also gave him a heroic death scene. I also actually liked the less glamorous locales Bond went to - pipeline construction sites, dockyards and such in developing countries like Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. I think it's a perfectly decent movie. Even Denise Richards, who is often ridiculed alongside Tanya Roberts as one of the worst Bond girls, is in my opinion at least one of the sexiest actresses to appear in the series (is that sexist? I hope not, but it probably is). And, for God's sake, her acting really isn't that bad in my opinion.

As for this book, however ...

There really isn't much to say about it. It's not bad at all. It just brings nothing much to the table. The backstory of Renard and Elektra is explored a little more, as well as Renard's deprived upbringing. But none of it is very effective or convincing. Really, it is more cliched and lazy than anything else. It's just a lame attempt to make the villains seem tragic at the last moment, before you're then supposed to cheer their deaths at the hands of the flawless Bond.

As some others have said, the sex scenes are also quite cringey.

For a novelisation, this is passable, but nothing more.
Profile Image for Carson.
Author 5 books1,466 followers
November 27, 2014
Once again, Raymond Benson manages to breathe some additional life into a novelization.

Frankly, the film version of "The World is Not Enough" leaves a lot to be desired; while there are some superb scenes, there are some misses in the way of casting and acting. Brosnan was a fine 007 but the scripts he got in his last two films were not the best.

Benson once again adds backstory to each character, making this novelization worth a read. The story itself is not excellent, but it is somewhere in the middle of the pack of the post-Fleming Bond works.

Without much to work with, Benson makes the story salvageable while making the characters more interesting, the scenery more descriptive and the tale more rich. I find myself wondering if I would enjoy this entry in the series more if I had not seen the lackluster film. That said, this version of TWINE earns 3 stars.
1,907 reviews15 followers
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October 1, 2021
Not too much to say about a novelization. The back story on Renard is something the film gives little of. An interesting conceit—screenplay and novelization—to have a strong, intelligent, independent, deeply loyal woman as a Bond Girl. Sadly, this one goes to the opposite stereotypical extreme in making that woman the archvillain.
Profile Image for Stuart Dean.
756 reviews6 followers
May 27, 2024
Movie adaptation. Benson makes it into a movie I'd like to see, even though I did see it and hardly remember any of it. An oil tycoon gets blowed up inside MI6 HQ, and James Bond is sent to protect his surviving daughter who had previously been kidnapped but escaped. A terrorist named Renard the Fox is after her and also wants M dead because she order 0012 to shoot him in the head, which he did. Bond meets the girl in Turkey and they are almost killed by flying snowmobiles and an avalanche. Then he goes to Kazakhstan, home of Tinshein swimming pool, and meets the most unlikely nuclear physicist ever. There are lots of splosions and shootings and a guy with gold teeth, and then M makes another of her series of incredibly stupid decisions. There is just so much going on it is hard to list it all.

Benson takes a very Hollywood Bond movie and renders it into a very good book. The movie has the regular gadgets, tons of action, a disfigured villain, and a rocket surgeon who is ridiculous even by Bond standards where every female scientist is also a super model. While Benson sticks to the plot he beefs up the characters, giving them backstories and actual introspection. He dispenses with the gadgets after the first half of the book, but is cornered into keeping Bond's jokes. Even in the Fleming era James Bond's sense of humor was appalling, but the jokes here set a new low bar. In his other books Benson has made the new M into a competent and admirable character, but here we have the movie M who makes at least one bone headed decision every movie. Sir Miles only on extremely rare occasions allowed emotions to influence his decisions and when he did he only involved Bond after asking him as a personal favor. Judy Dench M just does does things because the mood hits her. The only character who does not do much self exploration is James Bond. We hardly even get to see him have a decent meal.

This is a good book, better than the movie. Benson downplays the hokey parts and builds up the plot. The only thing I remembered from the movie was the giant flying saws. Here I learned that you can hold weapons grade plutonium in your hand and not die. Just don't eat it. It's true, I looked it up.
Profile Image for Ira Livingston.
505 reviews8 followers
September 10, 2018
Damn, I don’t know what to say... unlike Benson’s first novelization of a film, which enhanced the story of the film, this time he sticks to the screenplay and adds nothing to it.

This film was already one of the lower end as far as Bond films, lacking a great villain, story and basically falls very flat.

But as a novel, it really just drags along with no surprises, which was hard to read after Benson’s previous two books of his own.

Overall rating of book series:
1 - Casino Royale / On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2 - Goldfinger
3 - From Russia with Love
4 - Live and Let Die
5 - Diamonds are Forever / Dr. No
6 - Moonraker / For Special Services
7 - Scorpius / High Time to Kill
8 - Thunderball / License Renewed / The Facts of Death
9 - Colonel Sun
10 - You Only Live Twice
11 - James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me (Wood)
12 - Icebreaker / GoldenEye
13 - Zero Minus Ten
14 - For Your Eyes Only / Octopussy & The Living Daylights
15 - The Man with the Golden Gun / Tomorrow Never Dies
16 - The Spy Who Loved Me
17 - Nobody Lives Forever
18 - No Deals, Mr. Bond
19 - James Bond and Moonraker (Wood)
20 - The Man from Barbarossa
21 - Win, Lose or Die
22 - Role of Honor / Brokenclaw
23 - Death is Forever / The World is not Enough
24 - Licence to Kill / Never Send Flowers
25 - SeaFire / COLD
Profile Image for Dustin Dye.
Author 6 books1 follower
October 30, 2020
Raymond Benson's The World is Not Enough novelization is only better than the movie because readers can mentally fix Denise Richards's performance. Other than the chapter on Renard's background, it adds little to the story.

I found the translation from the screen to the page similar to that of Benson's first novelization, Tomorrow Never Dies. Drawnout action scenes that can be sustained when you're mindlessly stuffing handfuls of popcorn in your pie hole are tedious on paper. The ski chase involving Parahawks was especially frustrating. The shootout in the nuclear test site, however, actually came out well.

My main motivation for reading this book was to make sense of Renard's death. I never understood it on screen, and hoped the logic behind it would be explained in the book. It kinda was, but not enough to satisfy me.

In summary, if you've seen the movie and wanted more, read the single chapter on Renard's background. Otherwise, skip this book. But don't skip my review of the movie, here.
Author 5 books
March 14, 2017
While an improvement over portions of my previous experience with the book series(Moonraker, which I have yet to finish), there were times when I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief even with the knowledge that this is a James Bond novel. I was glad to be proven right on miss Elektra King, but she really did come off crazy by the end, and when you get to Renard's POV toward the end of the novel where it is noted how soon Elektra changed sides after Robert's response regarding the ransom, it all just fell a bit short despite her having mentioned that she was already entertaining notions of this sort before the kidnapping.

The submarine section was sad insofar as Nikolai and his crew, and mildly entertaining once Bond got aboard and began to do what James Bond does best(outside of seducing the women in his way). It was just as outrageous an escape as ever I have seen in the films.

On the whole, a fine enough novel. Not the best film and I suspect it is also not the best book. I've recently acquired Tomorrow Never Dies and may begin that next.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Darryl Walker.
56 reviews2 followers
August 20, 2017
Movie novelizations aren't really on my literary radar at all, unless they're James Bond movie tie-ins written by Raymond Benson. THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH book is much richer, nuanced and layered than the film.

In the sense that Sean Connery IS James Bond then Raymond Benson IS Ian Fleming. He doesn't write like Fleming (could any writer duplicate Fleming's mid-20th Century snobby prose poetry?) but Benson's clever blending of Bond's literary progenitor and Bond of the movies is spot on, but more important, exciting and fun. Benson writes books I look forward to reading, even movie tie-ins originally plotted and scripted by others! In particular Benson makes the improbably stupid and foolhardy boat chase scene early in the movie into something a lot lower key and almost believable.

My chomping at the bit to read a movie novelization is the highest compliment I can pay Raymond Benson. THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH book is twice as good as the film.
Profile Image for Rob.
14 reviews
October 29, 2024
Serviceable if unremarkable retread of a serviceable if unremarkable movie. Benson doesn't feel as interested in the material as he did with the novelisation for Tomorrow Never Dies and even the extra chapters that provide further insight into Renard and Elektra's backstories feel a bit perfunctory and obvious, whereas in Tomorrow Never Dies the entire extra material centred around Wai Lin felt exciting and original.

Still very much worth a read for Benson-completionists (his series of books is enjoying a well-deserved renaissance thanks to the recent reprints, not to mention Calvin Dyson's reviews), his breezy Fleming-lite prose does give the story a bit of a lift and it's always interesting when Bond movies get novelisations. If Christopher Wood's "James Bond and the Spy Who Loved Me" is the best Bond novelisation and John Gardner's really weird Licence to Kill one is the worst, then this hovers around the middle somewhere.
Profile Image for Matt Raubenheimer.
105 reviews4 followers
October 22, 2022
Novelisations are hard to review. First off, do I like the movie and its script? I do like the film and its plot. There's some dodgy dialogue but overall its a solid Bond movie. The novelisation is basically a straightforward prose version of the movie script. Benson doesn't add a lot, besides a little background to the Renard character. The dodgy dialogue remains as well. I would also have liked a bit more fleshing out of the movie scenes. There are a couple of Bond novelisations that really expand and improve on their film counterparts (TSWLM is the best example) and this isn't one of those. But if you enjoy TWINE then you're likely to have an enjoyable time reading this brisk and efficient novelisation.
Profile Image for Richard Gray.
Author 2 books21 followers
April 5, 2024
If the film that inspired this book feels more like a part of its sums, rather than the other way around, then that's doubly true for this novelisation. Benson's third adaptation of a film script, and his fifth Bond novel overall, sticks pretty closely to the final product. There will be no surprises to people who are even vaguely familiar with the film. What Benson does provide here is a solid bit of interiority to the characters, especially a few details around Renard's past and deeper motivations. Similarly, there's a few scenes kept in the novel that didn't make it into the final cut of the film.
162 reviews1 follower
October 18, 2019
After finally finding his footing with High Time To Kill, Benson slips, stumbles, and falls with this clunky adaptation of the movie. The over-the-top action sequences from the film are rendered in convoluted passages that fall flat, the sex scenes reverberate with sophomoric clumsiness, and the whole affair is less than thrilling. This proves that things that work onscreen don't often translate well to the page.
217 reviews1 follower
May 2, 2020
A faithful novelisation of the film, complete with the same humour presented throughout the film. Perhaps not as good as Benson’s other Bond books, and outside of the cannon of that storyline, but still with the same details focussed style that Ian Fleming used in the original books.

A light hearted espionage / action thriller, that is recommended to those interested in Bond, or just a spy yarn! and don't want to take things too seriously!
Profile Image for Sarah S.
267 reviews
June 9, 2023
Compared to DAD, I think this movie makes a much better novel. The plot is just paced better; I think that is the main difference.

The additions are very minor, but I really enjoy reading how people say things rather than trying to parse it out on screen. So the small add-ins of thoughts or feelings from characters feel much bigger to me than some might make them out to be.

The one big addition of Renard’s backstory was good too. I like that chapter.
294 reviews
March 2, 2024
Another film novelisation ticked off and this took me back to Brosnan at the peak of his powers.

It reminded me that this film has all the remnants of what should be a good bond film. Good baddies, good bond girls, good gadgets and not the worst idea on world domination.

All in all a very enjoyable read and would definitely recommend to bond fans or if people haven't watched the films then a good action story and a way into the franchise.
Profile Image for Frankie.
263 reviews
June 5, 2022
I woke up and decided to put my Italian skills into use. It’s literally the same “horny spy atom bomb evil Russian emotional beat from the villain damaged unreliable women suspension of disbelief tech devices etc etc” mish mash that every other Bond novel / film is but!! I read it in Italian!! So that immediately makes this banal plot a teeny bit hotter. 👍

550 reviews3 followers
April 16, 2023
Very like the film, which is a compliment to Benson, but not to Purvis and Wade. It is nice and pacy, and does a surprisingly strong job of getting into its villains' heads, but it is very slight on detail for Benason, and his habit of starting paragraphs with a page of biographical detail about a city can definitely become wearing here.
Profile Image for Nicolas Suszczyk.
Author 16 books4 followers
May 15, 2019
My favourite Raymond Benson 007 novelization. He deals nicely with the past of Renard and Elektra King and makes you feel sorry for them, in a way. I really loved the lullaby reference to Elektra, quite poignant.
Profile Image for Ieuan Bartlett.
11 reviews
March 21, 2021
Extra insight of characters from the films. Enjoyable to have some extra scenes included in the book.
181 reviews6 followers
January 22, 2023
I am a childhood obses fan of James Bond movie I had a crush on James Bond even I am a man who don't want to be there in the shoes of James Bond I will
Profile Image for Le Van.
504 reviews11 followers
March 13, 2023
3.4*
Tựa tiếng Việt: Cả thế giới không đủ
In 1000 cuốn khổ 13*19 cm
NXB Văn học, năm 2003
Profile Image for Robert.
45 reviews
August 15, 2025
My favorite James Bond Novel ever. One of of my favorite audiobooks ever. Simon Vance is a great narrator of the James Bond Novels and I think Raymond Benson did a great job at expanding the story.
Profile Image for Matthew Kresal.
Author 36 books49 followers
December 31, 2022
With his novelization of Tomorrow Never Dies, Raymond Benson proved that he could write original James Bond novels but bring the films to life on the page. Indeed, that 1997 volume proved a worthy successor to Christopher Wood's The Spy Who Loved Me twenty years before. So it is perhaps unsurprising that Benson would pen a paperbound take of Pierce Brosnan's third Bond outing two years later with The World is Not Enough.

One of the things that helped set Benson's previous novelization apart from the likes of, say, John Gardner's two efforts was how much he was able to expand upon the film version. In hindsight, that was perhaps something that film's chaotic production and frequent script rewriting made possible. There certainly doesn't appear to have been as much chance for Benson to do so with The World is Not Enough, though he can fill in some of the transportation-related gaps in the narrative of how Bond or other characters made it from place to place. It also reveals the problems with Doctor Christmas Jones as a character might have less to do with Denise Richards' performance than with how underdeveloped she is in the script, as even Benson can't expand much on her.

But where Benson can, he turns what was arguably Brosnan's best Bond film into a fuller work. There is an even greater emphasis on the romance between Bond and Elektra King in the first half, including an expanded casino sequence where the closeness between the two becomes all the more apparent. Indeed, it's a better version, including its lead-up to its significant plot point. Elsewhere, much of the screenwriter's original intent is present, from a different take on Mister Bullion, deleted scenes such as Bond and Elektra traveling through the oil fields of Azerbaijan, and some altered line readings (if one can say such a thing about prose).

The most significant contribution, however, might be a chapter expanding on Renard's history. Offering up the story of how a young Russian soldier became a terrorist, the chapter also offers a presentation of the kidnapping of Elektra that happened off-screen. It sees Benson offers some fascinating retroactive work to set up the film's events, including Elektra's motivations. With a smattering of other little details, including Elektra's haunting use of a childhood lullaby, Benson presents an intriguing alternate version of the film.

The novelization has one other significant weakness and an odd one at that. The descriptions of the film's action sequences, something that Benson handled well in Tomorrow Never Dies (not to mention presenting such set pieces from scratch in his original Bond novels), feel lacking here. Indeed, there were times when I found myself going back over passages describing sequences very familiar to me from the film, trying to get a handle on what was going on. It's a hiccup in something that features such scenes as a Bond novel(ization) does, but the other pros help outweigh this particular con.

And, even with the lacking action sequences, The World is Not Enough's novelization makes for a solid read. Especially if you're a Bond fan of the Brosnan-era films or Benson's brand of literary 007. And, besides, how often can you read like it's 1999 all over again?
Profile Image for Dale.
1,936 reviews67 followers
June 7, 2012
Unabridged
Published by Brilliance Audio in 1999.


I never quite got around to seeing this Bond flick. I am a casual fan, meaning that I eventually get around to seeing them, but not usually in the theater. I ran across this audiobook version and figured I'd kill two birds with one stone - liven up my long commute with some entertainment and cross this Bond story off of my list.

The World Is Not Enough is read by John Kenneth. Kenneth was confronted with a tough choice - how does he read Bond? Does his version of Bond sound like Connery? Dalton? Moore? Who? Kenneth's voice for Bond is unique and unforced, which cannot be said of some of the other voices he uses. At times, Kenneth presents the listener with a variety of increasingly-shrill British voices that sound more like the soundtrack of a Monty Python skit rather than a more serious presentation.

Being free of the movie format does offer the author, Raymond Benson, a bit of freedom and he uses it in two interesting ways:...

Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2012/...
Profile Image for Ryan Scicluna.
141 reviews4 followers
September 7, 2013
I really enjoyed this book. Sure when I was young the movie version was my favorite of the franchise until Casino Royal came out but now that I have read the book version, I can see where the movie failed and the book succeeds. This book develops the characters of Renard and Elektra further giving more back story and thus more layers to the character. I honestly like the way Raymond Benson writes these movie based narratives. He gives more depth and develops characters further than the movie does. In fact even in his other movie based bond books I enjoyed the book far more than the movie. This book is no exception and I have to admit that it falls into one of my top most favorite bond adventures in literature.
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