The World Is Not Enough
by Raymond Benson

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Book Reviews of The World Is Not Enough

Book Review: More Junk Bond from Raymond Benson
Summary: 1 Stars

Added to this mess is Benson's tone of voice. We sense, as we do in his previous 007 efforts, that he's nervous about writing a Bond novel. As a result, he lacks the confident, booming authorial voice of a seasoned novelist. Oh, he does try to convince us that he knows what he's doing: he struggles to add background material to some characters, but he pours the information all at once. Take, for instance, the villain Renard: the background of the character appears late in the novel, taking up almost an entire chapter and, consequently, disrupts the main narrative. To make matters worse, we learn nothing new about our man Bond. He's so bland that he is nothing more than nine letters on a page that comprise the name "James Bond."

And let us not forget the laughable travelogue narrative. Benson's description of cities and places is more suitable for an elementary school geography book, not a spy thriller. Indeed, his description of the Bosphorous is geared for six-year-olds: "The Bosphorous has always been a strategic focal point in the magnificent city of Istanbul, the link between the two continents. The western shore lies in Europe, while the eastern one is in Asia" (167). Geez, how fortunate we are to have Benson remind us that Europe is the West and Asia is the East!

But perhaps the narrative reaches its lowest point during the love scenes. Whereas Ian Fleming, Kingsly Amis, and John Gardner present romantic scenes that were, yes, risque but with touches of mystic, Benson takes the extra step to become blatantly risque. The love scene of Bond and Electra is low-class junk...

To which we say: Pass the Tylenol.

All in all, this novel is a waste of brain cells. It's best to just watch the movie. Ah, better still, my fellow Bond fans, let us return to Ian Fleming's orignal novels for good James Bond stories.

Summary of The World Is Not Enough

Movie Tie-Ins Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Movie Tie-Ins