Rating: 
Summary: Best Bond novel in years
Review: I don't understand some of the negative comments I have read here. "High Time to Kill" is one of the best Bond novels ever, with a superb storyline and intriguing characters. It's a Hitchcock-like adventure with a chase across the continents, totally engrossing and educational too. Raymond Benson writes well and spins a good yarn.
Rating: 
Summary: 007 Fans will enjoy this
Review: The British military receives a needed boost when their researchers invent Skin 17, a substance that allows airplanes to fly at unheard of speeds. However, to the chagrin of the British, an unknown group manages to steal the microdot containing the secret formula. An insider had to have helped the assailants succeed. M assigns James Bond to retrieve the stolen microdot. Both agents believe The Union, a group profiteering by selling stolen military items, is behind the theft. However, even the plan of the criminals suffers a setback when the individual transporting the microdot (inside his pacemaker) dies in a plane crash high in the Himalayas. In a deadly competition and with a traitor within his group, Bond and the members of the Union climb the world's third highest peak to obtain the microdot. HIGH TIME TO KILL is an action-packed James Bond thriller that will please fans of the series. Bond is clearly Bond as he manages sexual interludes and uses the usual assortment of Q-sponsored weaponry. However, the suspense never fully really grips the readers, who feel they are along for a nostalgic but entertaining climb. Raymond Benson continues to successfully breathe life into 007 in such a manner that Mr. Fleming would enjoy reading. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Middling, just middling
Review: James Bond has always been a figure of fantasy and Benson, in his routine fourth Bond novel (after The Facts of Death) wisely keeps him fantastic. An international mercenary terrorist gang called the Union pilfers the British secret formula for Skin 17, the only aircraft material that can withstand a speed of Mach 7. Besides its technological importance, Skin 17 is a triumph for the lagging British military, so spymaster IvI needs Bond to get it back, and to find the turncoat who helped the Union steal it. The terrorists hide the formula for Skin 17 on a microdot implanted inside the pacemaker of a Chinese national, who dies a few days later when the airplane he's flying in is hijacked and crashes on Kangchenjunga, third-highest mountain of the Himalayas: hence this novel's title. Bond, of course, is dispatched to retrieve the microdot. En route to a blood-filled, ice-encased climax, Agent 007 indulges his old tastes for dangerous women and beautiful cars. Thanks to Q, the violence features some deliciously nasty weapons, including a gadget-laden Jaguar XK8. Benson's prose, including the dialogue, is wooden, but the action he provides is fast and furious and Bond fans will note the narrative scores "a first for Bond... sex at 7,900 meters" -a high point in a novel that otherwise is middling all the way.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!
Review: Now THIS is what the filmmakers should be doing. Benson's third novel is his best yet, and it's truly a Bond novel that Ian Fleming would be proud of. It has the right mood and tone, the plot is thrilling and suspenseful, and the characters are top notch. I have noticed that fans either love Benson or hate him... this fan loves him and recommends his books to anyone who TRULY understands and enjoys James Bond.
Rating: 
Summary: JAMES BOND AT HIS LITERARY NADIR
Review: All right, I did enjoy Benson's first, ZERO MINUS TEN and I hoped the second one would be even better. How wrong I was! If Glidrose is up to hiring any James Bond freak to write the novels I might as well give it a try myself. Benson cannot distinguish between writing a Bond novel and a Bond movie and consistently does the latter: Jaguar with ludicrous gadgets, Mayor Boothroyd demoted to Desmond Llewelyn parody (incidentally, has anybody out there noticed the wrong assumption that, in the novels, Boothroyd is head of Q Branch? Check the originals), Bond hopping across the globe and bedding the babes ten minutes after they've met. There's nothing left of the Fleming formula but the parody in which the movies degenerated. Worst, Benson's writing is so poor and "American" that you get the feeling you're being cheated. If you need any further proof of what a fatal mistake hiring Benson has been, check his short story "Midsummer Night's Doom" in Playboy. Probably the worst piece ever to have been associated with 007. Even Christopher Wood did better than this. It took me longer to finish this one than any other book ever!
Rating:
Summary: Benson's best and truly a great Bond novel!
Review: I, too, recently picked up the book in the UK, and I must disagree with the first review posted here. I've been a fan of the Bond books since the early sixties, and I feel Benson has done a tremendous job in capturing Fleming's original mood and flavour. 'High Time to Kill' is his best yet, miles above the first two (no pun intended) as Bond has a unique adventure in the Himalayas. I found the book immensely suspenseful and the characterizations having the kind of depth certainly missing from the films-- and I don't see this novel as being 'film-like' in any way. If anything, it reminds me more of something along the lines of Fleming's own 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service.' This is a bloody good Bond novel.
Rating:
Summary: Benson's best yet
Review: Raymond Benson's first Bond novel, Zero Minus Ten, reminded in parts of the Fleming novels and the earlier Gardners in its deep 'sense of place' and culture. Through extensive research, Benson bought Hong Kong onto the pages of a novel impressively. More important, ZMT was a Bond story good and proper, with a great gambling scene, some powerful tension and thrilling chases. The Facts Of Death, Benson's second original Bond novel, followed suit with a story a little different from what is expected, but was still vastly entertaining - the author kept a complicated and fairly original plot going marvellously, intercutting with a feast of action sequences and more enemies that one can feasibly count. In these two novels, Raymond Benson has shown that he understands the character and premise of James Bond, and in his extensive research into Ian Fleming's work (his confident references to previous books and his directorship of the IFF give testament to that), has shown that he fully deserves the mantle of 'Bond Author'. I was therefore expecting something similarly executed in his third novel, High Time to Kill. However, previews on MKKBB and others seemed to promise a break from the norm with this next outing for 007. So what would come out of it? Fortunately, I was pleased with the result. HTTK brings the atmosphere of ZMT and the excitement of TFOD together, along with the detail and imagination of Ian Fleming's work, to make a Bond novel worth reading. From the very start, one realises that HTTK is going to be different. The first passage reminds heavily of the style from the beginning of, for example, Diamonds Are Forever or From Russia With Love, and, although the relevance of the images given are not fully explored, they are more or less self-explanatory, and prepare one for the danger that is most certainly to come. The past references in the first chapter itself also harkens back to Fleming, and with a pleasing 'pre-credit sequence', one is introduced to the running theme that Benson will toy with throughout the next two Bond novels. The novel is divided more or less evenly into two halves, one might say. The first half deals with 007's mission in Belgium, and, whilst being no less entertaining because of it, is fairly derivative of previous Bond adventures. But then, of course, one does not expect Bond to be wholly original, and since a plot which I personally have not encountered before is introduced in this first half, one doesn't feel cheated. The part of the novel set in Belgium is, to be fair to the author, nothing revolutionary, and had the book continued to the end in this fashion, I might have grudgingly placed it as being not as good as TFOD. However, the novel doesn't continue that way. It makes an about-turn. And what an about-turn. For circumstances I won't go into here (needless to say it's very clever), Bond is recruited on a MoD expedition to Nepal and the snowy glaciers of the third-highest mountain in the world. In a usual Bond novel, this might mean ski chases, villains' headquarters on mountain- tops, or restaurants with spectacular views. What Benson does, however, is present a gritty trek through inhospitable lands at ridiculous altitudes. Bond doesn't just have threats from his enemies - although they are ever-present, and he has no idea who they might be - he has to cope with the wrath of a lack of oxygen, extreme cold and ferocious blizzards. We see a human, susceptible, easily-wounded James Bond that we haven't seen for a long time, and only through the help of his fellow hikers - some of whom he does not trust, and others he does not know whether to trust or not - can he survive. In this combination of uncontrollable storms and temperature, traitors and rivals at every corner, and suspense of the best kind, Benson changes what one expects of a Bond novel, and causes the reader to take nothing for granted. It's great. Trust me. I obviously won't say how the book ends, but it again shows Bond as how Ian Fleming showed him. Cold, efficient ... almost heartless. It reminds of Casino Royale, and, whilst slightly predictable if one is in the right frame of attention, is also great. If I may, I'll make one or two criticisms now. Firstly, I believe the title should have been "A Better Way To Die" after all, because it's more effective than High Time to Kill, and the former's use during the text (twice) is again more effective than the latter's (once). I understand that Glidrose chose HTTK instead of ABWTD - I personally would have stuck with Raymond Benson's personal choice. Secondly, there are one or two Americanisms that have crept in (like "a half hour" and "pants"), which don't detract but are noticable. Thirdly, the 'bedding' scenes are almost in the realms of pornography; not that I'm easily- shocked, but they aren't very subtle, which is what might be more expected of a Bond novel. But again, these don't really detract. And that's about it. They're niggling, small, petty complaints that certainly don't bias the book to the other extreme. To conclude, in High Time To Kill, Raymond Benson weaves cunningly a complex, original, enthralling plot with suspense, smooth action, excellent characterisation and infallible research. He shows the art of that of the narrative author of the highest calibre - the ability to make the reader read on. Benson has latched on to a style similar to that Ian Fleming, but which is undoubtedly his own, and which he has now secured for himself. Behold a new era in Bond novels, an era which has just begun. And high time, too.
Rating:
Summary: Benson has a license to kill...Bond fans!
Review: I snatched up the latest Bond book which has just appeared in some London bookshops and read it immediately. Once again, I felt something really lacking with Benson's effort. First of all, and once again, I am perplexed as to why Glidrose chose someone who had never written a novel to pen the new Bond books. John Gardner was an established spy novel writer already, and even though his Bond books could often be a mixed bag, he had a very smooth, deliberate style most of the time. Benson is strictly an amateur in the writing department. He sometimes wallows in exposition, or worse, has the characters wallow in expository dialogue so that he can explain the history of (pick a book) Hong Kong, Cyprus, X organization or whatever. High Time to Kill finds Bond tackling the Himalayas, which is a potentially interesting location for a Bond book (think Benson was reading a little too much Into Thin Air?) However, once the book gets to the mountain, with Roland Marquis, an old school rival of Bond's, the story comes to an almost deadly halt, despite touches of action. The chapters climax with each new height in meters that the climbing team reaches, en route to a McGuffin called Skin 17. ::Yawn:: The third tallest mountain in the world, while good for a documentary or true life account, makes for an incredibly boring Bond novel setting. Granted, there are some very solid elements: the Bond/Helena Marksbury relationship, twists at the end (who is behind the Union), and some other points about Bond's life but Raymond Benson is, quite simply, a poor writer. He can't put all of his Bond knowledge, the exciting locales or the action, into any type of engaging form or prose that rises above standard cliche-ridden books of the Bond ilk. It is all too obvious that he writes consistently with a movie deal in mind, and that he is (still) praying that EON options one of his novels. John Gardner, in my opinion, never did this. In fact, Gardner even used SPECTRE in THREE novels AFTER the it becames clear (with For Your Eyes Only and eventually with the non-official Never Say Never Again) that the films were finished with that whole thing. Gardner books like The Man from Barbarossa, Never Send Flowers or No Deals, Mr. Bond never felt like movies so much as a different and intriguing type of Bond novel (not to say that those books didn't have their share of flaws.) "The Union", the ::yawn:: new secret criminal organization behind the mayem in High Time to Kill are given nothing in the book to distiguish them from any of the countless organizations that Bond has faced before in Fleming and Gardner books. It's downright cheesy and cliched. It's a mystery and a damn shame that the task of writing the world's greatest spy character has been handed to someone clearly not capable of following his predecessors except in a limp way. One can only hope that Benson's contract is up shortly and that the job is given to a real writer.
Rating:
Summary: You can feel the real "Fleming-Bond"!
Review: This book has mostly postive things, but some negative too. The negative things are; that it?s no really dangerous guy that threatens Bond. The book is also to long(290 sides). It?s sometimes to many descriptions about the places. You can although feel the "real" Bond, that Fleming wrote about, how he feels about smoking, liquid and women. Benson is also a very good author and it makes the book better, he makes it interessting and tensive. This book can I highly recommend!
Rating:
Summary: Great, Awesome, Astounding!!!!!!
Review: High Time to Kill is an very enjoyable book to read. This book is the first book in the "The Union" trilogy. In this adventure, Bond finds himself on the icy slopes of the Himalays, in order to get back a secert that is important to the Military, and could help any country that goes to war. The problem is that it was developed in England, and was stolen. It's Bond's mission to get it back, and find who stole it. One of the strenghts of this book is that Bond can't trust anyone b/c there's a double agent in MI5! As bad as that is for Bond, there are more double agents, and more people he can't trust. Raymond has a solid writing style when it comes to his Bond books. The reader will be hooked with every page. Just when there's a down time in the book, something else happens that picks up the pace. This is just incredible. What really hit home for me was the last paragraph of this book. Bond takes a hard look at himself, and how he treats women. I can't wait to get my hands on the other two books about The Union. If you are a fan of 007, then you need to get into this triology. You won't be sorry.
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