The Facts of Death

James Bond (Original Series)

De: Raymond Benson

Narrado por: Simon Vance

Someone is poisoning British soldiers in Cyprus; the same killer has murdered a British intelligence agent in Athens. James Bond himself barely escapes with his life....

But the secrets behind these and other deaths first start to come to light in Texas, where Bond goes in search of the assassin of M's friend and lover. Fearful of an international scandal that could engulf both his service and his country, he learns instead of the existence of the Decada.

Held together by an archaic philosophy and their own bizarre rituals, the Decada's fanatics have stockpiled a terrifying range of poisons and are willing to use them to further their insane ambitions for power and revenge.

Aided by beautiful, brave Greek intelligence agent Niki Mirakos, Bond puts himself into the firing line for a last-ditch attempt to stop the Decada before they unleash a horrifying weapon on their helpless prey.

©2012 Raymond Benson (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Math, Semen, Biological Terror, and M's Lover.

This is an offbeat James Bond novel that is ultimately very compelling. It suffers slightly in the middle of the book, but is well worth listening to. Simon Vance - as usual - is spectacular. Vance does voices (even female and accents) incredibly well and has no problem with the plethora of foreign words in this novel.

The story opens with biological terror attacks around the world. Quickly, we cut to James Bond in Cyprus where biological attacks are occurring against British and Greek military forces. We learn some Cypriot history, are introduced to a sexy Greek agent, and meet a terrorist cult that worships an ancient mathematician.

Back in London, we meet the (Female) M's lover who is quickly killed by the terrorist cult.

Then the book gets a little weird as we go to Texas. James Bond investigates a sperm bank that Felix Leiter believes is working for both an American arms smuggling ring and the terrorist cult. There are far too many scenes and conversations about semen, sperm donation, and Tex-Mex restaurants. This takes up about 90 minutes in the middle of the audiobook. It makes perfect sense for the plot, but this is weird territory for a Bond novel.

There is also far too much 'explaining personal computers' from a 1990s perspective that is strange to a modern audience. There is a scene where 3 people are in a room and one explains to the other how to copy a JPEG.

I won't reveal more, but rest assured that we return to Cyprus and Greece for an exotic, violent, and action packed last few hours. It also takes breaks for atmospheric 'travelogue' scenes including a memorable casino sequence and delicious dinner in Greece.

Even a weird James Bond novel is still really good and Raymond Benson is the 2nd best Bond novelist. Minus the Texas sequence, this would have been a very great Bond novel.

Great Bond Adventure!

This has all the classic adventure you expect from a Bond story. Simon Vance did a wonderful job of reading and acting out the various parts.

I enjoyed listening to this, although I thought there were too many twists in the story

I liked the book but it would be better if it was about 3 hours shorter.

Best Benson Bond

Fun locales
Interesting characters
Interesting plot.. zips along
Best of all the Benson Bonds
Excellent (as usual) S Vance performance

Entertaining

Simon Vance gives another good performance in this Benson Bond novel. The story was entertaining, the plot was constructed well, with the tension measured well throughout. With a madman with an organization set on poisoning civilization with deadly chemical viruses, Bond is involved in a gadget—filled car chase, a game of baccarat with the villain, attack on a gondola, hanging out of a helicopter to fire a missile launcher.

better than Tomorrow Never Dies

It's another mediocre Bond spinoff. If Benson wasn't convinced that Bond needs gadgets, it might have been pretty good. The gadgetry really screams 90's nonsense, and the story feels dated (not in a good way). Too much techno-babble about things the audience doesn't care about, too much hand waving about how ridiculous and cool Bond is. In Fleming's originals, Bond is just a guy who worries about his lunch and gets rejected by girls and is generally relatable. Benson goes as far as having the leading lady call Bond a god at the end. In short: too much bravado, not enough story.