Bond Reviews

Some time ago, I was browsing through the bookstores in Singapore searching for some good books on the Bond Markets ( I already own Fabozzi). I chanced upon this particular book and decided to take the risk. But after 662 pages of intense analysis of the Yield curve by the author, I have come to the conclusion that the return is commensurate. But beware that the author at places is too academic and goes off on a tangent.

After reading Red Pheonix, a flawed but easy to read and very entertaining novel, I picked up Cauldron, expecting much of the same. I got what I asked for, that's for sure. This book holds nothing new as far as the action sequences, with the possible exception of the French attack on the carrier group, it is rather dull. I really enjoyed the combat in Red Pheonix, and though it, saw Bond's influence in Clancy's Red Storm Rising (still the best all-out-war in Europe novel), but this time around it seemed recycled and boring. Also, Bond's depthless characters and annoying sideplots (the BS relationship between the U.S. officials in Moscow) started to get in the way. He would have done us a world of good if he had just eliminated all non-nessecarry dialogue.

The other issue of dispute is the paper-thin justification for the action that does take place in the book. The behavior of the French and German officials are totally irrational, unless you Bond means to assert that they are Hitleresque madmen. The Russian intelligence types were all cliches as well. As much as a kick-ass, no brains story (which this painfully tries to be at times) can be fun, this novel merely flops in its own rediculousness. Stick to the old style technothrillers, when the missiles were the stars and the politics seemed to, at least at a distance, make sense! Of course, Clancy's been pretty poor in recent years also.

An interesting scenario is put forward by Larry Bond here. A world recession, which strikes the dissolving European Community hard. Neo-Nazis blame illegal immigrants for job losses and rioting ensues, especially in Germany and France - a plotine which reflects real events. The US is too concerned with its own problems to aid Europe, and the Republican senators make their right-wing views heard.
When the US supplies oil to aid Poland and the Eastern bloc countries, a tanker is blown up by French paramilitaries. The CIA send an agent to investigate - he is taken out. Martial law is declared throughout the newly formed EurCon - US ships escorting the oil convoys are attacked and here we go! A shooting war blows up and escalates into some spectacular action. Despite a slow start at times and rather drawn-out tank scenes(I preferred the naval and air force and also the brief space sequences) on the Polish-German border, the story is highly convincing and sometimes frighteningly feasible. And best of all, it`s great to see the Frogs take a pasting from allied forces! The French satellites are put out of action by the GPALS Star Wars weapons, the French nukes are blown up and their subs sunk! Serves them right for blockading the cross-Channel ferry ports and ruining our trips abroad! But seriously, folks, this is a great war novel. The British side could have been better explored - the RAF and Royal Navy are quite well featured though. (Loved the Mirage being shot down over London too!) All in all, a highly recommended read, although `Red Phoenix` is still better. The Russian involvement towards the end does reflect on the aforementioned actually. I`ve yet to read `Vortex` yet though, I`ve got it on order and can`t wait . . . Ah, well, in the mean time it`s up into the skies with a Dale Brown book!

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It makes you wonder if Larry Bond has a crystal ball. I found this to be one of my favorites of Larry Bond books right after Red Phoenix and Vortex. At the time I read it, I also thought it was a bit far fetched. But, now I think Larry Bond is much more smarter than most people realized.

In my opinion, Larry Bond writes much more realistic battle scenes than other "techno" writers.

As an avid student of Chaos Theory and Fractals, I found this book to be similar to his other one. Williams eludes to using fractals in his analysis but makes no reference to fractal dimensions, Koch curves, monsters or any of the original theories as proposed by Mandelbrot. He does present some scaling principles and their application to Elliot Waves, but this is under the assumption that the Elliot Wave is correct or that you believe in it. I do agree with some of the money flow theories Williams proposes, which is probably the most clearly explained and substantiated part of his trading theory. For a more scientific approach to fractal analysis, I recommend "Fractals and Scaling in Finance" by Mandelbrot and for software, "Fractal Finance" by Tetrahex. Both of these follow a similar system, although Fractal Finance does use a MACD which appears similar to Williams.

This book provides a clear description of an excellent trend-following trading plan. Novel indicators are introduced and explained. Although some of the indicator definitions are hard to follow, I received a rapid response from Dr. William's company through e-mail answering my questions about one of the indicators. Although the book frequently refers to the Investor's Dream software sold by Profitunity, the concepts of the trading plan are fully disclosed and can be implemented in other technical analysis software. The aspects of the book relating to psychology are also sound and informative. This is definately one of the best books on trading that I have read.

I have seen there are few people criticizing the use of chaos theory in this book. I have read other books on chaos, probably they are more complex, closer to the theory, but apply them to the market if you can.
This book emphasizes on knowing yourself and then the market. My experience is it took me from being not consistent winner to a profitable trader. I can also look to the market as a friendly place for the rest of my life. No more struggle, just flow.

My wife bought this book thinking that it would be funny: we were both disappointed. The cartoons in this book have little thought and seem sensless in their aim. Not having any prejudice against dogs or cats, this book comes off as sick rather than funny. Perhaps this is Mr. Bond's answer to 101 Reasons Why Cats Are Better Than Men.

This may be a great book for people who are prejudiced against cats but for people who find cats interesting and lovable animals, go somewhere else.

Wow! I can't believe this book is still in print! I was 13 years old when the book was initially published. This book is perfect for any 13-year-old boys, cat lovers, or cat haters on your gift list.

I first encountered "101 Uses for a Dead Cat" about 20 years ago. Every page produced at least a chuckle and a good many guffaws. These are humorously drawn cartoons without captions -- and they're as absurd as they're meant to be. Of course, no one in real life is going to use a dead cat for any purpose whatever, but given how seriously some cat lovers take their cats -- and the nature of the housecat -- the premise itself is funny. One of those premises, by the way, is that in these 101 absurd cartoons, cats appear to be of more usefulness dead than alive.

I know a lot of cat owners who think this book is hilarious precisely because they love their cats despite the fact that, in many ways, their cats are frequently annoying, destructive, selfish, demanding and high maintenance.

At any rate, I'm always amused when I find people who take this book so seriously they don't see the humor in it, much like vegetarians who go out to dinner with friends and then are obnoxious about the meat or fish other people are eating.

For his fourth 007 novel, Fleming drew inspiration from a real-life international diamond smuggling ring which would also be the subject of a non-Bond book, The Diamond Smugglers, a year later. The premise here is that an American mafia family is running an elaborate operation to smuggle diamonds out of the British colony of Sierra Leone (it didn't win independence until 1961), the British don't like it, and Bond is inserted as a courier to try and discover who's behind the scheme. While this setup remains exceedingly topical almost 50 years later (indeed, the latest Bond flick features the laundering of diamonds from Sierra Leone), however it's not likely to engender much enthusiasm in the contemporary reader. Hmm, someone is smuggling diamonds out from the under the noses of the imperialist colonizing British, gee, that's too bad... so why does this warrant sending a government assassin into the mix?

However, if one is willing to overlook the rather small potatoes of the setup, there's a decent enough potboiler to found if you don't examine it too carefully. The pages turn quickly enough as Bond is partnered with the hard-boiled beauty Tiffany Case (like so many of Fleming's women, an underdeveloped character with lots of potential), and then heads to the horse races at Saratoga, the casinos of Las Vegas, a desert ghost town, and the staterooms of the Queen Elizabeth. There are some nice set pieces (especially the mud bath scene and the casino action), but Bond seems to be distracted the whole time. One could mark it down to his being overconfident about his Mafia adversaries, but he's throughout the book he's missing clues, botching basic spycraft, and most importantly, impatient and sloppy. In several places it's hard not to think that if he were this bad an agent, he'd have been killed long ago.

It also doesn't help that the Mafia dons Bond is up against are totally generic and unmemorable, and more than a little ridiculous as major villains. The semi-climactic railroad chase scene is borderline farcical for example. Nor are matters aided by Felix Leiter rather improbably crossing Bond's path as a Pinkerton's agent. Still, the homosexual hitmen, Wint and Kidd are memorable characters who bring a great deal of menace and (for the time) exoticism to the story. More of a detective story than a spy thriller, it's not your normal Bond book.

Not nearly as high-tech as the movie, but an excellent novel. Of the five Fleming Bond novels I've read so far, this one seemed to be (from a technical point-of-view) the best written. Wint and Kidd were much more of a threat in the novel than you would suspect after watching the movie.

Picture the way Fleming describes the action when reading about Bond and Tiffany Case trying to survive a locomotive chasing them at about 60 miles an hour while they are out of petrol.

I'm looking forward to reading From Russia With Love and the Penguin release of the other classic Bonds. Nobody does Bond better than Fleming!

What a tantalizing cover this edition has. It really captures the enigmatic quality this particular James Bond novel by Ian Fleming exudes. In one sense this is Ian Fleming's homage to the mystique of the American gangster. Fleming's vision of the American gangster is one of a twisted, often emotionally and physically, violent character teeming with idiosyncrasies. They are a peculiar bunch to say the least. James Bond appears to be more the knight in shining armor in this novel than in most written by Fleming. Much of this can be attributed to the tough but sympathetic character of Tiffany Case whom Bond becomes emotionally attached and must rescue. It is interesting how in the film series the two primary directors, Terrence Young and Guy Hamilton, were influenced by the literary Bond created by Fleming. Hamilton seems to have been greatly influenced by this novel more than any of Fleming's others. We see Fleming's 1950's version of American hoodlums show up in Hamilton's "Goldfinger," "Diamonds Are Forever" and even at the beginning of "The Man With The Golden Gun." More importantly this novel demonstrates Bond's affinity for the ever-fleeting notion of true love. Tiffany Case is the diamond in the rough that touches Bond's heart. This novel equally contains engaging scenes between James Bond and "M" and the overall description of the diamond smuggling pipeline is pure Fleming. This novel is highly recommended reading giving more insight into the psyche of James Bond.

I reviewed this book first before I read it. I expected it to be awesomelike the others. However, it was not a worthy book of Benson's excellent Bond career. It seemed that Benson really slapped this book together without too much thought. I am a great fan of Benson's Bond books, and I have read them all. This was the worst of the bunch. It really felt like it was rushed and did not compare to Zero Minus Ten, the Facts of Death, High Time to Kill, or even his 2 movie novelizations. While it was enjoyable, it was very predictable and at times rediculous even without the insane gadgets that have been Benson's trademark in the series. I reccomend this book only to hardcore Bond fans who cannot bear to miss an installment in the series (like myself). I still look forward to the next Bond book which should conclude the Union saga. Again, get this book if you really are addicted to Bond. If you aren't, try reading some of his others.

If you're a fan of the Bond that was charming, adventerous, action-packed, and a hit with the ladies then this book is for you. Once you start, you can't stop reading this.

This is a good Benson effort. Bond is a real person in this book with emotions and feelings. The bad guys are cruel and evil which makes the classic confrontation all that much better for the reader. This is a good one.

In Benson's second original Bond novel, 007 tackles a terrorist organization known as the Decada, led by a man who is upposedly the reincarnation of Pyhtagoras! The Decada is poised to provoke a war between Greece and Turkey, as well as unleashing a horrifying virus on the world. Aided by his old friend Felix Leiter(Leiter has been absent from Bond adventures for far too long) and a--surprise!-- sexy female Greek agent, Bond must follow a trail of sperm to find and stop the Decada from carrying out their mad schemes. Yes, I said "sperm." You'll understand when you read the book. Benson continues bringing Bond back to his bad habits, which were toned down in the Gardner novels-- drinking, smoking, excessive sex with women of dubious loyalty. It's about time! It's good to see Sir Miles Messervy (the former M) as well, as he has not been seen in the films since "License to Kill." Also welcome is an important appearance by Q, who had very little exposure in the Bond novels of every other author. This novel continues the tradition of making the novels a sort of "Bond boullibase"-- a sort of composite of the Bond of the Fleming novels and the films. While the story doesn't flow quite as smoothly as the Fleming or Gardner Bonds, due to prose that is somewhat lacking, it is a fun, entertaining read and worthy of the Bond tradition. Oh, by the way: awesome car!!!

The Facts of Death is the 2nd book of Raymond Benson in the James Bond series. If you enjoy Ian Fleming or John Gardner, you'll like this.

Deaths are occuring around the world, and at every scene there is a number left near the victim. James Bond is after this so-called Number Killer to the first death in Athens, Greece. He then meets Niki Mirakos and try to discover who or what is behind the mystery. M's fiance is killed before he can tell what he knows about the case. Bond discovers that the group behind the murders is called the Decada, with an unknown leader. Bond follows the son Charles, of M's fiance to Texas where he worked with Ashley Anderson to kill his father. Bond gets away and the clinic with the disease is exploded. Bond ends up at a casino playing against a Konstantine Romanos who is head of the Decada. Bond leaves and is picked up by Hera Volopolous. She turns out to be the 2nd in command of the Decada and the Number Killer and captures Bond. Hera kills Romanos and leaves Bond with a vaccine for the disease that has already killed several people. Bond must solve a puzzle to escape, and does while killing Hera and retrieving the vaccine.

A wild ride of a book from the start. Raymond Benson has a very different style of writing than Ian Fleming, but it is appealing in it's own way. Novice Bond fans might want to tend to go to Ian Fleming novels, but people like me, that enjoy all parts of 007 will be enjoyed by this book!

this book is really good. the group called the decada is killing people and starting a war between greece and turkey. The villian is Romanos and the henchman is Vassilis.The evil female is Hera Volupolis.

I bought this book because I wanted to learn more about "Freezer Cooking" and "Once a Month" Cooking. What I got was a book that wasn't so much about cooking as a manifesto of Evangelical Christian Stay at Home Motherhood. Now, as a Christian Stay at Home Mother, this book kind of worked for me and I did actually enjoy reading it; however, if I were of a different background I would have found this book HUGELY frustrating! It truly should be marketed as a book on Christian Motherhood - not as a secular book on Freezer Cooking. [Although I think the subtitle "More Mary and Less Martha" is a clue, it isn't clear enough that this book is for a very narrow audience].

The book isn't really even about Freezer Cooking, although it does have some helpful chapters on that subject [though I was 1/3 the way through the book before I got to them]. It is more about Managing the home as a stay at home mother, instilling Christian values and faith in one's children, and being a frugal "good steward" of God's gifts. The book is full of interesting stories about the author's family and experiences. I found it very entertaining and helpful, though in completely different ways than I expected.

It is worth noting that this book appears possibly self published - the editing is very poor and there are many typos, mispellings, and my copy even had a whole section repeated in the book [pages XX-YY appeared twice as exact duplicates].

This book is more like reading a mother's journal or diary of her family life and religious life than it is like reading a book on cooking. Which may be exactly what you want to read, but be forewarned if that's not what you are looking for! I see that this author has released a new book _Mega Cooking_ - I'm curious to buy that one and see whether it is more of a "real" Cook book or not.

I found this book to be very refreshing and helpful to get me started on my first mega cooking experience. I probably wasn't quite as organized as I should have been so it took me longer than I thought to cook for one month. If I would have verified I had my staples on hand it would have ran a little smoother. I was very happy with the variety of recipies and now know which ones my family prefers. Will probably leave out a couple we did not care for and substitute others using some of the same ingredients. This book has me hooked and I loved her Christian approach to cooking, celebrating and the various other helpful hints. Thank you so much for this book. I am looking forward to ordering her new one.

I bought this book and found it so interesting I read it in one sitting! I proceeded to follow directions in the book on how to shop, re-write the recipes. I did my mega-cooking for a month and saved hundreds of dollars. I had wonderful meals for a month and all I had to do was warm them up! This book is definintely for christians. I think working moms can find it useful as well. It is one of my favorites!

I am a long time James Bond fan and have read every book in the series.I thought TheMan with the Red Tattoo was the absolutely
WORST book in the entire series.Even the dialog-"you are our guest"-except for leaving out the word honoured-is diredctly from OHMSS.MrBenson is capable of much better work.I enjoyd 'High time to kill" and 'Zero minus ten'.

I have read every one of the Bond novels from Fleming to Benson from cover to cover. As much as I want to like Benson's, it's just an impossible task. While he has brought back the superficial connections to the Fleming character, each of his novels just reads like a mini-script, waiting for a movie to be filmed. They are the novels of Pierce Brosnan's movie-Bond, not Fleming's. I appreciate his wanting to re-inject the Fleming character's history to his novels, but it's just not enough. When will someone bring the character back to it's chronological roots in the 1950's? Really--back to where it belongs, with plots that are subtle and interesting and tie together well. With a book by book building of substance--well, as much as a fantasy spy figure can provide.

Firstly, the plots. I agree with an earlier review about Ray's inability to blend fact with the story line. It does read like a "wait, let me unfold the tourist brochure and tell you this...", then a refolding of the brochure to commence with the tale. The plot in general, as with the previous novels, are written as if they're movie scenes lashed together. Each one has a slap-stick chase scene which I find abhorent to the Bond character. In another novel, Bond's inexplicably shooting a villain in the face in an elevator and then running from the police through TV sets is painful. This one has a chase through a Kubuki playhouse simply to add some description of Kubuki. Bond finally finds a key character (the prosititute) in the latter third of the story, in Sapporo, and takes her with him on a dangerous investigation of the villain's HQ. Why didn't Tanaka pick her up and allow Bond to operate on his own? If she was so important to the case, she should have been in Tanaka's custody within an hour. When Bond's female partner and love interest doesn't make it past the latter third of the story, Bond forgets his anguish later on and beds the prostitute (as the earlier reviewer mentioned, he had already seen her as a chld-figure--so how did this change take place?) The dwarf is captured so easily after previous vicious battles, it seemed as if Benson just wanted to get rid of him quickly. Most obviously, is that with all this knowledge uncovered about mosquito-carrying virus being targeted for the G8 conference...do you really think the security services of those countries would have permitted the President, the Prime Minister, and other leaders to even step foot in Japan? The plot's major weakness was in having the conference continue to take place in a location identified as having an obvious breech in security. He should have figured out how to be more realistic, yet still involving the story line.

The characterization of Bond is again dissapointing. Bond is consistantly portrayed as a bit of a shallow, comic character--he seems to have learned nothing from his past exploits, he's easily deceived, his physical prowess is usually less than it should be. Benson had a terrific idea with this novel--bring him back to a significant time in his past and retrace some steps. This would have been great had he also extended the revisit from "You Only Live Twice" to "Moonraker" as well. What I mean by that is I found Fleming's Bond in Moonraker to be an extremely lonely, melancholic figure. The solitary "knight" who has no friends and sacrifices all for the good of his country. The last scene in Fleming's Moonraker was perhaps the most powerful in all the Bond novels. Benson had a wonderful opportunity to end this novel in the same way. He lost his love interest to violence, it dredged up all the old ghosts (I must point out here, though, that Bond reacts to the death of his love interest by selfishly lamenting about how it could be happening to HIM again, when the woman was the one who died--no thought to the poor victim, just to himself, not a very noble reaction for Benson's Bond). Ray had the great opportunity to end the story not with another cinematic bedding of a prostitute (that he had earlier seen as a child figure), but as the figure of solitude stepping out on the teeming streets of Tokyo, sad, alone, walking back into the faceless crowds of people, continuing his lonely, faceless existance. While not the bang-up action ending that accompanies the Brosnan movies, it would have been a true nod toward the Fleming Bond.

You see, bringing back characters and names is not the way to honor Fleming's Bond. That is much too superficial. Bringing back the characterization of the true James Bond would have been the ultimate salute. It's time for someone to put Bond back where he belongs in a novelization (I've given up hope for it in the movies)--in his correct time period, with the REAL Bond character, not Pierce Brosnan. As a hint, I'd advise Ray to view the old "Danger Man" episodes with Patrick McGoohan. That was the closest to the Fleming atmosphere and characterization. Just place Sean Connery or McGoohan's face where Ray has Brosnan's. I continue to lament for Fleming's lost James Bond. I hope some day he will return.

The mini review prehaps says it best "a plot of such monstrous proportions that it could only have been hatched in the mind of a madman."
Not that I'm calling Raymond a madman, mind you! But the villians plot is one of the best ever in a Bond book. The location descriptions I felt at first were a bit padded, but I realized how much they make Japan part of the plot. It IS a different culture that Bond is experiencing and Benson explores that part of it really well. There is a reference to the events
(very, very briefly) of 9/11, and I can't help feeling that was a last minute addition.
There is also reference and people from the Fleming book "You Only Live Twice", Bonds' last foray into Japan. As usual, Raymond has to carefully dance around the time issue - Time has past and characters are older, but Bond is still around 42.
While it's not the best that Benson has written (I still think his last book is better than this one), it's damn close. Buy it, read it.
Now, if only Putnum would do something about the boring US covers!

If the level of writing and thinking is any indicator of the brains behind this agency, they should close within six months.
Shallow, insubstantial fluff from case studies of quite inconsequential and mostly invisible clients.
Most case studies in this book were entirely under everyone's radar.
Who the hell are Kirschenbaum and Bond anyway?
A book by nobodies about advertising? If they'd done something of note, maybe a book would be in order. Noteably, AdWeek published this vanity piece- no one outside of a very small circle of advertising people could possibly care what's in this book.

Any book that provides a useful idea or two is worth the price. While Bond and Kirshenbaum use the vehicle as a bit of a PR piece for their own shop, they also share some practical ideas.

Howard Gossage told us that "Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it's an ad." For years, advertisers have understood the value of making ads NOT look like ads. B&K give us some helpful tips on how to do just that, and thereby get "under the radar" of today's consumers.

They also suggest that the era of heavy-handed "fast, fast, FAST relief" is over. If, as B&K say, "Your strategy is showing," today's consumers will realize it, and throw up their battle shields.

Practical examples are given, especially of the kind that show you don't need to spend a fortune on advertising, if your concept gets you past the defenses.

It is a great book. I really enjoyed it and I recommended it to some of my fellow co-workers.
Although one of the obvious reasons to be written is to self-promote their agency, B & K have done tremendous job providing so much insight into how to talk and more importantly how to entice today's consumers. There are (or were) many agency theories and practices on integrated marketing communications such as "360 degree coomunications" of O&M or the "The Whole Egg" of Y&R but the really convincing and what is more important, working one is the approach of these two guys. I really like it and the fact that I feel like reading the book again is enough to rate it with five stars.