Zero Minus Ten (James Bond Series)

by Raymond Benson Narrated by Simon Vance

Overview

In ten days, Hong Kong will pass into the hands of the Chinese-and 007 is on his way there to undertake his most dangerous and thrilling mission yet.

In the Australian desert, a nuclear bomb explodes. There are no survivors and no clues about who has made it or detonated it.

In England, two police officers are shot dead when they apprehend a cargo vessel in Portsmouth dock. Vast quantities of heroin are later found on board.

And in Hong Kong, an explosion rips through one of the colony's famous floating restaurants, killing the entire Board of Directors of EurAsia Enterprises Ltd, a multi-billion dollar shipping corporation.

The People's Republic of China is about to resume control after a century and a half of British rule-and the colony is a powder keg waiting to explode. The tension reaches breaking point when a solicitor from one of Britain's most prestigious law firms is killed in a car bomb at Government House.

These apparently random events are connected-and Bond must find out how and why. From the heady casinos of Macau to the seedy strip clubs of Kowloon, 007's investigations bring him into conflict with ruthless Triad gangs, a power-hungry Chinese general-and a beautiful night club hostess called Sunni Pei.

All inquiries seem to lead to EurAsia Enterprises Ltd-and its assassinated owner. James Bond is about to come up against one of the most formidable adversaries of his career.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Disorienting as it is, James Bond will be as youthful and virile as ever on July 1st, when Hong Kong becomes a part of China. Benson (an Edgar nominee for The James Bond Bedside Companion) is the latest of the literary Dr. Frankensteins enlisted to inject life into old 007. Committing the mistake of pinning Bond down to a specific point in time instead of letting him float in an undefined Cold War limbo, he inadvertently reveals how Ian Fleming and others protected Bond from the real ravages of time. An early description here ("Dark and handsome, he had piercing blue-gray eyes. His short black hair had just a hint of gray at the temples, was parted on the left, and was carelessly brushed so that a thick black comma fell down over the right eyebrow") makes it clear that this tale is more a self-conscious homage than an organic story to sink into. Benson moves rapidly into pastiche and commercial ripoff, skating around on the surface of things until the action begins to seem ludicrous. Bond goes through the motions of discovering who is trying to sabotage the transfer of power in Hong Kong by blowing people up, bedding the usual array of beautiful young bimbos, dodging and fighting the same sinister crowd of ethnic heavies (including a trio of giant albinos called Tic, Tac and Toe) and confronting the same clichd threats to destroy the world. Benson, a games designer, has come up with a kind of computer-game parody that will make readers wonder why they don't just reread Fleming's classics. (May)

Kirkus Reviews

The author of The James Bond Bedside Companion (not reviewed) pits Agent 007 against worthy Pacific Basin opponents in a more than serviceable first thriller that could give Ian Fleming's ultracool hero yet another new lease on life.

Dispatched to Hong Kong to halt a series of violent incidents that threaten the Crown Colony's mid-1997 return to the People's Republic of China, Bond first checks on Guy Thackeray, the fifth- generation head of a family shipping firm called EurAsia Enterprises. Although the SIS troubleshooter gets the goods on the shady businessman, the latter perishes (or appears to) in a car bombing. In next trying to tap underworld intelligence sources, 007 makes a nearly fatal mistake and is obliged to undertake a personal mission for triad chieftain Li Xu Nan. Against the odds, the master spy penetrates the PRC and returns alive, bearing papers that put Li in his debt. With help from the grateful crime boss, Bond heads down under to investigate a mysterious outback blast London has told him is not his affair. In due course, he finds a back-from- the-dead Thackeray at a remote uranium mine; to his horror, he learns that the embittered taipan (who's used EurAsia to make a great fortune in the drug trade) plans to put paid to the celebration of Hong Kong's handover by detonating a crude nuclear device on or near the island at midnight on June 30, 1997. Before 007 can beat the clock and save the showcase outpost of empire with an eleventh-hour dash through a crowded harbor, however, he must escape the clutches of a villainous captor and make it out of western Australia's famously inhospitable bush country.

Benson's 007 is a chip off the old block and, if not a gilt- edged Bond, at least a double-A.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169728910
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	10/06/2015
Series:	James Bond Series
Edition description:	Unabridged

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