Thank you so much, Calvin, I'm pleased you liked it!

My favorite moment from this book is Bond's horrified realization that he slept with a vegetarian.

Benson was in the comments. My Word. Congrats calvin

Shirley Bassey: "Take the good, take the bad, take 'em both & there you'll have the Facts of Death, the Facts of DeeeeEEEEAAAATH!!!!" (collapses)

Calvin Dyson interviews Raymond Benson ….. that’s a win - win for all of us……

Disappointed you didn't mention the INSANE scene of Felix screaming "Fuck it!" and rolling into the middle of a firefight in his gadget laden wheelchair screaming "Yeeha!!" like Leroy Jenkins

A Calvin book review just makes my week ❤

I never thought I would be so interested to watch book review videos, but with each book they seem to get a bit better.

I always loved how Benson used a real world spy assassination (Georgi Markov and the ricin umbrella) as the inspiration for a moment in the novel. Years later when I saw a replica of the umbrella gun used to assassinate Markov (the real one is likely at the bottom of the Thames), I flashed back to The Facts of Death.

Benson’s tenure was such a shot of energy for the Literary Bond after the later Gardner years that it cannot be overstated. I grew up reading Gardner and Benson alongside Fleming. Benson remains my favorite of the main continuation authors. He incorporates elements of the films but ensures they never overwhelm the Literary Bond or the legacy of the books. There’s also a great sense of paying tribute to all the past books while maintaining a new story that also has good plot hooks and sequences. The Facts of Death was my favorite Benson for a long time and is only eclipsed by High Time To Kill. The characters and action beats are well done and there’s a few flashes of the films in places. The best element is Benson’s plot focus never wavering which is essential to a successful Bond story.

11:47 'The World is not enough' film also links back to 'OHMSS' with Barbara Broccoli describing Elektra as 'Bond thinks he's found Tracey when he's actually found Blofeld' and that was the novel/film his family motto was first mentioned so it it's a nice link. The movie involves M's relationship with her old friend [Robert King-who's quickly assassinated] and his daughter are a key plot point while here M's quickly killed boyfriend and his wayward son are involved. Development of 'world' started in November 97 so it might just be similar thinking.

I lived in Turkish Cyprus for 7 years, and knew President Denktaş who appears in the book. Not often I get the country in any novel, let alone the man!

The highlight of my Sundays. I love listening to your reviews. They’re so well written and spoken

If the Facts of Death had been a Movie, I think Bjork's 'Play Dead' would have been a perfect fit as the theme song.

Benson’s era is very much a movie oriented era. Gadgets galore, the car is probably the best car Broz never drove. Cannot wait till you cover the Union Trilogy.

I assume "Mansfield" name for M was a reference to the (real) first Head of MI:6 (Mansfield Smith-Cumming).

I’d have to say High Time to Kill was my favorite benson era book. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on that.

It's interesting you make that point between how Gardner and Benson handle the weirder points in their stories, because it's been three years since I read this one (yeah, I read it in 2021 - an interesting time indeed to read a story all about a virus) and the whole sperm bank plot point had completely escaped my memory. It didn't stick in my mind as a strange plot point in the same way as Gardner having Bond in Disneyland or in a cult wedding. Maybe because it was early on in the book and wasn't the setting of the grand, uh, climax. Now if the sperm bank had been the villains' grand lair - with a grand Ken Adam design that came under siege like something out of the Lewis Gilbert trilogy - now that would've been a bizarre turn for the ages.

2:19 Interestingly, one of the guests at the party is Admiral Hargreaves which might just be a wink at the film series, or may be proof that the M Robert Brown played from Octopussy onwards was a recast Sir Myles Messervy and not a promoted Hargreaves [which Benson belives to be the case in the linked interview]. Certainly the Gardner novels retained Sir Miles throughout and the 'Hargreaves theory' is a fan one [and M's rank in Living Daylights contradicts it] but at this point who knows for sure! 3:17 I believe M's name being Barbara Mawdsley is from the Goldeneye script although I might be wrong. 4:08 is a good way of showing the Craig era version is a different character to the Brosnan era [along with saying she was head on Hong Kong station in 90's and became M later]. 6:17 I presume he felt with the use of Jack Wade that Felix wouldn't feature in the Brosnan films so had a bit more freedom with his portrayal like giving him a girlfriend [Manuela].

Yeah, the colour-changing car with the remote-controlled drone hidden in the underside definitely feels like something out of the Brosnan-era films rather than Ian Fleming. Its electric number plate is a nice update from the changing number plate in Goldfinger, but of course that's the film Goldfinger, not the book. It makes for a fun piece of tech, but it does feel a little out of place in the books, especially since after Benson's era the Bond books went back to the 50s and 60s so such hi-tech gadgetry isn't really seen anymore. But I'd love to see a car like it in the films some day.

I read all of Raymond's Bond books when they were first released, and then I re-read them all again around 15 years ago. I've just finished them once more and still find them wonderfully entertaining adventures.

Another super overview of the book. Calvin, I love your descriptions and the points that you dig up that I didn't even think about.

I absolutely adore your continuation reviews. Wonderful!

The EON-ness of this book has me wondering… wouldn’t it be fun to see our boy Calvin fantasy cast some of these unadapted books?

Thanks for sharing a link to the interview. Very detailed and inciteful, especially regarding the novelisations. Probably something to come back to when you eventually do a 'wrap up' but it's a shame Benson's stint seemed to end before he was ready...

Literally just finished this one! What a wild trip of a book. Not everything worked but I had so much fun reading it and the blend of Fleming and EoN stuff really worked for me.

*Somebody tries to breach the topic of Olivia Mansfield with Calvin* "I don't know her."

Definitely need to get around to reading these books.

He did a fine job with Bond books.

Calvin, I'd love to see you review some of the James Bond comic books. I particularly recommend Permission to Die by Mike Grell.

Thanks for the review! I read it years ago and had forgotten about it....I remember really enjoying it.

It's ridiculous that the publishers rejected The World Is Not Enough as a title because that's one of the best Bond titles ever. It's incredibly Fleming. What's hilarious is that the publishers saw that title, told Benson "Nah call it something else", then a year later Eon announced "Our next movie will be called 'The World Is Not Enough'". Benson must've pulled a Gob Bluth and yelled "OH COME ON!" haha.

Calvin, I had no idea about Olivia Mansfield until this video, and I have to say, I'm not just appalled, I'm disgusted. I'm of the opinion that the perfect name conjures the perfect image, and in the case of the female M, Barbara Mawdsley is perfect. Another great video. Love your literary reviews. The fact that you've made it through all the Gardners has made me want to read them all myself. I'd read a few over the years, but not all of them. I've made it through Licence Renewed through Role of Honour. About to start Nobody Lives Forever.

Barbara for M. Maybe a nod to a certain francise producer ?

I love that Hera is implied to be a film connoisseur (she would misinterpret the plot to Natural Born Killers lol)

I met Britt Ekland today at HorrorCon in Rotherham.

I suspected you'd like the Benson stuff, but it's been really nice to see them get such a solid reappraisal. Especially compared to the fan reaction at the time. Fun fact: EON didn't agree with you on Benson giving the woman M the best name, they vetoed him calling her that in the novelisations as they didn't regard it as "their" M's name.

This book sounds amazing.

This is my favourite of the Benson's saga. Bond stopping a epidemic concealed in frozen sperm and stopping a global war. What more do you want. Can't wait for you to get to the Union Trilogy.

Benson’s next novel High Time to kill was my favorite. Not a typical Bond story but not so deviant from the formula as to be unrecognizable.

5:05 you might mention this later but the cult that worships Pythagoras really existed when he was alive 😂 he was a crazy guy, ultimately he was killed by one of his cult members.

Will you be discussing Benson’s “Bedside Companion”?

You take the good, You take the bad, You take a bomb, And there you have, The facts of death! The facts of death!

ya def expanding my bondfanthom with these book reviews ive only read one, and it was about a teenage bond was an ok read tho

I didn't know it was titled that.

Dude, you missed the most obvious elephant in the room that everybody mentions about this book: Q gives Bond a Jaguar sports car that has a self-healing system as if it were T-1000. Like I've said on previous videos, it was too over the top for _Die Another Day!_

Peirce Brosnan's fifth Bond in an alternate universe 👍

A book that reads like an Eon production? Sign me up. Thanks!

Hey Calvin, have you ever made an in depth review on Skyfall? I couldn’t find one on your channel

I just finished reading it, and I have to admit that it is a shame that EON won't even touch those novels. There is really a potential there with an author that really understands the character.

I had mixed feelings about this book. I will admit I'm a literary Bond snob. I recently read Zero Minus Ten for the first time , I enjoyed it more then I thought I would. I was very impressed by Benson's ability to write the Fleming character in a modern setting. With Facts of Death, my first thought was to much EON, not enough Ian. Having said that, as the book progressed I still enjoyed it for what it was. I'm not sure if I'm going to read High Time to Kill or not.

Was the sperm bank scene anything like the one in Ash vs. Evil Dead?

Why do you think Calvin that they changed the name for M from Barbera Mordsley to Olivia Mansfield? You'd think they would would continue the whole thing of other writers contributing to Bonds universe like ' Colonel Moon' or something right !

You'll definitely love "High Time to Kill" then

👍🏻

High Time to Kill, the next Benson continuation novel, is better.

Are you alright, Calvin? You've got a scar around your neck.

I used to think the only Bond fiction deserving to be read was by Ian Fleming; and while he was alive that was true. But James Bond is too good a character not to let other authors take a crack at him. I've read much post-Fleming 007 starting with Kingsley Amis. Of all the authors who borrowed Fleming's IP, Raymond Benson wrote the best of the continuation novels. The Facts of Life is one of them (and Zero Minus Ten).

The title sounds like a Bible tract put out by the Mormons or something.

I read this in Portuguese. Benson was better than Gardner.

Wow are you Jimmy Carr son

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/h92JnqaktsCviKs.html - CALVIN! A new Bond inspired game is coming - Here is the new teaser trailer for Dangerous Connections! Greetings from Denmark!

A virus you say

I recently reread all Gardner's canonical novels and I couldn't believe how bad Never Send Flowers bad (only a Bond fan would assume anything but bad from a book with such a title), then I remembered that all Benson's books were as bad or worse! FoD feels like a rejected script submitted by TV writer. Sorry, but if you like this shoot, you're not a Bond fan, you're a Bond fetishist