Things Dreams Are Made of Book

Most of the aspects that make Die Another Day a bad film are either absent or at least toned down by Benson in his novelization (of course, that perception could just be due to the fact that reading about some of the more over-the-top details is less jarring than the less-than-impressive green-screen work that induces so many cringes every time I watch the movie).

As Benson did with Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough, the author comes up with suitably "Bondian" scenes to bridge the gaps between locations, and he also provides some interesting background for some of the main characters (Frost, Moon, and Zao).

I get the impression that Benson found the Moon->Graves transformation and rapid rise (huge satellite launch and knighthood in 14 months?!) just as implausible as a lot of the rest of us Bond fans, but that was the screenplay he was given, and he does his best with it.

I'm disappointed that Raymond Benson didn't get to stick around longer in his role as a Bond continuation author, but after reading some interviews he's done about his tenure, I can certainly understand why he was a little relieved to be done with it and move on (Benson has said that he was about to ask for a year off when Glidrose/Ian Fleming Publications let him know that they were suspending the continuation novels for a while... six years, as it turned out...
). I think he did an excellent job with his novels, especially given the mandate he was under to blend the literary and film versions of James Bond.