Raymond Benson (born September 6, 1955) is an American author This is not intended to be a list of every American who has published a novel. (For the purposes of this article, novel is defined as an extended work of fiction. This definition is loosely interpreted to include novellas, novelettes, and books of interconnected short stories.) Novelists on this list have achieved a notability that exceeds merely best known for being the official author of the adult James Bond James Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The character has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English-language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with Dr. No novels from 1997 1997 was a common year that started on a Wednesday. In the Gregorian calendar, it was the 1997th year of the Common Era, or of Anno Domini; the 997th year of the 2nd millennium; the 97th year of the 20th century; and the 8th of the 1990s to 2003 2003 was a common year that started on a Wednesday, according to the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2003rd year of the Common Era or the Anno Domini designation; the 3rd year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century; and the 4th of the 2000s decade. Benson was born in Midland Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States, on the Southern Plains of the state's western area. A small portion of the city extends into Martin County. As of 2008, the population of Midland was 106,561. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Midland, Texas Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the United States, while San Antonio is the second largest in the state and seventh largest in the United States. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and sixth largest United States metropolitan areas, respectively. Other major cities include El Paso and Austin—the and graduated from Permian High School in Odessa Odessa is a city in and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, United States. It is located primarily in Ector County, although a small portion of the city extends into Midland County. Odessa's population was 96,943 at the 2000 census. It is the principal city of the Odessa, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Ector County in 1973. In primary school Benson took an interest in the piano which would later in his life develop into an interest in composing music (mostly for theatrical productions). Benson also took part in drama at school and became the vice president of his high school's drama department, an interest that he would later pursue by directing stage productions in New York City after attending and receiving a degree in Drama Production—Directing from the University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin is a public research university located in Austin, Texas, United States, and is the flagship institution of The University of Texas System. The main campus is located approximately 0.25 miles (0.40 km) from the Texas State Capitol. Founded in 1883, the university has the fifth-largest single-campus enrollment in. Other hobbies include film history and criticism, writing, and designing computer games A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device. However, with the popular use of the term "video game", it now implies any type of display device. The electronic systems used to.

Contents

James Bond works

In 1996, John Gardner John Edmund Gardner was an English spy novelist, most notably for the James Bond series resigned from writing Bond books. Glidrose Publications promptly chose Benson to replace him. As a James Bond novelist, Raymond Benson was initially controversial for being American, and for ignoring much of the continuity established by Gardner. Benson had previously written The James Bond Bedside Companion, a book dedicated to Ian Fleming, the official novels, and the films. The book was initially released in 1984 and later updated in 1988. It was nominated for an Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. They honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television, film, and theatre published or produced in the previous year by Mystery Writers of America The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday in the Best Biographical/Critical Work category. Benson also contributed to the creation of a module in the popular James Bond 007 role-playing game in the 1980s. In total, Benson wrote six James Bond novels, three novelizations, and three short stories. He was the first Bond author since Ian Fleming to write short stories (published in Playboy and TV Guide In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews. Some issues have also featured horoscope listings and crossword puzzles Magazines and collected in anthologies published in 2008 and 2010).

Glidrose changed its name to Ian Fleming Publications commencing with Benson's novel, High Time to Kill. Benson resigned from writing Bond books in 2003.

  1. "Blast from the Past" (short story A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books. Short story definitions based upon length differ somewhat even among professional writers, due somewhat in part to the fragmentation of the medium, 1997)
  2. Zero Minus Ten (1997)
  3. Tomorrow Never Dies Tomorrow Never Dies is the eighteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Bruce Feirstein wrote the screenplay, and it was directed by Roger Spottiswoode. It follows Bond as he tries to stop a media mogul from engineering world events and starting World War III (novelization, 1997)
  4. The Facts of Death (1998)
  5. "Midsummer Night's Doom" (short story, 1999)
  6. "Live at Five" (short story, 1999)
  7. The World Is Not Enough The World Is Not Enough , published in 1999, is the fifth novel by Raymond Benson featuring Ian Fleming’s secret agent, James Bond based on the 1999 film of the same name. It was only the second James Bond novel copyrighted by Ian Fleming Publications . It was published in the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton and in the United States by (novelization, 1999)
  8. High Time to Kill (1999)
  9. DoubleShot (2000)
  10. Never Dream of Dying (2001)
  11. The Man with the Red Tattoo (2002)
  12. Die Another Day Die Another Day is the twentieth spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth and last to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond and is also the last Bond film of the original timeline with the series being rebooted with Casino Royale. In the pre-title sequence, Bond leads a mission to North Korea, during which he is found (novelization, 2002)

Benson's novel The Man with the Red Tattoo inspired the government of Japan's Kagawa Prefecture in 2005 to erect a permanent museum (the "007 Man with the Red Tattoo Museum", dedicated to the book) and honor Benson with the title of Goodwill Ambassador.

In 2008 High Time to Kill, Doubleshot, Never Dream of Dying and his 1997 short story "Blast from the Past" were grouped and released as an omnibus called The Union Trilogy: Three 007 Novels. A second anthology entitled Choice of Weapons will be published in 2010 and will contain Zero Minus Ten, The Facts of Death, The Man with the Red Tattoo, and the short stories "Midsummer Night's Doom" and "Live at Five".

Other works

Since authoring Bond novels, Benson has had a number of books published, including original suspense novels Face Blind (2003), Evil Hours (2004), and Sweetie's Diamonds (2006) as well as the non-fiction work The Pocket Essential Guide to Jethro Tull (Jethro Tull Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the songs, vocals and flute work of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and guitarist Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969 biography) (2002).

In 2004, Benson began writing the first of two books based on the acclaimed video game A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device. However, with the popular use of the term "video game", it now implies any type of display device. The electronic systems used to series, Splinter Cell Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a series of video games endorsed by American author Tom Clancy. The success of the series spawned a novel series in 2004 written under the pseudonym David Michaels. The protagonist, Sam Fisher, is a highly-trained agent of a black-ops sub-division within the NSA, dubbed "Third Echelon", although both are credited to the pseudonym, David Michaels. Further titles in the Splinter Cell series have also been credited to David Michaels, but were not authored by Benson. The first book, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell was published in 2004 followed by Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda in 2005.

In 2008 Benson wrote A Hard Day's Death about a private investigator who looks into the death of a rock star. The book spawned a second novel in 2009 called Dark Side of the Morgue.

Benson also wrote the novelization to the video game Metal Gear Solid Metal Gear Solid (commonly abbreviated as MGS) is a stealth action video game directed and written by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojima's early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid in 2008[1] and will follow that up in 2009 with a novelization of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (commonly abbreviated as MGS2) is a stealth action video game directed by Hideo Kojima, developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2 in 2001. It is the fourth Metal Gear game produced and directed by Kojima and the direct sequel to Metal Gear Solid. Its release. His entry in the Gabriel Hunt pulp adventure series, Hunt Through Napoleon's Web, will be published in 2010.

Raymond Benson continues to write a series of classic film reviews for the publication "Cinema Retro". In 2007, he teamed up with Chicago Daily Herald film critic Dann Gire to present Dann & Raymond's Movie Club, a popular live program held at Chicago suburban libraries. Gire and Benson present evenings of various cinema history topics, show clips, relate anecdotes and trivia, and tell jokes.

Bibliography

Fiction

Non-fiction

Short stories

Produced musical composition for theatre

Produced plays

Computer games

Role-playing game

References

  1. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Metal-Gear-Solid-Raymond-Benson/dp/0345503287

External links

Preceded by John Gardner John Edmund Gardner was an English spy novelist, most notably for the James Bond series 1981-1996 James Bond James Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The character has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English-language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with Dr. No writer 1997-2002 Succeeded by Charlie Higson Charles Murray Higson , more commonly known as Charlie Higson, is an English actor, comedian and author. He has also written and produced for television 2005 - present

Categories: 1955 births | Living people Possibly living people, disappeared people and dead people are not included here, including the recently deceased, for which see Category:2010 deaths and preceding categories listing deaths for 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, etc | People from Midland, Texas | American spy fiction writers | Writers from Texas | American novelists Categories: Novelists by nationality | American fiction writers | American short story writers Categories: American fiction writers | Short story writers by nationality

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