A terrorist group has just set off an atomic bomb in Australia. A multibillion-dollar company just had its entire board of directors killed. And in 10 days, Hong Kong will be handed over to China. Only one man can save the day — Bond, James Bond.Raymond Benson has given James Bond a new assignment. “Zero Minus Ten,” tells of the tension-filled days before the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China.It seems that all is not well with the peaceful treaty that is about to end 150 years of British rule over Hong Kong. Many fear that China will allow communism to invade the currently capitalist island. Deals have been made to make sure that the transfer of power will go smoothly. James Bond has been sent to make sure those deals are kept.EurAsia Enterprises is perhaps the most successful business in Hong Kong. However, tragedy has struck with the killing off of the board of directors. Only EurAsia’s CEO, Guy Thackeray, escaped with his life. Fearing that this attack was meant to provoke an English-Chinese war, M assigns 007 to find out who is behind the murders. While searching for the culprits, Bond stumbles upon a Chinese Triad. A Triad is an underworld criminal organization much like the Mafia. Suddenly, Bond has gotten too close to the assassins targeting Thackeray and has to watch his own back.More than 50 percent of the world’s population is familiar with the phenomenon of James Bond. From the vodka martinis to the cars and the girls, Bond has become a global icon. Bond first appeared in Ian Fleming’s novel “Casino Royal” back in 1953. In 1962, Bond made the jump to the silver screen in “Dr. No.” The twentieth Bond movie is scheduled to be released in late 2002.Over the years Bond has gone through some changes. He has seen the end of the Cold War, quit smoking and been with women that were not even alive in the ’60s. All this history should help Raymond Benson turn out a great novel, right?Wrong. Benson has allowed Bond to become boring and predictable in “Zero Minus Ten.” With the introduction of each character, one knows what the outcome will be. Bond will get the girl, the villain will be vanquished, and the world, especially England, will be saved.The character of 007 has been portrayed so many times that Benson decides not to recreate it. Instead, the British agent seems to be a combination of Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan. The reader is supposed to already know how Bond will act and why. Benson then has to fill up his novel with trivial items. Long and painful details of how a room looks and the exact location of each piece of art is given in an attempt to liven up the book.Benson also fails to bring in exciting new dialogue to the book. Action scenes, which should increase the pace of a story, only succeed to bore the reader. “Zero Minus Ten” lacks the fire needed to keep the readers attention.Has Bond become so visual that his days in print form are over? No, not by a long shot. Raymond Benson’s “High Time to Kill” is an example of how excellent a Bond novel can be.”Zero Minus Ten” reads like a movie script. Unfortunately, movie scripts are only exciting after they have been brought to life on film. This Bond tale falls well short of a 10, but hits quite close to a 0.