The first Bond story published by Raymond Benson, Blast from the Past is a direct sequel to Ian Fleming’s You Only Live Twice and appears to exist outside the timeline of either Benson’s or John Gardner’s other Bond stories.

First published in Playboy, January 1997. In publication order, Blast from the Past follows COLD and precedes Zero Minus Ten. Benson has stated that Playboy cut 1/3 of the story for space reasons.

Bond receives a message, apparently from James Suzuki, his son (Suzuki’s mother is Kissy Suzuki from You Only Live Twice) asking him to come to New York City on a matter of urgency. When Bond arrives, he finds his son murdered. With the aid of an SIS agent, he learns that James was killed in revenge by Irma Bunt, the one-time companion of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and a woman who Bond assumed had died alongside Blofeld (again in You Only Live Twice).

The name of Bond’s son, James Suzuki, is taken from the John Pearson faux biography, James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007.