Goldfinger (novel) "was presented as a complex character". Continuation author Raymond Benson agrees, and sees "Goldfinger" as a transitional novel, with Bond becoming more human than in previous books and more concerned with what Benson calls "the mortal trappings of life", which manifest itself with the opening chapter of the book as Bond sits in Miami airport and thinks through his fight with and killing of a Mexican thug. Benson also sees that Bond has developed something of a sense of humour in "Goldfinger", verbally abusing Oddjob, to Bond's own amusement. Auric Goldfinger was described by Raymond Benson as "Fleming's most successful
Auric Goldfinger inevitably intervened. The issue of getting every soldier on the base to drink the poisoned water without an alarm was also raised. A final problem was the "clean" atomic bomb, tactical or not, which in all likelihood would have annihilated the vault instead of breaking it open. The novel itself has a scene where Bond points out to Goldfinger several reasons why the plan could not possibly work, and Goldfinger responds only with a vague assurance that he has prepared solutions for these problems. Consequently, the filmed version of the novel altered the details of the plan. Although the audience