charles champlin in the "los angeles times" noted how different fleming and gardner are. "ian fleming wrote as a hedonist who prospered by dramatizing a life's worth of fantasies - acquisitions, indulgences, guilt-free sex and violence. john gardner writes in "win, lose or die" as a military affairs reporter who describes the operations of a harrier vtol aircraft as lovingly as fleming described pussy galore. gardner is long on facts, short on feelings. this is the eighth of the counterfeit james bonds by gardner." commenting on the villain, champlin writes, "its leader, who intends to dispose of practically everyone, is as colorless a supervillain as ever bond has faced. call him drabfinger." the book "is all so unamusing and juicelessly programmatic. the persistence of the series, despite these pallid copyings, is the ultimate tribute to the richness of fleming's original invention."