Solo - William Boyd - The new Bond Novel

[Skyfall]

FYI - SOLO , the new James Bond novel written by William Boyd and commissioned by Ian Fleming's estate, comes out tomorrow. I'll put up a review of it soon, but if it's in line with Carte Blanche and The Devil May Care, it will be awesome!

If you are a bond fan and you haven't read these, there is something wrong with you!!!! Yes, I am a huge purist of the old school novels, but these new ones that are commissioned by Ian Fleming's estate, and choosing famous authors to pen them, are fantastic!

[Skyfall]

Started it today, so far, so good!

[Ken Gargett]

i know, i know, but....

have been following the reviews and interviews and great choice of authors. but i am sorry, it just doesn't seem right. i cannot bring myself to read them.

to me, 007 was fleming's. the estate/family doing it for the dosh. no other reason. if i read one, i would not feel clean.

i'd feel no different if jk rowling started writing about gandalf and frodo; or if stephen king wrote a harry potter book.

but have no issue at all if others want to read them.

they must be paying the authors very well, otherwise, go and do it for yourself.

[Skyfall]

i know, i know, but....

have been following the reviews and interviews and great choice of authors. but i am sorry, it just doesn't seem right. i cannot bring myself to read them.

to me, 007 was fleming's. the estate/family doing it for the dosh. no other reason. if i read one, i would not feel clean.

i'd feel no different if jk rowling started writing about gandalf and frodo; or if stephen king wrote a harry potter book.

but have no issue at all if others want to read them.

they must be paying the authors very well, otherwise, go and do it for yourself.

I felt the same way Ken, you know I'm a purist, but I was in an airport in 2008 and had turned my back on "The Devil May Care" for weeks, I was bored and had a layover and decided to get it. I couldn't put it down! It was the same way with Carte Blance, I couldn't put it down. I find those 2 actually more reflective of the real bond and the "Fleming Intent" than any of the Gardner novels.

I don't see how a Bond fan couldn't like them. You should give them a try!

[Ken Gargett]

it would be like sneaking into a cowboys game, watching them play great footy and enjoying it. i know i should appreciate the great footy but....

[Optic101]

Read the sample and .... mhh 50/50 here.

It feels a bit like Vince Flynn books about Rapp, but not as catching for me.

Still, as Bond fan I like to hear your review Skyfall.

[Skyfall]

I'm two chapters in and I LOVE IT! There is just something about the Bond legacy that brings the best out of already great writers. Boyd researched extensively the life of Ian Fleming and his notes on Bond before he even began penning this book. He research notes Fleming had made while writing "You only live Twice" (I don't need to point out the importance of this novel) And he based SOLO on the details and specifics about Bond and his life that Fleming created and thought were of importance.

[Skyfall]

It keeps getting better.

[Ken Gargett]

this is the review from the wash post. very positive but it still has not convinced me.

William Boyd’s ‘Solo’ is boldest departure of new James Bond series

By Art Taylor, Published: October 14 E-mail the writers

For the Ian Fleming centennial in 2008, the author’s estate kicked off a new project: a series of stand-alone James Bond novels, each penned by a notable novelist handpicked for the mission. Three writers — Sebastian Faulks, Jeffery Deaver and now William Boyd — have taken up the challenge, and just as they’re a mixed bunch (two Brits and an American), so too has this series proven a mixed bag. Faulks’s “Devil May Care” seemed a kind of period piece, picking up where Fleming’s original series left off and indulging in the trends of the Summer of ’67. Deaver chose to relocate Bond to the present day for his relentlessly paced “Carte Blanche,” which took 007 from London to Dubai to South Africa, with some hints of African genocide to push the plot forward.

Now, for “Solo,” Boyd steps back to the late ’60s once more and centers his story on a civil war in the fictional West African country of Zanzarim. This is a setting connected less to anything in “Carte Blanche” than to Boyd’s own background and bibliography: He was born in Ghana and has written several books with African themes, among them “A Good Man in Africa,” “An Ice-Cream War” and “Brazzaville Beach.” As its title suggests, this new novel stands as a solo effort in many ways.

To some degree, though, a Bond book is a Bond book. M, Q Branch, Miss Moneypenny, some fast cars, some fast women, a little globe-trotting, a little fate of the world in the balance — then shake, don’t stir. But as with the various shifts in the Bond franchise, small changes can make big differences. Boyd’s Bond reveals himself to be reflective, at times even rueful, moved to fresh depths of moral awareness by thoughts of his past and observations about conflict and cruelty as his mission unfolds.

Just after his 45th birthday — an evening marked by troubled memories of World War II, musings on mortality and an encounter with an alluring woman who sparks something primal in him — Bond is assigned to travel to Zanzarim. Two tribes there are engaged in a civil war over “a vast, apparently limitless, subterranean ocean of oil.” A post-colonial nation, Zanzarim remains of intense interest to the Brits, who have sided with the official government, while the rebels have proven steadfast under the leadership of Brigadier Solomon Adeka, “the African Napoleon.” Bond’s mission is to travel across the rebel border in the guise of a French journalist, meet Adeka and neutralize him.

Joined by the service’s station chief in Zanzarim — young, beautiful, Cambridge- and Harvard-educated — Bond is introduced to casual mercenaries, a disillusioned foreign press corps and a spirit of “frontier recklessness.” He then travels south into what he thinks of as “the real Africa.” A moment on the roadside finds Bond musing about man’s frail place in the natural world; a glimpse at the fate of children in the war-torn region seems some “surreal vision of hell” and leaves him feeling so powerless he wants to weep; encounters with one of the opposition’s officers prove increasingly brutal, even more so after Bond has supposedly worked his way into the man’s uneasy trust.

Even after the mission seems to have been accomplished, fresh betrayals and brutalities reveal themselves. Disillusioned and angry, Bond strikes out on his own — solo — for London, then Washington and deceptively placid Northern Virginia, to discover the truth and get revenge.

It’s no small thing that Bond reads Graham Greene’sThe Heart of the Matter” on his flight to Africa, and it’s perhaps no surprise that each time he meets his quarry, the general proves something less than promised and then terrible to behold. Horror upon horror reveals itself along the way, and ultimately Bond finds some darkness in his own heart — a burst of savagery, even sadism, that may startle even hard-core Bond fans. As much as Boyd is channeling Fleming here, “Solo” also includes faint echoes of Joseph Conrad, whose stories of adventure, intrigue and espionage are deeply infused with a sense of moral inquiry and consequence.

Each of the books in this new series has been distinctive and enjoyable in its own way, but “Solo” strikes me as perhaps the boldest departure — still demonstrably a Bond novel but also a Boyd one, with richer and deeper concerns coursing right alongside the Flemingesque flourishes that should keep fans satisfied, as well.

A professor at George Mason University, Taylor frequently reviews mysteries and thrillers for The Washington Post.

[Skyfall]

I'm half way though and it's an awesomely descriptive and provocative read! I can't imagine any bond fan that couldn't find the $16 to pick this up or the time to read it.

Kenny G, get the book and read it, and form your own opinion, then read Devil May Care, then Carte Blanche.

[khomeinist]

I might listen to this.

F the Gulf Freeway. Viva Audiobooks!

[Skyfall]

I might listen to this.

F the Gulf Freeway. Viva Audiobooks!

Let me know your thoughts once you get through it.

[Skyfall]

I finished it, it's AWESOME. It's right there neck and neck with Devil May Care.

Do yourself a favor and read it.

[MIKA27]

I finished it, it's AWESOME. It's right there neck and neck with Devil May Care.

Do yourself a favor and read it.

Thanks for the information - I myself also wouldn't normally read anything other than Flemmings work but if a purist states it's good, I believe it!

[Skyfall]

Soooooooooooooooo.......nobody else has picked this up to read yet???

[MIKA27]

Soooooooooooooooo.......nobody else has picked this up to read yet???

I've had a look at buying it off Kindle and would you believe it, it's currently unavailable....on Kindle!

I can see the book "Is on Kindle" but unavailable. Will keep waiting and grab it.

[Skyfall]

[ErikB]

you might also like Boyd's other work , Restless and Waiting for Sunrise might be right up your alley. And everyone needs to read Any Human Heart ...

[Skyfall]

[Skyfall]

Anthony Horowitz set to write new Fleming Estate commisioned bond novel, to include unseen Ian Fleming written material.

Sept. 2015

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29442143

[Briand]

thanks for the heads up i just ordered it .

[Briand]

I just finished and i would suggest it to any bond fan

[Ken Gargett]

Anthony Horowitz set to write new Fleming Estate commisioned bond novel, to include unseen Ian Fleming written material.

Sept. 2015

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29442143

i did cave. amazon had it on special for almost zip. will let you know.

[Skyfall]

I'm glad you got it.