SOLO by William Boyd ::: September 26, 2013

Title is Solo and will take place in Europe, Africa and the United States.

https://twitter.com/jamesbondlive/status/323751912358957056

looking forward to reading SOLO.

Well, I'm jiggered. It's not too bad. Or as bad.

Here's a piece by David Blackburn in The Spectator.

Quote :

The art of fiction: the return of 007

Bond is back. William Boyd has agreed to don the garb of Ian Fleming and write the latest tale in 007’s story.

Boyd will not be aping Fleming’s style. The recent franchise revivals by Sebastian Faulks and Jeffrey Deaver are singularly different to each other and the original canon, while remaining faithful to the (anti-)hero in some fundamental way. They match the Bond film series in that regard. Daniel Craig, Sean Connery and Roger Moore could not be more dissimilar in their depictions of the character, yet each is recognisably shaken not stirred.

Deaver and Faulks wrote slightly psychological Bond thrillers — I can’t really remember where they were set. William Boyd is, as Daisy Dunn wrote yesterday, a writer who generates suspense through atmosphere and place as much as in the minds of his characters. He used 20th Century London in Restless and Ordinary Thunderstorms as he used Vienna in Waiting for Sunrise.

Perhaps that explains why Boyd is confident enough to return Bond to the Connery era, as it were, by opening the novel in 1969. (There is also a sentimental reason: he said yesterday that his favourite Bond book is From Russia With Love, a sign of the highest taste.) As for where the action will be set, did he give a clue at the recent Oxford Literary Festival? He said that he was working on a novel set in Africa. You could assume that he was referring to the new Bond book, but with the prolific Boyd you can’t be sure. But I like the idea of Bond being blown around post-colonial Africa on the winds of change.

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/books/2012/04/the-art-of-fiction-the-return-of-007/

I like the title. I'm really looking forward to diving into this Bond novel.

Plot outline, courtesy of The Guardian:

Spoiler:

My thoughts:

Spoiler:

How many of the books and movies does that make it, now?

The obvious choice for the next Bond author/screenwwiter:

I've got faith in Boyd. Seems like he's passionate about the project.

Control wrote:

I've got faith in Boyd. Seems like he's passionate about the project.

I'm hoping that his upbringing in Africa will make the scenes in Africa seem more authentic and less like they were taking place down the street from me, the way Deaver did. I've never been to Africa, so I can't really judge it for sure, but I think Deaver did a pretty poor job of capturing is character. When Bond is being stalked by the Serbian hitman through the streets of Durban, he might as well have been stalked by a Polish soccer hooligan through the streets of Croydon for all the atmosphere Deaver created.

Sounds like the first act of CR 06, instead it's the whole story. Hopefully it turns out interesting and exciting.

Python wrote:

Sounds like the first act of CR 06, instead it's the whole story. Hopefully it turns out interesting and exciting.

I'm seeing both that and Operation Bedlam, though with his temporary departure from the Service driven by his own feelings of responsibility rather than a lack of progress in his case and other, more-pressing issues arising.

I wonder when we'll get the first snippets, don't remember there being anything available until a mere days before DMC and CB. Up to now it doesn't sound bad, no gimmicks, a real spy story. Could have done with a more intriguing title in my view, something with 'Africa' or 'Black' in it.

Avoiding the spoilers clumisly I've read a couple of Boyd's books recently, Waiting for Sunrise and Restless and as I felt after Any Human Heart a year ago I'm reasonably looking forward to his Bond book. It will not be the best, nothing will ever be the best now, but any African jaunt in particular will be interesting and done well by Boyd. He will, if anything, better Faulkless.

Mmmm ... I do wonder about the 'going rogue' and 'mission gone horribly wrong' aspects. Boyd makes a point of saying that he's not 'bound' by screen Bond, but there's been a fair bit of those in the movies of late.

To be fair, we're only assuming that it's a mission that goes horribly wrong and that he goes rogue. Part of that is extrapolated from the outline presented by The Guardian, but there is still plenty of inference on our part. For instance, Boyd's story could see Bond on an assignment in Africa that comes to a close. Although MI6 consider it to be finished, Bond is unhappy with some of the events that transpired, and decides to follow up on them on his own. Where M would normally trust Bond's judgement on things like this, he cannot justify keeping the case open any longer, forcing Bond to operate outside the Service's bounds. When his hunch proves to be right, M has already committed MI6 to other things, and Bond has to be considered to be working independently.

Harmsway wrote:

Boyd on his upcoming Bond novel:

Quote :

You're also working on the new James Bond novel. Can you tell us anything about it?

I am being annoyingly tight-lipped. It's 1969 and Bond is 45 years old. This is not the young hotshot spy anymore, this is a man who's maybe not quite as limber or confident as he was in 1953. There's no mountains full of atom bombs or a bubonic plague that will destroy the world. It's an ordinary mission for a middle-aged spy that goes hideously wrong.

Did you get a lot of leeway in terms of the story?

You have total freedom. There's no point in asking somebody like me or [Devil May Care author] Sebastian Faulks to write a Bond novel if you then say "You have to do this." There are certain boxes you have to tick, but within those relatively few parameters you're free to invent your own story. That's one reason I went back to read all the novels again. In those novels was a lot of information about Bond and his tastes, his moods, his dark side. So that's what I've really plundered the novels for rather than cars with ejector seats.

Not just an assumption ... Boyd himself said it, look.

I can't say I'm bowled over by the title, but at least it isn't some groanworthy "Bondian" bit of rubbish. This notion of a gloomier, grittier Bond story with an older, wearier Bond could go either way. If Boyd really commits to the idea, then it's likely SOLO will at least be interesting, even if it's not good.

I'm bracing myself for another DEVIL MAY CARE or CARTE BLANCHE, but who knows, we may just end up with a COLONEL SUN.

Let's hope that, for once, we get a Bond novel, as opposed to a sort of halfhearted attempt at a Bond film in book form.

I have faith in Boyd personally. I think he'll do us proud and do a great job. Roll on September.

I have faith in this book. Like the noises that Boyd has been making. So far, so good!
Although once this book is done, I would like see a return to the contemporary setting. Pick up where Deaver left off, but this time minus Deaver.
I am not interested in Bond continuing into the '70s mainly because John Pearson's excellent autobio nicely covered the early '70s period anway. It's been done. Leave it alone. Let the Fleming timeline retire with Pearson.

Keeping the modern context is probably the safest idea, despite most fans dislike of Benson he readily proved that the modernization still worked as long as the character was intact.
I'm really excited for this one, I've allowed myself to have some hopes that it won't fall into the Devil May Care category of trying too hard, or the Carte Blanche territory of unreadable sacrilegious filth.

I still to this day have been unable to finish CB. Coming from someone who has re-read every continuation book innumerable times and sticks up for elements from even the worst ones, that says a lot.

I didn't mind what they did to the character in Carte Blanch, I actually enjoyed it. Gardner and Benson simply took the 50's/60s Bond and brought him into the period during which they were writing. They made a few changes: new car, low tar cigs, eventually quitting, etc. Small things, but it was essentially a character of the 50's stuck in the 1980/90s'.

I like that Carte Blanche went all out, a complete new take on Bond. Updated for the present, modern timeline, etc.

With that said, I respected a new take and modernization of Bond, however, the execution of the overall work...