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Solo: William Boyd's new Bond novel title revealed.

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  • WillardWhyteSpeakinWillardWhyteSpeakin Banned
    Posts: 61
    I might read this, might not. My favorite Book is LICENCE REVOKED with the dark master as the villain, the dark and noble bushido samurai of Scotland, Nathaniel Drake.
  • timmertimmer
    Posts: 4,622
    delfloria wrote:
    When Fleming was working on U.N.C.L.E. it was called "SOLO". Where's Napoleon?
    Yes, I wonder if Boyd knows this. Maybe he does, but it also seems he has his own reasons for the title.
    So far so good. Boyd hasn't made a wrong move yet. On the bright side, I cannot imagine a lamer Bond effort than Carte Blanche, so there is nowhere to go but up. Boyd is at least making more interesting pre-release noises than Deaver did.
    I remain caustiously optimistic.
    But if he kills off Bond, I will revolt. There is no call for that and anyway IFP should respect its own continuity regarding the Fleming timeline. IFP has already allowed both John Pearson and Samantha Weinberg to continue Bond's Fleming timeline life well beyond 1969. In fact in MP Diaries Final Fling, Kate Westbrook finds Fleming's timeline Bond, comfortably retired, living off the coast of England circa 2008, and still taking a stiff drink at noon.

  • BounineBounine
    edited April 2013 Posts: 2,599
    timmer wrote:
    delfloria wrote:
    When Fleming was working on U.N.C.L.E. it was called "SOLO". Where's Napoleon?
    Yes, I wonder if Boyd knows this. Maybe he does, but it also seems he has his own reasons for the title.
    So far so good. Boyd hasn't made a wrong move yet. On the bright side, I cannot imagine a lamer Bond effort than Carte Blanche, so there is nowhere to go but up. Boyd is at least making more interesting pre-release noises than Deaver did.
    I remain caustiously optimistic.
    But if he kills off Bond, I will revolt. There is no call for that and anyway IFP should respect its own continuity regarding the Fleming timeline. IFP has already allowed both John Pearson and Samantha Weinberg to continue Bond's Fleming timeline life well beyond 1969. In fact in MP Diaries Final Fling, Kate Westbrook finds Fleming's timeline Bond, comfortably retired, living off the coast of England circa 2008, and still taking a stiff drink at noon.

    True, regarding Weinberg and Pearson.

    I love what Weinberg did. It's nice to imagine that Bond is still alive and living out his lone wolf lifestyle in comfortable retirement.
  • FromCanadaWithLoveFromCanadaWithLove Canada
    Posts: 612
    At least it's better than Carte Blanche.
    That dreadful, dreadful book.
  • timmertimmer
    Posts: 4,622
    Bounine wrote:
    True, regarding Weinberg and Pearson.

    I love what Weinberg did. It's nice to imagine that Bond is still alive and living out his lone wolf lifestyle in comfortable retirement.
    Yes I thought that was a nice touch too. She drew the older retired Bond well. He still had plenty of energy and joie de vivre.
    According to Bond scholar John Griswold, Fleming's Bond was born, 11 November 1921. Griswold's thorough study of the Fleming oeuvre deduces that the Fleming novels take place between around May 1951 to February 1964, by which time Bond was aged 42. I defer to Griswold here as Fleming changed Bond's age at least three times, in order to have him at the age that he wanted him at. But if Boyd wants to go with the Fleming YOLT obit age, that's fine too. Afterall Fleming published the obit, which makes Bond roughly 40-41 when he "died" and ties in with Boyd's Bond age of 45 circa 1969.
    But if you go with the whole Fleming canon and Griswold's research of the stories, Griswold's Nov.11/1921 works as the authoritative birthdate for Fleming's Bond. It fits perfectly with the Fleming stories. It's also only a year later,than what John Pearson calculated for his James Bond Authorized Biography. The Griswold Bond birthday just makes a Bond a little older when he "died" in YOLT.
    So with the Griswold date, Bond would be 91 as of today, presumably still enjoying retirement where Kate Westbrook found him, 5 years ago, engaging the locals, and enjoying a tipple at noon.
    We should have a Fleming-Bond tribute day, when Bond celebrates his 100th birthday in 2021. I am not pronouncing him deceased until say age 105. I met a guy a couple of years ago who was 104 and he was still moving around and quite lucid, so I am happy to extend the same longevity to Bond.
  • BounineBounine
    edited April 2013 Posts: 2,599
    "We should have a Fleming-Bond tribute day, when Bond celebrates his 100th birthday in 2021. I am not pronouncing him deceased until say age 105. I met a guy a couple of years ago who was 104 and he was still moving around and quite lucid, so I am happy to extend the same longevity to Bond."

    My sentiments too. A tribute day is a fantastic idea.

    I've always gone by Pearson's date (love his authorised biography) but seeing the YOLT obituary makes him younger, I'm happy to go by this date. :)

    I always like to think that Bond is living out there somewhere. If I remember correctly, didn't Weinberg say that the real James Bond's name isn't actually James Bond and that the location of where he lives was changed for the book for the purposes of secrecy/privacy etc.? :)
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 5,472
    For what its worth I quite enjoyed Carte Blanche and was hopful of Deaver writing another. However I am prepared to give Boyd benefit of the doubt!
  • BounineBounine
    Posts: 2,599
    thedove wrote:
    For what its worth I quite enjoyed Carte Blanche and was hopful of Deaver writing another. However I am prepared to give Boyd benefit of the doubt!

    I thought that the CB story was relatively enjoyable but the Bond character himself was just too different. It didn't even seem like I was reading about James Bond.

  • timmertimmer
    edited April 2013 Posts: 4,622
    Bounine wrote:
    I always like to think that Bond is living out there somewhere. If I remember correctly, didn't Weinberg say that the real James Bond's name isn't actually James Bond and that the location of where he lives was changed for the book for the purposes of secrecy/privacy etc.? :)
    Yes , Weinberg being a responsible author would take care not to reveal Bond's true retirement location. ;) I think she kind of generalized the island locale IIRC. About the name, I think she was a little confused. Bond may be currently living under an alias as he is quite famous, but his name is James Bond. Pearson said so in the autobio. So that's what I choose to believe there.
    Reminds of Pearson's Authorized Biography back cover Publisher's notation:
    "For security reasons there can be no photographs in any edition."

    Very appropriate of course. Can't very well be publishing pictures of the "real" James Bond. ;)
  • Agent7FAgent7F
    Posts: 825
    I've the title & wait to know more this new Adventure.
  • BounineBounine
    Posts: 2,599
    timmer wrote:
    Bounine wrote:
    I always like to think that Bond is living out there somewhere. If I remember correctly, didn't Weinberg say that the real James Bond's name isn't actually James Bond and that the location of where he lives was changed for the book for the purposes of secrecy/privacy etc.? :)
    Yes , Weinberg being a responsible author would take care not to reveal Bond's true retirement location. ;) I think she kind of generalized the island locale IIRC. About the name, I think she was a little confused. Bond may be currently living under an alias as he is quite famous, but his name is James Bond. Pearson said so in the autobio. So that's what I choose to believe there.
    Reminds of Pearson's Authorized Biography back cover Publisher's notation:
    "For security reasons there can be no photographs in any edition."

    Very appropriate of course. Can't very well be publishing pictures of the "real" James Bond. ;)

    Yes, Pearson said so. I don't really like to think that James Bond isn't really our favorite agent's real name. :)
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