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Comments
The UK SOLO cover design is better than the Carte Blanche one but not better than the DMC design. Like usual, for me, the UK design outranks the US version. Like the bullet holes and the gecko on the inside. Overall, I'll say under average and disappointing yet again.
The original designs for the Fleming hardbacks:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/FrameBase?content=/en/imagegallery/imagegallery.shtml?images=http://pictures.abebooks.com/WESTHULLRAREBOOKS/4728005527_2.jpg,http://pictures.abebooks.com/WESTHULLRAREBOOKS/4728005527_3.jpg,http://pictures.abebooks.com/WESTHULLRAREBOOKS/4728005527_4.jpg&seq=1
Most of these have some nice pictures on them which look great. Never been a fan of the Moonraker and Live and Let Die dust jackets though.
How about mine?
My favourite designs are the ones with paintings of something.
Funny, it's their difference as covers that's precisely why I like LALD and MR so much!
Yes, I can see what you mean there, too. Each to their own, as they say!
My take — it's mediocre. Technically it has all the correct proportions and the bullet hole mechanic is interesting and clearly inspired by the late, great, Raymond Hawkey's Pan cover for 'Thunderball' .
Does it enthral me in the way Richard Chopping or Raymond Hawkey's work did — no way and that's a problem when you are trying to sell hard backs in the e-book era.
As an aside, in the Independent, Random House's Suzanne Dean demonstrates that she knows the brief but frankly if I judge her by her own standards, this just doesn't meet it.
I'm quite sure if you'd asked Raymond Hawkey what his objective was with his 'Ipcress File' cover he'd have said something like; ' to create a bloody cool cover mate'. Now you get a whole lot of marketing speak and something of somebody's desk top.
Were have all the artists gone?
Yes, they are rather generic and not as ornate as the old Richard Chopping covers were. They were drawn, too. Nowadays you just click a button. All paperback novels seem to be rather generic nowadays. Just look at 'Fifty Shades...' and all its imitators to see that. The current trend for book covers appears to be minimalist in tone. Where have all the artists gone? I'd say six feet below the sod, sadly and Raymond Hawkey is in their number.
Indeed. Point of order.
Star Trek or something'.
I wonder what Boyd thinks? The cover art for his previous novels has been quite good. 'Waiting For Sunrise' was particularly classy.
We can but dream...
He's not wrong. If this was a cover for one of Ian Banks' sic-fi epics it would be quite at home. The more I look at it, I just don't know how Suzanne Dean thinks it appropriate for a novel set in 1969.
IFP have certainly lost their way over the years with the Bond identity. Unlike EON, they have lost all consistency. For better or worse, the movie Bond evolves but there are codes and consistencies that are honoured. With the constant hiatus of authors, publishers and time lines the literary Bond is a constant reinvention.
Let's see what the rest of the marketing plan will involve. I'm still awaiting my first e-mail from jamesbondsolo.com. Doubtless all will be revealed.
Yes, since 2002 there have been all too many years of flux/confusion among the literary Bond powers-that-be. I hope that Solo puts an end to this reign of confusion once and for all.
Personally, I'd like a good few Bond books set in the 40's and the 60's. Pre Casino Royale and post TMWTGG. There's the period between 63 or 64 (whenever TMWTGG took place) and 1970 to fill. Maybe even novels set between Fleming's adventures too in the 50's and early 60's, although I'd like the plots in this period to certainly be on less of a grand scale than what Fleming conceived. Can't have too many world domination plots...
Well, it was much better organised sadly than the Adult Bond Continuation series has been since 2007 or so. I've not heard any more than you on the Bond in his 20s in WWII series, I'm afraid, though it does seem to me that it is rather on the IFP back burner at the moment.
Not sure how much I like the skipping from the 60's to modern day with the adult Bond. I wonder when the next adult Bond book will be set. If it is set in 2015, I hope there will be no reference to Deaver's book. Put Bond back in the Vauxhall Cross building and bring back his damn personality!
I hope that Boyd hasn't mentioned Bond's exact age in SOLO.
Would anyone be keen on reading about Bond's exploits in the 70's? I'm not sure whether I'd have to picture him as someone in his 50's which is probably unrealistic or pretend that he's reached that age of somewhere in his early 40's when he became immortal like in the films, pre Casino Royale (2006). Certainly I didn't imagine Bond in his 60's in the Gardner books. Maybe it's better to stay away from the 70's and just stick to the 40's. 50's, 60's or a rebooted Bond today. Not a Deaver Bond though! His Bond was almost unrecognisable.
Don't you think the bullet holes resembles planets and the black background a starry night sky? We'll have to wait for the story, but it did happen something in 1969 in the US... didn't it ;-) If that's the case the cover is very fitting in my opinion, but if Boyd hasn't used that event in the book, well, then I agree. We just have to wait, but anyway I like the cover.
@ Kronsteen - what sharp little eyes you've got! If hero is caught in a race to stop the sabotage of the Apollo 11 launch it might explain the sci cover?
I don't think they would even dare go into film YOLT/MR territory, would they? I shudder at the thought!
I'm with Bentley & Kronsteen on this. Boyd did allude that there was a very specific reason and world event that meant it had to be set in '69.
What else could it be if not the Apollo 11 launch?
I think Higson had a plan to take him through WW2 up to Casino Royale but for whatever reason it doesn't look likely to happen short term.
If IFP have turned him down it acts as further proof that they've zero business acumen or understanding of Bond.
Higson and Samantha Weinberg are by fare and away the best writers to touch the franchise since Kingsley Amis and there is no question that Higson would do a fabulous job on taking his interpretation to the next level. Fleming would have loved it!
Oh God, no! If true, that does not bode well, although sabotage rather than space flight would be preferred.
There is zero danger of Boyd going into pastiche. Having read some of his other works notably 'Ordinary Thunderstorms' and 'Waiting For Sunrise' I'm convinced he will break Bond's literary curse and give us something to rave about. The problem will then be we'll all want another and IFP won't be able to persuade him!
In the mean time, like @villiers53, I am flabbergasted by the lack of promotion. Why don't JC atleast give us a trailer via Amazon? And this micro site they've launched remains a complete dead duck.
Here's hoping. Once was enough for that, I feel.
I think it is set in 1969 because of the moon landing, not necessarily that Bond will have a mission related to it. However, I think it would be able to contrast Bond as a man of the World War II era who is getting in older in a profession that obviously is not for old men.
1969, along with the moon landing "space race and the new world" and social changes were happening in both the US and in the United Kingdom. We do know that Boyd is adopting 1924 as Bond year of birth.