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To be honest, and at the risk of sounding negative, I'm not sure if you'll like SOLO too much. There is no real plot as has been said, but what I like about it is, well, I've said already - the character movement and a number of scenes that I find entertaining.
The problem with these celebrity authors writing, is that they just want to do their own thing to put it simply. Higson, thankfully, was willing to conform to the norm and mould his methods according to what's required.
In terms of Benson, another thing I don't like about his books is the film influence and overall they really do just read like fan fiction to me but he did have some good ideas.
SOLO was an easy read but failed for me as Boyds own work has far more layers and story to tell. I had hoped based upon his own work we get something more.
Otherwise up next we get Dan Brown does Bond, or John Le Carre does Bond, or Margaret Atwood does Bond. Big yikes on the last one!
(being highly sarcastic of course)
As to why he didn't pursue his usual route is anyone's guess. Bad luck for us. Bad luck for Bond.
Funnily enough, as much as SOLO is lacking in plot, I never lost interest in the book. My attention never swayed and it hopped along at a good pace. I never got bored.
Boyd has a decent feel for the character IMO. The story was OK, worthy enough of Bond. I give the book 3/5 stars. It was an adequate introductory effort I thought. Boyd IMO has established that he can write the character. Now I think we need a more interesting story. A more exciting tale. But for a first effort this will do.
I did enjoy the quality time that Bond and Leiter got to spend together. As a Fleming fan, I like that these two long-time friends, got to sit down and have a good long yak, whilst consuming much quality booze in comfortable surroundings. They deserve that.
That was a nice touch, and Boyd used their chat to tie up the plot loose-ends too.
I don't find Boyd's realpolitik musings half as interesting as he does though, especially attempts to draw parallels with Massinette's killing of Linck, with Henry II and the assassination of Thomas Beckett. That doesn't register IMO.
Sorry, not a tear shed here for Linck, nor any deep reflections on the geo-political implications of his killing either.
Linck was an international criminal, guilty of heroin smuggling on a massive scale, implicated in murder, you name it. He was a bad guy so of course he was ripe for being taken down by counter-intelligence forces. Big deal.
If a CIA hitman hadn't got him first, Bond would have had to deal with him anyway. Someone "high-up" ordering his death, strikes me as pretty run of the mill. After all Bond also was assigned to neutralize the African rebel leader, so why is Boyd spilling so much ink over the supposed realpolitik implications of Linck's killing?
I guess he needs to wax reflective. Whatever. Anyway it wasn't that grievous, but it certainly didn't cause me to pause and reflect. Glad to see the devious criminal bastard blown away.
I did like his Bond-girls, Aleesha Belem and Bryce Fitzjohn. They both had appeal. Vampiria was particularly interesting, even if she was peripheral to the story, but that's OK, she still had a purpose.
I give my blessing to Boyd to be commissioned to write a couple more of these period thrillers. IMO he is out of the gate OK. I would like him though to ramp up the excitment a bit, now that we have the character re-established circa 1969. After all this is Fleming's Bond, the same Bond that did epic battle with the likes of DN, GF, Drax and good ole Ernst Blofeld. He's still got some good years left in him.
I wouldn't object to a series of Bond adventures covering off the '70s. Born in 1924, as per Boyd, per Fleming, this period 1969 to 1979 covers off age 45-55, Bond's mature 00 years, but still very fit,vital and dangerous. It also serves the purpose of bringing Bond up the start of the Gardner period, in which we were asked to embrace the necessary literary/cinematic device of popular fiction characters not aging and continuing on in a timeless present.
But Boyd can continue thru the '70s with the actual Fleming continuity. Gardner understandably had to cease with the aging of the character circa 1980 and beyond.
Boyd leaves some strings dangling, not the least of which is M's promise of a new mission that might interest Bond.
Permission to continue with another book. :)
Its also hard to shake the feeling Boyd thinks he's writing something really special - he thinks he's improving on Fleming's work so to speak by trying to go further into Bond's thoughts. Well...he isn't.
@bounine "peg" intv is a good read I think. I like it. The author, via Bond, deflects many of the complaints about the book quite well. I am not even really that bothered by Bond punching the bothersome reporter in the gut. Boyd did settle down after that. I was worried initially though, that Boyd might have conscripted Bond to right all the worlds social ills.
"I wouldn't object to a series of Bond adventures covering off the '70s. Born in 1924, as per Boyd, per Fleming, this period 1969 to 1979 covers off age 45-55, Bond's mature 00 years, but still very fit,vital and dangerous. It also serves the purpose of bringing Bond up the start of the Gardner period, in which we were asked to embrace the necessary literary/cinematic device of popular fiction characters not aging and continuing on in a timeless present.
But Boyd can continue thru the '70s with the actual Fleming continuity. Gardner understandably had to cease with the aging of the character circa 1980 and beyond.
Boyd leaves some strings dangling, not the least of which is M's promise of a new mission that might interest Bond.
Permission to continue with another book."
@timmer Yeah, this would be good. And Bond could get involved with woman in their 30's and early 40's this time. ;)
I am hoping IFP can get working on another adult Bond project soon. The Young Bond stuff really doesn't do it for me.
Although I do have reservations about the last 3 adult books, the Faulks and Boyd books are at least passable Bond yarns. The Deaver effort was rather off, but still at least we are getting Bond books.
None were so bad, that I couldn't enjoy reading them, even if I must be critical. As a Bond lit fan though, I'll read whatever is served up.
Maybe one day we'll find ourselves heaping praise on one of these efforts. In the meantime I'll make due.
Lets get the next one out!! Mush, mush. After all Boyd set us up for a follow-up, what with the dangling villain loose end, and M's promise of an interesting new mission.
I want adult Bond books too. The only thing is, is that I really think they should hire just one author to write several - a minimum three book commitment but five would be better.
But like @timmer said, at least we are still getting new Bond novels. Imperfect Bond novels are much better than no Bond novels.
I'd readily agree to that if Christopher Wood wasn't still alive...
Hahaha. Well, fair enough.
But like @Bounine suggests, it would be nice if someone, anyone, could be signed up for a 3-5 book commitment.
Nothing says that IFP couldn't launch a lesser known author and fresh series of books to much PR fanfare much the way the last 3 big splash books have been launched, especially the Faulks and Deaver books.
A new author could be asked to pick-up either where Boyd left off, or in the modern context where Deaver left off. I don't care which actually.
However, now we are back to limbo while IFP naval gazes and tries to figure out what to do next, at least that's how it looks.
Am I wrong? Or it there a chance that Boyd would be allowed to continue?
Not me. Benson tried to do it to a certain extent and it didn't work. The one liners and big, explosive action kind of fall flat on the page. However, Benson isn't or at least wasn't a good writer. Still, I prefer the personality of the literary Bond or at any rate, at least in terms of reading about him. If I were to befriend one of the Bond's however, literary or cinematic, it would most likely be Roger Moore's Bond. If a writer were to transfer the cinematic Bond to the page, he/she would have to inject more substance into the character otherwise he'd be relatively one dimensional. Anyway, I've got used to reading about the real Bond now and I wouldn't like reading about a Bond who was suddenly more of a joker like the cinematic representation.
The only Book Bond that was noticeably off in a way that grated a bit I think, was Deaver's Bond, but even his book was still readable as a different sort of Bond adventure. The other authors were close enough IMO.
The authors really do need to ignore the films though, re-visit the Fleming books, and try to represent that character, which really wasn't too complex.
What was interesting were the stories that Fleming weaved, and how his protagonist navigated the narrative. And do play up the Bond character traits as served up by Fleming.
Might be best to stay away from the social and political obervations that Fleming liked to pepper his books with, even the odd religious or supernatural jot that Fleming would include. However this might not be realisitc as all authors do have something to say. So the trick here I think is always consider how Fleming might have approached an issue.
If the author is in another dimension, don't hire him. Just get someone that is down with the whole Fleming vibe, then nothing they say is likely to be too egregious.
===On a related topic, the first new Young Bond will published about 10 months from now, written by Steve Cole, so that's what IFP seems to have ready for serving up next. I have to groan though.
I would be OK with this if it wasn't at the expense of the adult Bond.
As someone else astutely pointed out, Boyd does go into some detail regarding Bond's acqaintenances at Fettes.
I think it's a safe bet that he was asked to foreshadow or tease what Cole has on tap, so if IFP is trying to connect the Boyd post-Fleming continuity and Cole's work, wouldn't it make sense that Boyd be asked to continue his efforts as well.
I just hope we don't fall into another 6 year Bond alternative zone (2002-2008) of Young Bond and MP Diaries only. I do wish they would make an adult Bond announcement real soon.
Absolutely - they were original but embodied the quality nostalgia associated with this times and are head and shoulders above the celebrity trilogy disaster.
Unfortunately they had close to zero in terms of marketing and as a consequence made there way virtually by word of mouth. Extremely sad given their potential. Every female and male reader that I know enjoyed them enormously. They would also make for an absolutely stonking BBC series (TV or Radio).
As for the core product, it's not complicated, we just need Charlie Higson to do a trilogy taking us through Bond's war, his recruitment into the service and his pre Casino Royale secret life.
Unfortunately, given IFP's astonishing lack of creativity and marketing savvy,we won't get this — they'll just serve up another plonker in 2015 who'll give us another load of bunkum. Sad but true!
Oh yeah, absolutely. The Penny Diaries are fantastic books.
"...we just need Charlie Higson to do a trilogy taking us through Bond's war, his recruitment into the service and his pre Casino Royale secret life."
This is my dream too.
I would hope that after writing Young Bond, Higson wouldn't feel compelled to tread too carefully with Bond's drinking and smoking habits.
I'm glad I'm not the only person that thinks this. "Complex" seems to be a bit of a buzz word sometimes. Bond in the books is a fairly dull character. Didn't Fleming once say he wanted Bond to be "uninteresting"? Relatable perhaps but nonetheless something of a "silouette".
@BAIN123 Yes, Bond is not a terribly complex character. He really can't afford to be, given his profession.
He is distinguished from other blunt instrument operative types by his charm, style and impeccable tastes. Not to mention very good looking, fit, smooth smooth smooth, well spoken and reasonably bright, or at least much smarter than the average bear.
But emotionally he's not terribly deep. He gets by stuff pretty quickly, but for the brutal killing of his wife maybe, but even that he managed to deal with, post the events of YOLT.
This is why I find the Craig films somewhat tiresome. I just don't relate to such efforts to get inside the character's head, nor do I appreciate Boyd getting drawn in to such deliberations either with the literary character.
Youngish men of action, or young men period, tend to be doers. Reflective tendencies come later, when middle age sets in. Boyd's Bond is also better off IMO keeping such reflective tendencies at bay, until he hits 50 maybe, and even then, not too much please.
Fleming's Bond would pause and reflect briefly, but not much more. He was a decisive man of action, except possibly for a few instances where he fussed over killing in cold blood, but I think that was Fleming's attempt at reminding us that Bond was human, not an unfeeling killer like many of his adversaries.
At the very least Fleming's young prime-age Bond saved his reflective tendencies for the down-time between missions or at least didn't let such musing interfere with execution of mission in any big way.
Craig's Bond seems to have issues before, during and after missions but I digress. Boyd's Bond isn't that, yet.
But Bond is a man of action motivated by duty. That should be his defining driving characteristic.
However Boyd didn't do anything too grievous with Bond in Solo, but I worry he might have leanings. We shall see, but there is also a very good chance we might never hear from him again. As the IFP turns.
I don't mind the emotional stuff but now that we've had it for three films they should leave it out for Bond 24. You can have character development without emotional baggage.
Bounine - How could you not welcome the return of the smoking hot Naomie Harris with her fabulous interpretation of Moneypenny?
She is a great actor and brings a new dimension to the role. I hope she plays a significant role in the next move. The more glamour the better!