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Comments
Interesting that @Villiers53 describes himself as being "in mourning" - exactly how I feel - bloody stupid really. It's only a book at the end of the day but when you've waited for something for so long and you'r let down like this, it is completely exhausting.
Couldn't agree more about the summation of Gardner's contribution. The first few are excellent and my personal favourite is definitely "Licence Renewed".
I'm also completely in harmony about the only way forward. Higson, were are you? Your country needs you!
So, if you were to compare it to TV, would you say that it's more like watching the horrible "Big Brother" and other such reality shows? We follow characters around but nothing happens?
Sounds like Boyd should have just created a basic relatively straight forward plot and merely set it against the backdrop of the civil war.
Is there much suspense in the Washington scenes?
Since I very much like the first half of Gardner's books and Scorpius, I was thinking that if you didn't then I might like Solo. Sadly, it just doesn't sound like I will.
A light blue tie? Not into them myself and it isn't a colour I can see Bond wearing except in the films. I have to say though, it's not as bad as the burgundy tie Deaver had Bond wearing. This doesn't make it right though.
It just amazes me how two authors who have written good books could get Bond so wrong...and now it seems like it's happened to a third. It's clearly not working. If Higson isn't available then get Weinberg to do it. The Moneypenny Diaries are great reads. Unfortunately it seems like IFP are only interested in hiring well known authors. It's like the music situation in the films where Eon only get well known names instead of people like Shirley Bassey for example. Bond is a household name. I don't think hiring a less known author would make any real difference. If someone was commissioned to write at least five books or even three, then if they wrote one bad one they could at least learn by gauging the criticism and studying the Fleming books more closely then improve on the last one. This obviously can't happen when we only have a different author per book.
You aren't wrong there @retrokitty.
Some sycophant in today's "Sunday Times" gives Solo a fabulous review. Praises every aspect and compares it with the best of early Fleming. Everybody has their view but only the lobotomised could possibly describe Boyd's novel as remotely well plotted or in any way reminiscent of early Fleming. Happily internet reviews will ensure that the truth will out and I absolutely love @villiers53's describing Solo as the third instalment in "The Bond Celebrity Trilogy Disaster".
I have not read it yet. I will wait until the mass trade paperback edition. And after the disastrously botched job done on Carte Blanche, I will certainly not buy the french translation.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/29/james-bond-william-boyd-vinaigrette?CMP=twt_gu
I hope a no-name writer gets the contract for the next novel. Spread the wealth and give someone who loves the character and knows the score a chance to kick the can. The writers on this forum would do a much better job.
:))
Are we allowed to discuss the text here or is that classed as a spoiler in this thread?
I'll follow up on getting Scorpius for now, and get this book in paperback later, unless Sir Henry, timmer or MajorDSmythe give it a glowing & heartwarming review...
Probably, for the sake of those that yet to be pained by it, we should stay away from too much detail and stick to summations of the different aspects.
For me, the whole thing is just completely dysfunctional. For example, when I consider the parts surrounding travel documents and Bond retrieving his firearm, they are scenarios that wouldn't make it into Austin Powers.
The only two passages that read well in the entire book were published in last week's 'Times' and that lulled me into a complete misplaced sense of euphoria and are, surprise, surprise, the parts that Boyd has read at public events.
As you rightly say, the drinking is just laugh out loud funny. If anybody seriously put that much away they'd have to be carried into rehab!
Something that is also bizarre are the constant mentions in the early part of the book about Bond's sore throat and the difficulty he was having swallowing. At one point, I thought the twist was going to be the development of a smoking related disease but, like the rest of the story, his sore throat never went anywhere. Perhaps Boyd forgot he had it — he certainly forgot the rest of the plot!
Now my anger has faded, I'm starting to see the funny side of this. Perhaps IFP and Boyd are just having a Giraffe at our expense?
Take the issue of the passport. When you consider that Forsyth detailed in '71's 'Day Of The Jackal' exactly how to obtain a counterfeit, here we are in 2013 and the best our foremost literati can come up with is steal a would be girlfriend's passport and doctor it because actress can be easily altered to actor, her name could be masculine and their ages are similar — she is 36 and he is 45. Oh yea — that will work for the cretins that read this type of stuff. Wait 'till I tell Faulksy down the pub about this one I bet he'll spill his beer!
The do seem somewhat generalised and lacking in detailed specifics. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the reviewers have only skimmed parts of the book.
I've had major doubts concerning a positive future for the celebrity Bond writing affair since I finished reading Deaver's Carte Blanche. Although I did begin feeling slightly more positive towards Boyd's future Bond book following many fans' positive sentiments. What have we as Bond fans done to deserve this? It's even more heart wrenchingly saddening as New Zealand losing the America's cup to the USA when the latter were down by 6 or 7 races and came back to be the first to reach 9 wins and take the trophy. Utterly depressing.
The best move though I think is to have a less well known author or even a well known one to sign a 5 book deal. Then they can learn from their mistakes. The odds in getting a one off book written for the first and probably the last time is not favourable I don't think. The latter may be unlikely to do this though in which case IFP should opt for the former which unfortunately I'm seeing as less and less likely as time goes by.
Or a deal of ANY sort. Like you said, let them (hopefully) learn from their mistakes. Next time, write for the hardcore Bond fans, the ones that are lining up to get your book day one.
What happened there?! I work at a yacht club so we had the races streaming for the members each day... Yikenheimers... !
The America's Cup is pretty much all about money which is why I don't see it as a true sporting/yachting event. I'm not trying to slag off the American team here (funny to call it that when it is/was comprised predominantly of Australians and Kiwis and skippered by an Aussie) but to be frank, NZ didn't have any where near as much money behind them and couldn't afford to tinkle around with the technology like the Americans could. The American boat was financed by a billionaire, American in nationality, and they ended up putting in an automatic foiling system and probably other gadgets part way in the competition that lead the boat to be quite notably faster than the NZ one. America sailed very well as did NZ but in the end it really did come back to technology which lead to a faster boat. The skills of the sailors on both teams were just excellent and almost flawless from both sides. In this aspect they were equal. Unfortunately their win really was attributed to a faster boat plain and simple. Just like in the literary Bond world, the rules need to be changed. In terms of the yachting, every team should have an equal budget. There were two races too where NZ were streaming ahead prior to the point in the competition when the American boat became much faster and both races were cancelled due to bad weather. There was another time too when NZ won by quite a way but the winds were too light, and the race couldn't be finished by the 40 minute time limit so the win didn't count. Lashings of bad luck for the Kiwis. Oh well, c'est la vie...