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

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  • doubleonothingdoubleonothing Los Angeles
    Posts: 864
    Samuel001 wrote:
    I wonder if Boyd will write another book? Or will it be back to someone else after another three year wait?
    Well, he seemed to suggest he was done with the spy genre at the press conference. Quite happy to talk about new directions and where he was going to go next.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    edited April 2013 Posts: 28,694
    Samuel001 wrote:
    I wonder if Boyd will write another book? Or will it be back to someone else after another three year wait?
    Well, he seemed to suggest he was done with the spy genre at the press conference. Quite happy to talk about new directions and where he was going to go next.
    How is his spy fiction? I haven't ever read one of his novels.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,795
    Mrcoggins wrote:
    Try as I might I can't help but think of the Man From UNCLE

    "Solo", without Han or Napoleon in front of it, makes me think of a solitary flight, and really nothing else. In the same way that "Man" would not make me think of Spider-man or Batman. ;)
  • Posts: 546
    Solo may not be the best title for a James Bond novel. But I like it, because it fits the plot. It takes place in 1969 when Bond is 45 & he is going on a un-authorize mission in Africa. It sounds like it will be about revenge. It so much potential. I can't wait to read it!
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    I thought Fleming's Bond was born in 1920 so wouldn't he be 49?
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Murdock wrote:
    I thought Fleming's Bond was born in 1920 so wouldn't he be 49?

    Continuity means little when you're talking about Bond.
  • Posts: 546
    Murdock wrote:
    I thought Fleming's Bond was born in 1920 so wouldn't he be 49?

    Ian Fleming's James Bond was born in 1925.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Murdock wrote:
    I thought Fleming's Bond was born in 1920 so wouldn't he be 49?

    Ian Fleming's James Bond was born in 1925.

    That would mean he's 44, not 45.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    Whoops my mistake. I was thinking about Young Bond as that James Bond was born in 1920. :p
  • Posts: 546
    I mean 1926.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,355
    Ian Fleming himself never gave a birth date for James Bond.
    Samuel001 wrote:
    I wonder if Boyd will write another book? Or will it be back to someone else after another three year wait?
    Well, he seemed to suggest he was done with the spy genre at the press conference. Quite happy to talk about new directions and where he was going to go next.

    Anything you can share?

    Thanks for this news though. It should lay to rest the idea of Boyd coming back. A long wait it is then. Who will the baton be passed to next?...
  • DB5DB5
    Posts: 408
    Murdock wrote:
    I thought Fleming's Bond was born in 1920 so wouldn't he be 49?

    Ian Fleming's James Bond was born in 1925.

    According to the "obituary" that M wrote in YOLT Bond was born in 1924, so yes, he would be 45 in 1969.

  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,795
    DB5 wrote:
    Murdock wrote:
    I thought Fleming's Bond was born in 1920 so wouldn't he be 49?

    Ian Fleming's James Bond was born in 1925.

    According to the "obituary" that M wrote in YOLT Bond was born in 1924, so yes, he would be 45 in 1969.
    Thank you.
  • edited April 2013 Posts: 2,599
    Have we ever had a Bond book where Bond is set up by a criminal and blamed by the police for his/her crimes? Read all of the Bond books but can't remember. I remember in Fleming's The HIlbrand Rarity when Bond was afraid of or atleast couldn't be bothered with lengthy questions so he got rid of the body and cleaned up. I love that yarn. Probably my favorite Bond short story. They should introduce this premise into part of one of the Bond films. A fascinating insight into the sort of person Bond is. Love it.

    That cover for Solo is rubbish. They seem to put in so little effort these days. Still, it's the story that counts.

    We need a new adult Bond book atleast every 2 years. no less. By the same author would be wonderful too presuming they can write Bond ofcourse, I remember the good old days when we used to get one every year. The Benson books on the whole were disappointing though. They read like fan fiction. Still, atleast he understood the character. I don't care if it's set in the 60's or in modern day but we need an author who understands Bond and takes him seriously. Deaver clearly doesn't understand Bond (Bond wasn't even recognisable in Carte Blanche) and Faulks didn't take the project seriously. Or atleast that's how his book read. .
  • Posts: 1,986
    I believe it was Fleming who suggested the name Napoleon Solo to the producers of the Man from UNCLE series.
  • doubleonothingdoubleonothing Los Angeles
    Posts: 864
    Part one of the Q&A between William Boyd and Erica Wagner discussing "Solo" is up on the main site for those of you who are interested.
  • Posts: 154
    Part one of the Q&A between William Boyd and Erica Wagner discussing "Solo" is up on the main site for those of you who are interested.

    Very interesting read! Thanks @doubleonothing
  • doubleonothingdoubleonothing Los Angeles
    Posts: 864
    Matt wrote:
    Very interesting read! Thanks @doubleonothing

    Thanks @Matt. More to come on that interview, too. Stay tuned.
  • edited April 2013 Posts: 2,599
    "I re-read every Bond novel and Bond short story in chronological order before I started writing my own, and Fleming gives you a massive amount of information about Bond: His inner life; his back story; his education; his likes; his dislikes; his phobias; his passions. So, as a character in a novel, there's this incredible richness, whereas in a film - because film is photography - it's very hard to be subjective. So, you see Bond, you see what he gets up to, but I feel that you just don't know him at all. The literary Bond is a far more complex and nuanced creature than even a brilliant actor like Daniel Craig can portray."

    So true how the books are just so superior to the movies in this sense obviously.

    He seems to know his stuff Boyd. I have my hopes up. A gritty, realistic, character driven spy novel that is very much rooted in the period in which it is set sounds splendid. I wonder if Boyd will venture into the xenophobic, chauvinistic territory seeing this is a period piece (something I applaud) or if he'll stay away as he's not going back in time and writing the book for a 60's audience. I don't care if these two facets of Bond's character aren' t in there and I'm not X. or C. myself but it would still amuse me if they were present. :)

    I hope Boyd doesn't kill Bond off. Punters were making bets on this. Long live the literary Bond! IFP wouldn't do that (I hope) but some suggested he could be killed off for a particular period, in this case the original Fleming timeline and resurrected for other decades but I don't like this. Don't want Bond to die during Fleming's timeline or in any other period.

    "...and I think that one of the things that Fleming did with Bond was that he lifted the lid on this world where people gambled for huge sums of money, you could order an iced carafe of vodka with your caviar. You were particular about the clothes you wore, what you had for breakfast, you had your own cigarettes made, and you could tell different types of coffee bean.

    Suddenly, this kind of detail, which we take for granted today, was being revealed to readers in the fifties and early sixties, and I think that must have been a revelation."


    Interesting. I had never thought nor knew about this. I knew that reading about all these exotic locations was even more fascinating back then as travel was limited but never thought about the fact that the masses were somewhat ignorant on the goings on in high society. If indeed this was actually the case.

    After the last two dabacles, I really hope Boyd gets this right. It would be great to have a Bond book that you actually want to go back and re-read like the Fleming books and some of Gardner's.
  • Posts: 1,859
    When Fleming was working on U.N.C.L.E. it was called "SOLO". Where's Napoleon?
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    Boyd really gives the impression that he knows what he's talking about and I can confidently say, I have nothing to fear. I just hope my faith isn't misplaced and don't end up burning my fingers like I did with Faulks and Deaver.
  • Posts: 136
    Bounine wrote:

    That cover for Solo is rubbish. They seem to put in so little effort these days. Still, it's the story that counts.

    I don't think that is the cover at the top of the thread? Surely just a PR announcement poster thingy. Unless, the real cover is already out and I've missed it (doubt it; bit early)
  • Posts: 136
    Thinking about it, if they're going to keep changing authors - something I don't mind at all - I wonder why they can't have a range/more frequent titles with different people working on them?

    Or - going off on one a bit - you could have an in-canon Fleming continuation, a modern Deaver like-series and so on.

    Unless, it's budget? Or, they make more from a big one-off release at a time?
  • samainsysamainsy Suspended
    Posts: 199
    Whens it coming out?
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,978
    samainsy wrote:
    Whens it coming out?

    September 26th.

    I'm not sure if I can stretch my Bondathon that far, and i'd hate to have to start another series, only to put that on hold for Solo. :-?
  • samainsysamainsy Suspended
    Posts: 199
    samainsy wrote:
    Whens it coming out?

    September 26th.

    I'm not sure if I can stretch my Bondathon that far, and i'd hate to have to start another series, only to put that on hold for Solo. :-?
    Not waiting that Long I'll be in year 9 then!!
  • Posts: 12,526
    Pretty underwhelming i reckon? May well be the villains name too? Will have to wait and see i guess?
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    The vast majority of folks on this forum waited four years for Skyfall, yet some can't be made to wait until September for a novel? Come on now.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,795
    The vast majority of folks on this forum waited four years for Skyfall, yet some can't be made to wait until September for a novel? Come on now.
    Well, I can wait- I just purchased Christopher Wood's novelization of Moonraker (which I haven't read) to tide me over.
    \m/
  • edited April 2013 Posts: 2,599
    Bounine wrote:

    That cover for Solo is rubbish. They seem to put in so little effort these days. Still, it's the story that counts.

    I don't think that is the cover at the top of the thread? Surely just a PR announcement poster thingy. Unless, the real cover is already out and I've missed it (doubt it; bit early)

    I thought this oriiginally too but then people kept going on about the cover so I presumed that this must be the actual one.

    "Boyd really gives the impression that he knows what he's talking about and I can confidently say, I have nothing to fear. I just hope my faith isn't misplaced and don't end up burning my fingers like I did with Faulks and Deaver."

    "Mmm, I hope it aint just all talk but if it is he's gone to a great effort." :)
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