William Boyd To Write Official Novel
Moore Than
EnglandPosts: 3,173MI6 Agent
Booker nominated author William Boyd is taking on the mission to write a new James Bond novel.
The as-yet-untitled book will appear in 2013 the 60th anniversary of the super-spy's first literary outing, in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale.
Boyd has revealed that his story will mark a return to "classic Bond" and will be set in the 1960's.
He is the third author in recent years to be invited by the Ian Fleming estate to write an official Bond novel.
"For me the prospect appeared incredibly exciting and stimulating - a once-in-a-lifetime challenge. In fact my father introduced me to the James Bond novels in the 1960s and I read them all then - From Russia With Love being my favourite."
The FULL article
William Boyd takes James Bond back to 1960s in new 007 novel
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17677611
The as-yet-untitled book will appear in 2013 the 60th anniversary of the super-spy's first literary outing, in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale.
Boyd has revealed that his story will mark a return to "classic Bond" and will be set in the 1960's.
He is the third author in recent years to be invited by the Ian Fleming estate to write an official Bond novel.
"For me the prospect appeared incredibly exciting and stimulating - a once-in-a-lifetime challenge. In fact my father introduced me to the James Bond novels in the 1960s and I read them all then - From Russia With Love being my favourite."
The FULL article
William Boyd takes James Bond back to 1960s in new 007 novel
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17677611
Moore Not Less 4371 posts (2002 - 2007) Moore Than (2012 - 2016)
Comments
I was excited when I heard that Sebastain Faulks was to write one and we got Devil May Care. Was excited when I heard Geoffrey Deaver was to write the next one and we got Carte Blanche. Both equally disappointing.
At least this one will be set in the 60's which I think for a Bond Novel is a good thing.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Add to that appreciation and understanding.
Seems they just blindly flail about trying to milk Uncle Ian's creation. Chucking out another Young Bond series too, apparently...
I'd third that.
I'm not familiar with William Boyd either. This jumping around back and forth shows no consideration to the 'fan' and would confuse the occasional reader. While I have some sympathy for Boyd's idea that Bond is essentially a Cold War character, I wasn't averse to a modern update; it was the nature of the update which rankled - a little too much back story, Deaver left no stone unturned. I'd enjoy a '60s Bond, but not how Faulks wrote it - six weeks of unedited slap-dash re-hash hit-and-hope rubbish.
Ah well. Roll on 2013.
Oh I don't know; Bond is Bond. These books are separate entities: their different approaches don't upset me. It's not terribly coherent perhaps, but it doesn't make them unreadable.
The one I do want is the fantasy 'War Bond' series by Higson. He's the only writer to successfully get the Fleming feel; and he didn't even have to write any spy books! Young Bond's further adventures in the war would be a great read, but not to be (from Mr Higson anyway).
William Boyd on writing the James Bond 007 novel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekRFeGsOjCg&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2D9tSNrVKo
I find this encouraging. He has studies Ian Fleming, but won't try to copy him like Foulks did. He has written suspense/espionage thrillers. He allways spends time researching before writing a novel, but is allready familiar with the cold war and the world of espionage. He doesn't rush his writing the way Fauks did. he knows the time period. I'm optimistic. Other than Vietnam and obviously the cold war, what interesting things occured in 1969?
- The space race is in full swing
- Richard M. Nixon succeeds Lyndon Baines Johnson as the 37th President of the United States of America.
- Fourteen men, nine of them Jews, are executed in Baghdad for spying for Israel.
- In Toulouse, France the first Concorde test flight is conducted.
- Operation Breakfast, the secret bombing of Cambodia, begins.
- British troops arrive in Northern Ireland to reinforce the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
- United States National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on anti-war protesters in California.
- Serious border clashes occur between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.
- Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, to begin the SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
- The Piazza Fontana bombing in Italy (Strage di Piazza Fontana) takes place. A U.S. Navy officer and C.I.A. agent called David Carrett is later investigated for possible involvement.
Of cource, boyd could just simply write about a villan who wants to get very rich by commiting a horrible crime ....
I understand your feeling. I heard an interview on the radio with Boyd who was keen to point out how seriously he is taking it whereas Faulks was always slumming it a bit. Boyd is a class act unlike Deaver in my view and I am quietly optimistic that even if we don't get a Masterpiece like Colonel Sun we will at least get a worthwhile addition. As it's set in 69 we may even get the world weary slightly past his best Bond having to dig really deep...here's hoping.
I liked reading "Restless". I found the characters interesting and the plot solid. The descriptions of food and clothes reminded me of Fleming. There were only a couple of outbursts of violence in the novel, but they were well written and the last one was both brutal and origional. My main complaint is that sense of danger and looming threath was weak or even sometimes lacking in the first half of the book.
In my opinion Restless is competently written, even good. Not a masterpiece, but no reason to worry about the upcomming Bond novel.
I will read his effort and I look forward to it, but my favourites are still Phillip Kerr and Alan Furst.
Everything about the Boyd project sounds positive and I am very excited about Bond picking up where he left off in 1969.
I am 50 pages into Restless, after one day's reading. It's a 300 page novel, so 50 pages a day and it's done in a week.
The writing immediately strikes one as superior to Deaver's, or Faulks' as far as the genre is concerned. That said, some of the descriptive passages in the first chapter get on my nerves a bit, like they're there for the sake of it. It's misplaced because the opening is in the first person, where lengthy descriptions don't feel right usually. Then it flits back to 1939, and the third person.
It won the Costa Award, like my last read, Pure by Andrew Miller. Good, but you feel the writing with each could be a bit better, a bit more dense. I will enjoy it, it's pacily written, but I'll feel no desire to re-read it for the sheer sensuality of the language.
Not sure the sex side of things will be adequately addressed - or undressed - either. It's not a turn-on read, no dark side to it in that sense.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
The FULL article.
Hay Festival 2012: James Bond to be middle-aged
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/9323091/Hay-Festival-2012-James-Bond-to-be-middle-aged.html
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
I think all the writers after Fleming have said similar things.
Mabey someone should give mountains filled with atom bombs & global plagues, a Go.
But of course I'll read it
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Waiting for sunrise - by William Boyle
"[But] below the surface the river is flowing, dark and strong."
"What river?"
"The river of sex"
In this dialogue they are talking about the city of Wienna, but they might as well be talking about the novel itself. William Boyle is of course hard at work now writing his James Bond novel. Waiting for Sunrise is a spy novel too. To be honest you could read the first half of the book before you realise it is a spy novel. Up till then the Ian Fleming story it resembles most is Quantum of Solace. It starts in Wienna in 1913, the year before the Great War. Lysander Rief is an English actor who is in Wienna to undergo psycoanalysis to cure his unability to ejaculate. Rief is engaged to Blanche, an actress back in London, but starts an affair with Hettie Bull. Ms Bull is an artist who is living as an ex-pat in the city. She is also a patient with the same doctor Lysander is seeing, and she is treated with cocaine. Many in the field used the drug as medicine at the time, including Sigmund Freud. Completely out of the blue Lysander is arrested for raping Hettie Bull and getting her pregnant. The way he gets out of that bad situation captures the attention of inteligence personel at the British embasy and that changes the cource of his life dramatically.
I noticed the same thing in Restless, the first William Boyle novel I read, too - he takes his sweet time before he lets the plot kicks into gear and a real sense of threath and danger is introduced to the story. I hope he manages to do that far earlier in his James Bond novel. Don`t get me wrong, I never found Waiting for Sunrise dull. I liked the book and thought is was exciting. Boyle writes plot well, but also characters (esp female). He must do a lot of research and his descriptions are very good. This way he keeps the reader hooked, also in the time before the war and spy work enters the story. The action scenes are few and far apart, sudden and quickly over. They are also fairly brutal. Unlike Deaver and even Fleming, William Doyle isn`t "just" a suspence writer. He writes in other generes too, mosty what you might call human drama. (That is my impression at least, I have only read two of his spy novels.) This may very well be a strength when writing Bond, there is no danger of him getting lost in gadgets, pointless action scenes and convoluted plot twists (yes, I`m thinking of Jeffery Deaver). But Doyle mustn`t forget he is writing a Bond novel. He must introduce mortal danger earlier in the plot and probably write a couple of longer, more elaborate action scenes. If he can do that, we may give us the best Bond novel since Colonel Sun.
BOYD'S BOND HITS AMAZON
http://www.thebookbond.com/2013/01/boyds-bond-hits-amazon.html
Amazon UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0224097474/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=theyoungbondd-21&camp=2902&creative=19466&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0224097474&adid=0BKE2Q8EBHVKSQJAAYPE&
U.S. teaser art revealed for the NEW BOND NOVEL
http://www.thebookbond.com/2013/02/us-teaser-art-revealed-for-new-bond.html
I have another update. I think you will have a good feeling about this.
William Boyd's new Bond novel will be published by Jonathan Cape on the 26th September in the UK. The build up begins with the launch of an official website http://www.jamesbondthenewmission.co.uk/ dedicated to the new book, where fans can register to hear the latest news about the new book as it's released.
THE NEW MISSION
http://www.thebookbond.com/2013/02/the-new-mission.html
Set in 1969, hmmm. If Boyd goes galavanting back into Bond's history I hope he doesn't forget about Colonel Sun (like Faulks did - DMC was set in the year of CS publication) I rather hope he might forget about DMC...
The World War 2 sections of Restless were OK, but the sections set in the 70s were boring filler. The ending also made very little sense - Boyd is not the world's greatest on plot mechanics, which is ominous for a Bond author.
IIRC Faulkes admitted that he only agreed to do Devil May Care if he was allowed to write it in six weeks, and it shows, particularly in the final third of the novel. I just hope Boyd doesn't follow that example. It's entirely possible that he can write a good Bond novel if he puts his mind to it, unlike Jeffrey Deaver.