Thoughts on Solo?
alexeberlin
Posts: 104MI6 Agent
I don't want to put anything spoilery here but I hope other people enjoy it more than I did.
Comments
I won't get my copy until weekend - I was too tight to pay for shipping )
thanks Sir Miles. Good advice.
I take it you mean the review - not on the being too tight for shipping )
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Hey...I can relate to that
Really ? What kind of question is that ? X-(
Roger Moore 1927-2017
actually both
Just think, they could have had:
Thunderballs
The Man with the Swollen Gun
Lacko'pussy
... And so many more... ;%
Roger Moore 1927-2017
That's the problem I have with reviews and reviewers....they seem to have an axe to grind for some reason...so you tend to get either one star or five star reviews....the reality is usually somewhere in the middle
Went over to Toppings bookshop in Bath, as when I phoned ,they said they had author signed copies of the book.
So you have to pay full price of £18.99 whereas in a supermarket you might get it for a tenner (unsigned).
As it's in 1969 there are some references to WW2 period in 1944. (Bond being born in 1924.)
and I looked at the end to confirm Bond is still alive and well . (Not killed off as some unwelcome rumours suggested.)
I'm just starting to read it and look forward to it, having read every single continuation novel as well as the Fleming originals. Then you could have a 1.2.3. poll of best between Faulks, Deaver and Boyd.
Bleuville.
I am not a native English speaker and considering that people will go far these days to "renew" an old idea, even a Bond jerking off would be somehow plausible. I love Mr. Flemings novels and have read most of them twice in my life. The idea that the novel plays in the 60s is good and should be transformed to the movies. The real Bond lover, for me, is the book reader. Considering that, every new one is a challenge, a hope, and a big chance to fail and to annoy.
Never mind. Start my nightshift tonight so will drop the novel I'm reading and get straight into SOLO. Don't disappoint me William....
Pretty simplistic, political story and with the novel twist of not really having a villain. And Bond casually drinking to Olympic standards (where did that come from: James Bond the sozzled agent by Sebastian Faulks and William Boyd?)
I get that Boyd - and any other professional writer - won't just write Fleming's Bond, so don't expect it here.
And there's a lovely '80's throwback - a female character straight out of John Gardner's "dead-or-alive-not-what-you-thought-they-are-or-were-they-or- not?"a-thons.
Boyd tries though, but he uses a lot of words where Fleming wouldn't use many and would get the story across far more stylishly, and with far more literary flair. (Yes, on the evidence so far, IF is a far better writer than literary big-hitters Faulks and Boyd).
There are still only two continuations worth saving, IMO. Colonel Sun and Wood's Spy, though I'd give an honourable mention to Gardner's Licence Renewed and For Special Services. Someone has entitled a thread here "Who should write the next continuation?" Answer: no one. It's a pointless task.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/29/james-bond-william-boyd-vinaigrette?CMP=twt_gu
"And so, out of the Bond barrel, comes another book – to even out the revenue-stream and give the publicists something to work with during a long gap necessitated by the painstaking process of filming Daniel Craig falling off things." ) )
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS