Solo: A James Bond Novel - Hardcover

Boyd, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062223127 ISBN 13: 9780062223128

Publisher: Harper, 2013

Synopsis

It's 1969, and, having just celebrated his forty-fifth birthday, James Bond—British special agent 007—is summoned to headquarters to receive an unusual assignment. Zanzarim, a troubled West African nation, is being ravaged by a bitter civil war, and M directs Bond to quash the rebels threatening the established regime.

Bond's arrival in Africa marks the start of a feverish mission to discover the forces behind this brutal war—and he soon realizes the situation is far from straightforward. Piece by piece, Bond uncovers the real cause of the violence in Zanzarim, revealing a twisting conspiracy that extends further than he ever imagined.

Moving from rebel battlefields in West Africa to the closed doors of intelligence offices in London and Washington, this novel is at once a gripping thriller, a tensely plotted story full of memorable characters and breathtaking twists, and a masterful study of power and how it is wielded—a brilliant addition to the James Bond canon.

About this title

About the Author:

William Boyd is also the author of A Good Man in Africa, winner of the Whitbread Award and the Somerset Maugham Award; An Ice-Cream War, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys War Prize and short-listed for the Booker Prize; Brazzaville Beach, winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; Restless, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year; Ordinary Thunderstorms; and Waiting for Sunrise, among other books. He lives in London.

Review:

“Solo never fails to keep the reader on the edge of his chair. . . . Boyd is a brilliant storyteller and the interwoven plots and surprises of Solo are often superior to Fleming’s own narrative stunts.” (The Daily Beast)

“A light, slick, sinuous adventure. . . . Though Boyd’s iteration of the character owes something to Graham Greene’s moral melancholy, Fleming’s Bond remains recognizable. So does the excellent pacing: Solo feels so quick that it could already be a movie.” (USA Today)

“Boyd has immersed himself in the character, the author and his oeuvre and come up with an adventure that’s triumphantly the equal of the great Bond adventures. . . . A brilliant imitation that’s occasionally superior to the prototype.” (Robert McCrum, The Guardian)

“Boyd brings back the real Bond, triumphantly. . . . A formidable literary achievement. . . . It succeeds wonderfully.” (The Daily Mail)

“A perfectly judged narrative tempo . . . . The action is expertly plotted. . . . Solo’s true literary craft lies in the subtlety of its correspondences and also the suspenseful quality that keeps us on our toes until the closing pages. Mission accomplished.” (The Financial Times)

“Breathtaking. . . . Boyd manages to enrich and refresh a character we thought we knew too well. . . . A terrific twisting thriller. . . . A tremendous Bond story.” (The Sunday Times)

“A compulsively readable thriller, replicating the cocktail of ingredients that got Fleming’s readers hooked and yet to let the cracks in the fantasy figure show through. A thoroughly rewarding, entertaining and ultimately thought provoking fix.” (GQ)

“More than half a century on, Boyd proves that there are plenty of pages left in 007’s passport. I doubt his creator could have done it better.” (Olen Steinhauer, The New York Times Book Review)

“An exhilarating tightrope of a tale that’s also just retro enough to conjure the original books. . . . Boyd adroitly captures the postcolonial atmosphere of West Africa with a Graham Greene-like eye for detail. . . . Boyd has rendered his Bond perfectly.” (Valerie Plame, O magazine)

“The prose of Boyd is frankly superior to that of Fleming. . . . A bloody good thriller. A triumph.” (The Observer)

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0062223127
• ISBN 13: 9780062223128
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336