Sunday, September 29, 2013

SOLO - William Boyd



This addition to the Bond series sees it taken back to 1969. Bond is sent to a west African country to assassinate a rebel leader. After some mis-adventures there the action moves to Washington DC where plot is unravelled.

This is not a bad story, better than Sebastian Faulks effort but I did enjoy Jefferey Deavers book which I would put on a par with this.

The positive for me is that Boyd has made the effort to write in the style of Ian Fleming, we have a Bond who is not a superman just good at his job. The plot itself is reasonable, a bit anti-American in my opinion or very cynical at least if taken against the back drop of recent world events.

The two main negatives for me are his first love interest. I won't mention why because others are to read the book but once its read I think it will be apparent. The second is Bond's use of one of the modern rap singers favourite words. This particular word is one of my favourites as well but I really don't see the need for Bond to be using it now after 50 plus years of not needing to.

All in all a good adventure, not great but some good escapisim and thats why I have read these books for forty years.

Thursday, September 12, 2013