What do you think?
Rate this book
Solo: Ein James-Bond-Roman
1969. Ein altgedienter Geheimagent. Ein einsamer Auftrag. Eine Lizenz zum Töten. William Boyd, Meister der Täuschung und des doppelten Spiels, gilt seit seinem Roman "Ruhelos" als Großer der Spionageliteratur und führt nun erstmals 007 selbst auf Abwege. Ein raffiniert-verwickeltes Klassisch, voll unerwarteter Wendungen, mit zwei enigmatischen Bond-Girls und endlich wieder einem 007, der Wodka Martini trinkt - geschüttelt, nicht gerührt...
Audible Audio
Published October 1, 2013
About the author
William Boyd
185 books63 followersLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
William 2^ Boyd: Literature & Fiction
William 3^ Boyd: Reader in education in the University of Glasgow
William 4^ Boyd: GR author, YA Fantasy
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
William 2^ Boyd: Literature & Fiction
William 3^ Boyd: Reader in education in the University of Glasgow
William 4^ Boyd: GR author, YA Fantasy
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 25, 2025
Solo by William Boyd
10 out of 10
Probably the best thing to do if you intend to read Solo would be to listen to the magnificent author https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z0xa... who is not only an exceptional writer, but also a gentle, kind, admirable human being that this reader is grateful to for the glorious hours offered through his fantastic books, so far I have been enchanted by the marvelous An Ice Cream War http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/09/a..., the hilarious A Good Man in Africa http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/09/a... the equally fascinating Any Human Heart http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/01/a... and the recently read and enjoyed Love Is Blind http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/03/l...
With Solo William Boyd proves that he can take the hero of Ian Fleming and create a captivating novel in a different genre, albeit for the under signed it recalls to some extent the aforementioned Any Human Heart and Love is Blind has also proved that this is a phenomenal creator that likes to take his readers on long, overwhelming journeys that cover vast areas, from England to Saint Petersburg, Paris is included together with exotic islands and Solo takes us back to where we have enjoyed ourselves – those of us that look in awe at this master of the pen – in A Good Man in Africa, though with James Bond we are not about to laugh, but mostly be horrified by the cruelty of the wars taking place there – at one stage, the hero has to pass through an abandoned area between two warring armies, where starving children will die before the end of the day, only to join their comrades that have already passed away in the village filled with corpses.
In the beginning we meet with a beautiful woman as Bond celebrates his 45th birthday on his own, even if this character would prove secondary for the professional thread of the narrative, in that he will only use her passport at some time, and even that after he will have gone Solo, taking some action outside the scope of the agency he is working for and which is sending him to the fictional country of Zanzarim, where oil has been found and this is one of the themes of the book, the way in which rich countries used to – and they still do – take advantage of poor ones and interfere in their conflicts so that they get resources they need – Bismarck called this ‘realpolitik’ – and the region where they find the black gold wants to secede and has declared independence – another interesting political subject would be the artificial manner in which colonial powers have drawn the borders, not taking into account the local traditions and history – granted, there are many tribes in most countries of Africa and it might have been impossible to create states around each of these tribes.
The new country calls itself the Republic of Dahum and since the interests of the British stand with an undivided Zanzarim, famous M, head of the British Intelligence, assigns Bond to the mission of rendering the military commander of the secessionist Dahum, general Adeka, incapacitated, unable to lead the struggle of the breakaway region, though it is not said that he must be killed and in order to do that, he will work as a journalist, travelling first to Zanzarim, then with the help of the head of the local MI6, he would travel across the battle lines so that he could infiltrate and accomplish his mission.
In the fashion we know, there is a very attractive, irresistible woman in the plot, aside from the actress that plays Vampira and that we have met in the first chapter and would meet again later, and she is the head of the spying outfit in Zanzarim – or so we all think, 007 and readers – Efua Blessing Ogilvy- Grant has a Scottish engineer father and a mother that had thought her the local language and she has been Harvard and Oxford and then sent to use her skills to Africa, where she would drive Bond to the limit of the conflict zone and from there a contact would get him across the line and into Dahum, where he would use his special agent talents to succeed – we would learn that the hero has been fighting in World War II with British Special Units and would use that knowledge in a small battle that he would take lead of and win, in exchange for a meeting with the elusive general Solomon Adeka, the one that no journalist has seen and for that matter few humans, and that is because he is dying of cancer…
The inevitable happens – maybe because it had been planned and we may learn about this more in the consequent chapters – and the beautiful Blessing comes to the room of the famous 007 and says that she needs his help with a lizard that is in her room – it turns out to be a gecko and thus absolutely harmless and a clear indication that this is a ploy – and they make love and then at dawn their room in a hotel on the edge of the conflict area a group of men invades, led by one Kobus aka Jokobus Breed, a mercenary with only half a normal face, who had been fighting for Rhodesian Light Infantry in Matabeleland, who takes them prisoners and forces them to travel with him through the forest, until they reach a road where heavy fire is exchanged, Blessing appears to panic and then get shot dead and 007 continues to walk after his escape for about two days until he reaches a village where many had died and a couple of boys will be dead by sundown if nobody would get them any help.
Maybe we would expect a superhero modeled on blockbusters where they can do anything and in no time at all to save the day and the whole population, but this being based on the experience that William Boyd has had first hand, as a man born and living in Nigeria, where he could see the results of their own war of secession, and a brilliant author, the writer does not offer cheap solutions and unrealistic paths and after he gets the boys some water, Bond continues his journey in the forest and he would finally meet again with Kobus Breed, who is one of the key men in the army of the new republic, more amiable this time and able after he gets help from 007 in a battle that he is losing to present him to the general that is forced to lay on the bed, in a terrible state, evidently dying and in fact soon to be buried with honors – or so we think for some time.
There is another important character that seems to be keeping alive the hopes of the new born state, at least for some time, Hulbert Linck, who likes to play the role of small Bill Gates, before the billionaire will have been born, in that he claims to use his fortune to provide munitions, guns, food and medicine to the small country, using his own money and a small airfield where airplanes land and eventually he hopes to bring in a ship with all they need…the truth behind this image will be exposed later, let us just say that interest in oil is just part of the big scheme that opposes various big companies, big countries and in the middle of all this the two smaller African states and some of their clashing tribes.
10 out of 10
Probably the best thing to do if you intend to read Solo would be to listen to the magnificent author https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z0xa... who is not only an exceptional writer, but also a gentle, kind, admirable human being that this reader is grateful to for the glorious hours offered through his fantastic books, so far I have been enchanted by the marvelous An Ice Cream War http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/09/a..., the hilarious A Good Man in Africa http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/09/a... the equally fascinating Any Human Heart http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/01/a... and the recently read and enjoyed Love Is Blind http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/03/l...
With Solo William Boyd proves that he can take the hero of Ian Fleming and create a captivating novel in a different genre, albeit for the under signed it recalls to some extent the aforementioned Any Human Heart and Love is Blind has also proved that this is a phenomenal creator that likes to take his readers on long, overwhelming journeys that cover vast areas, from England to Saint Petersburg, Paris is included together with exotic islands and Solo takes us back to where we have enjoyed ourselves – those of us that look in awe at this master of the pen – in A Good Man in Africa, though with James Bond we are not about to laugh, but mostly be horrified by the cruelty of the wars taking place there – at one stage, the hero has to pass through an abandoned area between two warring armies, where starving children will die before the end of the day, only to join their comrades that have already passed away in the village filled with corpses.
In the beginning we meet with a beautiful woman as Bond celebrates his 45th birthday on his own, even if this character would prove secondary for the professional thread of the narrative, in that he will only use her passport at some time, and even that after he will have gone Solo, taking some action outside the scope of the agency he is working for and which is sending him to the fictional country of Zanzarim, where oil has been found and this is one of the themes of the book, the way in which rich countries used to – and they still do – take advantage of poor ones and interfere in their conflicts so that they get resources they need – Bismarck called this ‘realpolitik’ – and the region where they find the black gold wants to secede and has declared independence – another interesting political subject would be the artificial manner in which colonial powers have drawn the borders, not taking into account the local traditions and history – granted, there are many tribes in most countries of Africa and it might have been impossible to create states around each of these tribes.
The new country calls itself the Republic of Dahum and since the interests of the British stand with an undivided Zanzarim, famous M, head of the British Intelligence, assigns Bond to the mission of rendering the military commander of the secessionist Dahum, general Adeka, incapacitated, unable to lead the struggle of the breakaway region, though it is not said that he must be killed and in order to do that, he will work as a journalist, travelling first to Zanzarim, then with the help of the head of the local MI6, he would travel across the battle lines so that he could infiltrate and accomplish his mission.
In the fashion we know, there is a very attractive, irresistible woman in the plot, aside from the actress that plays Vampira and that we have met in the first chapter and would meet again later, and she is the head of the spying outfit in Zanzarim – or so we all think, 007 and readers – Efua Blessing Ogilvy- Grant has a Scottish engineer father and a mother that had thought her the local language and she has been Harvard and Oxford and then sent to use her skills to Africa, where she would drive Bond to the limit of the conflict zone and from there a contact would get him across the line and into Dahum, where he would use his special agent talents to succeed – we would learn that the hero has been fighting in World War II with British Special Units and would use that knowledge in a small battle that he would take lead of and win, in exchange for a meeting with the elusive general Solomon Adeka, the one that no journalist has seen and for that matter few humans, and that is because he is dying of cancer…
The inevitable happens – maybe because it had been planned and we may learn about this more in the consequent chapters – and the beautiful Blessing comes to the room of the famous 007 and says that she needs his help with a lizard that is in her room – it turns out to be a gecko and thus absolutely harmless and a clear indication that this is a ploy – and they make love and then at dawn their room in a hotel on the edge of the conflict area a group of men invades, led by one Kobus aka Jokobus Breed, a mercenary with only half a normal face, who had been fighting for Rhodesian Light Infantry in Matabeleland, who takes them prisoners and forces them to travel with him through the forest, until they reach a road where heavy fire is exchanged, Blessing appears to panic and then get shot dead and 007 continues to walk after his escape for about two days until he reaches a village where many had died and a couple of boys will be dead by sundown if nobody would get them any help.
Maybe we would expect a superhero modeled on blockbusters where they can do anything and in no time at all to save the day and the whole population, but this being based on the experience that William Boyd has had first hand, as a man born and living in Nigeria, where he could see the results of their own war of secession, and a brilliant author, the writer does not offer cheap solutions and unrealistic paths and after he gets the boys some water, Bond continues his journey in the forest and he would finally meet again with Kobus Breed, who is one of the key men in the army of the new republic, more amiable this time and able after he gets help from 007 in a battle that he is losing to present him to the general that is forced to lay on the bed, in a terrible state, evidently dying and in fact soon to be buried with honors – or so we think for some time.
There is another important character that seems to be keeping alive the hopes of the new born state, at least for some time, Hulbert Linck, who likes to play the role of small Bill Gates, before the billionaire will have been born, in that he claims to use his fortune to provide munitions, guns, food and medicine to the small country, using his own money and a small airfield where airplanes land and eventually he hopes to bring in a ship with all they need…the truth behind this image will be exposed later, let us just say that interest in oil is just part of the big scheme that opposes various big companies, big countries and in the middle of all this the two smaller African states and some of their clashing tribes.
Displaying 1 of 1 review