The Eight, by Katherine Neville

December 29, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, Fiction, historical fiction, Katherine Neville 

Katherine Neville’s The Eight is a book that transcends genres. It is a work of fiction as well as a crime novel and a thriller. Or it is a swashbuckling adventure, The Eight, by Katherine Neville
a historical mystery, a puzzle, with elements of fantasy thrown in. I still don’t really know. But I think it is a little of all.

The Eight has been compared to the writings of Umberto Eco and Dan Brown, and there is some substance to such comparisons. Like in works of those writers, Cathrine Neville’s plot is big and rich with symbolism and interpretation. The story revolves around an ancient chess set named the Montglane Service. Crafted by a Sufi master in Babylon, it was later given to the medieval French emperor Charlemagne.

The set supposedly has vast occult powers. Its parts have been spread around the globe and there are hidden forces working to find and unite the pieces. Two sets of players, actually. And the struggle for control over the pieces is referred to by them as “the Game”.

The Game spans centuries and generations. It is played out much like a tense game of chess with real players. The key player is Catherine Velis, a financial computer expert. She is sent to Algiers, seemingly as a “punishment” by her firm. However, she soon realized there is much more to it than that. In reality, she is a pawn in a big chess game where the stakes are incredibly high. And, as well, a parallel path is taken by Mireille de Remi, a young novice discovers that her abbey is the hiding place of a chess set, and who struggles to survive in the heart of the French Revolution. The stories of these two women, two hundred years apart, slowly converge in the book. A number of important historical figures – Rousseau, Voltaire, Talleyrand, Napoleon, and others play smaller roles in the book as well.

The book tells a large tale and has a big, convoluted plot. I found it a nice interesting read. Good fun, really, and to some extent a cult book. Still well worth a visit, in my opinion.

See, also by Katherine Neville, from amazon US: Calculated Risk, The Magic Circle, and her most recent book, The Fire: A Novel.

Or, if you prefer amazon UK, use this link:Katherine Nevilles books. And here is a link to the German translation of The Eight: Das Montglane-Spiel at Amazon DE.

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