The Eight: A Novel

Author - Katherine Neville ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Mass Market Paperback Book item from Ballantine Books was reviewed on 23-Oct-2008.

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1) Mass Market Paperback Book The Eight: A Novel by Ballantine Books. The Eight started out promisingly enough, but degenerated to the point of ridiculousness. The book has been compared to Umberto Eco´s The Name of the Rose, but in actuality The Eight comes nowhere near that fabulous book. As I read, I hoped that Katherine Neville was writing a parody, but I guess not.

Where to begin? Overly contrived plot with more holes than Swiss cheese; really, really bad writing style with an over-use of adjectives and past participles; laughable sex scenes; too much historical inaccuracy; too much historical name-dropping, so much so that this novel read like an issue of US magazine (Catherine the Great, Napoleon, Robespierre, Voltaire, and many, many other historical figures are thrown in, sometimes gratuitously); and too much foreshadowing, is in, "little did I know...". The characters were extremely one-dimensional, and I absolutely loathed the heroine, Cat Velis. The book started off well enough, but I found myself rolling my eyes the further I read. I´m all for reading historical thrillers, if the plot is enough to draw me in, but this one didn´t do it for me, I´m afraid.
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2) Mass Market Paperback Book The Eight: A Novel by Ballantine Books. The good: excellent story.

The bad: poorly written. The clunky Thesaurus-driven prose can be tolerated, but not the wooden and puddle-shallow characters, the dreadful dialog and the absence of a driving and interesting narrative. And it´s lonnnnnnng. Not recommended.
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3) Mass Market Paperback Book The Eight: A Novel by Ballantine Books. Somehow, THE EIGHT slipped below my radar when it first was published in 1988. I came upon a copy by chance last week, and I was overwhelmed by this novel: Totally engrossed.

Certainly, I would have enjoyed it more if I were a chess player but, even in my chess-related ignorance, I found THE EIGHT breathtaking.

Author Katherine Neville possesses an imagination which is beyond, well, imagination. She has crafted a story that--as the expression goes--bridges not merely centuries, but millennia, and continents as well.

Her attention to detail is staggering and her research must have taken her years.

The main theme of this novel is the "Montglane Service," a chess set with mystical powers. Over the centuries, fierce competition arises over every single chess piece, with bad guys chasing good guys and good guys chasing bad guys. Each piece individually is gorgeous, adorned with a fortune in gems, but the person who can re-assemble the whole set will possess a life-changing secret.

The plot swings between France during The Terror and modern New York City, with stops in 18th Century London and the Court of Catherine the Great, as well in almost-contemporary Algeria, presaging OPEC.

Every significant person of the 18th Century makes an appearance here, from Tallyrand and Robespierre to Napoleon, Catherine the Great to Rousseau, Bach, Boswell and Benjamin Frankin. In fact, this constant insertion of historical figures gets to be implausible and detracts from the overall excellence of the work.

The author´s powers of description are impressive and she seems to have a mystical grasp of some of the scenes she writes, such as those set in the prisons of Revolutionary France and 18th Century Russia. Her descriptions of physical scenery, most specifically in Algeria, also are breathtaking.

Yet at the end of this novel, I still had no idea why her heroine was so special, or why she seemed so omnipotent in her knowledge as the novel progressed. Clearly, the heroine is the girl whom everyone wants, but why?

If it were not for these quibbles, THE EIGHT would be a five-star novel; the problems above hold it down to four. Still, I will be reading THE FIRE, its sequel.¤

4) Mass Market Paperback Book The Eight: A Novel by Ballantine Books. Lots of action in this book, and adventure and history. I enjoyed the book and I am looking forward to reading the sequel.¤

5) Mass Market Paperback Book The Eight: A Novel by Ballantine Books. Travelling back and forth through time, criss-crossing the globe in a frantic quest first to hide and then to retrieve pieces of a priceless and ominous chess set, laced with historical characters as diverse as Charlemagne, Casanova and Bach, sprinkled with arcane bits of chess lore, alchemy, music and physics, this book is one wild, page-turning adventure! Rarely before have I so willingly suspended disbelief in devouring a story, or been so anxious to find out what happened next! The characters are believable and diverse, and I´m reluctant to fact check much of the history lest reality be so much less interesting than fiction. I can give no higher praise!

I´ve tried not to give anything away in this review, because I think I enjoyed this book so much because I had no expectations, knowing nothing about it. All I can say is, if you like romances, historical novels, mysteries, adventures and yes, science fiction--run, do not walk, to the nearest bookstore or library and GET THIS BOOK!

I can´t believe I missed this when it first came out!¤

6) Mass Market Paperback Book The Eight: A Novel by Ballantine Books. Computer expert Cat Velis is heading for a job to Algeria. Before she goes, a mysterious fortune teller warns her of danger, and an antique dealer asks her to search for pieces to a valuable chess set that has been missing for years...In the South of France in 1790 two convent girls hide valuable pieces of a chess set all over the world, because the game that can be played with them is too powerful....¤

7) Mass Market Paperback Book The Eight: A Novel by Ballantine Books. Katherine Neville´s debut novel is a postmodern thriller set in 1972 ... and 1790. In the 20th century, Catherine Velis is a computer expert with a flair for music, painting, and chess who, on her way to Algeria at the behest of the accounting firm where she is employed, is invited to take a mysterious moonlighting assignment: recover the pieces of an old chess set missing for centuries.

In the midst of the French Revolution, a young novice discovers that her abbey is the hiding place of a chess set, once owned by the great Charlemagne, which allows those who play it to tap into incredible powers beyond the imagination. She eventually comes into contact with the major historical figures of the day, from Robespierre to Napoleon, each of whom has an agenda.

The Eight is a non-stop ride that recalls the swashbuckling adventures of Indiana Jones as well as the historical puzzles of Umberto Eco which, since its first publication in 1988, has gone on to acquire a substantial cult following.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 20-Nov-2008, 03453662399780345366238, 650-520-390-250-350-790-080-590-72B-8

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