A few years ago I read Katherine Neville’s novel, The Eight. A friend had recommended it years before but it wasn’t one day until I stumbled upon it at a bookstore that I went out of my way to buy it. The Eight, published in 1988, is one of the best page turners I’ve ever read. It tells the story of the famous Montalgne chess service that various people have died protecting. Each chapter switches back and forth from the 18th century and the French Revolution to the 1970’s. There are a lot of historical references which are sometimes hard to keep track of. It helps if you know a bit about history or are willing to make frequent Wikipedia trips.
It’s modern counterpart of the 21st century would be Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code: it’s the same mystery/thrill genre.
In 2008, Neville published The Fire, the sequel to The Eight. I had no idea there was even a sequel in the works until I misplaced my copy of The Eight and went out to buy a new one. There beside the book I was looking for, was it’s sequel! Yes! In between the prequel and sequel, Neville published another two books, A Calculated Risk and The Magic Circle. After reading The Eight, I went on to read The Magic Circle, which I wasn’t very fond of. It was confusing. And unfortunately, the reviews for A Calculated Risk weren’t very good at all. This left me surprised for one because I thought her first work was great, and dissapointed because it didn’t give me much hope for her future books. Read the rest of this entry »
