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Catherine Velis soon finds herself a piece in a larger Game, a chess game featuring real people, who are determined to protect the Montglane Service by keeping its pieces from falling into the wrong hands.The novel is a multi-layered novel that will likely remind readers of both Dan Brown's Angels and Demons as well as the DaVinci Code as well as number puzzles of Umberto Eco. Neville's debut novel focuses on the search for the mysterious Montglane Service, a chess set given to Charlamagne which supposedly contains a formula that could bring about great destruction if it falls into the wrong hands. She also manages to weave some of the more interesting aspects of the history of chess into the novel as well while using specific chess strategies and moves to drive the novel.Overall it was a pretty interesting read. Some of the coincidences of the novel seem a bit too contrived, but Neville does an excellent job of interlaying history into a novel filled with complex twists and surprises. The Eight juxtaposes the search for this chess set by Catherine Velis, a mathematician and computer expert who also has a penchant for music in the 1970s with both digging up of this chess set from the Montglane Abbey where it had been hidden for hundreds of years and the dispersal of its pieces and their subsequent rehiding. The book goes back and forth between time periods (1970s and 1700s), drawing in historical figures such as Talleyrand, Napoleon, Rousseau, Voltaire, Casanova, and Catherine the Great during the earlier time periods.
As soon as I finish The Eight, I'm on to the sequel The way the author combines a suspenseful story with historical figures is amazing. I'm reading The Eight for the third time. Each time I read it I find something new and different to think about.
If you like adventure and are vaguely interested in a trip through Europe / Middle East / Africa in the past and nearly present, its a fun read. I finished the book in about 3 days by taking it with me on a trip that involved several flights where I had nothing else to distract me from reading. It is kind of like a Da Vinci Code sort of novel where the main character(s) are mostly female. I enjoyed the book. The vivid descriptions of the landscape and details about the characters and their customs really transport you to another time and place. The ending was a little dissappointing but the roller coaster ride itself was very enjoyable. It was easy to get lost in the story which made the rather long book a rather short read.
And you must be on heroin if you want to get to the last page. I would shred this and put it in my cat's litterbox, but that would be cruel because he deserves to defecate on something better.This book has a DaVinci Code like plot through the eys of historical characters and through the present to the books heroine. If you are a simple minded conspiracy nut job then this book might appeal to you, but only if you've head a frontal lobatomy. I picked this up at a local grocery store for a dollar. I overpaid by 100 cents.
Mystery and intrigue along with love and adventure fills this book. Two stories weaved around one chess set. Many lives changed by one chess set that can bring ultimate power to the one who owns it. Just read this with my husband. You won't regret reading it. All the characters were well developed. It is a great tale weaved by an excellent story teller. A few things I would personally change about the story but for the most part it is a very satifactory story to be read.
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