Rating: 
Summary: Time travel with a millenium twist!
Review: Ariel Behn has a hard time keeping up with the twists of her family history. She very understatedly says that her family is complicated, and boy is she right! Interwoven in a very complex assasination plot, is Jesus, Nero, Hitler, The end of the world,.... and on it goes, galloping through the pages, unputdownable. The history is fascinating, the plot gripping, the people very believable and eccentric. I loved the book, I love all of Katherine Nevilles books. It is an intelligent read without having to be a girl nuke (Ask Ariel Behn to explain that one!)to understand it! Can't wait for another KN novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not great.
Review: Neville's work is overambitious and entirely too broad. Limiting the scope of the story would have been advisable.
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting, intelligent fun.
Review: This book is the the miniseries version of Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum. Neville's lighthearted approach to tying up the loose ends of her sweeping breadth of history and legend made those elements - and her overriding premise - much more comprehensible. The mythological elements are intertwined with enough adventure and romance to keep me turning the pages. After I loan it to three or four friends, I can't wait to read it again.
Rating:
Summary: A CHANGE OF HEART
Review: When this book first came out, I wrote one of the very first reviews of it (This is a brilliant book, but is it a good book? Feb 22, 1998.) I have received many letters, both from Neville's devoted fans as well as comments from my own colleagues about those initial thoughts I jotted down.As an historian, as a lover of mysteries, and a devoted fan myself of Katherine Neville, I decided to take a good hard look at the review I wrote so long ago. In retrospect, I realize my review was neither fair nor completely accurate, and that it may have led to a great deal of misunderstanding on the part of other readers. I must admit that today it seems more of a gut level reaction to a book that, on first reading, had disturbed me deeply. But when I confronted those feelings, and especially when I realized that there were many readers, with perhaps less depth of sincere feeling than my own, who seem to have jumped on the bandwagon of something I wrote, in haste, so long ago, I thought I should be enough of a man to admit I might have made a serious error in judgment. I would therefore like to correct the impression I may have given to others. The real error of my review which I would like to address is when I accused Neville of setting herself up as a "self-proclaimed expert on the Bible, Torah, Greek history, Roman history, Ancient Civilization, the Gauls, the Celts, nuclear science, the beliefs and rituals of Native Americans," etc This statement of mine has caused a lot of controversy because I then proceeded (or so I am told) to launch into a diatribe that made it sound as if I was presenting MYSELF as an expert in all those fields, and therefore in a position to judge her in each and every one of them. Nothing could have been further from my intention. Indeed, I have subsequently learned that Neville actually IS an expert in some of these things, and in others she really did her homework in a manner that would befit even the finest writers of historical fiction. For instance, I was mistaken in thinking she had never been in Russia, Vienna, or Paris, but had merely collated her descriptions from books. I learned that she has lived in all these places and that her descriptions were based on her experiences, just as with all those descriptions I loved so much that I AM acquainted with myself, like those of Marin, Sun Valley, the Snake River, and the Kootenai Wilderness. I also accused Neville of taking a "series of rumors, uncertainties, and guesses" and turning them into fact. As her readers have, quite rightly, objected to me, her book is presented as a work of fiction, not of history, so of course, she has a perfect right to make any such changes as she sees fit. That doesn't necessarily signify, however, that she has taken such liberties, and I was wrong to suggest, without any specific evidence, that she ever has. The real eye-opener for me, was when several of my own colleagues who are grounded in the classics pointed out the incredible variety and richness of her actual historical sources, and what a creative mind it took to pull these all together. They aren't sure anyone has ever accomplished this before in a work of fiction. For instance, in her sections on the Roman emperors alone, Neville has utilized more than fifty historical sources they were able to pinpoint just off the top of their heads, such as Plutarch, Nonnos, Arrian, Tacitus, Suetonius, Diodorus Siculus - to name but a few - not to mention the ancient fiction writers she pays tribute to, like Euripides and Virgil. A female colleague of mine has also told me how impressed she was that Neville's section on the druids and Boadicea were partly drawn from Antonia Fraser's powerful book, The Warrior Queens (well worth a read for those unacquainted with Celtic history!) I must say that I am at a loss to explain why this particular book of Neville's so seriously troubled me - even DISTURBED me - on my first reading. Perhaps it was simply a knee-jerk reaction to what seemed to me a feminist stance on her part, toward the end of the book. After all, those of us who love the wilderness do understand the importance of protecting our natural environment, our rivers and lakes and streams. I have read the book three times since, and each time I saw another, deeper, layer that led me closer to the meaning the author was trying to convey, which is the interconnectedness of all things. I especially have grown to appreciate the relationship between Ariel and Sam, portrayed so lovingly and beautifully at the book's end, that reveals our interconnectedness. So I hope that those readers who blindly followed my rather scathing first review will forgive me for having misguided them. And I sincerely hope that Katherine Neville, who still remains one of my favorite authors, will accept my deep and heartfelt apologies for any pain I may have caused her by a hasty, perhaps overly superficial, initial critique of her book.
Rating:
Summary: A thoroughly satisfying and challenging read.
Review: This book is truly a work of art. Because art takes us by the hand and makes us discover things that are outside ourselves and yet are part of us. In The Magic Circle it is Katherine Neville who takes our hand and leads us to that place deep within us, where we are allowed to believe that light overcomes dark and good overcomes evil. She makes you think about our history, filosophy and science, without seeming to. Because this whole package comes to you in a totally absorbing thriller, that is unputdownable. The style of writing is fluent and compulsive. The vulnerable and feisty heroine Ariel tells her own hairraising story, which would be enough on its own for a very good thriller. But Ariel has ties that connect her to other people who all have their own hairraising stories, and they all are bound by and in search of a manuscript that goes back to the beginning of our history. So as a reader you are confronted with a many layered novel. A novel that raises questions about ourselves. Of who we really are, where we come from and where we are going to. At least that was my experience. And the big bonus is, that you get all of this in a book that you can read on the beach, lazing in the sun. Imagine, by buying this book, you get a good, satisfying thriller that includes a romance and a dose of philosophy too, without the difficult language, without the trying and intellectual style. I really loved this book. And I can not understand this crusade against The Magic Circle unless the person who initiated this, is threatened by the truths it conveys.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book for distraction...
Review: I had never heard of Katherine Neville before, but right before I was to get on an airplane for a grueling 10 hour flight The Magic Circle seemed intriguing. I was not disappointed and I could not put the book down. As soon as my vacation was over and I returned home I purchased Ms. Neville's other two books and I hope they will be as amazing as The Magic Circle. The herione is a typical women who I can relate to getting into a very intricate situation and I love all the historic facts woven into the story. It was an amazing read.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant! But Not for the Feeble-minded!
Review: I totally agree with all the readers who love this book. It is a fabulous journey, a quest, and should come with a label that reads, only to be opened by the daring.
Rating:
Summary: THANKS KATHERINE! YOU ARE THE TOPS!
Review: I never heard of Neville until someone gave me Magic Circle last Christmas. I read it, loved it, then I instantly devoured her other two books like a platter of hotcakes. I've given her books to all my friends. Now we pass them around like a chain letter, but the Magic Circle is something special. I would highly recommend it to every one-- already have!
Rating:
Summary: I love it like a Russian Novel
Review: Some American friends gave me ths book one month ago and I already now have read it twice. I will read it again. It is really amazing, and the Russian nuclear parts of the book are interesting too. What kind of brain is hers that makes the heroine a nuclear scientist?
Rating:
Summary: A Fast, fun read!!!
Review: Don't believe a word of anyone who says this book is difficult. For my career in data processing, I have to read tons of technical literature - and I therefore INSIST that all my pleasure reading must conform to three rules: light, upbeat, and totally escapist. I whizzed through the Magic Circle like a breeze. It took me one afternoon to read it. Anyone who has to work at it must have a pretty limited attention span. Give us more like this one, Ms Neville!
|
