Rating: 
Summary: A waste of time and money.
Review: Like many others who have commented, I had expected another intriguing and exciting book, similar to The Eight. I was sadly disappointed and can't believe I actually read the entire book. The cast of characters are without substance, the myriad myths and legends came across as many loose ends and the family tree - forget it!
Rating: 
Summary: A classic example of any strength in excess becomes ineffect
Review: I had not read Neville previously. Reading the reviews it would appear that I should have purchased "The Eight".I found the attempt to integrate religion, history, Roman Mythology, and present day issues much to laborious and blurry to value. Use of "flasback techniques" can be effective. However, if it is used in excess it makes the reader work to hard to understand just what is the connectivity. The best example is when Neville try ies to use "geography" of the world and the power of specific locations and relics as reference points that the reader must comprehend. Neville's gift for richness is overshadowed by excessive complexity. Time to rexamine the recipe.
Rating: 
Summary: Neville does it again!
Review: The nay-sayers on Neville's newest book obviously haven't done their homework. This book is an excellent take on some of the latest speculations on esoteric knowledge "floating around." I very much enjoyed the twisted, knotty tale in true Neville style. This book is not for the fundamentalist simple-minded, which is why I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: Rambling
Review: An interesting beginning resulted in a disappointing ending. Ariel's discoveries about her complicated family tree were interesting, but all the historical rambling about the Hallows was never brought to a satifactory or meaningful conclusion. This book needed a good editor. Too many story lines that run in parallel without ever meeting. Neville is no Charles Dickens! Would I read her again? Probably. Would I have high expectations for a well thought-out plot and conclusion? No. Too much irrelevant "juju".
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant, but almost too complicated to read
Review: The Magic Circle is absolutely brilliant in its connections between history, mythology, multi-cultural religion and the exciting plot. Full appreciation of this book requires knowledge more diverse than most of us can claim (myself included), and the many story lines are almost impossible to follow. The Magic Circle is like a beautifully written sentence that has just so many words that you don't know what it said when you get to the end. But don't give up on Katherine Neville! Go back to The Eight. It's the best book I ever read!
Rating:
Summary: Where's the Ending?
Review: I had such high hopes for The Magic Circle . . . til I read it. Neville's masterpiece, The Eight, and her highly entertaining read, A Calculated Risk, were complex and leading. They lead to conclusions. The Magic Circle leads you on a dizzying journey only to stop abruptly, leaving the reader to wonder . . . what happened? I read all this and still have no idea what is the Magic Circle. What a huge disappointment that had so much promise.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as "The Eight", but then what is?
Review: Ultimately this is a rather dissapointing story, that is crowded out of the space by all the characters and facts that are on display. For those people after an easy reading thriller this is not a suitable book, but for those interested in history and a clever story that doesnt really ever trancend the history lesson, its perfect..... A well deserved 5 stars!!
Rating: 
Summary: Writer's mind goes on tangents
Review: Ms. Neville probably had the right idea about the topic of this book. Her research is impressive and covers Greek, Roman, Celtic, Slavic, Aryan and Biblical myths and legends for the last 2000 years. However, the information about all these myths is not connected well and from the start to the finish of the book, I just couldn't see where is she going with it. In addition to that, the characters in this book are much more vague than the characters from her previous books. The family connections are confusing and I never could really grasp who is related to whom and why? I am hoping in her next book, Ms. Neville will use less research, more imagination, less superficial character forms, and more of her writing talents. After all, the author of "The Eighth" can do better than "The Magic Circle".
Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: I loved it. I have read Ms. Neville's other novels, and I found this one the best. I just could not put the book down. I almost missed by train stop a couple times because I was so engrossed in the novel. As Ms. Neville sought of expresses the trip is often more interesting and important than the destination.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a great feminist read!
Review: Out of curiosity I happened to read the reviews of Katherine Neville's The Magic Circle, and I was shocked to find that many of them seemed cranky, almost hostile toward the author. I wondered--why? I read the book on a coast-to-coast flight last spring, and I don't think I even raised my eyes the whole time it was such a satisfying experience. Neville is such a good writer, the plot was a puzzle of course (her speciality), and her characters zany, interesting women. Ah. Is that it? The women are truly Characters, all of them, but especially the heroine, Aphra Behn, is a free-wheeling, liberated, unnattached, cool, autonomous female at the center of a murder mystery involving world governments and reincarnational events. And Neville herself is such a brainy, funny, polished writer--a woman with eccentricities and a mind like the net woven by Spider Woman. Sure, I couldn't keep all the details in my head either (one of the main complaints of the reader reviews), but so what? It's a mystery for heaven's sake. It's a novel. It's for relaxing, and in the meantime you get to find out fascinating details about the Cumaean Sybil, the Goddess and her dying god, corruption in the nuclear power industry, Native American initiation ceremonies, and SO MUCH MORE! Maybe Neville's books will have to start carrying a warning label: NOT FOR ANYONE WITH A SHORT ATTENTION SPAN; or maybe better yet, FOR BRAINY WOMEN ONLY (& the men who love them).
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