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Summary: "In a word, Wow."
Review: A co-worker suggested this book to me just last week. I bought it and started reading it. I could not put it down. It is quite a read but well worth it. It follows two different story lines that take place two hundred years apart, involving a mysterious ancient chess set, the secret it holds and the many players who have risked life and limb to attain it. The chapters go back and forth between 1790 and 1972 weaving the parallel story lines ever closer together. With every chapter the story gets deeper, more complex and MUCH harder to put down. This one is a don't miss.
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Summary: An outstanding blend of history and the present
Review: I had never heard of Katherine Neville, until a friend recommended that I read this book. I bought it and took just a weekend to read it entirely. The blend of 18th century history with the mid seventies was superb. It was hard to put the book down. If you like Chess, History, Mystery and a smattering of Archaeology, you will enjoy this one. The pace is fast and it it doesnt get bogged down anywhere. This is easily the most enjoyment I have had in a book in a long time.
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Summary: One of the best history-adventure books ever!
Review: Set in 3 different time periods, this book has a very intricate plot. Incredibly interesting! If you like chess, it is even more interesting.
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Summary: The Best Book Out On The Market - Hands Down!
Review: This is by far the best book I ever read. I ALWAYS recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read. It not only teaches you a little about history but you don't even realize that you are learning while enjoying the amazing plot! Katherine Neville is brilliant as is her story in The Eight. The book combines two interwoven plots and keeps you interested in both of them! This is one book that I never wanted to finish. I fell in love with the characters and felt that this book could go on and on and not bore me one bit. This is the story of the Montglane Chess set, supposedly a gift to Charlemagne that held unimaginable power within, when he played he became obsessed to the point of near destruction. Upon his death his sons fought over the set which ends up getting built into the walls of an abbey to protect it as well as the world from it's power. The story takes place in two eras. One where they many historical figures are after the set which is being split up across the world and then in the 1970's when the set is being searched for (again). Catherine Neville deftly weaves these two stories together, along with historical facts and wonderful characters. I could read it over and over again (and I have - I think I just finished it for my 7th time)and still enjoy it. The writing was superb and the plot was original!
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Summary: A very nice advise...
Review: about a month ago my friend in the faculty, Cristina, was taking every day this book to the claseses and toread it in the train... I liked to laugh at her a bit for this, but she managed to make me accept reading the book, so I finally did.. and I do thank her much for this, as the reading was to be a nice surprise: great ambients, great characters.. an intrigue involved amidst the columns of history and present... definitely,now it is my turn to advise everyone I can with this book: I really recomend this book to evryone who wants to get hooked for hours or days with an interesting history.
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Summary: Page-turner... Turn quickly!
Review: p. 68 -- "There was one friend in particular whom I'd tried to reach, though he was as mysterious and inaccessible as the Sphinx. Little did I know how desperately I would need his help after the events that would soon take place." p.130 -- "Little did I know that thirty blocks away, a move was about to take place that would soon alter the course of my life..." ~ p. 200 -- little did I know how soon I would so little care who ended up with the darn chess set! So I missed finding out where an aging Leibnitz taught the young Handel the secret handshake. Oh, well.
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Summary: just finished it.
Review: Interesting and good in a trashy sort of way, it certainly is not the high literature that some of these reviewers seem to think - maybe it is, compared to their bedside reading, I don't know. It's good, decent and workmanlike; lots of history, but it's all sound and no fury. unfortunately for the author, she equated detail and accuracy in her portrayal of the many historical characters and geographic locales with erudition, which there is very little of in this book. a good vacation book, something to lose yourself in if you don't want to think too much; a step above, certainly, the patricia cornwells and stephen kings of the world. but only someone who had never read good books would consider it a really good book.
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Summary: The Best Book I've Ever Read!
Review: This book is, by far, the best book that I have ever read. It is one that can be read again and again, and even interest someone in chess! Someone said that it was a "female version of all of the male adventure stories", and I'd have to agree.
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Summary: Tedious and not believable, but still ... a waste of time.
Review: I'd not have read the book, except I promised someone I would, in exchange for getting a discount on a chess set. I paid too much for that discount. While I was sufficiently intrigued to see how the book came out (very disappointingly -- she couldn't figure out how to wrap it up), I resented the author (for her tedious writing) and the heroine. Too much is too preposterous. The Heroine happens to have just the right friends and just the right insights. There's far too much historical name-dropping to be credible. This might be a talented author -- perhaps -- but she's produced a disappointing book filled with shallow magic, shallower characters, and only the tiniest shred of a satisfying plot twist at the end. By the way, Ms. Neville, not everyone was someone famous in a former life.
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Summary: Easily the most engrossing book I have read!
Review: It's hard to add to the list of superlatives about this book!! Katherine Neville has woven a wonderful story(?) that continues to haunt me - even almost 10 years after reading it for the first time (and I've now read it 8 or 10 times). It is marvelously inventive, historically (mostly) accurate, and provides wonderful bases for some of the most intriguing conversations. I've passed this book on to most of my male relatives and friends - who all think I'm nuts when I insist they read a "chick" book, then come to me three days later absolutely amazed how much they liked it! If there is one weakness, it is that the modern-day characters could be more fully drawn - but that's relatively minor when compared to the intricacy of the story and the wealth of detail Ms. Neville provides. All I can say is try it! I'm sure you'll like it! (By the way - wouldn't this make a great computer game, a la "Myst"??)
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