Rating: 
Summary: 888
Review: Best book ever. The story is so beleivable it makes you research the possibilities.
Rating:
Summary: A Marvelous Masterpiece!
Review: I have never been so captivated by a story. Neville is a brilliant writer, with so much to say and in such a way that the reader is sent to that time. I could feel the chills as if I were there with the characters, experiencing the tale with Catherine and Mireille. Absolutely wonderfully written.
Rating:
Summary: ASTONISHING!
Review: First of all, I can't believe the negative reviews that I have read about this amazing book - Go back to reading lightweights like John Grisham and Dean Koontz. This is a wonderful, fully realized epic tale filled with characters that shine and an original plot. I couldn't help but be pulled into this story from the first page and I have reccomended it to everyone I know. Katherine Neville is the real thing. She has put together a magnificent novel that will stand the test of time - THE EIGHT will endure unlike so many other novels (can we say Oprah Book Club garbage?). If you aren't afraid to take a ride and fall in love then you MUST READ THIS BOOK!
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Summary: that is one nice book!
Review: one of the best books I've ever read, certainly. I even took it so far and read encyclopedias, asked historians and did a bit of research on the issue of the chess game of montglane and it seems it actually existed. I don't know about nowadays. does anybody of you? but what is more interesting for me: who owns the film rights for that book? are they sold yet? is there a film? I picture the film exactly how it would have to be every time I read the book and I've read it a dozen times now. It would be great if someone would know some of the answers to my questions. please, anybody who has a clue, write me asap, I'll be awaiting our answers. thank you, take care
konrad
Rating: 
Summary: Historical Wonderland
Review: In this novel, Katherine Neville writes a fast paced yarn that combines mysticism with an on-going history that spans two centuries from the late 18th during the upheavel of the French Revolution to the late 1970s during the rise of OPEC.
The Plot: Two women separated by time are joined in a singular and parallel effort to insure that the legendary Montglane chess set does not fall into the hands of the world's evil-minded. Simultaneously, each woman has, unbeknownst to herself, become active in a living chess game---as one of the 32 white and black pieces.
The Premise and its History: The ultimate winner of the game, in obtaining the board,its pieces and its cloth cover, will be able to read the alchemic symbols etched upon all three parts and formulate the answer to one of life's most sublime quests. The chess set, which originates in India four centuries prior to its receipt by the great French king Charmlemagne, is a gift from a Moslem governor of Barcelona. When it is connected with stories of violence, bloodshed, and intrinsic evil, Charlemagne, out of a sense of survival for himself and his kin, buries the set within the Montglane fortress-turned abbey.
Heroine from the 18th century: In 1790, Mirelle de Remy, at the abbess of Montglane's request, flees to Paris with her cousin and some of the pieces. She runs smack into the infamous Bishop of Autun, Talleyrand, whose motives the abbess fears most of all.
Heroine from 1970s: Cat Velis, computer expert is exiled through her own corporate blunder to Algeria, but before she departs from Manhattan, she is drawn into the game through the efforts of a seemingly innocent group of colleagues.
The Bottom Line: Ms Neville's 500+ page read is both intriguing and entertaining. Mirielle and Cat's stories are made in alternating chapter installments which keeps the reader informed of their eventual understanding and enlightenment with regard to the Montglane Chess Service without spoiling the finale for the reader. The cast of characters from both time periods includes some of the most famous names in history. As in her other novels, "The Magic Circle" and "A Calculated Risk", the women are young, highly intelligent, more-than-technologically capable, and under the tutelage of some strangely reclusive and extremely wealthy genius. I can only wonder who has influenced Ms Neville to the such extremes that she needs to reproduce him in each of her novels.
Overall recommendation: Read it--its quite good--a little slow in spots---but the historical name-dropping--great mathematicians, musicians, monarchs, despots, revolutionaries, artists, etc., and the mystical aspects of the Chess Service keeps one thoroughly entertained.
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Summary: Absolutely wonderful book!
Review: This book is one of my all time favourites! I started to read The Eight one afternoon since I didn't have anything better to do - and I'm so glad that I did! I read the book the whole day and the whole night because I couldn't put it down. When it was 5 a.m. in the morning and I was halfway through the book I could finally put it down and get some sleep. Of course I started to read it again immediately once I had woken up=) The story is amazing and it REALLY holds a reader and forces you to read it to the end. I coudn't even have imagined to leave it unfinished once I had begun. Luckily I was on holiday when I started to read it - if I had had to go to work, I would propably
have called in sick... This book is, as you can see, DEFINETLY highly recommended to anyone who wants to spend a day or two racing through the deserts of Algeria and trying not to get caught by the White King.
I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: Someone sent me this book while I was on bedrest during my pregnancy. At the time, I was reading a lot of trashy mystery novels and feeling like I was cheating my brain out of nonfiction. I picked this book up expecting it to be brain candy. Boy was I surprised! Yes, it's a mystery/adventure kind of story. But the setting, jumping between modern New York and revolutionary France, required just enough brain power to make me feel like I wasn't killing brain cells. The plot twists kept me guessing, the historical context kept me interested, and I couldn't put it down!
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Summary: Life is just too short....
Review: The story itself actually gets 4 stars for ingenuity and creativity, but the writing just failed to ignite my interest. I think I'm glad that I'm not someone who MUST finish a book just because I started it, because life is just too short and there are too many great books out there to waste my time with anything less than pretty-darn-good. I'm also amazed at the people who can read a book (especially this one) multiple times--where do they get the time? Anyway, I found the plot to be very interesting and ALMOST worth pursuing. But I felt the characters were rather one-dimensional and the historical writing to be more for show and not incorporated well into the plot. When I found myself starting to skim over whole pages without losing anything from the story or feeling guilty about it, I knew it was time to stop. This novel really is a grand adventure but overall there were just too many weak points and eye-rolling dialogue for me to recommend it. May I recommend, though, to the people who really enjoyed this book for the merits it does have, to check out the book Lempriere's Dictionary by Lawrence Norfolk. It is another novel set in the past (1800's if I recall correctly) with high adventure and mysterious cryptic organizations and fantastic events. The Eight immediately reminded me of this (better) book, and also was recommended to me by an English teacher who also loved The Eight.
Rating:
Summary: Globe-Hopping, Time-Tripping Adventure
Review: Those who want to read a good erudite historical novel, but find Thomas Pynchon obscure and unfocused and Umberto Eco empty and pretentious, will probably enjoy Katharine Neville's The Eight. This novel is not unlike a flip-side version of Eco's Foucault's Pendulum - Eco's novel surveys conspiracy history and comes up empty, and Neville's finds a conspiratorial agenda lurking behind nearly every major political figure in nearly every era. The plot concerns a woman executive named Cat who finds herself on an unlikely treasure hunt around the world for all the pieces of Charlemagne's chessboard, which, when assembled at one time in one place, will - in theory - give its possessor world dominion. Needless to say, Cat isn't the only party in search of the board, and actually isn't sure precisely for whom she is working, herself. Her path crosses that of mystics and secret brotherhoods, puffers and adepts, politicians and gansters, and every other potential interested party in-between. It isn't perfect. It goes on far too long, and plugs so many famous historical events into its overarching conspiracy story that Oliver Stone would have trouble keeping up. Possible past lives and numerous speculations on behind-the-scenes history abound. But it's a terrific read, and provides a great deal of food for thought. It also tells a coherent story, however intricate and convoluted. Anyone into occult history will have a field day with it, as will those who are fond of adventure and spy novels.
Rating:
Summary: Good plot, medium writing
Review: This book is well-plotted, but unfortunately badly-written (edited?). On the good side, lots of comples interweaving across the centuries keeps you interested. But the writing is distracting: Here are two annoying examples from one page: 1) Wooden language - "But my mind was like a knotted skein of yarn, and my stomach had cold little lumps of fear."
2) "Continuity" problems: She gives lots of details, but they don't add up. For instance, lots of information about the specifics of the neighborhood she lives in, and mentions "The air was clean and crisp. I could see the Empire State & Chrysler buildings shimmering in the distance." But from where she was, the Chrysler building would be right in her face and the ESB not far away. In another scene, Neville carefully describes curling up on a sofa, then accepting a glass of wine, then taking off her coat. If you're going to go to the trouble of describing the action in that much detail, shouldn't it be a more plausible order? I feel bad, because I did like the story and some of the characterizations. But the editor in me found some of these other problems very distracting.
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