Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Written more than a decade before Dan Brown's blockbuster "DaVinci Code", Katherine Neville's "The Eight" may easily have provided Brown inspiration. "The Eight" is told in parallel stories, one involving Catherine `Cat' Velis, a 20th century, twenty-something New York City computer whiz; the other Mireille de Remy, a young novice of an 18th century French abbey. Both are trying to unlock the mystery of the apocryphal "Montglane Service", a chess set with mystical powers reportedly once given to the great Franco ruler Charlemagne. Ambitious fare, for sure, and Neville spares no words and leaves no stones unturned in this sprawling epic crossing three continents and two centuries. While careening through 600 pages of paperback fine print, Neville tells an uneven and disjointed tale, gripping and intriguing in parts, tedious and melodramatic in others. Neville's account of the French Revolution is for the most part descriptive and insightful, including a clever "Tale of Two Cities"-like twist on Charlotte Corday's murder of French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat. Rich in historical detail, Neville features cameo appearances of Russia's Catherine the Great, Napoleon, artist Jacques-Louis David, Maurice Tallyrand, and even Voltaire. But in other instances, historical references are left dangling, or are simply inaccurate. At times the action is compelling - Cat's nearly fatal journey through the Sahara is truly terrifying - while others, like the Mediterranean crossing in a storm, are uninspired and insipid by comparison. There is also a hint of "Harlequin Romance", as Neville prefers "lean, athletic bodies naked to the waist" as temptations for her chaste heroines. And lets not forget "Carioca", a yapping mutt only slightly less annoying than Lily, her chess playing master, who inexplicably is compelled to drag this fur ball half way across the world. In summary, while an interesting read at times, it is not one that held my attention rigidly, nor is it worth the concentration demanded to follow the rules of "The Game". Careful editing would have removed a couple of hundred pages from this bombast, eliminating loose ends and extraneous references to Freemasons, Rosicrucians, and Fibinacci's numbers. Give Neville high marks for a clever idea and broad scope. But poor execution and a needlessly convoluted labyrinth of plot upon subplot may leave the reader exhausted and more interested in simply finishing this marathon than actually caring much about the ultimately silly riddle of the Montglane Service. If you're looking to fill that DaVinci Code void, this isn't the one.