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Bezig met laden... The Eight (origineel 1988; editie 1990)door Katherine Neville (Auteur)
Informatie over het werkDe Acht door Katherine Neville (1988)
Page Turners (41) Female Protagonist (300) » 19 meer Female Author (416) Historical Fiction (374) Best Historical Fiction (565) Favorite Long Books (229) Swinging Seventies (96) Off on a Quest (8) Bezig met laden...
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Dit boek begon een beetje stroef maar werd allengs beter. Het verhaal zit ingewikkeld in elkaar en speelt zich af in twee verschillende periodes, eind 1700 en eind 1900, waar steeds een dappere jonge vrouw de hoofdrol speelt. Er zitten ook wat puzzels in die ik leuk vond om 'mee' op te lossen. Goed boek ( ) Interessante verhaallijnen met goed uitgewerkte personages. De historische feiten zijn interessant maar iets te vaak wordt het tempo onderbroken en sommige delen zijn naar mijn mening totaal overbodig waardoor het langdradig wordt en de zin om door te lezen toch op de proef gesteld wordt. De verwachtingen die dit boek oproept worden slechts ten dele ingelost, wat jammer is aangezien er heel veel potentieel in het verhaal zit. Enkel de uitwerking gaat me wat tegen.
**** Pawns and Kings. I love reading and reviewing books. Yet if you read a lot of my reviews, (and I hope, Dear Reader, that you do), you will notice how frequently I write about the difficulty I find in reviewing certain books. More often than not I then precede to rave about that book. It’s because as a reviewer I feel that I am beheld to an oath similar to the Hippocratic one taken by doctors; first, do no harm. Good books deserve to be experienced by their readers with as little interference as possible, so I try to give you a feel for the book without dropping spoilers and ruining the reader’s chance to revel in an exceptional work. All of which brings me to The Eight by Katherine Neville. It’s a novel that is tailor-made to fit my little manifesto. It’s very good, very original, and it deserves to be appreciated first-hand. Both the story and the plot are intricate, bordering on the Byzantine, but to break it down, it is about The Montglane Service, an antique Chess set, made in India, and gifted to Charlemagne, which holds mystical and mythic powers, and must be protected by the innocent from falling into the hands of the evil. There are two main story-lines, one featuring Cat Velis, a computer expert and accountant, who works for Con Ed, in the 1970’s. After refusing to do something illegal for her boss she is sent from New York to a dead-end assignment to Algeria, to work with a then-unknown organization called OPEC. Before she leaves a fortune-teller at a party tells her that her life is in danger, and quick as a wink two people are dead and Cat is afraid that she might be next. The other story is about two young nuns, Valentine and Mirielle, and is set in France during the Revolution. These two are sent to Paris with a mission that involves the mythical Service. Before long everyone is either trying to hide or find this powerful artifact. If that was all there was to the story, I would be done with my review. The Eight, however, is over 500 pages long, and Ms. Neville has plenty of stories up her sleeve. Historical figures, from the Freemasons to Catherine the Great, from Muammar Gaddafi to Cardinal Richelieu and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand all play significant roles, and Ms. Neville spins plenty of myths and history into her tale as well. Both backgrounds are solid and believable without being burdened by too much minutiae. The prose is solid, and all of the main characters ring true. What makes The Eight really special is the way that Ms. Neville makes the two storylines twist and turn, each enforcing and informing the other until they are, in the end, one. It’s something that is rarely accomplished, and deserves a tip of the cap. The mythology of Chess also plays an integral part in this novel, and as a lifelong fan of Nabokov, I can say that she does the old master proud, both in her knowledge, and in her execution. Also worth noting is that the complexity of both the story and the plot are closely tied into the underlying motif of the game of Chess. In case you might find this intimidating, let me tell you that I am terrible at Chess, and my knowledge of it’s history is weak, and it never interfered my my enjoyment of this novel. What makes this book so good, in the end, is that all of this is subsumed by the narrative flow. You can read this big, smart novel as a thriller, and enjoy all of the tangents as just gravy. Smart, intricate and sophisticated gravy. Now how is that for an ending sentence? Review by: Mark Palm Full Reviews Available at: http://www.thebookendfamily.weebly.co... Erelijsten
The riveting #1 international bestselling novel about the quest across centuries by two intrepid women in different eras to reunite the pieces of a powerful, ancient chess set A fabulous, bejeweled chess set that belonged to Charlemagne has been buried in a Pyrenees abbey for a thousand years. As the bloody French Revolution rages in Paris, the nuns dig it up and scatter its pieces across the globe because, when united, the set contains a secret power that could topple civilizations. To keep the set from falling into the wrong hands, two novices, Valentine and Mireille, embark on an adventure that begins in the streets of Paris and leads to Russia, Egypt, Corsica, and into the heart of the Algerian Sahara. Two hundred years later, while on assignment in Algeria, computer expert Catherine Velis finds herself drawn unwillingly into the deadly "Game" still swirling around the legendary chess set-a game that will require her to risk her life and match wits with diabolical forces. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Katherine Neville including rare images from her life and travels. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden.
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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