After a few years of inactivity, I’ve made it active again. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. [4] Publisher's Weekly said, "this spellbinder soars above the level of first-rate escapist entertainment.”[5] Detroit News called the novel “A gutsy, multi-genre leap through history, full of puzzles and mysteries… The Eight‘s plotting and execution are masterfully handled.”[5] “Intriguing, fast-moving… Crammed with skullduggery and a chess-based plot that hops between the eighteenth and [twentieth] centuries," said the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In the throes of the French Revolution, Mireille and her cousin Valentine must help in dispersing the pieces of the chess set to keep them out of the wrong hands. As an avid reader, the 550-page count didn’t bother me. The Eight by Katherine Neville is one of my favorite novels of all time. [2] The Washington Post Book World called it "a feminist answer to Raiders of the Lost Ark". It was the first book I read after I graduated from library school, and I immediately fell in love with it. The first takes place in the 1970s and follows American computer expert Catherine "Cat" Velis as she is sent to Algeria for a special assignment. By . Whoever deciphers the formula will have immense power over the world. The Eight by Katherine Neville is one of my favorite novels of all time. The weight and size of each piece is quite large, with pawns starting at about 3 inches high and kings and queens at 6 inches. Neville and I have corresponded about her books, and I met her at Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor in 2008, when The Fire, the sequel to The Eight, was published. And both heroines, Catherine and Mireille, share a birth date with the author: April 4. With elements of fantasy, mystery, and adventure, it does not really belong to any particular genre. So I buy another copy. The first edition of the novel was published in December 27th 1988, and was written by Katherine Neville. That date is significant in the novel, since the digits add up to 8 and Neville describes it as an Islamic holy day, a day of healing. (734) 764-0400 | contact-mlibrary@umich.edu. BUY NOW FROM. But in the sequel, The Fire, it turns out to be much more complicated, and people actually change sides (which is impossible in an actual chess game, of course). Neville based her concept of the chess set on similar sets described in medieval romances such as the "Legend of Charlemagne". THE EIGHT. [2] The Washington Post Book World called it "a feminist answer to Raiders of the Lost Ark". She comes to realize she must rely on her own intuition and tenacity to accomplish her goal. The Eight features two intertwined storylines set two centuries apart. A gift from the Moors to Emperor Charlemagne, these pieces have been hunted fervently throughout the years by those seeking ultimate control. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1190 Free download or read online The Eight pdf (ePUB) book. However, when Valentine is brutally murdered in the Reign of Terror, Mireille is thrown into the midst of men and women who would pursue power at any cost, including Napoleon, Robespierre, Talleyrand, Catherine the Great, and more. The Eight, published 1988, is American author Katherine Neville's debut novel.It is an adventure/quest novel in which the heroine, computer whiz Catherine Velis, must enter into a cryptic world of danger and conspiracy in order to recover the pieces of a legendary chess set once owned by Charlemagne, and buried for one thousand years. A gift from the Moors to Emperor Charlemagne, these pieces have been hunted fervently throughout the years by those seeking ultimate control. But with the dwindling attention span of my peers, I had a hard time convincing anyone that it was worth reading. The quest for the Montglane Service is played out as a chess game between opposing Black and White teams. The amazing list of characters includes, in Mireille's time, such famous historical figures as Talleyrand (who falls in love with Mireille), Catherine the Great, Napoleon, Marat (the evil White King in the Game), Charlotte Corday, Robespierre, and the painter Jacques-Louis David, as well as fictional characters such as the Abbess of Montglane, Mireille's young cousin Valentine, and Shahin, a mysterious man of the desert, who is Mireille's guide. The first takes place in the 1970s and follows American computer expert Catherine "Cat" Velis as she is sent to Algeria for a special assignment. [3] Florence King of The New York Times reviewed the book negatively, criticizing the plot and Neville's writing. The Eight received positive reviews from the San Francisco Chronicle[1] and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Her novels include The Eight (1988), A Calculated Risk (1992), The Magic Circle (1998) and The Fire (2008), which is a sequel to The Eight. Neville’s plot takes the characters to Algeria, New York, Paris during the Terror, Corsica, Russia, and London, among other places. This fascinating adventure-fantasy tells the story of the quest for the Montglane Service, a legendary chess set once owned by Charlemagne, which contains the key to a dangerous and powerful secret. In The Eight, the set was once owned by Charlemagne. She comes to realize she must rely on her own intuition and tenacity to accomplish her goal. This fascinating adventure-fantasy tells the story of the quest for the Montglane Service, a legendary chess set once owned by Charlemagne, which contains the key to a dangerous and powerful secret.