Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
I was very tempted to start the next Hellboy book, but I know I get a bit obsessive sometimes, and variety is the spice of life, right? We picked up the hardcover Labyrinth recently. It was a book that both Sarah and I thought we could read and discuss. She's still got a few books to go before she'd be ready, but she reads a lot faster than I do. So I'm hoping if I start it now she'll be ready about the time I'm done.
Here's the publishers blurb
"July 2005. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls, and the pattern of a labyrinth; between the skeletons, a stone ring, and a small leather bag.
Eight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade to stamp out heresy that will rip apart southern France, Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father as he leaves to fight the crusaders. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. As crusading armies led by Church potentates and nobles of northern France gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take great sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe.
In the present, another woman sees the find as a means to the political power she craves; while a man who has great power will kill to destroy all traces of the discovery and everyone who stands in his way."
2 comments:
I'm really not getting into this one. Trying to read it in the evenings and before bed, and it's just not drawing me in. I didn't realize it was going to be another grail story (yes, I know, it says that it is on the back cover...)
It feels a lot like a Da Vinci Code imitation already.
So far the book has been split between the story of two women. Alice, a current day woman working as a volunteer on an archeological dig who stumbles across an ancient cave into a hillside. And Alais who lives in 1209 and while out one morning comes across a dead body in the river, finds herself entangled in a mystery.
Great concept, but it’s not pulling me in.
I was dissapointed in this book. I finished, but it wasn't a effortless read by any means.
I don't know why I use that as a ruler to measure books against so often. It seems to me that a book should pull you along. You should want to take it with you places, read it on your lunch break, and look forward to going to bed a little early so you can get another chapter in. Even complicated books should be a joy to read. I don't think books can hide behind the excuse that they are "educational" and therefore have the right to be hard to read.
And this book, though I managed to finish it, was hard to read. Like I
said before, I didn't know this was going to be another grail book when I started. This was a book that Sarah picked out together and both thouht we could read and discuss
afterwards - she'll be reading it next. It wasn't until I read the jacket more closely that I saw that it is a grail story. That's okay, reading the vast majority of the book you won't realize that it's a grail story either. And herein lies my biggest problem with the book.
Call it pacing, or call it the art of dispensing, but something didn't come together.
I got the distinct impression that the book was either inspired by he success of Dan Brown's novels, or published because the publisher thought the book could cash in on some of Dan Brown's success. In all honesty, if this book had been written before the Da Vinci Code, I don't think it would have been published, and if it had it would not have received the hype it is getting today.
But this book was no Da Vinci Code. It would be like if you took the Da Vinci code, with its evenly
dispensed historical trivia and bite-sized history lessons, and gathered them all into their own seperate chapters. The allure of those books, in my opinion, is
that the history lesson was woven nicely into the plot. not so with this book.
You get your history in big dry clumps. And the big "sercret" that the book should be edging you
closer and closer to fromt he very first page, is more or less dumped on you in the last 70 pages. There is nothing about the bigger fundamental truth until you get to about the last 75 pages. And then it is dumped on you. No mention of the grail, or how it ties into the
story, not even hints that you look back on and go "ohhh, I should have seen that coming."
One of the 2 main characters just rather suddenly says "tell me the truth about the grail", and then *grunt- poop!* the whole thing gets dropped on you and the book abruptly ends.
And maybe *grunt - poop* best sums up my expereince with this book. I
had to push through it, reading it at night before bed, resisting the temptation of more appealing books, pushing a little bit at a time...
And then... Well you know what I was
left with afterwards.
I'm going to give it a 2.5 out of 10.
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