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strawfly14's review against another edition
3.0
Me ha gustado bastante, la verdad, en la tónica del primer libro. Además tiene un final cerrado y decente, y no se me ha hecho una lectura pesada. Si es verdad que no me parece tampoco un libro de diez, pero creo que es una novela bien construida y con un argumento interesante (en continuación de la trama ya iniciada en El Ocho). No sé, me ha dejado buenas sensaciones.
branch_c's review against another edition
3.0
I remember enjoying The Eight long ago when it was first published - it certainly struck me as a unique construction at the time, and as a bonus it involved chess, in which I was also interested. I later read Neville's The Magic Circle, was less impressed, and never picked up this one until now.
It does seem to share a lot of what made The Eight interesting, but either my tastes have changed over time or the repeat performance just isn’t as good (or both).
This time, I found the cryptic speeches a bit rambling and pointless - it seems that all of the characters know more than Alexandra, but although none of them apparently distrust her, they nevertheless keep failing to simply tell her what they know. The fact that they choose to reveal this bit of information to her at one moment rather than some other bit of information or some other moment seemed artificial to me.
And when the characters pronounce dramatically and frequently “I am the White King” and “she is the Black Queen”, I struggle to grasp why it matters. In fact, Lord Byron himself makes this point when he says “it doesn’t matter, this business of teams. It’s the chess service itself that is important - the powers it holds, not this foolish Game.” (p. 202). But even worse, it’s never explained to my satisfaction how it is that the chess set holds or protects anything. The secret of immortality comes from the formula for creating the elixir, and whatever it took to develop that, it was not physical possession of specific chess pieces - or at least not only that. And it’s not clear that this is even what’s motivating the “bad guys” in this volume.
The too frequent use of the phrase "as Key would say" in order to drive home the point that the character is fond of clichéd sayings got old for me fairly early in the book. Also, it slightly bothered me not knowing how to pronounce "Xie".
Clearly a lot of research has gone into this book, and the effort by Neville to tie together seemingly disparate fragments of history is laudable, so I’ll round up to three stars for that. But the end result, for me, is less of an engaging story and more of a protracted dump of information to gradually fill the reader in on the results of all this research. Creative but contrived, and never really grabbed me.
A couple of minor editorial points in case any publishers of future editions are reading this:
p. 275: "semiphore" should be "semaphore"
p. 315: "Red Cloud" should be "Red Cedar" (two occurrences)
It does seem to share a lot of what made The Eight interesting, but either my tastes have changed over time or the repeat performance just isn’t as good (or both).
This time, I found the cryptic speeches a bit rambling and pointless - it seems that all of the characters know more than Alexandra, but although none of them apparently distrust her, they nevertheless keep failing to simply tell her what they know. The fact that they choose to reveal this bit of information to her at one moment rather than some other bit of information or some other moment seemed artificial to me.
And when the characters pronounce dramatically and frequently “I am the White King” and “she is the Black Queen”, I struggle to grasp why it matters. In fact, Lord Byron himself makes this point when he says “it doesn’t matter, this business of teams. It’s the chess service itself that is important - the powers it holds, not this foolish Game.” (p. 202). But even worse, it’s never explained to my satisfaction how it is that the chess set holds or protects anything. The secret of immortality comes from the formula for creating the elixir, and whatever it took to develop that, it was not physical possession of specific chess pieces - or at least not only that. And it’s not clear that this is even what’s motivating the “bad guys” in this volume.
The too frequent use of the phrase "as Key would say" in order to drive home the point that the character is fond of clichéd sayings got old for me fairly early in the book. Also, it slightly bothered me not knowing how to pronounce "Xie".
Clearly a lot of research has gone into this book, and the effort by Neville to tie together seemingly disparate fragments of history is laudable, so I’ll round up to three stars for that. But the end result, for me, is less of an engaging story and more of a protracted dump of information to gradually fill the reader in on the results of all this research. Creative but contrived, and never really grabbed me.
A couple of minor editorial points in case any publishers of future editions are reading this:
p. 275: "semiphore" should be "semaphore"
p. 315: "Red Cloud" should be "Red Cedar" (two occurrences)
elysahenegar's review against another edition
4.0
Katherine Neville's books have so many symbolic and thematic layers and connections. I enjoyed the characters, the intrigue, and the puzzle-solving! If you like mysteries, especially the kind that blend mystical ideas with historic personalities and places (think National Treasure), you'll like this! Neville does jump back and forth between two (briefly three) timelines, so if that sort of thing bothers you, this may not be for you.
daphne_k's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
ferris_mx's review against another edition
4.0
A "reasonable" continuation to The Eight, but also kind of unnecessary. Too many unexplained characters, too much unexplained motivation, too many loose ends, too unrealistic. I gave one extra star for some accurate chess context and a more polished writing style.
jaxgirl007's review against another edition
3.0
I was really excited to read this book, since I liked "The Eight" very much. I was anticipating a new "game" with new puzzles and the same characters that I enjoyed in the prequel.
But this was not meant to be. While this is a continuation of "The Eight" and one might expect overlap, this felt like the same story regurgitaed with a new set of young characters...with none of the newer characters holding the interest that was present with the original characters.
By the end of the novel, I was still wondering what the secret was: it felt like Neville was trying to make it such an abstract idea that it reached into nothingness. The characters were talking like it was a big deal but I was left scratching my head.
My advice is to read "The Eight", this sequel is not really worth the effort.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
But this was not meant to be. While this is a continuation of "The Eight" and one might expect overlap, this felt like the same story regurgitaed with a new set of young characters...with none of the newer characters holding the interest that was present with the original characters.
By the end of the novel, I was still wondering what the secret was: it felt like Neville was trying to make it such an abstract idea that it reached into nothingness. The characters were talking like it was a big deal but I was left scratching my head.
My advice is to read "The Eight", this sequel is not really worth the effort.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
christiannasbooktrips's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
lazygal's review against another edition
1.0
This one took a while to read because it was, well, so poorly written that I just couldn't get into it the way I usually do. There wasn't a revelation that wasn't shocking or world-shattering... every page (almost every paragraph) had some twist or cliff-hanger... the digressions often didn't explain what they were supposed to because readers were either supposed to remember from [book:The Eight] or fill-in-the-blanks themselves. Even worse, this Game was never fully explained nor was the actual purpose of it.
Too many loose ends, horrible writing style. Never again.
Too many loose ends, horrible writing style. Never again.
misslezlee's review against another edition
2.0
I began reading this book before I'd read the prequel and it didn't make a lick of sense. When I realized it was a sequel, I read The Eight which I enjoyed quite a bit. This was no where near as good a read, but somehow I ploughed on... not sure why because it became quite tedious in the end. Too many coincidences, silly, extravagant events and an unsatisfactory ending. Please, let there not be a third book. If there is, I'm not reading it.
lizjane's review against another edition
2.0
I was so disappointed in this book. I love Katherine Neville's "The Eight" when I read it years ago, but this sequel to it is just not good.