Scan barcode
essiewakeman's review against another edition
3.0
Meh. The concept could have been interesting, but the author doesn't quite pull it off here. Disjointed and illogical.
doritobabe's review against another edition
3.0
Let's get down to the dirty business of writing a review for a book that I am completely on the fence about. I have put this off for a few days only to remember yesterday that I have missed writing about this one due to its remaining presence in my mind.
Kate Mosse's Labyrinth was gifted to be shortly after its release in 2005. My brother bought this book for me -- yet he doesn't remember -- and recall feeling incredulous at the type of book he picked out for me. I am a fifteen year old girl, why would I want to read this fist-thick historical novel that I have no idea about? Not to mention, up until I actually picked up the book this year, I my misconceptions towards the subject matter persisted (re: my earlier comment about it being similar to [b:Outlander|10964|Outlander (Outlander #1)|Diana Gabaldon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1402600310s/10964.jpg|2489796]. THE BOOK IS NO WHERE NEAR THIS... SURPRISE!)
Labyrinth takes place in contemporary (2006ish) France over the course of a weekend (I think???) and in other parts, flashes back to medieval Carcassone over forty plus years. [HOW DOES THIS WORK, DO YOU ASK? Does it confuse the crap out of the reader? (Yes.) Does the author have to remind the reader 2/3s of the way through the book that the contemporary history only takes place over a few days? (Yes.)]
Her protagonist, young, brilliant Alice Tanner is working on an archaeological dig and stumbles upon an old cave filled with ~mystery~. This allows readers to discover that she is distantly connected to Alais and her family -- a guardian of the holy grail. Mosse may have intended this to be a magical tale about the search for the holy grail but in my opinion, this plot becomes overshadowed by the historical religious plot that comes from the literal landscape. Mosse's medieval characters tell the story of the Cathars in the Languedoc province and how the religion was wiped out during the Crusades and creates a link between the Holy Grail and Cathar-ism, Egypt (without fully developing it) and Europe.
The most exciting part of the book was learning about the religious history and events. As I mentioned above, Mosse may have intended for the story of the Holy Grail to be exciting and take precedence, but it does not become fully developed and ends with much unexplained. Additionally, the history of the Cathar war takes place over MANY, MANY years, leaving Mosse to sum up the events through one of her character's narratives rather than detailing/fictionalizing it to the reader.
The research put into the novel seems thorough and Mosse's writing style is above average. I enjoyed how much detail she put into all of the characters in order to build up the mystery. I also liked how she linked characters through time without being TOO obvious (although still obvious enough). However, some of the previous critiques are correct in saying that the research done was choppy, and the language used (French and Occitain) were not used in more sophisticated ways than a phrasebook at hand. Additionally, the was easily predicted, yet not explained to the reader.
I would read more of her books, has I have marked the rest of this "trilogy", but I realize now that they are not really related at all? Since this book was ~700 pages, and if the others are as well, yet nothing carries over, should I read the rest? Did I learn all of that for nothing?
I started watching the mini-series on youtube and actually may think that this is one of those instances where the abbreviated adaptation might be a better watch than spending the hours on the read itself.
Kate Mosse's Labyrinth was gifted to be shortly after its release in 2005. My brother bought this book for me -- yet he doesn't remember -- and recall feeling incredulous at the type of book he picked out for me. I am a fifteen year old girl, why would I want to read this fist-thick historical novel that I have no idea about? Not to mention, up until I actually picked up the book this year, I my misconceptions towards the subject matter persisted (re: my earlier comment about it being similar to [b:Outlander|10964|Outlander (Outlander #1)|Diana Gabaldon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1402600310s/10964.jpg|2489796]. THE BOOK IS NO WHERE NEAR THIS... SURPRISE!)
Labyrinth takes place in contemporary (2006ish) France over the course of a weekend (I think???) and in other parts, flashes back to medieval Carcassone over forty plus years. [HOW DOES THIS WORK, DO YOU ASK? Does it confuse the crap out of the reader? (Yes.) Does the author have to remind the reader 2/3s of the way through the book that the contemporary history only takes place over a few days? (Yes.)]
Her protagonist, young, brilliant Alice Tanner is working on an archaeological dig and stumbles upon an old cave filled with ~mystery~. This allows readers to discover that she is distantly connected to Alais and her family -- a guardian of the holy grail. Mosse may have intended this to be a magical tale about the search for the holy grail but in my opinion, this plot becomes overshadowed by the historical religious plot that comes from the literal landscape. Mosse's medieval characters tell the story of the Cathars in the Languedoc province and how the religion was wiped out during the Crusades and creates a link between the Holy Grail and Cathar-ism, Egypt (without fully developing it) and Europe.
The most exciting part of the book was learning about the religious history and events. As I mentioned above, Mosse may have intended for the story of the Holy Grail to be exciting and take precedence, but it does not become fully developed and ends with much unexplained. Additionally, the history of the Cathar war takes place over MANY, MANY years, leaving Mosse to sum up the events through one of her character's narratives rather than detailing/fictionalizing it to the reader.
The research put into the novel seems thorough and Mosse's writing style is above average. I enjoyed how much detail she put into all of the characters in order to build up the mystery. I also liked how she linked characters through time without being TOO obvious (although still obvious enough). However, some of the previous critiques are correct in saying that the research done was choppy, and the language used (French and Occitain) were not used in more sophisticated ways than a phrasebook at hand. Additionally, the
Spoiler
immortality of some charactersI would read more of her books, has I have marked the rest of this "trilogy", but I realize now that they are not really related at all? Since this book was ~700 pages, and if the others are as well, yet nothing carries over, should I read the rest? Did I learn all of that for nothing?
I started watching the mini-series on youtube and actually may think that this is one of those instances where the abbreviated adaptation might be a better watch than spending the hours on the read itself.
jgintrovertedreader's review against another edition
2.0
Alice Tanner is helping out on an archaeological dig in the south of France when she finds a cave that obviously has some significance. She finds an altar, a labyrinth, and two skeletons inside. Unbeknownst to her, she has stumbled on a secret that a lot of people have been searching for, most who would do anything to find it, and she's caught right in the middle of it.
Centuries earlier, Alaïs Pelletier is caught up in even bigger events. Her beloved city of Carcassonne is the object of a Crusade. The tolerance that makes her city so vibrant has drawn the wrath of the Catholic Church. A vast army from the northern part of France is marching to stamp out the heretics. Amidst all this turmoil, Alaïs finds out that her beloved father has a secret that must be kept safe at all costs.
Ugh, I'm having a hard time getting my thoughts about this down.
This just never grabbed me. It's supposed to be some sort of Grail-literary-thriller thing and I just kept looking for the thrills. I finally found them about 30 pages from the end. The rest of the time I was just kind of waiting on the characters to catch up to what I had already pretty much figured out. That's not even exactly right. What was going on was so obvious that I kept wondering what the point of the whole thing was. Now that I've finished I'm still kind of wondering.
I did a little better with the storyline set in the past. It was moving a little too slowly for me, but at least I could see where the characters were coming from, I understood the tension, and I felt like they were reacting to it realistically.
I couldn't really buy Alice's reaction to anything in the present. She discovers a cave, gets roughed up by some random dude, and all of a sudden she's running around the French countryside, away from the bad guys, and trying to find out the meaning of the labyrinth while having crazy dreams. She never seemed to grasp how bad the baddies were. "Oh, someone I don't know just gave me a message to meet someone else I don't know in a cemetery? I'll be right there." Um, she's worried about her life at this point, and she goes skipping off into the unknown. Someone breaks into her hotel room? "Well, Mr. Manager, I need a different room." See that? Not a different hotel, a different room. They found her the first time, but it's going to be infinitely harder to find her down the hall. She spends a couple of hours on the internet in the library and she discovers everything anyone could possibly ever want to know about labyrinths and, I believe, this Crusade in France. Granted, there's a mystical element to the story that gives her some "insider access" (more about that shortly) but I couldn't buy that she learned so much in such a short time. Her whole storyline just irked me.
The mystical element bothered me a little too. I love fantasy, so don't think that I'm someone who just has trouble with this kind of thing. Alice keeps having these dreams that seem to be showing the past, but once we learn what actually happened in the past, it has nothing to do with what she dreamed. Well, not as directly as I expected it to.
And now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, the ending bothered me too. Some stuff happens that makes me wonder at the need for all the secrecy. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration. I do see the need for secrecy, it just doesn't seem to be such a matter of life-and-death.
I did like learning about this Crusade. I had no idea anything like this had ever happened. I kept wondering what Europe would have been like if the religious tolerance of this region had spread. It would have been a much different place, I'm sure.
I'm thinking that fans of [b:The Eight|113310|The Eight|Katherine Neville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309734885s/113310.jpg|268923] by Katherine Neville (another Grail book that I had issues with) will like this more than I did.
Centuries earlier, Alaïs Pelletier is caught up in even bigger events. Her beloved city of Carcassonne is the object of a Crusade. The tolerance that makes her city so vibrant has drawn the wrath of the Catholic Church. A vast army from the northern part of France is marching to stamp out the heretics. Amidst all this turmoil, Alaïs finds out that her beloved father has a secret that must be kept safe at all costs.
Ugh, I'm having a hard time getting my thoughts about this down.
This just never grabbed me. It's supposed to be some sort of Grail-literary-thriller thing and I just kept looking for the thrills. I finally found them about 30 pages from the end. The rest of the time I was just kind of waiting on the characters to catch up to what I had already pretty much figured out. That's not even exactly right. What was going on was so obvious that I kept wondering what the point of the whole thing was. Now that I've finished I'm still kind of wondering.
I did a little better with the storyline set in the past. It was moving a little too slowly for me, but at least I could see where the characters were coming from, I understood the tension, and I felt like they were reacting to it realistically.
I couldn't really buy Alice's reaction to anything in the present. She discovers a cave, gets roughed up by some random dude, and all of a sudden she's running around the French countryside, away from the bad guys, and trying to find out the meaning of the labyrinth while having crazy dreams. She never seemed to grasp how bad the baddies were. "Oh, someone I don't know just gave me a message to meet someone else I don't know in a cemetery? I'll be right there." Um, she's worried about her life at this point, and she goes skipping off into the unknown. Someone breaks into her hotel room? "Well, Mr. Manager, I need a different room." See that? Not a different hotel, a different room. They found her the first time, but it's going to be infinitely harder to find her down the hall. She spends a couple of hours on the internet in the library and she discovers everything anyone could possibly ever want to know about labyrinths and, I believe, this Crusade in France. Granted, there's a mystical element to the story that gives her some "insider access" (more about that shortly) but I couldn't buy that she learned so much in such a short time. Her whole storyline just irked me.
The mystical element bothered me a little too. I love fantasy, so don't think that I'm someone who just has trouble with this kind of thing. Alice keeps having these dreams that seem to be showing the past, but once we learn what actually happened in the past, it has nothing to do with what she dreamed. Well, not as directly as I expected it to.
Spoiler
Specifically, she keeps dreaming about fire, and being chased through the woods, and then she finally dreams about throwing herself off a cliff so that the pursuers don't have the satisfaction of catching her. I read this as Alice being the reincarnation of Alaïs. None of this happened to Alaïs. None of it. And here I was wondering when she was going to go cliff diving.And now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, the ending bothered me too. Some stuff happens that makes me wonder at the need for all the secrecy. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration. I do see the need for secrecy, it just doesn't seem to be such a matter of life-and-death.
I did like learning about this Crusade. I had no idea anything like this had ever happened. I kept wondering what Europe would have been like if the religious tolerance of this region had spread. It would have been a much different place, I'm sure.
I'm thinking that fans of [b:The Eight|113310|The Eight|Katherine Neville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309734885s/113310.jpg|268923] by Katherine Neville (another Grail book that I had issues with) will like this more than I did.
ruusaer's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
shirleytupperfreeman's review against another edition
This was a fun historical fiction/mystery novel. It's two stories in one. One takes place in 2005 with a young woman, Alice,who is helping with an archeological dig when she accidentally discovers a cave with several mysterious items. The other story takes place in 1205 when a young woman, Alais, becomes part of a secret group in charge of maintaining the hiding place of what might be the Holy Grail. The two stories are connected of course. I learned more about the Crusades while experiencing some frustration with keeping characters straight when many had unusual/similar names.
yeetmemequeen's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
bookfun4anna's review against another edition
3.0
Enjoyable read - a mix between Da Vinci Code and Pillars of the Earth. Not great writing, however.
knittyreader's review against another edition
4.0
I'm not entirely sure when I read this book, only that it's about 8/9 years ago, and that I liked it more than I expected I would. Now I'm reading #2, Sepulchre, and when I looked for it here on Goodreads I realized it is in a trilogy, and hey, I know Labyrinth too. So yayyy.
deblyn's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this book. As far as Holy Grail books go, there really weren't many surprises. I liked the story that took place in the past better the the present day story.
lee25's review against another edition
5.0
I first read [b:Labyrinth|14975|Labyrinth (Languedoc, #1)|Kate Mosse|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546515370l/14975._SY75_.jpg|1225097] many years ago and absolutely loved it. About a third of the way through re-reading it, I wasn't so sure. But then I became immersed in the story and loved it again.
The history of the Cathars is so incredibly sad, and Alyce and Sajhe bring it to life. [a:Kate Mosse|9343|Kate Mosse|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1358308999p2/9343.jpg] has the most amazing way of taking the reader to her settings. (And she kindly included a walking tour of the books setting at the back of the book making me desperately want to travel though the Languedoc and walk in the modern day Alice's (and Alyce's) footsteps).
The history of the Cathars is so incredibly sad, and Alyce and Sajhe bring it to life. [a:Kate Mosse|9343|Kate Mosse|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1358308999p2/9343.jpg] has the most amazing way of taking the reader to her settings. (And she kindly included a walking tour of the books setting at the back of the book making me desperately want to travel though the Languedoc and walk in the modern day Alice's (and Alyce's) footsteps).