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She has to solve a number of them just to get into her mother's vacant house for the party and then figure out what's what. The story didn't begin to take off for me until I was halfway through it, and even then it took me a while to finish it. Humans of different eras get caught up on opposing teams searching for the pieces, and even embodying some of them. I could barely figure out what happened as the secrets of the universe were allegedly being revealed. Alexandra's solutions to them often make no sense. It has settings ranging from Washington, D.C. And I'd read the first book in the series, "The Eight", years ago.What's good about it is its romp across time and place, with appearances by Lord Byron, Thomas Jefferson, Ali Pasha, Benjamin Franklin, Prince Talleyrand and Catherine the Great.
and Colorado to Alaska, Siberia and Kamchatka; from Greece and Albania and the Pyrenees to Baghdad, Algeria and Mali's Dogon Country. What's bad about it is the book's central premise - the quest for a mystical chess set with the power to change humanity (or something - I'm never quite clear). I'm debating whether reading "The Fire" is worth the effort. Alexandra finds nearly everyone around her caught up in the game as well and begins a breathless week of intrigue as players begin showing their hands (sorry for the mixed metaphor) without ever quite giving Alexandra all of it as she learns about The Game and her own tortured family history. Way too many loose ends are left at the finish. And I had a problem with the characters' habits of communicating through riddles and puzzles, charming and inventive thought it is. A minor plus is all the food-speak, with Solarin having some chef background and working in a gourmet restaurant for an eccentric Basque chef. I couldn't understand why Neville used these to develop Key's character; they really fall flat.
I might not have done so at all were it not for Vine reviewing responsibilities. Wouldn't it have been a lot easier for her mother just to tell her to come visit as she had some important things to tell her. You definitely have to suspend your disbelief for this one.Protagonist Alexandra Solarin, a chess child prodigy, leaves the game after her father is killed in what turns out to be part of the historical game's latest episode. Ten years later she is herself sucked into the historical game when her mother invites an unusual cast of characters to her birthday party and then vanishes. And maybe for her mother not to disappear at the same time.Minor annoyances include numerous trite aphorisms attributed to her friend Key. It made me hungry.
Half a dozen times I put it down for weeks at a time, considered quitting it altogether, then reluctantly decided I must finish it. But certainly a hard heroine to root for, especially when there's no action happening around her. Six months. Neville's books in the meantime; each of which was passably entertaining, but none particularly memorable, nor matching The Eight's intricate plot, depth of characterization, or sparkling action.Unfortunately, neither does The Fire.It took me six months to plow through this clunker of a novel. The Eight is my favorite book - of all time - and I was eagerly awaiting the sequel when to my great delight, one finally came along. Quite frustrating, and quite a disappointment from such a strong, dynamic, accomplished, and intelligent writer. She's not UN-likable, she's just.there. The 400+ pages that preceded the finale were chock full of stories, letters, historical tales, one painfully long and uneventful cross-continent plane ride, a birthday party that never really happens yet takes many, many (many) pages to tell, and the absence of both Cat Velis and Alexander Solarin, the main characters in The Eight who truly made that novel come to life.The Fire's heroine is Cat and Alexei's daughter Alexandra, who is such a thinly drawn character I never got a sense of any personality, depth, or likability.
Neville seems to have fallen into the Da Vinci Code trap, in which everybody sits around talking about these "important issues" all the time, and rarely DOES anything. About 15 pages from the end, the action finally started. I've read all of Ms. Every once in a while something happens, but for the life of me I can't recall a single thing - the overwhelming sense I retain upon just finishing the novel is a lot of conversations about "how very much danger they're in" and "how important the Game is" and a lot of esoteric history about people and places that never ultimately amount to much in driving the plot forward.Ms. Perhaps it would get better. Finally. All history and no action makes for a very good non-fiction read, but a very boring fiction novel. She can certainly do better, and her readers/fans deserve better.
Since I did nto read the orignal book I was nearly as disatified as the other folks reviewing this book I enjoyed it. The book sounded interesting and so I ordered it. But just knowing I was reading the sequal before the original made it difficult to really delve deep into what was going on. I did enjoy it but felt the whole time like I had missed out on soemthing not having read the first novel. So I'm going to get it and read it but still it's kind already spoiled for me. Maybe once I've read the Eight I can go back and read this an enjoy it more. Or maybe then I'll understand why people who had read it disliked this book so much.But for me it is a solid 3 stars good plot, interesting characters.
Unfortunately, this novel falls into the category of "disappointing second novel". I do think that the historical research involved with putting this book together is definitely commendable. I really enjoyed "The Eight", and was looking forward to more of the same with this book. However, I found the storyline here to be confusing, and, frankly, a bit boring. Perhaps I just did not find this place and time as interesting as with the first novel, so it made the book more of a chore to read than a pleasure. I certainly believe that this talented author can work her magic once again, so, despite my disappointment, I look forward to the next novel.
Unfortunately, "The Fire" is nowhere near the novel that "The Eight" is.I liked the historical tidbits about countries and cultures and time periods that I know little about, although there was no depth of coverage, and it was presented all humble-jumble. Since there were two black queen pieces, I expected some sort of impostor in the lineage. First off, I loved "The Eight". Some of the food sounded delicious and genuinely caught my imagination.Were the characters supposed to correspond to various pieces on a chess board. Many others fell out of the story with no explanation.Not much happened to the contemporary characters except recalling childhood incidents and experiencing nameless anxiety and dread of unspecified events. Ms. Characters are revealed as the Black Queen, or the White King.
Sigh. I have read it several times. I suppose it would have been a big spoiler to include a table of aliases for the black and white teams and the pieces they identified with. Neville inserted every possible obscure literary and mythological reference about fire and cooking over flames. There seemed to be some confusion about the characters and actual chess pieces. Too many characters which were not developed. Let's have a round of Prozac so they can get on with their lives.
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