The Eight by Katherine Neville
August 29th 2006 02:53
Long before Dan Brown even put pen to paper, long before the scholarly and literate thrillers based on some obscure European painting or the holy grail became a cottage industry, Katherine Neville wrote The Eight.
Charlemagne, the Frankish emperor is presented with a magnificent chess set by an Arabic subject. The chess set itself taps into power of the universe and hence, the mad scrambling for it. Charlemagne orders that it should be hidden away and it is promptly buried in a castle which later becomes a convent. Though hidden away, its secret was always known to a few power hungry tyrants down the ages and they all made an attempt to retrieve it. It is the time of French Revolution and the convent is about to be seized. So, the abbess divides the chess set into eight pieces and distributes it among eight nuns who are to protect it with their lives. For some reason, she gives the most vital part to a pair of giggling girls who are to act as collecting points for the rest of the group too. Predictably, they straight away walk into the arms of Talleyrand, the bishop of Autun who was after the chess set in the first place. From now on, Talleyrand, Robespierre, Wordsworth, pretty much every historical ghost whose name you have ever heard pops up and throws his hat into the ring.
The novel's heroine in the present, Catherine is a computer whiz kid who is promoted to a post in Algeria as a punishment for her sincerity. Last heard, Algeria is where the chess set was rumoured to be. Before she goes there, she is forced to befriend a chess-playing feminist Lily and influence her in a positive way. Lily takes her to a chess tournament where the Russian grandmaster Solarin is playing after so many years. Somebody is killed at the tournament and mayhem ensues.
The novel's historical pieces are amazing. One can only wistfully imagine what a wonderful historical novel Neville could have written if only she stuck to the form. But, all that good is undone by the most jejune action writing I ever read. Once, Solarin looks into Catherine's eyes and says, "You should not have come here", you roll your eyes too. And it only gets worse from there.
But The Eight was a huge success and still commands a following of many loyal fans. But if you read it now, it is only interesting in the sense that it shows you the first baby steps taken before Dan Brown arrived to assimilate this material properly in a thriller.
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