The Eight was published in 1988 and It was written by Katherine Neville. She was born in 1954, 4th of April, in San Luis (Missouri). Katherine Neville’s worked as an international computer executive and consultant, principally in finance and energy; she has lived and has worked in six countries on three continents and half of the states in the U.S. She worked for the IBM, the Bank of America, OPEC, and the US Department of Energy.
Katherine did her post-graduate studies in African Literature. She has worked as a commercial photographer, portrait painter, busboy, waiter, and model.
After, in the eighty, she started to write. Her first novel is A Calculated Risk. The others novels that she has written were The Eight, the Magic Circle. Every of her books are bestsellers in more than thirty languages.
On December, she published the Fire, the continuation of the Eight.
The Eight is a mystery’s novel. Katherine mixes times, places and characters. The book is divided in two stages. The first part is focused in 1972. The main character of this part is Catherine Velis. The other part was in 1790 by Mireille de Remy. The principal story is the mysterious Montglane’s chess.
Sypnosis
New York City, 1972. Catherine Velis works as computer science expert for the Fulbright, Cone, Kane & Upham Company. This company, assigns her to Algeria, but, before of go there; a clairvoyant warns her that she is in danger. After, an antique dealer offers her an offer: a client of him, is interesting in collect some old chess’s pieces, the Montglane’s chess. Cat accepts it. But, She doesn’t know when arrived to Algeria, is that her life changes absolutely, that she is going to discover the secret of the mysterious Montglane’s chess, because she has entried in the game.
The South of France, 1790. Mireille de Remy and her cousin Valentine are young novices at the Montglane Abbey. The French revolution is starting and between their projects want to finish with the Church and get its treasure. In the Abbey, for thousand years, are the Montglane’s peaces chess, once it was own Charlemagne. Who gets collect it, where is a mysterious formula, this person gets a power. And, these girls, Mireille and Valentine must to hide, these pieces, for the world.
My opinion: The eight’s book I surprise me because Katherine Neville mixes history, places, time, characters and fictitious characters. Also, I like that in each episode of the book there are quotes and paragraphs of poets, writers and Scientifics famous.As Lewis Carroll and his work: Through the Looking-Glassin.
The story there are extracts in the novel that caught my attention, as:
-You have to convert the mathematics in music…its magic!
-The mathematics is music… and vice- versa
this is an important topic in the book. The first time that I read it, I didn’t understand it, but while you read the novel, you discover that it’s true. Also the book’s title caught my attention: The Eight. In the story, there are references to this number: in the chess, in the Cat’s hand…. And the form as Katherine Neville sets out the life, as a chess game. I like the story very much, for the topic, the story… and everything.