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July 2005. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls, and the pattern of a labyrinth; between the skeletons, a stone ring, and a small leather bag.
You can solve the entire book without the need for an internet connection too, everything you need is right here - perfect for taking with you on a long journey! I read this book some time ago, and have recently been reminded of its sorry existence by the fact that a dramatisation is due to be screened in the not so distant future. Personally, I am proud of having made to the end where so many others fallen in the effort. The writing was diabolical, the plot completely over-blown and all over the place, and the characters were pitifully one-dimensional. Although, I do think it takes a special kind of genius to come up with something this bad, I really do. Personal, er, "highlights" for me included, the main character (Alice) wandering around some village in the middle of nowhere only to bump into a bloke she once met yunks ago in another country. They knew each other straight away. Sure, happens all the time. I've read a lot of books on the Holy Grail in my time (some may say an obsessive amount, I prefer to think of myself as thorough) from Le Morte D'Arthur to The Da Vinci Code and sadly this falls into the latter category. Es una historia de secretos y misterios centrada en la vida de dos mujeres separadas por 800 años, y aunque la trama es un tanto compleja, es fácil de seguir. Dos protagonistas a las cuales, el destino de la providencia une sus vidas conectándolas a través del laberinto dibujado en un anillo. Having said all that, Labyrinth has a lot of redeeming qualities. Firstly it's a time-slip book - half of it being set during the 13th century when the Crusaders began to turn on their own. Mosse has done a lot of intricate research into this time and really conjures up the atmosphere of medieval France as well as many who have gone before her. Secondly, the characterisation is very strong and you actually feel for all the characters in one way or another. Thirdly, it's a Grail book in which women actually get heard. If what I've deduced about Grail mythology is correct women did play an important role and I think this is what Dan Brown was rather clumsily trying to say with all his very badly misinformed Mary Magdalene information. Mosse gets the message across a little better.You might also like: New 2022 Mystery Subscription Box Sale on Cratejoy. More Solve it Yourself Mystery Books Alaïs finds herself caught up in the changing and challenging times when the pope launches a crusade against the Cathars, a declared heretic group who believe that while God is absolute and utmost, the work they do in their lives is by their doing and not God’s. It is a time when Christians are fighting Christians overtly because of their supposed heretical ways, but subversively because the northern French want the rich southern land of the langue d’Oc. Paper Labyrinth" offers somewhat of a refreshing change by deviating from this approach in several respects: A reread, because I had forgotten absolutely everything about it. At some point I acquired the second book in the series and have yet to read it, so... Hints and solutions for all the puzzles are contained within the book itself - there is no internet connection required to validate an answer or receive a key, which makes it much more useful as, well, a book, that can be taken on holiday, on the beach, or when travelling.
The book is written as two stories that run in parallel time-lines. One in the past within one of the Cathars' last standing fortresses (the Cathars were Christians considered heretics by the Catholic church for no aligning with the rites and rituals of Rome, and for not recognizing the Pope as supreme leader). The second story in the present, with a young archeologist as the protagonist who's about to discover her past guards many more surprises than she could have ever imagined. Eight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade to stamp out heresy that will rip apart southern France, Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father as he leaves to fight the crusaders. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. As crusading armies led by Church potentates and nobles of northern France gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take great sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe. What I did really find fascinating was how Mosse wrote the Cathars’ beliefs around life and reincarnation and how that could be intertwined with the Grail stories. It was really cool how she interpreted that and I found the whole thing very compelling. I liked how much emphasis there was on mutual respect and working together between the guardians of the Books: Jewish, Muslim and Christian; men and women. I've seen a handful of comparisons between Labyrinth and Dan Brown books and....I guess. Labyrinth has secret societies and questionable religious motivations. It has relics and symbols and a wee bit of romance. But Labyrinth doesn't feel like Dan Brown to me, despite the topical similarities. There are grammatical errors and anachronisms that I found really irritating (for example, references in 1209 to 'Saint Francis' when he was in fact not sainted until 1228) and some incredibly clunky prose.Whoa. You let someone wander around on an excavation randomly digging holes wherever they like? That is NOT how it is done. Now they've found something and are tramping into a cave and moving finds and relics around without photographing or drawing them first? And they're not even an archaeologist? Ok, that's it my head just E-X-P-L-O-D-E-D , really it did, there's brain all over the place. Good job my brain exploded before the introduction of the fact that the Assistant dig director is also stealing antiquities. And obviously because there is archaeology and the grail involved then they all have PhD's. Let's face it, after Dr Robert Langdon of DaVinci Code fame, only giving these ladies a Masters degree would make you feel like they were not quite clever enough to be dealing with the subject matter. All in all, I did enjoy it and I’m compelled enough by Mosse’s writing to definitely give more books of hers a try. I did really want to know what was going to happen and I loved the religious and philosophical aspects of it. I just preferred the historical setting and characters to the modern ones. It is full of tautology like this. She also uses simile to describe the subject of simile, for example the light that 'cut through the darkness like a searchlight' and 'words repeated over and over like a mantra'.) I really enjoyed Alaïs’ story. I loved reading about the side characters in her time, too. Her father, her husband, her sister, her friends around the Cité. And the villain being her sister was a horrifyingly fascinating twist. And I think because of that, I was a bit frustrated that Alaïs’ later story was summarised by a certain character in the present story rather than actually told through Alaïs herself. Like we spent so much time with the start of her journey, why couldn’t we have read the middle and end of her journey? Although again this could be me craving a historical fiction novel as opposed to a mystery that starts in the past and finished in the future. There is a supernatural or mystical thread running through the heart of the story that goes beyond the base Grail mythology and I am not sure it was entirely justified. Our two protagonists share a bloodline, and modern-day Alice gains some of her insight from dream memories and never-explained intuition. It felt as this was ultimately a device used to hasten exposition and draw character parallels. It was muddy and removed opportunity to liven up the modern story-line with actual research and puzzle solving.
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