The Fire: A Novel

Katherine Neville

Oct 2008 · Sold by Ballantine Books

About this ebook

Katherine Neville’s groundbreaking novel, The Eight, dazzled audiences more than twenty years ago and set the literary stage for the epic thriller. A quest for a mystical chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne, it spans two centuries and three continents, and intertwines historic and modern plots, archaeological treasure hunts, esoteric riddles, and puzzles encrypted with clues from the ancient past. Now the electrifying global adventure continues, in Neville’s long anticipated sequel: THE FIRE

2003, Colorado: Alexandra Solarin is summoned home to her family’s ancestral Rocky Mountain hideaway for her mother’s birthday. Thirty years ago, her parents, Cat Velis and Alexander Solarin, believed that they had scattered the pieces of the Montglane Service around the world, burying with them the secrets of the power that comes with possessing it. But Alexandra arrives to find that her mother is missing and that a series of strategically placed clues, followed swiftly by the unexpected arrival of a mysterious assortment of houseguests, indicates that something sinister is afoot. 

When she inadvertently discovers from her aunt, the chess grandmaster Lily Rad, that the most powerful piece of Charlemagne’s service has suddenly resurfaced and the Game has begun again, Alexandra is swept into a journey that takes her from Colorado to the Russian wilderness and at last into the heart of her own hometown: Washington D.C.

1822, Albania: Thirty years after the French Revolution, when the chess service was unearthed, all of Europe hovers on the brink of the War of Greek Independence. Ali Pasha, the most powerful ruler in the Ottoman Empire, has angered the sultan and is about to be attacked by Turkish forces. Now he sends the only person he can rely upon–his young daughter, Haidee–on a dangerous mission to smuggle a valuable relic out of Albania, through the mountains and over the sea, to the hands of the one man who might be able to save it.

Haidee’s journey from Albania to Morocco to Rome to Greece, and into the very heart of the Game, will result in revelations about the powerful chess set and its history that will lead at last to the spot where the service was first created more than one thousand years before: Baghdad.

Blending exquisite prose and captivating history with nonstop suspense, Neville again weaves an unforgettable story of peril, action, and intrigue.

Ratings and reviews

Like lots of others when The Eight was released in the 80's it was a completely new fresh book, particularly as it was huge had 64 in depth characters and was I was completely hooked. So it was with itchy fingers I ran to waterstones to get the sequel when it was released 20 years later. The fire doesn't have the in depth character portrayal that made the eight so fantastic, the plot line is at best thin, and not very well thought out. storylines just kinda fizzle out after going nowhere. No disrepect to the author but I think she had a variety of ideas and just got them all in the book regardless of whether it worked or was relevant. The best thing about the book is the story of Haidee and Charlot. And the timelines from the past, although previous characters are mentioned there is no depth to their characters at all, for instance Lily returns in the book but her character has gone from being a presence to this, afterthought which is kinda disappointing. Mordecai we are told died in 9/11 and that was left. And Cat is replaced by Key who is most annoying with her cliches. I felt really disappointed after reading this book, which is a shame because I loved the eight, liked the magic circle and I even enjoyed calculated risk which got terrible reviews. If you are reading this book as a stand alone then you will probably enjoy it. If however you are coming to this book expecting another book like the eight you will be disappointed

I loved The Eight and this did not disappoint.

Loved it

About the author

Katherine Neville is the author of The Eight, The Magic Circle (a USA Today bestseller), and A Calculated Risk (a New York Times Notable Book). The Eight has been translated into more than thirty languages. In a national poll in Spain by the noted journal El País, The Eight was voted one of the top ten books of all time. Neville lives in Virginia and Washington, D.C.

www.katherineneville.com