[1] Alice, a volunteer at a French archaeological excavation, discovers the skeletal remains of two people in a cave, as well as a labyrinth-engraved ring, which attracts the attention of unscrupulous individuals. Get help and learn more about the design. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that many of the traditional characteristics of top class adventure writingstrong lead characters, action, peril, quest, challenge, a cliffhanging climax and final showdown, the defeat of the baddies by the goodieshave actually been appropriated by crime/thriller novelists, as well as historical writers. However, it is not just the sight of the shattered bones that makes her uneasy; there is an overwhelming sense of evil in the tomb that Alice finds hard to shake off, even in the bright French sunshine. The title, the cover, the blurb, the size, even the genre (historical fiction) did not excite me so I delayed, procastinated, snuck other books in ahead of it. The historical nature of the novel is also executed well, with some brilliant and vivid descriptions of life in Carcassonne during the 1200s. I had high hopes for this one. [7][8] It aired on Sat.1 in Germany, Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, 6ter in France, Telecinco in Spain, on SOHO in Australia and ORF in Austria during 2013, in Denmark on the DR1 TV station on 25/26 March 2013, and aired in the United States as a two-night event on The CW on May 22/23, 2014. Her fiction includes the novels Labyrinth (2005), Sepulchre (2007), The Winter Ghosts (2009), and Citadel (2012), as well as an acclaimed collection of short stories, The Mistletoe Bride & Other Haunting Tales (2013). Kate and her husband live in West Sussex and Carcasonne, France. Adventure Drama Fantasy This mini-series follows two women, medieval Alas Pelletier du Mas (Jessica Brown Findlay), who lives through the Crusades and Cathar massacres in medieval France, and modern-day Alice Tanner (Vanessa Kirby), in their quest to find the Holy Grail. Good, action-packed, moving, well-researched novels, with universally-recognizable characters, are just one way of achieving connections with other people. Upon hearing voices, seemingly whispering her name, she is drawn into a cave. [1] The production is a collaboration between Scott's Scott Free production company, Tandem Communications (Germany), and Film Afrika Worldwide (South Africa), and in association with Universal Production Partners (Czech Republic). I wanted them to be firmly at the centre of their own storysure, theres lots of love (and sex! For question 4, how would you challenge the statement. At some point I acquired the second book in the series and have yet to read it, so A surprising mix of historical fiction, fantasy and ghost story all very well rolled into one intriguing novel. In medieval times, as today, history is written by the winners, not those who are defeated. Although she cannot understand the symbols and diagrams the books contain, Alas knows her destiny lies in protecting their secret at all costs. 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. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. It almost always rings false and is always off-putting, and because I notice this in French rather than any other language, the French is almost, Which brings us to the second problem - the pacing. I should have known better the second I saw this described as "if The Da Vinci Code were feminist!" My husbandwhos an interpreter and teacher, as well as a novelisthad lived in Paris for several years and we wanted a fulltime base in France for our family, but it was a coincidence we chose Carcassonne. As for why its taken so many forms and endured over so many centuries, I think that the great stories are those that speak beyond time and place and context, so are constantly rewritten, reinterpreted, explored and reworked by writers, musicians, artists from different cultures, backgrounds and ages for new audiences, new times. See guidelines for writing about novels. item 4 LABYRINTH by KATE MOSSE (2006, CD, Unabridged)--A STORY/ PUZZLE OF THE GRAIL LABYRINTH by KATE MOSSE (2006, CD, Unabridged)--A STORY/ PUZZLE OF THE GRAIL. How did you feel when the action moved to contemporary France in chapter 11? The placement of strong female characters in the novels central roles was refreshing, particularly given the tendency of some thrillers to assign females a somewhat stereotypical function. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Kate was named European Woman of Achievement for Contribution to the Arts in 2000. Dispatched with Royal Mail 2nd Class. She is the presenter of BBC4s Readers and Writers Roadshowand guest presents Saturday Review for Radio 4. and even though I knew the ending, I still throughly enjoyed this CD. Subscribe to receive some of our best reviews, "beyond the book" articles, book club info and giveaways by email. Readers enjoy being literary detectives, tracking stories back to their origins, working things out. And I really wish that the female characters had been described in ways other than having long, shapely legs. [5], Reviewing Labyrinth for The New York Times, Mike Hale gave it an negative assessment. Buy HD $2.99 More purchase options 2. And, when youve finished, do you wish you could start all over again? Kate Mosse is the author of nine novels & short story collections, including the No 1, multimillion-selling Languedoc Trilogy - Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel - and No 1 bestselling Gothic fiction including The Winter Ghosts and The Taxidermist's Daughter, which she is currently adapting for the stage. BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfictionbooks that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. And, truly, after 700 pages, the premise remained the only thing that made this book publishable. Do you think they were too much, not enough or just right? This article about a historical novel of the 2000s is a stub. So we were supposed to believe that Alas was good and kind and smart because Mosse kept. I visited many medieval re-enactment events, both in England and in southwest France, watching Jousts and seeing how battles were fought. The motivation for why these things needed to be found out, why it was a secret considered worth killing for, was just never established in a clear enough way to set stakes for the plot in a way that made me care about it. Toggle navigation All Bookstores. Alice dreams about Alaiss life, allowing Alice to be guided in her own quest to guard the Grail. INTRODUCTIONIn this extraordinary thriller, rich in the atmospheres of medieval and contemporary France, the lives of two women born centuries apart are linked by a common destiny. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse Orion 9.99, pp527. I picked it up because the premise sounded interesting - Alice Tanner, on an archeological dig, finds a secret grave that contains some 12th-century remains that might point to the secret of the Grail, lost during the Crusade in the Languedoc against the Cathars and the Albigensians in 12th-century France. The Crusaders razed to the ground any dwellings known to have harboured Cathars and burnt all copies of the New Testament in the local language, Oc or Occitan (from which the region gets its name). Ms. Mosse sometimes went too far with certain details (Noubel's profusive sweating - what is that about? One journalist called her Wilma Smith! Author The narratives are tied together by the unravelling of the mysteries of the true Grail, which is written and bound in three volumes, and the symbol of the labyrinth. Join BookBrowse today to start discovering exceptional books! This book had absolutely no redeeming characteristics to speak of. Weve lived part of the year in Carcassonne for the past sixteen years and I began researching, planning and writingLabyrinth five years ago now, well before The Da Vinci Code hit the shelves! Labyrinth is an archaeological mystery English-language novel written by Kate Mosse set both in the Middle Ages and present-day France. This book had absolutely no redeeming characteristics to speak of. Also - and I realise that this is my personal issue more than anything else - but I really, really hate it when authors writing about a setting that isn't their mother tongue throw in sentences in the setting's original language to show off how much research they've done. These elements all read as an attempt to set Labyrinth apart, but unfortunately serve to further confuse the narrative. AQA English language paper 1 November 2017. The characters tend to be two dimensional but they draw you in nonetheless. As a broadcaster and as Co-Founder & Honorary Director of the Orange Prize for Fiction, much of my work on a day-to-day level is concerned with reading initiatives and promoting writing to readers. She starts calling out as if someone is with her whispering until she is seemingly attacked in her abdomen, her shirt stained with blood. What I hope is that someone visiting Carcassonne, for example, or any of the key towns mentioned in the novel will be able to use Labyrinth as a guide book! The two stories occur in a shared geography and intertwine. Not Paris. Labyrinth Paperback - February 17, 2022 by Kate Mosse (Author) 3,196 ratings Book 1 of 3: Languedoc Trilogy See all formats and editions Kindle $12.99 Read with Our Free App Audiobook $0.00 Free with your Audible trial Hardcover $27.00 122 Used from $0.95 6 New from $12.20 14 Collectible from $8.01 Paperback To get inside Alas skin, I also had a couple of sword fighting lessons what it felt like to wield a sword. Labyrinth is a historical television miniseries based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Kate Mosse. Everything important happens off-page, and then we just get a summary of it from a character who just happened to be there. It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder. Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. On one of the skeletons she finds a labyrinth-engraved ring which she takes. The Hidden Camera Investigation, conducted by a deranged, half-Thai man named No Credson was a supposed attempt to have the real truth about Batman exposed, only the documentary never got made, and he explained that his Dog ate all of his video footage, claiming that it can eat even plastic with ease and gain nutritional value from it due to a . Rather, she attempts to differentiate Labyrinthfrom the likes of The Da Vinci Code(and there are undoubtedly a huge number of similarities) by invoking the supernatural without adequate explanation. It was the best-selling fiction title in 2006 in the United Kingdom and reached The New York Times bestseller list. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. I am aware. The cinematographer is Australian Robert Humphreys[4], The series has a total running time of 180 minutes and is split in two parts. There are very few scenes of violence in Kates novel, but those few are extremely severe. The two stories occur in a shared geography and intertwine. This page was last edited on 17 October 2022, at 21:16. The executive producers were Tim Halkin, Liza Marshall, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Rola Bauer, Jonas Bauer, and Hodges. Adrian Hodges adapted the novel for the series, which was directed by Christopher Smith. So we were supposed to believe that Alas was good and kind and smart because Mosse kept telling us she was, instead of her doing anything legitimately interesting or intelligent. The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society: Breast Cancer Care Short Story Collection. As Mosse reaches a climax, she relies on her modern protagonist and characters to tell about the climax's thirteenth century events instead of allowing the reader to be present and to witness them ourselves. Reviews | Katharine Louise Mosse (born 20 October 1961) is an English novelist, non-fiction and short story writer and broadcaster. I picked it up because the premise sounded interesting - Alice Tanner, on an archeological dig, finds a secret grave that contains some 12th-century remains that might point to the . What lies at the heart of Labyrinth, however, is not a Christian Grail at all, but rather something far older that belongs to all religions and none. You wrote two previous novels that were considered quite literary. Promising a Da Vinci Code-like plot, premised on historical mystery, it did not take a huge amount of effort on the part of Waterstones to secure my purchase (although the multi-buy sale certainly helped). We could have lost the entirety of one of the two timelines and the story would not have suffered from it at all. The background of the 13th century is the persecution of the Cathars in Languedoc; in the 20th century it is an archealogical dig in the same area. Want to know what people are actually reading right now? All right, friends, here we go - the first stinker of 2022! Among Kates guests on the show have been many of the worlds leading and best-selling authors includingDr Maya Angelou, Philip Pullman, Paulo Coelho, Beryl Bainbridge, Joanne Harris, Professor Richard Dawkins, Ian McEwan, Peter Ackroyd, Tracy Chevalier, Joanna Trollope, Margaret Atwood, Pat Barker, Fay Weldon, Jean Auel and Ian Rankin. Personally, I am proud of having made to the end where so many others fallen in the effort. ugh this one promised to be slow.I couldn't get past ch.4.The premise has been over used lately. Home; Literature & Fiction; Contemporary; Labyrinth. When eventually I started reading I was fascinated from the first page and found it a riveting story. "A flawed work, but, given the popularity of Da Vinci Code-type fiction, strongly recommended for public libraries." In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig, stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two. (For example, Raymond-Roger Trencavel, Agns de Montpellier, Simon de Montfort and others.) The narratives are tied together by the unravelling of the mysteries of the 'true' Grail, which is written and bound in three volumes, and the symbol of the labyrinth. I also thought it was strange to see Mosse's next book looks & sounds identical to this one. Condition is "Very Good". Of course there were fanatics, as in all religions, who hated the World and everything in it, but for the most part Cathar followers were tolerant and accepting of other systems of belief. Kates new novel, The Taxidermists Daughter is out now. Nobody had any emotional growth, nobody went on a journey, nothing happened - and it was all tell not show. I love the transition between the two time periods. After a week, it was clear that I would have gone down in my first battle! Her short stories and articles have appeared in a range of magazines and newspapers. I got about halfway through the book and i was still waiting for something to happen! The first synopsis and official images have gone. And I would certainly be interested in seeing how the TV serialisation picked up on these elements. I like to think that I am a fairly forgiving reader. ISBN-13: 9780752876702. [4][5] Production designer Tom Hannam recreated parts of Carcassonne at Cape Town Film Studios. This was a bed time read; the time when I will read things I otherwise may not. The story is okay, but you have to fight through moments of nausea, sadness and fury to reach the final 300 pages where it almost becomes interesting but then becomes embarrassing again. Aliceeventually realises that, like Alais, her destiny is inseparable from that of the Grail. BookBrowse LLC 1997-2023. 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. Nothing else was any good. Sadly, I really did not love this book, and not for want of trying. This pulled at me and repulsed me simultaneously. Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published. Were you aware of that book when you started writing? It's spectacularly bad, a sort of chick-lit Dan Brown which raids history for bad conspiracy theories and thinks drama consists of soap opera plots between pouting women and brooding bad boys. She is also one of the regular judges of the Financial Times/Arts & Business Sponsor of the Year Awards and has judged many writing competitions for adults and children. I explored both the Cit and the surrounding countryside, realising straight away that the landscape of southwest France was the landscape of my imagination. When Dr Alice Tanner, who works as a volunteer at the archaeological site of Pic de Soularac, in France, discovers two skeletons in a long-hidden cave in the hillside, she unearths a link with an horrific and brutal past. One woman notices her and holds out a brown journal of sorts. A reread, because I had forgotten absolutely everything about it. by Kate Mosse Book three in the Languedoc trilogy It's 1942, and in Nazi-occupied France, Sandrine - a brave and vivacious nineteen-year-old - is drawn into 'Citadel', a Resistance group in Carcassonne comprised of ordinary women who are prepared to risk everything to fight for what is right. Yes, Im a walking clich. So, sadly, this is not a book that I would recommend. A: Although many Christians assume there is Biblical reference to the Grail, in fact its the poets not the priests we should be thanking! LABYRINTH is a two-part miniseries in which a modern woman finds her destiny linked with that of a 13th century ancestor and the Holy Grail. Kate Mosse is an international bestselling author with sales of more than five million copies in 42 languages. My repulsion was, however, centered on the regrettably mediocre writing. 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 the resident "other times that aren't 16th-century through 19th-century" "expert" (yes, that is a lot of friendly quotes), I was kind of surprised that I hadn't heard about Kate Mosse's Labyrinth, which apparently came out in 2012 (and aired in the US on the CW in 2014).It's one of those time-hopping historical novels turned historical film fluff, so maybe that's why I . The book is pretty fast paced and the one big compliment I can give to Ms. Mosse is that you can see how much she has come to love the region of Languedoc and its history. However, the moment I started reading, I realised that despite the obvious similarities with Labyrinthand I was sure readers who liked one will like the other tooin fact the two novels were actually significantly different in tone, atmosphere, style, scope and intention. - Publishers Weekly. Well, it's actually an adaptation of the 2005 award-winning bestseller by Kate Mosse, a 700-page work of commercial and historical fiction masquerading as a Holy Grail story. They were vegetarians (although they ate fish) and, most interesting of all given the historical context, had female as well as male priestsan issue that the Church of England is still struggling with in the 21st century! Mosse somehow managed to make a 700-page epic adventure novel about the quest for the true secret of the Holy Grail utterly, completely pointless. [1][2] An extract from the novel was used in the Scottish Qualifications Authority's 2009 Standard Grade English General close reading paper. Part 2 May 23, 2014 1 h 39 min TV-14 Subtitles Subtitles English [CC] Audio languages Audio languages English means that everyones realised thatLabyrinth is a long term project, the result of many years work, and its not come up at all. She thinks she has left him asleep as she leaves but he is awake. 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