Labyrinth

Paul reviewed Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Better than expected (not the target audience)

4 stars

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, especially as I might not be the target audience (the Guardian described it as: 'the thinking woman's summer reading, chick lit with A levels for those with only a passing interest in getting a boyfriend')[1]. For a 'search for the Holy Grail' story, it's not deep into conspiracy theories, unlike The Da Vinci Code (which I've never managed to get more than a few chapters into). The parallel lives aspect is interesting and well done - there's enough linkage to keep the strands together without flicking back and forth so often that it gets confusing. The use of Occitan is a nice touch to make it clear when we're back in the past, but it's not overdone to the point where it gets annoying - just the occasional snippet here and there. It's refreshing to read a book where both the …

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, especially as I might not be the target audience (the Guardian described it as: 'the thinking woman's summer reading, chick lit with A levels for those with only a passing interest in getting a boyfriend')[1]. For a 'search for the Holy Grail' story, it's not deep into conspiracy theories, unlike The Da Vinci Code (which I've never managed to get more than a few chapters into). The parallel lives aspect is interesting and well done - there's enough linkage to keep the strands together without flicking back and forth so often that it gets confusing. The use of Occitan is a nice touch to make it clear when we're back in the past, but it's not overdone to the point where it gets annoying - just the occasional snippet here and there. It's refreshing to read a book where both the main protagonists and antagonists are women, and none of them spend much of their time simpering over men.

Overall, an enjoyable read, even at double the length of most novels (700 pages vs 350).

[1] www.theguardian.com/books/2005/aug/13/featuresreviews.guardianreview18

The Gnome King reviewed Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Review of 'Labyrinth' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

Oh dear me this was awful. I only picked up this book because it is hugely popular, and the series has got rather large so I thought there must be something good here right?

Things got off to a bad start, a scene where a woman has cut herself and a drop of blood lands on her leg, all quite normal for a book, but for some reason it is described as looking like a firework going off...why do we need that extra-long description? This wasn't enough for Mosse, a bigger description was needed, she specifies the day that the "blood firework" goes off. I couldn't take this book seriously after that, I kept laughing at the many extra words used...cheese kept being described as white again and again and a young lady's hair was tumbling one second and then writhing like a snake the next. The whole thing felt …

Oh dear me this was awful. I only picked up this book because it is hugely popular, and the series has got rather large so I thought there must be something good here right?

Things got off to a bad start, a scene where a woman has cut herself and a drop of blood lands on her leg, all quite normal for a book, but for some reason it is described as looking like a firework going off...why do we need that extra-long description? This wasn't enough for Mosse, a bigger description was needed, she specifies the day that the "blood firework" goes off. I couldn't take this book seriously after that, I kept laughing at the many extra words used...cheese kept being described as white again and again and a young lady's hair was tumbling one second and then writhing like a snake the next. The whole thing felt like a school kid doing an English essay and trying to get the word count up so they could go out to play.

I could see there was potential for a plot, but the book was way too slow for me to spot anything of interest happening, into the bin with it.