The novel's plot is irresistible. January 24, 2019 In Labyrinth, Kate Mosse tells the story of two courageous women, in two different times, and their efforts to guard a powerful secret against those who would use it for evil. 'Labyrinth' spans eight centuries to unite the destinies of two women - a modern-day archaeologist who uncovers a tomb in southern France with strange inscriptions on the walls and a pervading atmosphere of evil, and a 13th-century herbalist and healer entrusted with a book that contains great secrets. As a novelist, I use the idea of extended life as a way of telling, through hundreds of years, the conquest and subjugation of the independent Languedoc. At the point when all matter ceases to exist and all spirits have returned to God, then the Worldthe Devils Kingdomwill end. The author was still developing the characters 200 pages into the book. Everything important happens off-page, and then we just get a summary of it from a character who just, Now let's talk about the characters. First off - this book is too damn long. The entire story happens in long stretches of monologues between the characters that the reader listens in on, which is just the most unsatisfying way of developing a plot known to humankind. The classic stories, stories with stamina, tell us not only about times past, but also throw new light on time present. Even though the Cathar church was organised into Bishoprics and Dioceses, the lack of specific and dedicated buildings or meeting places, the Cathars natural disregard for worldly goods, as well as their unwillingness to engage with the World, meant that they left few physical traces of their existence. As she does, an earthquake is present. In the 2006 British Book Awards, Labyrinth was awarded Best Read of the Year. Eight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade that will rip apart southern France, a young woman named Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father. And, for somebody who's entire purpose in writing this book was "I JUST FELL IN LOVE WITH FRANCE", you'd think she'd at least fact-check some of the most basic things. Title 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. 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). The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society: Breast Cancer Care Short Story Collection. One journalist called her Wilma Smith! Now, as crusading armies gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take a tremendous sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe. Is there a conflict between literary quality and commercial success? I felt I belonged in Carcassonne, that it was the right place for me to be. Just $45 for 12 months or In 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. What People are Saying About This From the Publisher Elegantly written.An action-packed adventure of modern conspiracy and medieval passion. It's 7oo pages, and needed to be brutally edited down. Review: Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse. The Best Books to Get Your Finances in Order, Cook a Soul Food Holiday Meal With Rosie Mayes. Also in the prologue, there are glimpses of the two time periods. 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. Written by the British literary insider who co-founded the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction, this is a quickly paced adventure that wears its considerable learning lightlyand of higher literary quality than The Da Vinci Code, to which it will inevitably be compared. Whereas The Da Vinci Codemakes clear from the outset what its question/mystery is, Labyrinthfails to do the same. The books contain the secrets to the Holy Grail. , , , . Yes, Im a walking clich. She is the author of several of the Orange Prize education initiatives and chaired the judging panel for Orange Futuresa promotion supporting the work of women novelists aged 35 and under. We could have lost the entirety of one of the two timelines and the story would not have suffered from it at all. In this case historical fiction in the guise of yet another (yawn) grail quest. Spam Free: Your email is never shared with anyone; opt out any time. An archaeological historical thriller which came across as a very commercially motivated English-language novel written by Kate Mosse, in light of the success of the. God ruled Heaven, the Devil held sway over the World and everything in it, so they therefore had no concept of Hell beyond their living existence. Get help and learn more about the design. Do you think they were too much, not enough or just right? . Labyrinth [DVD] [2013] John Hurt (Actor), Tom Felton (Actor) Rated: Suitable for 15 years and over Format: DVD 328 ratings 2899 DVD 28.99 DVD 15 July 2014 No enhanced packaging 1 20.03 20.03 20.02 DVD 8 April 2013 2 28.99 28.99 1.63 Free delivery on your first order Select the 'Free delivery on first order' option at checkout. Sadly, I really did not love this book, and not for want of trying. Find books by time period, setting & theme, Read-alike suggestions by book and author. She finds a connection to the nightmares she had been having since childhood and discovers that the cave was related to her past. Hale added "Labyrinth is too plodding and literal to rise to the level of camp, which could have saved it. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse Orion 9.99, pp527. I could have forgiven it being long and annoyingly pretentious if Kate Mosse could actually, you know, write, but she absolutely cannot. 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. Akashic lends a hand with Lean on Me by Bill Withers, illus. [5] The screenplay was adapted by Adrian Hodges. Part 2 May 23, 2014 1 h 39 min TV-14 Subtitles Subtitles English [CC] Audio languages Audio languages English too much info fer sure, and the sex scenes seemed to have been copied & pasted from a harlequin novel) and then did not give enough detail where warranted (the Cathars and how they came to be). Its a strange contradiction that despite the huge success of adventure moviesIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Last Samurai, Kingdom of Heaven etcIts a literary category thats fallen out of favour, is seen as a little old-fashioned maybe, but still I knew I wanted to write the sort of novellots of jeopardy, lots history, lots of battles and sword fights that I most enjoyed reading. I should have known better the second I saw this described as "if, First off - this book is too damn long. To my disappointment, I turned out not to be a natural swordswoman . There were also one or two very specific pieces of informationfor example, information about medieval manuscripts and book makingwhere I sought out the help of experts, such as the Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library in London. One woman notices her and holds out a brown journal of sorts. In a town in medieval France, a 17-year-old girl named Alais is given a mysterious book, filled with depictions of a labyrinth and rumored to hold the secrets of the Holy Grail. As for the truth behind it all, Mosse doesnt offer a note of explanation, but leaves it to the readers imagination. means that everyones realised thatLabyrinth is a long term project, the result of many years work, and its not come up at all. Have you ever felt, like Alice, such an affinity with a place that you seem to know who must have previously lived there and the emotions they enjoyed or endured? What the success of The Da Vinci Code shows is that the reading public has an appetite for such stories mixing history, myth and mystery, which can only be good for authors and good for reading. "A flawed work, but, given the popularity of Da Vinci Code-type fiction, strongly recommended for public libraries." All from $11.18 Used Books from $11.18 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. All right, friends, here we go - the first stinker of 2022! The inside cover stuff instantly intrigued me. I think most of us, despite what we read in the newspapers every day, are looking at ways to connect with other people rather than the opposite. Although she cannot understand the symbols and diagrams the book contains, Alais knows her destiny lies in protecting their secret, at all costs. What matters is whether or not a book is well written and whether or not it happens to be your cup of tea. The novel Labyrinth was written by English author Kate Mosse and published in 2005. How did you research the different aspects of the bookthe archaeology, the history of the Cathars and the Crusade against them, the Grail legends, and so forth? Kate Mosse is an author and broadcaster. Alice Tanner is working at an excavation in France when she finds something. After Alice happens upon a cave containing skeletons and an altar, whilst on an archeological dig in the French Pyrenees, she starts in motion a series of events that pose a threat to the security and secrecy of the Grail. 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. Mosse also did this thing where she introduced so many characters that, every time they weren't actively on page, she just forgot that they existed? 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! 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. She treats the Cathar subjects well, clearly having spent at least a few hours on Wikipedia researching the matter. And the story of the Grail is one of the most well-known of the lesser-known histories. Search: Kate's latest novel is The City of Tears. . The characters tend to be two dimensional but they draw you in nonetheless. Kate Mosse is skilful in the creation of her characters and it is primarily this that drives the novel, despite the confused plot. Before Alice can grasp it, the scene changes. When eventually I started reading I was fascinated from the first page and found it a riveting story. Labyrinth kept me reading in bed under a nice comfortable duvet for many nights. "Sitting securely in the historical religious quest genre, Mosse's fluently written third novel (after Crucifix Lane) may tantalize (if not satisfy) the legions of Da Vinci Code devotees with its promise of revelation about Christianity's truths." Although it is usually associated with 14th century Spain, the Inquisition was actually established a century earlier, in 1233, by Pope Grgoire IX, under the control of the Dominican Order, precisely for the purpose of extirpating Cathar heresy. All attempts by the Catholic Church to defeat the Cathars through theological debate had failed, as had attempts to conquer the people of the Midi by launching a Crusade against them.Finally, accepting they had lost the battle of words and that the sword was not enough, the Pope decided he needed something more systematic, more suppressive, more insidious. I'm really over this whole trope of villains being villains only because they hate the good guys, and them having no motivations beyond "I'm a villain and so therefore I am nefarious". Home; Browse; Search; . The series aired in Canada, Korea, Poland and Portugal in autumn 2012, in Sweden in December 2012, the UK in March 2013, the U.S. in May 2014, and was set to air in Austria and Germany early 2013. Secrets, shame, and adoption in the 1960sa poignant tale of a mother's enduring love. For this, like all of us nowadays, in addition to visiting libraries and specialist institutions, I could not have managed without the internet. 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 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. I visited many medieval re-enactment events, both in England and in southwest France, watching Jousts and seeing how battles were fought. Were you aware of that book when you started writing? Please try again later. Months later, when she's out on the town, she . In Labyrinth the purpose of the grailis to allow someone to live in order to bear witness. 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