Before Alice can grasp it, the scene changes. 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. She has also written three works of non-fiction, four plays, contributed essays and introductions to classic novels and collections. Search: Kate Mosse is an award-winning novelist, playwright, essayist and non-fiction writer, the author of eight novels and short story collections, including the multimillion-selling Languedoc Trilogy, The Burning Chambers Series and number one bestselling Gothic fiction The Winter Ghosts and The Taxidermist's Daughter.Her books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and published in . 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. Of course, a good mystery should keep its answer hidden until the narratives climax but Labyrinthfailed to establish what question it was asking. 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 What were the clues? ugh this one promised to be slow.I couldn't get past ch.4.The premise has been over used lately. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. [10], "John Hurt, Sebastian Stan and More to Star in Ridley and Tony Scott's Mini-Series Adaptation of Labyrinth", "Labyrinth snags Tom Felton, Tony Curran", "South Africa: Bestseller Filmed As Mini-Series in Cape Town", "Game of Thrones' Emun Elliott, John Hurt to Star in Labyrinth Miniseries", "Christopher Smith Quests for the Holy Grail in Ridley Scott Produced Labyrinth", "EXCLUSIVE: First Photo of Ridley Scott's 'Labyrinth' Miniseries", "Labyrinth Part 1 of 2 MOW - SCHEDULE - showcase.ca", "Complex historical thriller 'Labyrinth' is smart, sophisticated", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Labyrinth_(miniseries)&oldid=1116691300, Danny Keogh as Bertrand Pelletier, Alas and Oriane's father. The Best Books to Get Your Finances in Order, Cook a Soul Food Holiday Meal With Rosie Mayes. Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. And, oh my days, everyone in this book was just so stupid. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig, stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two. "[9] Reviewing Labyrinth for The Philadelphia Inquirer, David Hiltbrand praised the show. I would love to give it five stars, but because of the first part I must give it four. [4][5] Production designer Tom Hannam recreated parts of Carcassonne at Cape Town Film Studios. With Labyrinth, youve had a big popular success in Britain, sales to foreign publishers, a major launch in America, and so on. Kate Mosse. In this case historical fiction in the guise of yet another (yawn) grail quest. If you like historical novels in the Da Vinci code theme, you will love this book. by Kate Mosse. This is split between early 13th century France at the time of the Cathars and France in 2005; the main protagonists being Alais in 1205 and Alice in 2005 (Of course there isn't a link of any sort; familial, psychic or anything!!!!) Having steered clear of the recent TV serialisation, I will admit that the ads had me intrigued. 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. This article about a historical novel of the 2000s is a stub. Rather than a traditional action hero, I wanted the women to get to do the swashbuckling for once. You may remember my excitement a couple of weeks agoat having rooted out some new purchases from Waterstones. Click here for the lowest price! And, when youve finished, do you wish you could start all over again? And, truly, after 700 pages, the premise remained the only thing that made this book publishable. [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. I love the transition between the two time periods. She treats the Cathar subjects well, clearly having spent at least a few hours on Wikipedia researching the matter. . [4][5] Scott Free and Tandem previously collaborated on the miniseries The Pillars of the Earth. So, what is my verdict? Book reviews, bibliotherapy, a cup of tea, and a passion for the written word! It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder. Personally, I am proud of having made to the end where so many others fallen in the effort. 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. To my disappointment, I turned out not to be a natural swordswoman . Review: Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse. Great Savings & Free Delivery / Collection on many items Everything important happens off-page, and then we just get a summary of it from a character who just happened to be there. The old Oc spellings for place namesCarcassona for Carcassonne, Besirs for Bzierscan even be seen on the road signs. Kate has published two non-fiction books: Becoming a Mother, a companion to pregnancy and childbirth (now in its fourth edition), and The House: Behind the Scenes at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, which accompanied the award-winning BBC television fly-on-the-wall documentary series. Which brings us to the second problem - the pacing. Her characters are poorly developed, largely one-dimensional folk and her story suffers from a densely-packed exposition. More Information | Alas and her father are protecting three sacred books that reveal the secret of the Holy Grail from the Crusaders.[2][3]. 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. You wrote two previous novels that were considered quite literary. I had hopes for this: massive bestseller in the UK, feminist retelling of the Grail legend, shuttling between the 13th and 21st centuries, lots of sex and swords -- promising! The novel Labyrinth was written by English author Kate Mosse and published in 2005. 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. 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? Im Amlie, I love books and reading, and I also love talking about them. Kidnapping, murder, and the search for power drive this plot, as both Alais and Alice fight to the same end. Want to know what people are actually reading right now? Kates new novel, The Taxidermists Daughter is out now. Format: Digital. Alice later discovers that she is Alas's descendant. It took me a long time to get past the first part of the book (mainly because of all the not so important descriptions of everything), but after that an amazing and mysterious story was created, which was what I expected when I started to read the book. She was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to Full Biography Link to Kate Mosse's Website. L'cole Nationale d'Administration was in Strasbourg. Do you see Guilhem as an unhappy character, who never fully atones for his betrayal of Alas, or does he finally put things right? 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. 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. 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. Kate Mosse is the author of the New York Times bestselling Labyrinth and Sepulchre and the Co-founder and Honorary Director of the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction. However, in the past thirty years and more, French historians, patriots, theologians and poets -Jean Duvernoy, Ren Nelli, Claude Marti, Anne Brenon, Michel Roquebert to name but a fewhave been researching, writing, publishing, reinterpreting the history of the Cathars for the general reader, their way of life, their theology, their poetry and music for modern readers. We could have lost the entirety of one of the two timelines and the story would not have suffered from it at all. Who is Kate Mosse? 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. I felt I belonged in Carcassonne, that it was the right place for me to be. "A flawed work, but, given the popularity of Da Vinci Code-type fiction, strongly recommended for public libraries." 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. 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 Guardian ranked it the number one bestseller for 2006. Some of the modern scenes have the advantage of location filming in Carcassonne, which helps distract you from the mostly indifferent performances. This book had absolutely no redeeming characteristics to speak of. 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. The reader suffers under the weight of this fact for all 700 pages of Labyrinth, Mosse's obscenely well-reviewed novel of the Holy Grail where an obvious love for Carcassonne is besmirched by tedious characters, unconvincing dialogue, awful Hollywood clichs and lots of plain old bad writing. Hale added "Labyrinth is too plodding and literal to rise to the level of camp, which could have saved it. 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). Join BookBrowse today to start discovering exceptional books! Although, I do think it takes a special kind of genius to come up with something this bad, I really do. Find books by time period, setting & theme, Read-alike suggestions by book and author. Fiction in the Da Vinci Code-type fiction, strongly recommended for public libraries. Besirs for Bzierscan even seen. 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