Labyrinth (The Languedoc Trilogy)

One tiresome, heavy-handed simile after another; agonizing, descriptive detail that unnecessarily prolongs action; simplistic, trite phrasing and dialogue -- characters constantly express vague but contradictory emotions in the same sentence, an obvious effort by the author to provoke interest or conflict which falls flat; routine characterization; a sentence or two slipped in during a scene or an unexpected circumstance placed at the end of a chapter meant to build plot and suspense read as forced and predictable; proofreading errors; fragmented, poor sentence structure -- this book is amateurish writing all the way around. I cannot fathom the reasoning for the quality of the professional reviews which this work received. I cannot understand the lack of proper editing. I am an avid reader and approached this book with much enthusiasm, so imagine my disappointment when I was ready to put the book down a couple of pages into the Prologue! In fairness to the author (and with a hopeful attitude), I forced myself through the first 70 or so pages, however with each turning page I found myself reading along just for sport, my mind constantly drifting and more and more incredulous (and annoyed) with this juvenile effort. What could have been a fascinating read due to the intriguing premise is instead a colossal waste of time.

I actually enjoyed the first couple of hundred pages of the novel. The character-development was rather slow, but the people in the book were reacting in ways that made sense. Then, in an effort to get the story from point A to point B, Mosse suddenly flattens the characters to two dimensions, forcing them to do things that are completely out of sinc with who they are. At that point, my reading rate slowed because I just wasn't that interested in picking up the book anymore.

There were two unforgivable flaws, as I saw it. First, I could feel the writer's impatience to get to the end, in the way that she forced the plot for so much of the book. Second, she was lazy in checking for errors. I mean, when a character goes to sleep in a cottage, and then wakes up the next morning in a hotel, you've got to wonder.

The story might have been good if a more mature writer had written it and more importantly, if it had had an editor worth the name.

Based on the synopsis I was looking forward to an interesting read. What I got was tedium, bad (or complete lack of) editing, characters I couldn't care less about, an abundance of unnecessary details and generally bad writing full of ridiculous similies. My dislike of the drop of blood exploding like a firework on Guy Fawkes night should have stopped me on the first page.

I gave up at page 275. The story itself is so convoluted it seems as if Ms. Mosse was deliberately trying to confuse the reader. Being of high IQ and in my late 30's I am quite capable of understanding complicated storylines but this book was written with many sub-plots that seem to have no real bearing on the story, or else they are just thrown in to create what the author hoped to be suspense and drama. The author failed in that respect. I wanted to like Alice/Alais, but these women were supposed to be strong and intelligent and they simply kept acting so weak and STUPID that it became impossible to see them as anything else.

I'm glad I bought this as a bargain book instead of paying full price. I don't even think I'll give it away because I don't want to subject anyone else to it. I wish I had read the reviews before picking up this waste of time.

How many Grail/Templar/Jesuit/Inquisition conspiracy books are going to be published? Stop the insanity. If you must read one, find Umberto Eco's Foulcauts Pendulum. The only literate, original book in this overcrowded genre that I have read. This is not orginal in any way, and Ms. Moosse would do better to move into romance or suspense novels with her style, or lack thereof.

I am not certain what the fuss about this book is/was but I could not and would not allow myself to get beyond how similar the speech patterns of 13th century France and the 21st century sounded. Take away the curse words and they spoken nearly the same. At least in the Name of the Rose and others, there was the introduction of phrases that might have been spoken at the time into the story. I didn't get that here - in fact, I would never recommend this book to anyone.
It's amazingly terrible.

I picked this up on a whim and ended up really enjoying it. I didn't have a lot of expectations that it would explain the Holy Grail myth or rival Dan Brown. I think this book is better written than The Da Vinci Code (albeit a couple grammatical errors here and there), and I love how there's so much history intertwined in the story. I felt like I learned a lot about medieval France, and it brought Carcassone to life, a place I visited ten years ago. I'm American, but I spend a lot of time in the UK and know French, so I enjoyed all the various references and the challenges of the Occitan language quotes throughout the story.

I'm really surprised to learn how many people gave this book low ratings. I'm not sure what they were expecting! I happen to love time travel and dual era stories, and Mosse writes this very well with smooth transitions. Admittedly, there were parts that felt a bit slow.

Still, I loved the strong female protagonists throughout the story. I'd definitely recommend this book.

I thought this book was a great read. It is not a piece of thought provoking literature but it is a page turning modern novel which was very entertaining and exciting. Ms. Mosse did a great job in transitioning the reader from each time period and found her attention to detail extraordinary.

I think those who focus on comparing it to the Da Vinci Code will find themselves disappointed. As well as those who chose to criticize Dan Brown for a FICTIONAL book about the Grail. I think we all are pretty aware that Dan Brown did not create the subject but he is the one who turned it into a bestselling book. So give him credit for knowing how to entertain, which is the point of modern novels isn't it?

Everyone needs to relax a bit about the subject. We are not reading dissertations we are reading novels so back off ...when was the last time you wrote a bestselling novel about anything?

This is a tough book to read. It flips between present day and medieval France, which makes it difficult to follow and destroys momentum. There is little suspense or intrigue, and the story flows like molassas in January. There is a lot of detail and the book seems well researched, but it needs some serious trimming to make it less of a chore to read. This certainly didn't inspire me read any more of Mosse's work.

In the early 21st century, Alice stumbles into a cave while on an archaeology dig in the French Pyrenees. In the cave she finds two skeletons, a labyrinth, and mysterious drawings on the cave walls. In the early 13th century, Alais stumbles into a mystery of her own when her father entrusts her with a carved stone ring and a leather-bound book, and tells her to keep them safe, for they contain the secret of the Grail. How these two women, separated by centuries, are tied together makes up the substance of the novel. Along the way, we are treated to a disquisition on the heresy of the Cathars and the inquisition which led to their demise; all manner of cloak and dagger shenanigans, past and present; kidnappings and murder; sieges, war, and other facts of life in medieval France; murder, adultery, and general bad behavior by people who really ought to know better.

As is the case with every book of this nature I've ever read, the novel's structure alternates between time periods: a chapter or two set in the 1200s, a chapter or two set in the 2000s, and so forth. Medieval Europe fascinates me, so it's not surprising I enjoyed the 13th century goings-on much more than the 21st century plotline. However, the deeper into the novel I got, the more I found myself losing track of the multitude of characters; and ultimately, I forced myself to finish the last 100 or so pages out of sheer stubbornness: I had already read 400+ pages, I was still interested enough to want to know how it all ended, but at the same time I was tired of the story and ready to move on to something different. Not a happy place to be after investing the last 12 or so weeks of my life into Alais's and Alice's world.

Labyrinth is the kind of book to which I normally devote huge chunks of reading time and get through in just a few days. Not this time. Finishing this book took well over three months. This could be due to one or more of the following: a fault with the story which failed to keep my interest; the fact that I've done two plays back to back, acquired a new puppy, and discovered Netflix streaming video all within the past few months; been consumed with knitting and crocheting baby items and other gifts ever since unpacking the yarn after our cross-country move seven months ago; or some combination thereof. Who knows? The story itself is beautifully written; I have no quibble with the author's use of language and rhythm. I wished I could have liked it more. Sometimes, though, books are better upon a re-read, so I may come back to this one in a few years. Then again, maybe not.

I am aware that the plot may seem a tad complicated but the novel itself is not so. Labyrinth is many things, it's a historical novel, it's a mystery, it's a faced paced thriller and it's a romance story of tragic love. But all these elements blend together surprisingly well and in the end there's no need for a reader to try to comprehend it all better. As a historical novel, it was very well researched and very interesting. I really felt myself pulled into the world of Cathar religion and their persecution, especially because I had known next to nothing about that part of Medieval history before I read Labyrinth. Mind you, I usually do not like reading books whose main purpose is to ostracize the Catholic Church for all the wrongs but in this instance I felt that Ms. Mosse presented merely what happened without any obvious bias for one side or another. I realize that we're talking here about fiction but we all know how sometimes feelings and views of authors can be transported on to the pages of a book due to a possible lack of writing skills. Anyway, the only feelings that were loud and clear in Labyrinth, were Kate's love for history and for the country she writes about. It's certainly contagious and without being overly descriptive, the passages on the landscape and history of the land were inviting me to be there.

The only thing I did not like was the "over" usage of the French language. Despite being a translator and speaking two languages fluently and another one on an intermediate level, it is probably one of my greatest pet-peeves in books: when a writer uses phrases, words or even whole sentences in foreign language, without translating them. So was the case with Kate Mosse. I am not a genius, okay. French happens to be one of the languages I do not speak or understand therefore when I had to get immersed in the quick action and dialogue only to come to an abrupt stop because the people talking switched to French, I was agitated. Ms. Mosse did provide a glossary at the end of the book but that only contains maybe half of the French and Occitane words actually used in the novel. I understand the need to use some of the language of the country the book is set in, just to maybe ease the readers into the atmosphere of the world written about, but are whole sentences (and sometimes even more than one at a time) really necessary? I don't think so. It is my honest and humble opinion that the writer would have been better off skipping the foreign phrases altogether.

Pfew, is this long enough or what? I think that if you like historical fiction, filled with mystery, secrets and adventure, you'll definitely enjoy Labyrinth. If, on the other hand you expect the like of The DaVinci Code because you're a fan, skip this one. Although Mosse's novel is much better and there isn't much of the sensationalist theories on the Legend of the Holy Grail here.