Customer Reviews

The Cathar Legacy

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fastidious historical research is the underpinning for this fast-paced saga spanning time and time-travel, philosophy and prophecy. It is a rarity in a novel--both educational and simply fascinating fun. I wish I'd known a Cathar; I wish I'd seen Mary of Magdalene; I hope the Cathar treasure will enlighten our dark ages and I hope Nita Hughes will write a third book in this vein. ("Legacy" is the second, but you don't have to have read the first, "Past Re-Call", to enjoy it....however, after reading "Cathat Legacy", you'll want to.)

I sat down to read what I thought would be just a few pages of The Cathar Legacy before going to bed and ended up reading it right through an entire weekend until I was finished. From the first page I could not put this book down. Nita Hughes has done a superb job of continuing the suspense and relationships she introduced readers to in Past Recall. As with her other work, Nita has a special gift for bringing her characters and setting to life, making me feel I was right smack in the middle of the action. The mix of high-tension storytelling combined with fascinating metaphysical and historical information is particularly impressive. Fans of Past Recall will not be disappointed, and new readers should definitely start with the first book to enjoy the full impact. Highly recommended.

Nita Hughes has followed up her first book, "Past Recall" with another thriller that takes the reader on a fictional journey through church history and an exciting ride through France. In the "Da Vinci Code" genre, "The Cathar Legacy" continues the story in "Past Recall" where Hughes brings the Cathars and their history to life in a wonderful novel.

The author's first book (Past Recall) was compared to The DaVinci Code because of the story it told - a fictionalized account of the history surrounding the Cathars, Templars, Holy Grail and Mary Magdallene. But this book, which continues where the first left off (with the discovery of the Cathar treasure) surpasses both Past Recall and The DaVinci Code. It reveals a plot with a lineage that goes back hundreds of years, but is very current in its unveiling. We discover ancient codes and modern methods of deciphering their clues. The mystery involves powerful players from the Catholic Church, US politicians, DNA scientists, anthropologists and history scholars. It becomes a race against time to translate and interpret the treasure - ancient manuscripts that promise to reveal information which could bring about an enlightened world or, in the wrong hands, plunge us into Armageddon. The author's use of metaphor and poetic prose kept me turning the pages long into the night. The story line kept me thinking about the blending of historical fact and fiction and how our world would be different if we could only put into practice the truths revealed in this inspiring book.

Considerably before Dan Brown's DaVinci book, Nita Hughes had already delved into religious confrontations in the Middle Ages and came up with her excellent read, Past Recall.It was the tip of an iceberg which is now being chipped at by many other writers trying to float in the same waters. But Nita has dived deep into this ocean and come up with another exceptional yarn, a continuation of the first, that will keep you holding your breath until the last pages. It is not only historically fascinating, but the intricate plot is as absorbing as any mystery buff could ask for. If you want to lose a night or two of sleep, start reading this book.

This was a book that I didn't want to end. I was so glad the author had a sequel which I ordered at the same time I ordered The Cathar Legacy. I have been fascinated by the Cathers and have traveled to the Languedoc area twice in the last three years. My daughter and I climbed Montsegur. I plan to go again next year.
Nita Hughes wrote the novel as though she had lived there during the time the novel takes place. She also takes the reader with her to these distant times.
I highly recommend it. I had only one small complaint. It was not well edited in as much as there were a few grammar and spelling errors.

I am only one-third of the way through this book, which could be fascinating were it not for the grammar and punctuation errors. I am forced to re-read conversational paragraphs two and three times to determine who is speaking to whom.

The concept of this book and its predecessor, Past Recall, is interesting, but neither book looked as though it had been properly edited at all, which made it annoying to read at best and downright confusing, requiring backtracking to parse the author's meaning, at worst. I hope the author will avail herself of a professional editor in the future so that her work truly can shine. I offer my services.

I bought the book because I enjoy historical fiction, because of my interest in Cathars and Templars, and on the basis of the high praise expressed by previous reviewers. Disappointment is a mild word for my feelings now.

The first chapters are moderately interesting and promising, but midway through the book it became a struggle to finish it. The author may have done "fastidious historical research," but the information about Cathars conferred to the readers would not fill a single page; one learns more and more quickly using a simple Google search. Once the story reaches the efforts to decode the manuscripts, only a fan of the most ridiculous metaphysical nonsense could accept the ideas expressed here without getting intellectually sick. In what purportedly was to be a thrilling finale, in the final confrontation between the antagonists, persons on both sides behaved as bumbling idiots. The book then fittingly ends with a collection of inanities, which force one to ask: Is this what all the fuss was about?

I kept reading this book because of my interest in the subject, and in spite of two glaring disruptions that almost forced me to simply stop reading and toss the book away.

Disruptions included too many grammerical errors and too many discriptions. The author, by describing hundreds of personal reactions (even in parts of a dialogue) severly limited the reader's imagination. In essense, her repeated descriptions, while well-meaning, placed me in handcuffs. All of the grammerical errors didn't help

This seemed to me to be a second or third draft that required a lot more work. Time, research, action, editing, writing skills, rewrites. Then the book would really come to life, and become a part of history.