The Fire [Hardcover]

Katherine Neville (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Ballantine; First Edition; First Printing edition (2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007305710
• ISBN-13: 978-0007305711
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (126 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,614,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in 1945, Katherine Neville has had an extraordinary life, living in almost every state in North America. Aside from her work as an international bestselling author, she has worked as an international computer executive, a painter, photographer, and a waitress. Katherine lives in Virginia, Washington and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Visit the author's website at: www.katherineneville.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I was prepared to love it, but I didn't, October 27, 2008

By 

Scott Bright "scottypotty" (Grayslake, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fire: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

As a sequel to the spectacularly awesome 20-year-old book, "The Eight," I was sure I was going to love this book. "The Eight" was so well written. It was challenging and fun and intriguing and deep. I was on the edge of my seat and lost quite a bit of sleep trying to finish it. I was so impressed with Ms. Neville's writing skill that I was certain I'd love anything else she'd written.

Wrong. I'm so incredibly disappointed. The style of "The Fire" was so different that it seemed like it was written by a completely different author. I just couldn't believe it was written by the same woman. It was complicated and convoluted rather than refreshingly complex. The prose at many points was trite, whereas "The Eight" was stylish and significant.

I wasn't excited about the plot until about 250 pages into the book. That's a long time to be plodding through. I felt particularly mired down early in the book during a chapter filled to the brim with Arab names of people and places. I had a really difficult time figuring out what was going on with the story because I couldn't pronounce the names or keep them straight. There were plenty of Arab names in "The Eight," too, so I guess they weren't all crammed in there like a history lesson since I didn't stumble at all in the first book.

There were two things in particular that really bugged me about this book. The first was the overuse of clichés while trying to be clever about it. If you read this book, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about after you read, "As Key would say," followed by a cliché like Practice Makes Perfect for the tenth (or twentieth) time. The second was the lack of real tension or danger. The characters kept saying they were scared to death, but I couldn't reason why. In contrast, I doubt the characters ever said this in "The Eight," although they clearly were in peril during most of the book.

It pains me to say this because it's obvious the author worked very, very hard on this book, but I just can't recommend "The Fire." I hope you'll go back and read "The Eight" instead because it's really worth reading.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Erratic, convoluted, ultimately unsatisfying, November 4, 2008

By 

Karen Marie (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fire: A Novel (Hardcover)

I started re-reading The Eight as soon as I found out that I was going to get an advance reader's copy of The Fire. It was as good as I remembered.

The Fire, on the other hand, was like a knight on a chessboard. It moved two forward then one sideways, then two to the right and one back. I didn't find it cohesive. Characters appeared and left abruptly, plot lines started up then petered out.

It picks up many years after Cat Velis and Alexander Solarian ended The Game and got married. Their 12-year old daughter Alexandra is a chess wizard. Something goes terribly wrong in Russia when she and her father go there for a match, and it turns out that The Game has started up again.

The action was very improbable. Alexandra is estranged from her mother but gets invited to her house in Colorado, solves some very strange and esoteric clues, and all of a sudden her aunt and opponent-to-be from the never-started or finished match in Russia show up. Nokomis Key, a childhood friend, is coincidentally available to fly everybody all over the place to meet people who spout obscure clues and hint at things never explained. Then we're back in Washington DC, with a lot of early American history thrown in to explain the interesting nature of the city's layout and a strange dinner party that just seems put there to describe the meal and exclaim over who was invited. But the food sounded wonderful.

We also meet some extremely surprising characters. There is the obligatory second time period plot and it all gets convoluted and nothing ever seems to resolve to my satisfaction.

There are wonderful historical facts and events explained in ways that tie the entire world together in a satisfying way from a purely intellectual viewpoint. But eventually even those interesting gems and speculations are lost in the overly-complicated plot.

Alas, I could never really care for the characters, and I wasn't really willing to try to untwist the Black and White twists that this book kept throwing at me.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Little Sequel That Couldn't, November 4, 2008

By 

Art Girl "Laurie Jacobsen" (arizona) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Fire: A Novel (Hardcover)

I'm sorry to say that I found this book to be an utter disappointment. The Eight was amazing, so if you haven't read it - do, but then resist the temptation for more and don't read The Fire. It's too bad that Katherine Neville didn't go with her initial gut reaction that "the way for [The Eight] to remain unique was not to make it into a sequel..." because I really feel like she slapped something together to sell books to everyone who loved The Eight. I would have liked this book much better if there had been a depth to character development that there was in The Eight, and plot development, and denouement equal to that of The Eight. Someone mentioned cider and roller skates - it was really ridiculous. And then it just ends. Like she just got up from her desk one day and said, "okay, I'm tired of this, let's wrap it up." then wrote two more pages and called it done. It's really too bad, because with more time and attention it could have been great.