The Fire: A Novel

The Fire is the sequel to one of my favorite novels of all time, Katherine Neville’s The Eight. In The Eight, Katherine Neville introduced us to the Montglane Service, a chess set which once belonged to Charlemagne and which holds a deadly secret, and to the dangerous Game with real people as pawns and pieces, played to obtain the chess set and solve its mysteries. The Fire takes place thirty years after The Eight, and the heroine is Alexandra Solarin, daughter of Catherine Velis, heroine of The Eight. Alexandra is a former chess prodigy who saw her father, the Russian grand master Alexander Solarin, murdered at a tournament in Russia ten years ago. Her mother has forbidden her to play chess ever since.At the beginning of The Fire, Alexandra works as an apprentice chef in a Basque restaurant in Washington, D.C., a job which her favorite uncle, the reclusive cryptographer Ladislaus Nim, has obtained for her. Neville’s descriptions of the meals at the restaurant are mouthwatering. On April 4, 2003, Alexandra receives an invitation to her mother’s birthday party at the family ranch in Colorado, which she finds strange because her mother has never told anyone except a few people when her birthday is, much less given a birthday party. (As readers of The Eight will remember, April 4 is the birthday of the Black Queen in the Game, and that has been Catherine’s role for all these years.) When she arrives at the ranch, Alexandra finds that her mother has disappeared and a strange assortment of guests have turned up. One of the first is Alexandra’s “aunt” Lily Rad, Catherine’s best friend from The Eight, who has become a glamorous chess master. Then we meet Alexandra’s own best friend, the charismatic pilot Nokomis Key. Catherine’s filthy-rich neighbors Basil and Rosemary Livingston and their obnoxious daughter Sage arrive with their mysterious neighbor Galen March. Accompanying Lily is the last person Alexandra ever wanted to see: the Ukrainian chess master Vartan Azov, her opponent in that last chess game where her father was killed. Catherine has left behind a string of clues, including a chessboard set up with that last game. When Alexandra and Lily decipher the clues, Alexandra realizes that the Game that killed her father has begun again, and that she herself is in great danger. But who is on her side, and who is working against her? As she searches for her mother, Alexandra is not sure which of these people she can trust.As in The Eight, a historical plot is intertwined with the contemporary plot, even though, in The Fire, the historical part is much shorter than the contemporary. In The Eight, they are roughly equal in length. In Albania in 1822, Ali Pasha and his supporters are under siege by the sultan’s army. He entrusts his adopted daughter Haidee with a dangerous mission: to find her real father, Lord Byron, and give him the Black Queen from the Montglane Service. But before they can find Byron, Haidee and her escort, the Tuareg boy Kauri, are captured by pirates. Kauri escapes, but Haidee is taken to the sultan’s harem in Morocco. In the mountains of Morocco, Charlot de Remy, the son of Mireille, the heroine of The Eight’s historical plot, and his guardian Shahin, Kauri’s father, try to find Haidee before she is sold into slavery. They succeed, but Charlot discovers that Haidee mysteriously blocks his powers of prophecy. Also, he realizes that there are two Black Queens: the one Haidee was given and the one he thought was safely buried. Which Black Queen is the real one and which the copy? Charlot’s and Haidee’s quest takes them to Rome and Grenoble, before they can at last solve the mystery of the Montglane Service. Along the way, we meet many famous historical figures, including Talleyrand (Charlot’s father), Thomas Jefferson, the painter Maria Cosway, and Napoleon’s mother, all of whom are involved in the Game.When I read The Fire for the first time, I felt like I was meeting old friends, and I was glad to see Nim, one of my favorite characters from The Eight, play an important role. The new characters are all great additions to the story. The contemporary story receives more attention than the historical one, and it was very clever of Neville to include references to 9-11 and the Iraq War and make them part of the plot. As we find out, the Montglane Service originated in Baghdad. In The Fire, we learn much more of the history of the Montglane Service as well as its deeper meaning. The Fire did leave me with many questions, though, which even after my third reading, I have not been able to answer. It is not always easy to keep track of the Black Queen (the piece which plays the most important role in The Fire) and all the places where it’s been over the years, because it changes hands so many times.In The Eight, it was clear who was on the Black team and who was on the White team. Generally speaking, the heroes and heroines were on the Black team and the villains were on the White team. But in The Fire it is much more complicated, and some characters appear to change sides. The message seems to be that the two teams need to work together, or the mystery of the Montglane Service will never truly be solved. But it is hard to tell sometimes which character is on which team, even in the case of the heroine, Alexandra. She appears to be on the White team through most of the book, but then you learn she may have taken her mother’s place as the Black Queen. In The Eight, Charlot and Shahin appeared to be on the Black Team, but in The Fire you find out Charlot is the White King and Shahin is on his team. I hope there will be a third volume in the series that will answer the questions left over from The Fire. I enjoyed The Fire very much, but not quite as much as The Eight. Since The Eight is one of my favorite novels of all time, that’s not saying much. This is the third time I’ve read The Fire, and I get more enjoyment out of it with every reading.

THE FIRE is a follow-up to Ms. Neville’s novel, THE EIGHT, and features many characters from that book, namely Cat Velis and Alexander Solarin, who is now her husband. This story centers around their daughter, Alexandra. Like her father, she’s a chess prodigy, but when the book opens, she hasn’t played in years. I won’t discuss the circumstances of why because it’s a huge spoiler—and there are a few additional shocking plot twists along the way, so keep reading. You’ll definitely want to get to the end. As in THE EIGHT, the characters are caught up in a hunt for pieces from a famous (and fictitious) chess set that dates back hundreds of years and is entwined with alchemical mysteries. Alexandra must join forces with an adversary from her childhood, Ukrainian Chess Master Vartan Azov, who’s also not-too-shabby in the looks department. There’s secrecy, riddles, science, mysticism, and a dash of romance, along with a dual story set in 1822 that eventually intersects with modern day. The ending was a bit too obscure for me, but Ms. Neville has written a clever plot populated with engaging characters. I was quite swept away with the story!

Cat Neville is simply the best. Her book, The Eight, is better than The Fire. I read these books on my Galaxy Note, and I paused to look up on Firefox Focus anything I came across that I wanted more information on. These two books are available on Amazon Kindle at a very reasonable price. I own hard copies as well, and I have to keep rebuking them as I occasionally give away my own books to people I treasure. Don't expect to understand every single reference in these books as Neville is a brilliant woman and a brilliant writer. I am a member of Mensa and have traveled extensively in Europe and in Greece and Turkey and have read extensively. I was class chess champion in high school, but ran out of time for many outside activities in my years in university. But, my interest in chess has been rekindled at last. Anyway, start with The Eight, and persevere in reading. You will be rewarded. There's plenty of action and adventure, and the characters are a thrill to meet and get to know. Too bad there are no cats as in some of her other books. But then she would be perfect, and perfection is too hard to deal with. I wish you, good reading!

After the exhilarating ride of “The Eight” this book was a fragmented lecture by some dusty professor. Regretting having spent money to purchase this.

Unique and complex story line. The Eight and now The Fire are brilliant and unique. They wrap history, romance, deception, thriller and a deep knowledge of chess into an intriguing multi generational storyline. Hard to explain. Easy to become immersed in.

I bought this title as it is listed as book two of a favorite I read years ago. Sadly it is not, nor is this book well written. I do not recommend it.

I read The Eight.Twice, in fact, and I loved it. But this sequel just didn't hit the same sweet spot for me. I found myself wanting to put it down and not come back.Although the first chapter seems promising, and draws the reader into the tale with a sense of immediacy, in the end the characters become slightly cardboard--including Lily, who all but upstaged the main characters in The Eight. The plot is just a little over-blown and unbelievable (even with suspension of disbelief in full swing), and the storyline increasingly lacks something in the "compulsive read" department.It felt all through the book as though there were loose ends dangling here and there...things that should have been more or less clear, or perhaps more or less elaborated upon. Perhaps there were simply too many undeveloped characters?Whatever it is, I cannot give this book more than 2 stars, and that's a disappointment to me....

The Fire is a fantastic read which, if you have read The Eight, you will know some familiar characters and will introduce you to new players in the Game. The main purpose of this book is to inform the readers of the REAL purpose behind the Montglane service. I will not add any spoilers here but if you enjoyed The Eight then The Fire is a must have. If, however, you have not read The Eight then buy both books now & immerse yourself in fantastic tales about the Game. Hopefully, Ms. Neville may write a further sequel in the near future. "Ye will reap what ye sow"

As you've probably gathered from the title of my review, I loved "The Eight", like many reviewers of this book. Like many of them too I find myself deeply disappointed. Basically, it's as if all of the things you loved about the original have been carefully cut away, leaving only a rather trite, confusing, uninteresting mess. There is a hell of a lot of, for want of a better description , running-around-all-over-the-place-for-the-sake-of-running-around-all-over-the-place-and-no-other-reason. There's not great truth or revelation in the end, and no sense of satisfaction in getting there, other than a sense of relief that the tedium is over.If you haven't read the Eight, then please do so - it's great. Do yourself a favour and don't bother with The Fire, though. It's really not worth it.

Having thoroughly enjoyed, and re-read, The Eight I was looking forward to the sequel. If you read The Fire without knowing the back-story I think you will enjoy it well enough, but might well find some of the characters confusing in their relationships and interactions. I don't think The Fire is as well structured or developed as The Eight, but that was always going to be a hard act to follow. The characters are not as charismatic or well-rounded, and I don't think that the storyline flows properly. I will read it again, but presently I am disappointed with the novel as I think a great opportunity has been missed to develop Lilly, Cat and the brothers' histories.

I bought this as I had the previous book 'The eight ' which I really enjoyed. I found this one so confusing - so many back stories and tangents I kept forgetting who people were and how they connected to the other characters. Maybe if I'd re-read the previous book again before it would have been clearer, but i'm not sure that is the case.I enjoyed the book overall but the ending felt like an anticlimax after all the hard work.

I was looking for the first book "The Eight" for my Kindle as my paperback version is now very dog-eared. Came across this instead and it was a no-brainer that I downloaded it immediately.I haven't finished reading yet and find that the story is not quite as exciting as The Eight, which I couldn't put down. But maybe it's a slow starter and will explode later...All in all a good read but I don't know whether I'll be reading this as often as I read The Eight.