Labyrinth

By: Kate Mosse

Narrated by: Donada Peters

Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

July 2005. 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.

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 book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. As crusading armies led by Church potentates and nobles of northern France gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take great sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe.

In the present, another woman sees the find as a means to the political power she craves; while a man who has great power will kill to destroy all traces of the discovery and everyone who stands in his way.

©2006 Mosse Associates, Ltd. (P)2006 Penguin Audio, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., and Books on Tape

Disappointing

This was an obvious attempt to cash in on the popularity of DaVinci Code. Which is fine if it had succeeded. It didn't. I think the plot was moving back and forth between the past and present, but I had a hard time following which was which. There were some high points where there was actually some action and plot, but overall I had a very hard time following what was going on.

I really am not sure at all what the point of this book was except to cash in on the DaVinci Code reputation. There is a lot of potential for good stories about the time of the Crusades and Templers, but this book just lacked a coherent story line.

The narrator did it justice, but there was just no plot to hold things together.

One of my Audible favorites

One thing that I've learned about reviews is that not everyone likes the same things. Why ask a rock music fan if he likes opera and vice versa. This is historical fiction that explores a people in southern France, the Cathars, who dared challenge the early Catholic Church. If that is of little interest to you, then move on.

This book was one of my favorites because it had good character development, suspense, fluid story, and it taught some very important history about the early Catholic church. The Christain religion had started to go down divergent paths and something had to be done to get it back on the straight and narrow. The story at the very end does get a little fanciful with some connections to Egypt mythology. I think that Mosse was making the connection between ancient Egypt and some of the basic beliefs of Christainity. (See also books by Crossan and Pagels.)

Don't misunderstand - this isn't a faith or spirtual book. It is cultural history told through a pretty good story.

I learned a great deal about the culture of southern France and northern Italy. I realize now that some place names, like the Col de Bonne Homme (Mt Blanc area) is a reference to the native Cathars. Further web searches showed me that Mosse had been pretty faithful to history. The last stand of the Cathars was at a famous castle that became an object of study for the Nazi's (a la Indiana Jones) because of the Cathar connection. Go figure.

As for the narrator, I enjoyed listening to her presentation. She has a good range of voices to use for the different characters. I am not in agreement with others who were less enthusiastic.

Bottom line - it is a sophisticated story that is well worth the listen.

Uneven, but worthwhile in the end

I'd give this 3.5 stars. The reader is very good, 4 stars.

The trouble with this book is the unevenness between the past and the present storylines. If you stick with it, eventually you learn to care about Alice (the central character in the present). The book has a pretty slow pace, but the last four hours are engrossing! I feel the end makes up for the problems of the beginning (and, yes, middle). If you are on the fence like I was about this one, I urge you to give it a try.

The historical period covered is one I knew nothing about (a crusade in the 13th C. against the south of France!). The inclusion of some French and some Occitan words was not a distraction for me. Now that I've finished the book, I've learned there are websites with extra materials (maps and further reading). D-oh! Maybe that info will be useful to other readers.

Thoroughly Enjoyed

If you like historical, conspiracy murder mysteries, this will grab you at the beginning and carry you through to the end. It starts in the present at an archaeological dig, then starts going back & forth in time as the story unravels. Very interesting historical facts with some explanation of the story's conspiracy roots and the how & why of it's continuing into the present add greatly to the story. It's somewhat on the level of the Knight's Templar stories, but not the same line. Good reader, good story. Enjoy!

Very involved plot

I love historical fiction. Moving between the two time periods was a great way to weave the plot. I felt the book was overly long. So much time was spent developing the first part of the story and then at the end it was "slam, bam, thank you mam." All in all, a great story but better editing would have helped a great deal.

Love this book, dislike this reader

I've read this book at least three times before and when I came across it on Audible I decided to buy it and give it another "read." Needless to say, having already read this multiple times and choosing to listen to it again, I love this story. I do not love this narrator, however. I can't understand why they'd find a reader for a story set in France, where they obviously occasionally SPEAK French, and the reader absolutely butchers the pronunciations. It takes me out of the story completely. Not to mention that the main characters are mostly young people, and this reader's voice simply sounds old, no offense. I'm going to push through and listen to the whole thing if I can, because I'm pretty sure that there are different narrators for the next two books in the trilogy, praise the Great Librarian. I still highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction or fantasy.

enjoyable

I liked the blending of the past and present. A fun listen with a great narrator.

Mixed review

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Some parts just seemed to go on forever with no real point but it WAS interesting to discover the parallel characters between the times.

If you’ve listened to books by Kate Mosse before, how does this one compare?

N/A

Did Donada Peters do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yes, she is completely believable and her french is quite fine.

Labyrinth zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Difficult mix of heavy English accent on the part of the narrator & French names from the setting made book hard to follow. Interesting story but I had to work too hard to follow it. I'm not sure if it was the "clarity" of the recording quality or the deep English accent that made it so hard, probably the latter. My wife had similar issues. Not my favorite :-(

Horrible narrator.

I couldn't even finish because the narrator was so bad.