Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for The Fire by Katherine Neville - Available

The Fire

A Novel

#2 in series

by Katherine Neville
Susan Denaker
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Katherine Neville’s groundbreaking novel, The Eight, dazzled audiences more than twenty years ago and set the literary stage for the epic thriller. A quest for a mystical chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne, it spans two centuries and three continents, and intertwines historic and modern plots, archaeological treasure hunts, esoteric riddles, and puzzles encrypted with clues from the ancient past. Now the electrifying global adventure continues, in Neville’s long anticipated sequel: THE FIRE
2003, Colorado: Alexandra Solarin is summoned home to her family’s ancestral Rocky Mountain hideaway for her mother’s birthday. Thirty years ago, her parents, Cat Velis and Alexander Solarin, believed that they had scattered the pieces of the Montglane Service around the world, burying with them the secrets of the power that comes with possessing it. But Alexandra arrives to find that her mother is missing and that a series of strategically placed clues, followed swiftly by the unexpected arrival of a mysterious assortment of houseguests, indicates that something sinister is afoot. 
When she inadvertently discovers from her aunt, the chess grandmaster Lily Rad, that the most powerful piece of Charlemagne’s service has suddenly resurfaced and the Game has begun again, Alexandra is swept into a journey that takes her from Colorado to the Russian wilderness and at last into the heart of her own hometown: Washington D.C.
1822, Albania: Thirty years after the French Revolution, when the chess service was unearthed, all of Europe hovers on the brink of the War of Greek Independence. Ali Pasha, the most powerful ruler in the Ottoman Empire, has angered the sultan and is about to be attacked by Turkish forces. Now he sends the only person he can rely upon–his young daughter, Haidee–on a dangerous mission to smuggle a valuable relic out of Albania, through the mountains and over the sea, to the hands of the one man who might be able to save it.
Haidee’s journey from Albania to Morocco to Rome to Greece, and into the very heart of the Game, will result in revelations about the powerful chess set and its history that will lead at last to the spot where the service was first created more than one thousand years before: Baghdad.
Blending exquisite prose and captivating history with nonstop suspense, Neville again weaves an unforgettable story of peril, action, and intrigue.

  • Creators

  • Series

    The Eight

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 14, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415956656
      • File size: 527282 KB
      • Duration: 18:18:30

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Twenty years after THE EIGHT, Katherine Neville leads listeners on a merry chase in her sequel as heroine Alexandra Solarin searches for a chess set that holds the secret to immortality. Narrator Susan Denaker navigates the maze of mysterious puzzles, which draw on philosophical and mathematical theories, with clear diction, an affinity for accents, well-placed pauses, and emphasis that lets listeners know exactly where they are at all times. As the story begins, Alexandra must break codes to enter the home of her estranged mother, and Denaker soon convinces listeners of Alexandra's initial confusion and quick mind. Also coming through in Denaker's characterization is the heroine's longing for her dead father and her missing mother. Denaker's nuanced depiction of Neville's main character wins our compassion as she untangles one mystery after another. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 4, 2008
      Fans of Neville’s debut, The Eight
      (1988), which long before there was a Da Vinci Code
      featured a complex historical setting, ciphers, conspiracies, puzzles and a hunt for an object that could change the course of the world, will welcome this stellar sequel. Alexandra Solarin, child chess prodigy now grown, finds herself immersed in “the Game,” searching for a legendary chess set, the Montglane Service, which when assembled spells out the formula for the secret of immortality. The quest for the set ranges from the harem of Ali Pasha in 19th-century Albania to present-day Baghdad and Washington, D.C., and involves such historic figures as Charlemagne, Isaac Newton, Lord Byron and Napoleon. Despite the staggering amount and quality of the research, nothing feels shoehorned or extraneous. The story’s relentless pace is matched by characters both sympathetic and real. In the end, readers will be heartened to find signs pointing to the continuation of the Game in future novels.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 24, 2008
      Neville's anticipated follow-up to her debut novel, The Eight
      , finds protagonist Alexandra Solarin trying to decipher a series of clues surrounding her mother's sudden disappearance. Like its predecessor, The Fire
      is infused with historical references and ties to the present, sending readers back to the days of the Ottoman Empire to help unravel the mystery. Susan Denaker offers an entertaining, almost theatrical reading. Her characters are rich and well crafted, always surprising and refreshing when the audience least expects it. A fun and ultimately thrilling listen. A Random House hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 4).

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The sequel to Neville's ground-breaking epic thriller THE EIGHT continues the cosmically significant quest for a mystical chess service in a story that spans hundreds of years and three continents. Due to its plethora of intertwining plots, historical characters, enigmas, and ciphers, THE FIRE is perhaps best delivered as an abridgment. The thrilling global adventure taps such a multitude of linked clues that the listener might easily lose concentration or forget solutions to earlier puzzles if listening to the unabridged work. Narrator Susan Denaker is gifted not only with the ability to pronounce multiple languages, but also to speak English with their accents--Arabic, Slavic, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, British, Russian. . . . All is accomplished with sharp diction and a firm grasp of the Game's manifold players. A.W. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading