THE FIRE
Katherine Neville
Ballantine Books
Suspense
Hardcover: 9780345500670
Paperback: 9780345500687
In THE FIRE, the Game continues, and the quest for the legendary Montglane Chess Service crisscrosses the globe and spans two centuries --- from a harem in 19th-century Albania to modern-day Colorado, Alaska, Russia, Georgetown and Washington, D.C. The story weaves historic and modern events, and features famous figures, including Charlemagne, Isaac Newton, Lord George Gordon Byron, Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon.
The Game is a quest for the Montglane Service, a fabled, bejeweled chess set created in eighth-century Baghdad and presented to the Emperor Charlemagne. The legendary service, which is rumored to contain dark and mysterious powers, had been buried for nearly a thousand years. Then in the 18th century it is exhumed from its hiding place in Montglane Abbey, France, and the pieces are scattered across the globe.
According to legend, whoever possesses the mystical Montglane Service set gains amazing powers. One group seeks to obtain all the pieces of the set to unlock its secret and possess its power. The other side wants to hide the chess pieces in all corners of the world to keep the world safe.
As a preteen, chess prodigy Alexandra “Xie” Solarin stopped playing chess after witnessing her father’s shooting in Russia. More than a decade later, she lives a relatively safe and predictable life in Washington, D.C, where she works at an upscale, out-of-the-ordinary restaurant with a quirky co-worker for an eccentric boss.
Alexandra’s calm existence takes an abrupt turn after her mother leaves a message on her answering machine and summons her to the family’s ancestral home. When she arrives at the remote lodge in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, her mother is missing but has left clues concerning her whereabouts.
The situation is complicated by an early spring blizzard and arrival of unexpected guests: Alexandra’s colorful aunt Lily Rad and the handsome and intense Russian master player Vartan Azov, the last person Alexandra lost against in a chess tournament. Also showing up are new neighbor Galen March and meddlesome neighbors Basil and Rosemary Livingstone and their snobbish daughter Sage.
To find her mother, Alexandra relies on her closest childhood friend, Nokomis Key. Nokomis also plays a central role assisting her after she inadvertently learns from Lily that the most powerful piece of the famous chess set has resurfaced. The Game has begun again, and Alexandra becomes a player.
The bestselling and much-acclaimed adventure-quest story begun in THE EIGHT continues in THE FIRE, a complex and thrilling tale that spans centuries, continents and generations of families obsessed with the Game, which has the power to change the course of world events. The story combines elements of science, history, architecture, magic, religion and superstition, and is peppered with puzzles, riddles, symbols, exotic locations, mouthwatering meals, a dash of romance --- and a hint of more to come.
--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt (dvolkenannt@charter.net)
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